iHeartRadio adds family plan option for on-demand subscribers
iHeartRadio has unveiled a new family plan level for its All Access on-demand subscriptions. The service supports up to five people on the plan. Continue Reading
Month: November 2018
Apple hires digital veteran as head of music in Australia
Apple has hired Rebekah Horne as its new head of music and other services for Australia and New Zealand. In this capacity, she will guide services including Apple Music, iTunes, and the App Store for those markets. Continue Reading
Show Shouts: The return of Wolverine, a bilingual audio documentary, and sports meets country
Show Shouts highlights noteworthy new and upcoming podcasts from across the vast and fast-growing category. Today’s shouts are a second season for the landmark collaboration between Marvel and Stitcher, plus new projects from Vice News and Cadence13. Continue Reading
Pandora Q3 results: Positive growth from a phase of wheeling and dealing
Pandora has released its third-quarter financial results, capping off a busy three-month period that included its acquisition by Sirius XM. Quarterly revenue for Pandora totaled $417.6 million, up 16% from the year-ago period. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made over the past year to reinvigorate Pandora,” CEO Roger Lynch said. Continue Reading
Jelli and Horizon Media expand partnership for programmatic advertising
Ad agency buyer Horizon Media has expanded its relationship with Jelli, the programmatic ad platform for radio. The latest development will see Horizon using Jelli’s SpotPlan demand-side platform, becoming the first media agency to power all of its programmatic radio ad buying operations for several of its clients agency-wide. Continue Reading
Survey: Smart speaker ownership spikes in Canada
The Consumer Technology Association conducted a survey of Canadians’ technology ownership. While products such as televisions, smartphones, and laptops demonstrated near-ubiquity, smart speakers did show promising signs in the market. Continue Reading
Spotify to buy back up to $1 billion in stock
Spotify announced that it is going to buy back some of its shares. “The repurchase program will be executed consistent with the company’s capital allocation strategy of prioritizing investment to grow the business over the long term,” the company said in a statement. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group licenses library to Africa’s Boomplay Music
Universal Music Group has licensed its catalog to Boomplay Music, a top streaming service in Africa. Boomplay will add UMG’s library to its current catalog of 2 million tracks. The company currently boasts more than 36 million listeners across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio: Good news in South Africa; Ofcom’s localness changes
by James Cridland
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A Cape Town radio station that’s thinking positively. How Ofcom’s new localness rules will impact radio in the UK. Continue Reading
Anchor podcast listening data shows Apple’s distribution dominance
Anchor has released data about how and where people are tuning in to podcasts created on its platform. Following several pivots, Anchor is now a service for free and fast podcast recording and distribution. Continue Reading
Apple closes Q4 with record high services revenue
Apple reported its financials for its fourth quarter, which ended on September 29. The tech company posted quarterly revenue of $62.9 billion, up 20% from the same period last year. Net income was $2.91 per diluted share, an increase of 41% on-year. Continue Reading
Sonos delays Google Assistant integration
Sonos has released new hardware in the smart speaker space, but its software options have thus far been limited to Amazon Alexa. The company had previously stated that it was working on adding support for Google Assistant this year. Continue Reading