RAIN Notes: Wednesday, March 22
Jottings of Note
— GPT Perspectives (Eric Nuzum)
— How To Live-read (Acast)
— Connecting the Parts (Steve Keller)
Author: Brad Hill
RIAA full-year 2022: Music subs leap upward, breaking through $10-billion U.S. revenue
“Streaming continued to account for a large majority of recorded music revenues in 2022.” Thus reports the first line in the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)’s full-year 2022 earnings report. All streaming platforms grew seven percent year-over-year, amounting to $13.3-billion. About 75% of that was subscription streaming revenue, which totalled to $10B. Click through for more, and detailed trend charts. Continue Reading
TuneIn soft-launches TuneIn Explorer, an interactive map-based radio tuner
In one of the more delightful recent product releases, TuneIn has unleashed TuneIn Explorer, an interactive map-based radio tuner. As an audio browsing tool, we find it superior to World Radio Map and Radio Garden, two other inateractive audio maps. Click for the review, images, and linkage. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Monday, March 20
Jottings of Note
— GPTAircheck (Futuri Media & Rusty Hodge)
— Medium-moved Messages (Sounds Profitable / Signal Hill Insights)
— Stats Roundup (DemandSage)
YouTube’s podcast portal opens, optimizing discovery, recommendation, and search
The awaited opening of YouTube Podcasts has arrived. Podcasts have long been posted to YouTube, of course, but until now there has not been a structured presentation of them, or promotion and discovery tools specifically for them. It is detached from traditional RSS distribution. Click through for details and images. Continue Reading
LinkedIn Podcast Academy seeks to foster conversations with selected creators
LinkedIn, the leading social network for professionals, has launched the LinkedIn Podcast Academy. The structure of this initiative is simple — LinkedIn selected 19 business and startup podcasts created by LinkedIn members, and publicized those creator profiles. The program provides coaching, exclusive programming and LinkedIn co-branding. Aspiring podcasters can fill out a form. Continue Reading
Triton Podcast Ranker for February: Three new shows in a hundred
The latest Triton Digital US Podcast Report shows only three new shows in 100 listed, all three in the bottom twenty. Nine of the top ten podcasts are the same month-over-month. Click through for more stats, including a breakdown of sales representation. Continue Reading
Audacy earnings: Macroeconomics, advertising pullback, and 2023 optimism
Audacy reported its fourth quarter earnings, and while earnings were up three percent for the year, expenses grew by twice that, pulling down the company’s EBITDA down six percent — “a far cry from what we had anticipated,” said Chairman and CEO David Field. Click through for lots of podcast-specific metrics. Continue Reading
Podcasters enthused about ChatGPT; listeners middling; a takeaway for advertisers
Acast completed an interesting survey of podcasters and listeners to gauge sentiment regarding using ChatGPT in podcasting. The survey is a broad gauge of feeling about using AI in a podcast — podcasters and listeners are clearly of different sentiments, but there is a clear takeaway. Continue Reading
“What’s a radio?” asks NPR announcer
NPR was the first, and continually a vigorous advocate for smart speakers. The public radio network helped launch the breakthrough Alexa OS by providing the primary daily news program for smart speakers, Up First. It was with amusement that we noticed that program’s host exclaiming, “What’s a radio?” during his sign-off. Click for audio. Continue Reading
iHeart Podcast Awards: Winners and most-nominated
The annual iHeartPodcast Awards ceremony took place yesterday in a livestream online ceremony. Winners were selected in 28 categories, plus a grand prize Podcast of the Year winner — Las Culturistas produced by Big Money Players and iHeartPodcasts Network. We trolled the complete competition results to discover which producers earned the most nominations. Continue Reading
Edison Research identifies top podcasts by reach, in topical breakdown
Edison Research has launched an informative series of blog posts in which top podcasts in different topical categories are identified, according to reach. This project skims the top layer of Edison Podcast Metrics, a subscription product. “The Monday after the Academy Awards seems like the perfect time to look at podcasts in some entertainment genres,” Edison observes. Continue Reading