Brad Hill - RAIN News

60-million people own smart speakers; usage grows (NPR/Edison Research Smart Audio Report)

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Brad Hill

Tom Webster (SVP, Edison Research) and Joel Sucherman (VP, New Platform Partnerships, NPR) held forth in a Zoom webinar to present the Smart Audio Report 2020, a collaboration of the two companies. The report consisted of a wealth of metrics, including specialty survey questions relevant to Covid-19, and “qualitative research” — videos of users talking about how they use smart assistants. Click for details. Continue Reading →

Pandora listener drop connected to loss of commuter listening

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Brad Hill

In this week’s Q1 earnings call from parent company Sirius XM, we learned (and reported) that Pandora experienced a drop in monthly listeners to about 61-million, down from the year-ago Q1 report of 66-million. Sirius XM executives think they know exactly why. Continue Reading →

Spreaker launches Publisher Plan, bridging personal and enterprise hosting

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Brad Hill

Podcast technology platform Spreaker sent us an announcement of a new customer layer called the Spreaker Publisher Plan. That might sound generic, but is actually a precise layer of service that fits between the platform’s open sign-up service and its enterprise hosting capability which was launched last year. In our view, this product targets an increasingly thriving layer of indie podcast networks. Click to know more. Continue Reading →

London’s Podcast Radio launches a live weekly chart show

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Brad Hill

Podcast Radio, the interesting all-podcast DAB+ radio station in London, has announced a weekly interview show of its own called The Pod 20. It’s a chart show with a podcaster guest interview. The show will be hosted by Graham Mack Continue Reading →

Nielsen’s Podcast Listener Buying Power Service grabs PodcastOne as new client

Posted on April 27, 2020 by Brad Hill

Venerable podcast giant PodcastOne has joined Nielsen’s qualitative profiling service, Podcast Listener Buying Power. Nielsen’s service launched last August. It’s ultimate goal is to connect podcast advertisers with certain listener types as profiled by Nielsen’s Scarborough category database. Continue Reading →

POD DROP: History, aliens, and a confessional

Posted on April 26, 2020 by Brad Hill

Pod Drop features new, interesting, and returning podcasts. Today: A history podcast hosted by John Meacham, a show about forgiveness with streetwise pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, and a UFO encounter show from Aaron Mahnke. Continue Reading →

Myers Report projects bleak ad forecast — except podcasting

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Brad Hill

The Myers Report, issued by the Jack Myers media empire MediaVillage, has issued a set of projections for 2020 advertising spend, comparing pre-COVID-19 with the current and future environment. Click through for a telling chart of projections. Continue Reading →

Update: YTD stock performace for SPOT, IHRT, SIRI, ETM

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Brad Hill

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the stock performance of three publicly traded audio stocks from the first of the year. By placing the three trendlines at the same hypothetical point to start, we could compare their fluctuating gains and losses against each other as percentages. In this update we add Entercom to iHeartMedia, Sirius XM, and Spotify. Continue Reading →

Podtrac weekly coronavirus tracking: Weekly downloads still down, but some categories find growth

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Brad Hill

Podtrac has shared a new batch of weekly listening figures, in its continued tracking of COVID-19 podcast listening.. The company found that podcast consumption continued a dip for the week of April 13-19, was mainly flat from the previous week. Click through for more metrics and charts. Continue Reading →

Voxnest sees double-digit rise of listening during COVID-19

Posted on April 22, 2020 by Brad Hill

Adding to the heap of COVID-19 statistics charting the undulations of podcast listening in March/April, Voxnest today unleashes an update based on its internal tracking. The headling numbers show double-digit growth: Overall podcast listens have increased 42%, and European listening is up 53%. U.S. listening has dropped. Continue Reading →

Spotify launches immense build-out of podcast playlists and guidance

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Brad Hill

Spotify’s headline for today is the launch of podcast playlists. By itself, that’s not a tectonic announcement, as spotify has dabbled in podcast playlists already. But today we see a muscular rollout of podcast curation which clearly aspires to apply the influence and power of Spotify’s music playlists to podcast listening. Continue Reading →

Podcast Radio adds Alan Alda’s “Clear + Vivid” podcast

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Brad Hill

Podcast Radio, the london DAB+ station which plays a 24-hour schedule of podcasts, is announcing today that Alan Alda’s Clear + Vivid, an interview show hosted by the actor, is joining the stations lineup. Some of Alda’s conversations feature Julie Andrew, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, Paul McCartney, Betty White, Tom Hanks, Stephen Fry, Madeleine Albright, Conan O’Brien, and Michael J. Fox. Continue Reading →