Spotify wants to broaden the listening repertoire of its Premium subscribers who build playlists. In today’s news, the company introduces Enhance, a song suggestion feature added to “Add song” and “Recommended,” tools which are already bolted onto playlists. Click for details. Continue Reading
The first day of the two-day fall IAB Podcast Upfront occurred today, in a packed four-hour series of 10 presentations. The event, formerly annual and now a twice-a-year, spring-fall occurrence, showcases podcast networks to audio advertising buyers. Click for detailed coverage. Continue Reading
The idobi network, a venerable streaming radio outlet which also produces podcasts and video, has deepened its relationship with digital audio ad-tech platform Adswizz which becomes the exclusive global monetization provider for advertisers seeking to reach idobi’s audience across the US and Europe. Key demo: 13-34, with an even gender split. Continue Reading
Australian radio company Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has created a new executive role — National Digital Sales Manager. To fill it, Daniel O’Callaghan comes over from the competing Australian Radio Network (ARN). Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Earplugs? (Edison Research)
— Transformational Fix (PRX)
— The Point (Fresh Air Production)
Podtrac released its Top 20 Podcasts ranker for August, measuring Podtrac measurement clients based on unique U.S. audience reach. As in most months, we see long-time stalwarts in the list. (In fact, the top five are identical as in the July list.) Two newcomers. Continue Reading
Slate has made an interesting partnership between its podcast division and Pocket, the Mozilla-built app which offers topical reading collections. Slate will put podcast-specific reading collections onto Pocket. The project is called “Stories Behind the Podcast.” We like how it crosses over media categories and broadens the podcast experience. Continue Reading
SiriusXM is making noise about a new multimedia ad campaign featuring a large and glittering array of celebrities including Kevin hart, Dave Grohl, LL COOL J, Bebe Rexha, Kehlani, Jeff Lewis, Helio Castroneves. A few selected SiriusXM DJs are also featured. The thrust of the campaign is out-of-car listening. Click through for a video; it’s funny. Continue Reading
Swedish-founded global podcast company Acast has started Sweden’s first podcast competition. The winner will collect what the founders call “a high-quality podcast production and marketing package” worth 250,000 SEK (Swedish kronor, worth about $29,000 USD.) It’s open to podcasters based in Sweden. Continue Reading
An award winning podcast franchise is expanding into sports with a show produced by Shining City Audio, a co-venture of Cadence13 and Jon Meacham. The new podcast extends a successful history franchise. There are several stakeholders; we untangle them. Continue Reading
James Cridland returns with a richly informative newsletter about radio around the world. In this edition: A nostalgic listen to a long-gone radio show, resulting in a bit of melancholy — but it was an alignment of stars, dependent on the era. Also: Howard Stern as an agent of derailment. And more, including podcast subscription stats. Continue Reading
Weekly podcast business newsletter Hot Pod has been acquired by digital culture publication The Verge. No financials are disclosed in the announcement sent by parent company Vox Media. Hot Pod founder and chief writer Nick Quah shifts to other Vox Media publications, and one of The Verge’s senior writers takes control of Hot Pod. Continue Reading