James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Developments in personalized audio from Spotify and Google Assistant. Possible new stations at the BBC, and presenter changes at TripleJ. Continue Reading
New research from Voicebot.ai, Voices.com, and Pulselabs explored consumer preferences in voice assistant technology. The survey found that users much prefer the AI to have a human voice rather than a synthetic one, with human voices scoring 71.6% higher. Continue Reading
Luminary, a paid subscription platform for podcasts, is now offering listeners a discount for its service. The offer is available to new subscribers until December 4. Continue Reading
Spotify has been churning out industry partnerships at a break-neck pace for the past several months. The latest updates from the streaming service include four deals to expand access to Spotify Premium and a branded concert deal. Continue Reading
Play it again, Congress. Legislators are making another effort to create performance royalties for radio airplay. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) have introduced the Ask Musicians for Music, or AM-FM, Act. Continue Reading
Sonos released its fourth-quarter financial results, closing out its first fiscal year as a publicly traded company. Revenue rose 8% on-year to $294 million. In addition to the financial results, Sonos has also announced an acquisition of a startup called Snips. Continue Reading
Whooshkaa, an Australia-based digital audio company, has entered a partnership with Malaysian radio network Astro Radio. The two parties plan to release a multi-language on-demand audio venture for Asian audiences. Continue Reading
Spotify is hosting an awards show next spring. The streaming platform announced that the inaugural Spotify Awards will take place in Mexico City on March 5. Continue Reading
Podcast company Acast announced that it is making its hosting engine available to podcasters of any size. The company’s new service is called Acast Open, at it brings many features of its hosting tools to a wider potential audience. Continue Reading
Veritone, an AI tech and solutions company, announced the full commercial launch for its VeriAds network. VeriAds is a suite of advertising monetization options for broadcasters, podcasters, and influencers. Continue Reading
Many experienced podcast creators are launching their own studios and the latest is Jake Brennan, creator and host of Disgraceland. Brennan and partner Brady Sadler have teamed to launch Double Elvis Productions. Continue Reading
Ad-tech company Instreamatic, which specializes in responsive audio advertising, is announcing a new product release called Continuous Voice Dialogue Marketing. As the name implies, this tech layer enables some degree of back-and-forth between listener and advertiser, and the resulting customization can follow the user across platforms. A case study appeared in Adweek. Continue Reading