We heard from Podcast Radio CEO Gerard Edwards that his company, the all-podcast DAB+ station, is raising a crowdfunded equity campaign on the Seedrs platform. Podcast Radio values itself on Seedrs as a 2.3-million British pound-valued company, and is offering 4.16% equity across this campaign. Click through for more details. Continue Reading
In what should be a treat for synesthetes, Pandora has released seven interesting playlists intended to demonstrate a relationship between sound and color. Unsurprisingly to those who know of his work, Steve Keller (Sonic Strategy Director at Pandora) is involved in the project and authored an explanatory blog post. Keller invokes Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, who asserted that music and color could not be separated. Keller’s thesis is that Kandinsky wasn’t being metaphoric — there is a scientific basis to tyiong together these two sensual perceptions. Click through for a link to the playlists. Continue Reading
Pod Drop features new and returning podcasts. Today — two CNN news shows drop, Carlos Watson brings great interviews chops to his podcast, and a podumentary about a student-operated marijuana black market syndicate. Continue Reading
Edison Research is set to deliver a short webinar as part of a lunchtime series, this one titled Listening Habits During Quarantine: A Share of Ear® Report. “Share of Ear” is an ongoing subscription survey project which measures time spent in all kinds of audio among Americans. Edison SVP Tom Webster will present the brisk, 15-minute report. Click through for the registration link. Continue Reading
In a peculiar reversal of standard audio subscription value and price points, and a demonstration of Audible’s often-overlooked power in audio publishing, the Amazon-owned company has launced Audible Plus, a subscription plan the provides access to the entire Audible Original library (audiobooks and podcasts) of 68,000 productions. It costs $7.95 per month. The legacy subscription bundles the traditional audiobook catalog with Audible’s original productions for $14.95. It is a dramatic example of Audible’s unique consumer economics and value propositions. Continue Reading
A new study by Signal Hill Insights, the Toronto-based research firm headed by Jeff Vidler, focuses on brand lift — increased awareness of a brand name when being exposed to it in a podcast ad. The research results are published on Pierre Bouvard’s Westwood One blog. Click through for details and key summary points. Continue Reading
Short form audio producer SpokenLayer, best known for audio narrations of articles published by media juggernauts Heart, Tribune, TIME, and others. According to CEO Andy Lipset, the company is increasingly doing original programming production for branded content. The latest to launch is Lucky Charms Magical Mission, a leprechaun-hosted adventure to magical lands. Click through for Alexa sample. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released its U.S. Podcast Report, an every-four-week rolling weekly average of downloads and listeners. This report covers the July 6 through August 2 period. Most remarkable is the stability of this report compared to the previous one. And we noticed the same thing in our previous coverage. Click through for details. Continue Reading
If Q2 was the Covid Quarter, NPR was infected. The U.S. public radio network lost about a quarter of its audience during that period. The main influence? Loss of morning and evening car commuting. But this trend is balanced by shifts to in-home device listening, increasing reach overall. Podcast revenue will surpass broadcast ad revenue for the first time. Click through for details. Continue Reading
The Australian Podcast Awards have sent our PR with details of this year’s program. The info includes submission date (September 1) rules changes from last year, and a full listing of categories and their descriptions. Click through for specifics, and to download the official PDF. Continue Reading
We received a notice that Lloyd Braun’s Whalerock Industries has founded a new podcast network: Echoverse, which will be devoted to science fiction, supernatural, and fantasy programming. No podcasts are live yet, but nine are planned. CEO Mark Stern has a deep background in TV and film. Accordingly, Echoverse will serve as both a podcast network and an incubator of extensible content for film and TV. Click through for details. Continue Reading
by Jeff Umbro
In this week’s column, Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro provides news and commentary about the PRX controversy, Libsyn’s financials, Spotify strategy, and an illuminasting infographic of the media corporate landscape. Continue Reading