Jottings of note:
Cross Platform Giggling
Acast has renewed its exclusive partnership with the Giggly Squad podcast, hosted by comedic former Bravo stars, Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo, a comedy duo. The show debuted with Acast in 2020, and has grown an audience of fans known as “gigglers. “The multi-year exclusive deal ensures Acast will continue to monetize the show across audio, YouTube simulcast, social media, live events, and newsletter channels. The deal grants Acast exclusive sales rights for the auio podcast and its YouTube simulcast. The announcement tells us “Acast will continue to offer brands opportunities to extend their reach across Giggly Squad’s social media platforms,” plus live ours and the shows’ newsletter. The combined reach of all this firepower is over five million people. “Hannah and Paige and the incredible Giggly Squad community of Gigglers are such an important part of our creator network” says Tiffany Ashitey, managing director for the US at Acast.
Power to the Parasocial
Edison Research Founder and President Larry Rosin contributes a guest column to the Jacobs Media blog. Titled Radio and the Power of the Parasocial, Rosin fascinatingly puts together three elements: a map of New Jersey, a candidate in the Republican gubernatorial election this fall (Bill Spadea), and a coverage map of WKXW-FM (“New Jersey 101.5”) where Spadea was a DJ host for over a decade. He didn’t win, but a map of his political support tells an interesting story: “One can quickly and easily see that the two maps nearly perfectly align – the closer to the broadcast tower one lives, the more likely that someone who participated in the Republican primary voted for Spadea.” This unique piece of research is HERE.
Sundown Rising
Over 500,000 plays per month on spotify. A burnished soft-rock sound tailored for studying or writing newsletters. A bio which the San Francisco Chronicle describes as “drenched in dreamlike metaphor.” Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the band Velvet Sundown, tearing up the Spotify charts. Is it a problem that this band doesn’t contain any humans? You decide. The fact is that Velvet Sundown is AI through and through, across an emerging discography that includes two albums. In this creature’s defence, we’d like to say that the music isn’t terrible. But, as with all other AI participation crowding into the space, this concoction takes mindshare and earspace from human musicians trying to build careers.
June 30, 2025
