RAIN Notes: Thursday, June 3
Jottings of Note
— The How (The Drum)
— Good Ones (Welp Magazine)
— It’s Not the Size that Counts (AdWeek)
Author: Brad Hill
Branded podcast marketing company Casted adds search, video, and social features
Casted, a content marketing platform for podcasters, has announced a feature expansion of its platform that includes enhanced searching, transcribing, indexing, video creation, and like/share insight. Click for details. Continue Reading
Spotify’s new mid-year blast of subscriber self-awareness: Only You
Spotify has long encouraged musical self-reflection in its subscribers with an end-of-year feature called Spotify Wrapped. Now comes Only You, a similar round-up of individual preferences and new playlists based on those preferences. It will be a continuing new product bundled into the Home panel. Continue Reading
Magnificent Noise launches first self-distro’d podcast, “Bubble Trouble” with Will Page
Bubble Trouble is a new podcast hosted by former Spotify Chief Economist Will Page and Arete Research founder Richard Kramer, which promises to describe inconvenient truths about financial markets. The show is a sort of coming-out for Magnificent Noise, a network helmoed by ex-SVP of Audible Eric Nuzum. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Wednesday, June 2
Jottings of Note
— Nominated (British Podcast Awards)
— Closing a Gap (Ossa)
— Podcast Marketing, Mais Oui! (Ausha)
YouTube paid $4B to music industry in the last 12 months
In what appears to be a report timed to the end of Q1, YouTube paid $4-billion in music royalties in 12 months. More than 30% of that payout to the music industry came from monetization of user-uploaded music. Continue Reading
SiriusXM, Pandora, Stitcher launch new channels, podcasts, and events for Black Music Month
June is Black History Month, siriusXM is marshalling its sprawling inventory of audio platforms in a combined celebration and promotion. The company, along with its Pandora and Stitcher subsidiaries, announced the launch of three exclusive limited-engagement channels, a groundbreaking original podcast, and specialty music programming. Continue Reading
Insurance and fast food lead Veritonic Audio Logo Index for 2021
Veritonic’s Audio Logo Index 2021 ranks branded sound bites with a combination of AI and a large cross-continental human panel. Click through for audio samples and top-level ranking results. Continue Reading
Apple fails to launch podcast subscriptions in May as promised; postpones to June
Publicly heralded, quietly postponed. Promised for May, now it’s June in an email to participants. Apple acknowledges problems and notes that thousands of creators and networks around the world submitted their plans for subscriptions and channels. Those business plans disrupted. Continue Reading
Podchaser launches API for podcast app developers
“Build a podcast app that users can’t put down.” That’s the pitch at podcast database and discovery service Podchaser, for the company’s newly launched API (Application Programming Interface). Podchaser is targeting the marketplace of apps servicing consumers who don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcast listening and discovery. Continue Reading
WFH lifestyle means WFH listening: Edison Research quantifies the shift
It makes sense: when employment undergoes a tectonic shift from in-office to in-home, listening trends will change. How much actually shifted during Covid? Continue Reading
SiriusXM CEO: “We’ll continue to be opportunistic,” and predicts double-digit growth “for years to come”
In an interview at this week’s J.P. Morgan Technology, Media & Communications Conference, CEO Jennifer Witz held forth about SiriusXM’s business strategies and accomplishments. She predicted revenue growth, noted that podcasting is still small, and promised an opportunistic approach to acquisitions. Continue Reading