Podcast producers honored at Audio Production Awards
The Audio Production Awards 2018, produced by AudioUK, has announced the shortlist of finalists in 20 categories. Continue Reading
Month: October 2018
Sirius XM earnings call: Remarks on the Pandora acquisition
We reported this week on Sirius XM’s financials (HERE). As usual some of the most interesting strategic insight was contained in the investor Q&A in the back end of the call. Of particular interest to investors (and to RAIN) were comments related to the Sirius acquisition of Pandora, which closed on the day of the earnings call. Continue Reading
Amazon & Google dominate global smart speaker market; stats broken out in Strategy Analytics report
Market research firm Strategy Analytics has another snapshot of the smart speaker market. The company released a ranking of the top smart speaker models in the United States from a poll of more than 1,000 people during July and August. The results for Amazon look positively rosy, full of potential for Google, and not-too-bright for Apple. Continue Reading
Pandora hires Brad Minor to lead brand communications
Pandora announced the hire of a new vice president and head of brand communications. Brad Minor joins the audio company from JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he his role was managing director of brand, advertising, and media. Continue Reading
Facebook announces three new and upcoming music features
Facebook is broadening its options for how its users can integrate music into their experiences on the social media network. Those changes include an expansion of its Lip Sync Live feature and new ways to include music in posts and profiles. Continue Reading
TuneIn Premium subscribers to have commercial-free news access
TuneIn is expanding its perks for paying subscribers. TuneIn Premium listeners can now hear commercial-free news from radio and podcasts. Instead of the regularly scheduled commercial breaks, listeners will hear curated snippets of programming and updates that they might have missed. Continue Reading
Triton Digital’s latest online audio client is Australia’s Grant Broadcasters
Triton Digital announced that it has signed Grant Broadcasters, an Australian media company, as a client for its services in the delivery, monetization, and measurement of online audio content. “We are thrilled to be working with the Triton team, and are confident that their sophisticated technology will enable us to further grow and evolve our digital audio strategy, and reach our revenue goals,” said Rohan Dwyer, Grant Broadcasters’ group general manager of digital. Continue Reading
Sirius XM reports Q3 financials, expects to move ahead with Pandora acquisition
Sirius XM reported its third-quarter financial results. Net income for the period totaled $343 million, or 7 cents per diluted share. Quarterly revenue reached a new record of $1.5 billion, up 6% from the third quarter of 2017. The company also received updates on its planned acquisition of Pandora Media. Continue Reading
Show Shouts: The inspiring, the surreal, and a double dose of sports
Show Shouts highlights noteworthy new and upcoming podcasts from across the vast and fast-growing category. Today’s announcements include two sports programs, one from SB Nation and Vox Media and the other from Cadence13. Also Night Vale Presents is back with some musical surrealism and Westwood One gets inspiration from two Navy SEALs. Continue Reading
Dash Radio secures $8.8 million in seed funding
Dash Radio has raised a seed round worth $8.8 million in support of its free online radio platform. The round will also see some of the investors joining Dash Radio’s board, including Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara. In addition to the funding round, Dash Radio has also reached a milestone of 10 million monthly listeners. Continue Reading
DAX announces programmatic sales director for U.S.
DAX has hired Tom Larkin for the role of programmatic sales director. This hire establishes a new U.S. programmatic division for DAX dedicated to making 90% of its inventory available programmatically. Continue Reading
Amazon Alexa arrives in Italy and Spain, plus trials of voice ratings for skills
Amazon has two new developments around its voice assistant and smart speaker efforts. The first item is the launch of Amazon Alexa and the Amazon Echo line in Italy and Spain. The other development is a way to submit feedback on Alexa voice skills. Continue Reading