In the slew of announcements during Spotify’s “Stream On” presentation Monday, the company seemed to recognize an affinity between podcasting and blogging. Spotify’s new agreement with WordPress.com, which leverages Spotify’s Anchor podcasting platform, bridges the two realms. The result is near-instant podcasts. We now await the reverse.
Spotify grabbed part of competitor Tidal’s key differentiator yesterday by announcing the introduction of a new subscription level called Spotify Hi-Fi. We have always questioned the degree to which most people can distinguish hi-rez differences, especially given the degrading audio signal chain most people use. Still, it’s a market, and Spotify says users ask for it. Continue Reading
Marketing it as a “first-of-its-kind audio advertising marketplace,” Spotify announced the Spotify Audience Network as part of its wide-ranging “Stream On” presentation. The promotional emphasis is on podcast advertising, but the marketplace itself includes music streamed to an audience of about 155-million listeners in Spotify Free. At the foundation of this initiative is the company’s Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI) tech. Continue Reading
While new features within Spotify and its Anchor subsidiary get most of the attention among the ream of announcements in the company’s “Stream On” presentation, the expansionary push into new regions around the world might be the most eye-opening, certainly is the most ear-obtaining, and could be described as the most imperialistic. Continue Reading
Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics monthly ranker of measured streaming entities turned a corner in the November data, at least for the time being. “Pandora reevaluates their third-party data partnerships as part of an ongoing process, and are not currently measured by Triton’s Webcast Metrics,” Triton informs RAIN. The sudden absence of Pandora’s supremacy in the chart, which RAIN has been caretaking since September 2009, creates room below for streaming radio to differentiate its groups. Click through for details, history, and charts. Continue Reading
TED is a highly differentiated brand, and its TED Radio Hour (150 episodes; #1 in Apple Technology) and TED Talks Daily (160 episodes; #1 in Spotify Business) are steady category leaders. TED cites that its podcasts are downloaded an eye-popping 1.65-million times a day. It makes sense for TED to extend its brand patina outward, and that is what the company has done with TED Audio Collective. The pitch to advertisers: “Stand out from the pack in an oversaturated market.” Continue Reading
Jottings of note:
— AIMP Webinar
“Live Streaming in the COVID Era,” an AIMP webinar, is on Thursday (2/23) at 5:30 ET. It’s about revenue and rights, moderated by Arthur Levin. Free to register.
— Thoughts on Timed Audio
Dan Misener of Pacific Content posted a column about Apple’s “Time To Walk” audio feature. Dan expands the idea to music, and why activity-based audio could be important to brands.
— Podcast Discovery
Metronome, the Malaysia-based podcast landing page provider, has launched a new Episode Reminder feature to encourage listeners moving sideways in a podcast to hear other episodes.
— Partnership
Lori Lewis, well known social marketing exec in audio, and Rob Wagman’s Straight Path Media + Marketing have partnered. Not exactly a merger, each is still reachable: lori-at-lorilewismedia.com & straightpathmande-at-gmail.com
Monday, February 22 Continue Reading
Acast, the international podcast hosting platform and advertising marketplace, has acquired RadioPublic, the podcast network and tech innovator founded in 2016. It’s a partnership of values and technology affinity. Click through for details and context. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein
In this guest column, Steve Goldstein collects quotes from famous literary editors, all of them applicable to podcasting. Brevity is key.
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Jottings of note:
— Spotify webinar
Spotify is promoting its “Stream On” virtual event, Monday Feb. 22 at 11am ET. No registration necessary — just go to http://spotify.com/StreamOn
— Major league rep
Lemonada podcast network, famous for its “Last Day” podcast and others, signed with Creative Artists Agency (CAA).
— Superstudy
Coleman Insights has announced its third annual “Contemporary Music Superstudy.” Results will be publicized in April.
Friday, February 19 Continue Reading
New podcasts of note.
Call of the Wild (WWF)
Reparations: The Big Payback (iHeartRadio)
Cupid and the Reaper (Gen-Z Media)
James Cridland returns with a richly informative newsletter about radio around the world. The decline of top 40. Live radio on smartphones. A song list from 1996. Much more. Continue Reading