SOCAN, Canada’s music publisher and composer organization, announced that its CEO Eric Baptiste has resigned. Baptiste was nearing the end of his contract as chief executive for the society, and reached “a mutual decision” with the SOCAN board to close his term, effective immediately. Continue Reading
Liberty Media is a powerful force in music, with holdings in Sirius XM, Pandora, and Live Nation/Ticketmaster. After the Sirius XM and Pandora deal closed, the rumors turned next to Liberty having an interest in iHeartMedia. A group of consumer rights advocates and an artists’ rights organization have teamed up to send a letter to the Justice Department to oppose that possible acquisition. Continue Reading
Podtrac has shared a new batch of weekly listening figures. The company found that podcast consumption continued a dip for the week of April 6-12, falling from a recent high of March 2-8. Looking at weekly podcast download growth, last week was -3%. Continue Reading
Every data company is trying to understand how the coronavirus pandemic is changing media and entertainment habits. A report from Nielsen Music and MRC Data titled COVID-19: Tracking the impact on the Entertainment Landscape from Nielsen Music and MRC Data explored media and subscription use. The results found that 60% of the U.S. population is engaging with more entertainment during the outbreak. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia’s latest new podcast is an effort to recapture a note of normalcy for students. The new show is titled Commencement: Speeches for the Class of 2020. Each episode will feature insights and advice from celebrity speakers aimed at high school and college students who will not have graduation ceremonies because of the coronavirus pandemic. Continue Reading
Entercom released its latest statistics for RADIO.COM. The media giant’s digital audio and content platform recorded a record 40 million monthly active users in March. It included notable spikes on web and smart speakers. Continue Reading
Samsung is planning to phase out its voice assistant called S Voice. The service will reportedly be discontinued on June 1, 2020. This platform pre-dates the tech company’s Bixby voice assistant, which will remain in use. Continue Reading
Triton Digital is expanding its Podcast Ranker to the United States. The company released its first assessment of the top podcasts in the U.S. The data comes from Triton’s Podcast Metrics measurement service, and includes both individual shows and leading networks. The inaugural report covers February 17 through March 15. Continue Reading
Podtrac released its show ranker for March 2020. The podcast list continues to show a bent towards news and current events. The only new addition for the month was Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction from CNN, which landed at No. 13. The appearance of only one new program in Podtrac’s assessment implies that, at least in the upper echelon, there has not been much or any movement away from favorite shows during this time of crisis. Continue Reading
The coronavirus surveys and data continue to come fast and furious. The latest edition is a detailed set of infographics from Visual Capitalist. The company collected data from the Global Web Index about how different age groups have been changing their media consumption during the pandemic. Continue Reading
Magellan published a blog post assessing how coronavirus content has taken over a wide swath of the podcasting world. It suggested that focusing on the pandemic could wind up being costly. Many companies are looking to avoid putting advertisements on content discussing the virus, but podcasts of all genres are increasingly putting a focus on the pandemic. Continue Reading
Research company markettiers MENA shared some insights into the emerging podcast market in Saudi Arabia. The survey found that there are 5.1 million adult podcast listeners in the country, or 23% of the population. The weekly listening cohort is 15% of Saudi Arabia’s population. Continue Reading