Bad Robot, the film/TV firm founded and run by J.J. Abrams, whose franchises include Star Trek and Cloverfield movies, has jumped into audio with the creation of a podcast unit. Abrams pulled Christina Choi away from Audible to head the venture. The whole thing is tied up with Spotify. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Ready To Go (Libsyn & Samsung)
— High and Exclusive (Ed Sheeran & Deezer)
Edison Research released the company’s quarterly report of top 50 podcasts, the result of an 8,000-person consumer survey, part of the company’s Podcast Consumer Tracking Report. Edison’s ranker is notable for its methodology. In this edition, as in previous releases, nearly all 50 shows carry over from the previous report. Click through for illustrations. Continue Reading
Infinite Album, a music/tech startup from entrepreneur, consultant, author, and RAIN Summit speaker Karen Allen, has won the 2021 Midemlab award in the Music Creation & Education category. Midemlab is part of the annual Midem music business conference in France. Infinite Album creates AI-generated music soundtracks for online gaming. Click for details and an illustrative video. Continue Reading
In a sign of podcasting’s influencer power, Critical Mention — an agency which tracks and measures earned media (unpaid publicity) — has announced a partnership with podcast database platform Podchaser. The arrangement will allow Critical Mention agency clients to track and measure brand mentions across podcasting, as Podchaser’s internal dataset is built internally into Critical Mention’s toolset. Continue Reading
The much anticipated Black Podcast Listener Report, with support from Edison Research and Mindshare, was released today and presented in a webinar. Key survey points cover the size of the Black listening audience and how it compares with the total U.S. population, how that audience discovers podcasts, their receptivity to podcast ads, and much more. Click through for many data points and graphics. Continue Reading
“A podcast is much more than just an audio file.” Podcast host and tech company Sounder is introducing Audio Data Cloud, a podcast transcription and AI product which intends to increase discovery, engagement, and revenue. Click for details. Continue Reading
In an apparent effort to raise the profile of its Greenroom social audio feature, Spotify is opening the platform to all listeners. No Spotify account is needed, or even the Spotify app. Spotify declares: “Starting today, you don’t even need… Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— On Top Down Under (ARN)
— Can Do (Audacy/Cadence13)
— The How (Corey Marie Green and NPR)
In response to the viral news story of a Dallas bar’s note on its jukebox that Mariah Carey’s hit song “All I Want for Christmas is You” is not to be played until December 1st — and then only once per evening — AccuRadio, as a public service, has launched a new channel called “One Song Radio: All I Want for Christmas is You,” featuring only the popular Carey/Afanasleff composition as performed by dozens of artists. Click for info. Continue Reading
On the same day that Edison Research and NPR released The Spoken Word Audio Report for 2021 (RAIN coverage HERE), Spotify announced its acquisition of Findaway, the audiobook facilitator and distributor. Finances of the deal are undisclosed, and might not represent the potential long-term impact of the acquisition to Spotify and to spoken word listening. Continue Reading
The 2021 edition of the annual Spoken Word Audio Report, a comprehensive survey study fielded by Edison Research with support from NPR, is out. Key findings include how all kinds of spoken word audio listening (podcasting, audiobooks, AM/FM talk radio) is quickly growing, and largely eating into AM/FM talk radio. Click through for many in-depth details, graphics, and the download link for full results and videos. Continue Reading