Month: September 2023

Evergreen Podcasts partners with Sounder in latest AI collab for ad targeting

Posted on by Brad Hill

Production network Evergreen Podcasts is now partnering with AI-powered intelligence platform Sounder in a strategic partnership that prioritizes brand safety and contextual targeting. The partnership seems to climb aboard a quickly moving train in which AI is leveraged to give advertisers a more crystalline understanding of a podcast’s content, its level of safe language, and other attributes important to advertisers. Continue Reading →

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Songtradr acquires Bandcamp, promises continuity and new opportunities

Posted on by Brad Hill

Music distribution and licensing company Songtradr has acquired music marketplace and community platform Bandcamp. Bandcamp is owned by interactive entertainment company Epic Games. As announced on the Songtradr blog, it appears that Bandcamp — which provides track and album e-commerce for independent artists — will continue operating, and one important new licensing opportunity will be in play. Continue Reading →

AdLarge partners with Barometer for AI analysis of podcast content and brand suitability

Posted on by Brad Hill

AdLarge announces a new partnership with AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting company Barometer. The mission is to provide brand suitability and safety guidelines across the AdLarge Podcast portfolio. Barometer has built an AI engine to analyze podcast content and… Continue Reading →

Podchaser (Acast) launches AI Predictive Demographics, seeking to enhance audio targeting

Posted on by Brad Hill

Acast subsidiary and podcast discovery resource Podchaser has launched an AI-driven feature designed to enhance podcast audience targeting based on episode language. The distinguishing feature is the use of AI, as opposed to first-party demographic data, to analyze the language spoken within a podcast to predict the age and gender of its likely audience. Click for details. Continue Reading →

Triton Digital Canada Podcast Ranker (August); 3 new entries; 1 new top-10

Posted on by Brad Hill

Triton Digital released its Canada Podcast Ranker for August, listing the top 100 shows operated by Triton client networks. It shows one new entry in the top 10: 48 Hours (Paramount), entering the list at #10. Interestingly, for the Canada report Triton observes English and French language podcasts, and breaks out the top-3 mini-ranking of both. Click for more and a link to the interactive report. Continue Reading →

Spotify gets more social with “Jam” group playlisting

Posted on by Brad Hill

Spotify is raising its social media game with the launch of a new collaborative function called Jam. It’s a group-playlisting feature that builds on the previously released Collaborative Playlist by putting the social activity in realtime, and giving it a phone-touching in-person aspect. Unlike many cautiously incremental launches, Jam is available globally now. Premium users start Jams, then any user can join. Continue Reading →

Google to end Google Podcasts; commits to YouTube Music for “increasing investment in the podcast experience”

Posted on by Brad Hill

“We want to make sure we get this right.” —Google YouTube team. Google will discontinue the Google Podcasts app, and move its central podcast offering to YouTube Music in 2024. In choosing YouTube Music as the home base for podcasting, YouTube is emulating Spotify’s hybrid music/talk content model. Continue Reading →

Mark Mulligan: Streaming’s problems will not be fixed by royalties alone

Posted on by Mark Mulligan

by Mark Mulligan

The royalty agreement crafted by Universal Music Group and the Deezer streaming platform has gotten a lot of attention. In his latest guest column, MiDIA Research chief Mark Mulligan says both parties want that attention, if not necessarily the exact commentary they hoped for. “Streaming royalties are not adding up because streaming is not adding up. Fixing royalties is only part of the solution,” Mark asserts. Part of the solution requires understanding how these services have evolved, and solutions must consider the audience’s needs. A must-read.
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