The New York Times is launching a new podcast that marks its audio team’s first foray into narrative non-fiction. The audio documentary, titled Caliphate, will seek answers and context about ISIS and its role in the Middle East. Episodes will be released in the spring, and New York Times subscribers will receive early access to the series. Continue Reading
Music sales in Japan totaled 289 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in 2017, a dip of 3% from the previous year. According to the annual report from the Recording Industry Association of Japan, online music distribution sales rose 8% to 57.3 billion yen ($538 million). Continue Reading
Spotify’s direct listing is nearing its next stage, with sources reporting that it plans to list shares on the New York Stock Exchange the week of April 2. That leaves a few weeks for the streaming music company to prepare for the non-traditional approach to going public. It’s also moving forward with plans for international expansion. Continue Reading
Nearly 20% of U.S. adults now own a smart speaker, according to a survey spearheaded by Voicebot, in collaboration with PullString and RAIN Agency (not the same as RAIN News). Extrapolated, the results from its survey of more than 1,000 adults indicate that about 47.3 million people own the devices. Nearly two-thirds of all households said they own just one smart speaker. Continue Reading
It was only a matter of time before two of the biggest trends in the tech world crossed paths. There’s a new skill for Amazon Alexa called DeepMusic that plays songs composed by artificial intelligence over a smart speaker. Click to listen. Continue Reading
Digital audio ad company AdsWizz has entered a partnership with Lagardère Publicité, a major media sales house in France. Under the terms of their agreement, Lagardère has chosen AdsWizz to provide advertising solutions for its podcast inventory, taking advantage of several of AdsWizz’s services. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has announced another integration for its a2x programmatic audio ad exchange platform. The a2x service will be integrated with Fusio by S4M, a mobile advertising technology centered on drive-to-store campaigns. The deal allows S4M clients access to programmatic audio inventories as well as the option for dynamic targeting by location. Continue Reading
Label services company Kobalt has made a big investment in independent artists. It has combined its recording business under the AWAL brand and is putting $150 million into marketing and advances for indie performers. AWAL is also hiring 100 more employees, about doubling the headcount under Kobalt’s umbrella. Continue Reading
Google is opening up a new option for musicians to curate their presence online. The company offers Posts, where verified people can supply content that appears in the Knowledge Panel when they are the subject of a search query. In effect, this allows artists to directly message their fans or potential fans. Continue Reading
Voxmatic is looking to put voice commands into the hands of podcasters large and small. The business has launched a free platform for the creation personal skills on the Amazon Alexa platform for podcasters. Its starter kit offers individual skill/flash briefing publishing. It plans to add a professional package later this year. Continue Reading
Facebook continues its assembling of music industry deals. The social media company has secured a broad licensing deal with Warner Music Group that covers use of both its recorded music and music publishing catalogs. Continue Reading
The Infinite Dial kicked off with a look at ownership trends in technology and media. Most telling, the research from Edison and Triton focused on the growth in smart speakers. Awareness of the device segment was 71% for Amazon Alexa, up from 57% last year, while Google Home awareness rose from 45% in 2017 to 56% in 2018. Considering the recent ad blitzes for the segment, John Rosso joked that those who haven’t heard of them are “probably living in caves and staring at their tablets.” Continue Reading