YouTube Music has been growing its international audience, but its development team just lost a few notable members. According to Variety, the three co-founders of Songza have exited YouTube Music and moved to other posts under the Google umbrella. Continue Reading
Sony Music Entertainment is making a new move into podcasting. The major label has entered a joint venture with two podcast veterans — Laura Mayer and Adam Davidson — to find and develop original programming and talent. The as-yet-unnamed company will create and distribute original podcasts. Continue Reading
Libsyn announced today that Rob Greenlee has joined the company as its new vice president of content and partnerships. Greenlee is a podcast industry veteran of two decades. An Academy of Podcasters Hall of Fame inductee, he most recently worked as a VP at Voxnest’s Spreaker. Continue Reading
Today marks the launch of another new podcast agency and hosting service, this one with roots in radio. Podcast.co exited its beta test and announced both its launch and two notable industry partnerships with Spotify and Headliner. Continue Reading
Digital audio and advertising company Targetspot announced the opening of a new office in London. This new outpost is intended to reinforce the business’ presence in Europe and provide better connections between publishers and advertisers. Continue Reading
The UK audience continues to put a growing share of its radio listening time into digital formats. That’s one of the takeaways from the first quarter RAJAR results. Continue Reading
We read in Podnews about an independently produced report on the state of podcasting in France. The document surveys current metrics of podcast listening, audience demographics, and the industry’s challenges and opportunities. Continue Reading
Merlin, the independent label group and music rights agency, announced new leadership for its operations in Japan. Akira Nomoto has been named general manager of Merlin Japan. Kaoruko Hill has been promoted to an expanded role of head of member services and operations. Continue Reading
YouTube has rolled out some of its music services to several European markets. YouTube Premium and YouTube Music are now listed as available in six new nations, with a seventh likely on the way. Continue Reading
Smart speaker ownership continues to rise in the United States, according to the latest survey by the Consumer Technology Association. The organization examined ownership and intent to purchase for this device segment and dozens of other tech products. Continue Reading
SoundCloud has a new hire who will keep a focus on the company’s grassroots ethos. Josh Nicoll has been named head of independent label services. Most recently, he held a post at independent label and distributor [PIAS]. Continue Reading
Tencent Music Entertainment has released its financial results for the first quarter. Although it did beat out financial expectations, Wall Street still responded cautiously to the results. And there could be more uncertainty on the horizon for Tencent Music: Guomin Xie is stepping down from his role as co-president and director. Continue Reading