Amazon is facing a fresh round of privacy concerns after an error shared a user’s voice recordings with a stranger. A German user of the Amazon Alexa voice assistant asked to hear an archive of his recordings, but the link he was sent also included 1,700 audio files from a different person. Continue Reading
Stitcher released a year in review report with some highlights from 2018. The infographic showed that 13,479 people listened all 365 days of the year. A dedicated 101 people listened to more than 12 hours a day of Stitcher programming. Continue Reading
Just how smart are smart speakers? Loup Ventures has released the results of its annual Smart Speaker IQ Test, and the report found that Google Assistant is currently the brainiest of the bunch. In a test of 800 questions, Google’s voice platform answered 88% correctly. Continue Reading
Voxnest has released an ambitiously titled State of the Podcast Universe Report, summarizing recent data. It is a meaty summary that includes key metrics from outside sources, and also reveals very interesting internal metrics. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Wrapping up 2018 at Pandora and Shazam, plus the top Christmas tracks on YouTube. Continue Reading
Audioboom announced that the comedic true crime podcast And That’s Why We Drink has joined the Audioboom Originals Network. The expanded deal includes an exclusive premium ad sales and promotional agreement. Continue Reading
Spotify has reached a settlement with Wixen. The independent publisher filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against the streaming service at the start of the year on claims that Spotify had hosted tens of thousands of compositions from Wixen without the correct mechanical licenses. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group released its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending September 30, 2018. Quarterly revenue increased 13.3% to $1.039 billion, with $596 million of that stemming from digital sources. For the full fiscal year, total revenue was $4.005 billion, up 12%, and total digital revenue for the year was $2.252 billion. Continue Reading
The latest survey from Adobe Analytics explored trends within smart speaker ownership. The majority of respondents (63%) are using their devices in their living room. The popularity of smart speakers in living spaces could guide how manufacturers and how voice skills further develop. Continue Reading
Midroll Media released a roundup of all eleven podcast ad effectiveness studies it commissioned from Nielsen during 2018. The studies demonstrated positive results for podcast advertising. The first top-line result is that the format generated up to 4.4 times better brand recall than display advertisements. Continue Reading
Pandora has hired a new head of country programming. Jennifer Danielson joins Pandora after almost 10 years with CMT, where she was most recently the director of music strategy. She will oversee programming for country music, which Pandora says draws more than 30 million unique listeners to the service every month. Continue Reading
Laura Walker is stepping down from her post as the president and CEO of New York Public Radio. Her departure marks the end of 23 years at the helm of the public radio operation. Walker guided New York Public Radio from its roots as a city-owned station to an independent nonprofit composed of eight radio stations and many other media properties. Continue Reading