The Entertainment Retailers Association has released its annual report, and the document shows a snapshot of how the UK has shifted into a subscription-driven economy for digital entertainment. Paid music subscriptions generated revenue of £829 million in 2018. Continue Reading
Voicebot.ai and Voicify released a new survey of smart speaker ownership in the United States. The results found that as of January 2019, 66.4 million people in the country owned the devices. That total marked a rise of 39.8% in one year. Continue Reading
Sirius XM is taking new steps in its ownership of Pandora. The satellite radio company has launched a content team that will create original programming in music, sports, and talk for Pandora based on Sirius XM’s model. Continue Reading
Many people within the podcasting field have had the sense that big things are afoot in the field, and the Infinite Dial 2019 backed that anecdotal feeling with some positive numbers about consumption of the audio format. Continue Reading
The Infinite Dial always provides a snapshot of how Americans consume audio, and as more of the country shifts to streaming models, that has created tighter competition across those platforms to be the music provider of choice. With several companies expanding their content offerings to be more than just music, and with big bucks on the line in potential acquisitions, where people listen has become an even more impactful choice in 2019. Continue Reading
The 2019 Infinite Dial report found continued increases in online audio consumption across the monthly and weekly metrics. Monthly online audio listening for 2019 totaled 67% of the U.S. population age 12 and up. This metric has been steadily rising since 2010, when the figure held steady from the year prior at just 27%. Continue Reading
AM/FM radio still holds a lead for audio consumption in cars. The latest edition of the Infinite Dial survey found that radio is still tops, but a growing number of options for accessing other audio formats behind the wheel is eroding a bit of that long-standing dominance. Continue Reading
The Infinite Dial 2019 has been tracking the smart speaker trend since the debut of the first Amazon Echo device. In this year’s results, awareness of the hardware reached 79%, or about 223 million people. The rate rose from 75% in 2018 and 69% in 2017. Continue Reading
Google Podcasts are getting episode search results. Zack Reneau-Wedeen, Google Podcasts’ founder and head of product, announced the development during his keynote interview session at the RAIN Podcast Business Summit in New York. Continue Reading
The New York Times announced five new hires to join its audio team. These additions show the publication’s commitment to its audio strategy, which has been paying off with accolades and popularity for its shows such as The Daily and Caliphate. Continue Reading
SoundCloud has been moving to match the feature sets offered by other streaming services. The latest act is the launch of a student subscription tier. SoundCloud announced in a blog post that students can take advantage of a 50% discount to its SoundCloud Go+ tier. Continue Reading
Spotify has been available to listeners in India for barely a week, and the streaming company’s launch has received close scrutiny due to the legal debate over its rollout and the growing importance of this new market for the international streaming brands. A representative from Spotify said that the service already has 1 million users in India across its free and paid offerings. Continue Reading