In a consumer-friendly infographic, Spotify highlighted some key (non-finance) results related to its Q2 earnings report last week. Juuust under 300-million users now, and 138-million subscribers. And the service is available in 92 countries. Click through to see the whole thing. Continue Reading
It’s not binding legislation. The Local Radio Freedom Act is a resolution bill which declares support among House Representatives in D.C. for opposing a performance royalty levied on American radio. As of this week, with the addition of 12 new signatures, the current House of Representatives is not majority aligned against a royalty … which the NAB calls a “tax.” Advocacy group musicFIRST sent us an opposition statement. Continue Reading
Pandora is releasing a raft of survey results gleaned from a study conducted by the streaming company in league with Publicis Media Exchange and Edison Research. The purpose is for advertisers to better understand levels of consumer adoption of streaming. Pandora is releasing a raft of survey results gleaned from a study conducted by the streaming company in league with Publicis Media Exchange and Edison Research. The purpose is for advertisers to better understand levels of consumer adoption of streaming. Click through for extensive results/ Continue Reading
Pandora is announcing that its Alexa “skill” set now includes podcast listening and controls. In addition to the basic hook-up between Alexa and Pandora’s podcasts, the new skill set includes a request for a specific episode (“Alexa, play the latest episode of Ted Talks Daily”), requesting an episode by topic (“Alexa, play the Ted Talks Daily episode about procrastination”) and using playback controls for hands-free podcast control while in the skill. Continue Reading
SiriusXM held its Q2 earnings call, during which the cost of the recently acquired Stitcher was revealed — it is $265-million. Buying Simplecast cost the satellite company $28-million. The earnings call also reminded investors of a February SoundCloud investment of $75-million. On the financial side, Sirius subscription revenue notched up a bit from the same quarter in 2019.
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In a webinar yesterday, Megan Vartan (Edison Research) and Jayne Charneski, Front Row Insights & Strategy), presented Radio’s Roadmap to Gen Z Listenership, a consumer survey of the so-called Zoom Generation. Zoomers, of Gen Z, are true digital natives aged… Continue Reading
The RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit, RAIN’s first virtual installation of its 20-year, highly regarded Summit series of business conferences, was a resounding success as two-dozen speakers from both hemispheres across 17 time zones delivered thought leadership to over 600 registered attendees. Continue Reading
We learned from Engadget that Mark and Jay Duplass have signed with Spotify to create Spotify-exclusive podcasts. This is not presented as an acquisition of the Duplass Brothers Productions firm, but that detail is unclear. What does seem clear is that the two men will jointly create new shows for Spotify, exclusively for Spotify distribution. Continue Reading
Podcast tech and attribution company Chartable has launched a feature called SmartPromos, which traces listener action from hearing an ad for a podcast, to downloading that advertised podcast.The intelligence behind this technology can be helpful to advertisers as well. Continue Reading
American Public media (APM) has sent PR descriptions of two new podcasts, and one returning show. The return is season two of Spectacular Failures, which is described as “ridiculous stories of business disasters. The new season drops on August 3. No trailer yet. One new show features comedian Tig Nagaro. The other comes from Marketplace and is a children’s show. Continue Reading
Impact, which is a content accelerator and online marketplace co-founded by Imagine Entertainment’s partners Brian Grazer & Ron Howard, has selected leading audio platform ART19 to host and distribute IMPACT: The Podcast. The show is described this way: “Impact’s new podcast brings together storytellers and entertainment industry leaders to explore the process of content creation and the way art shapes the world around us.” Tons of celebrity guests. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released its U.S. Podcast Report, an every-four-week rolling weekly average of downloads and listeners. This report covers the June 8 through July 5 period. Things look pretty much the same as the previous report, for the top 15 podcast networks. NPR is on top for average weekly downloads and listeners. Stitcher remains #2 for downloads, and moves up to #2 (displacing Entercom/Cadence13/Pineapple Street Studios to #3 — but we think Entercom/Cadence13/Pineapple Street Studios should win a special prize for longest network name). Click through to see the Top 15 Networks. Continue Reading