Edison Research, the leading consumer research organization for understanding how Americans listen to audio, has greeted the new year with three growth announcements. A slew of promotions creates a larger executive team. Newly hired staff is on board to accommodate Edison’s growing research clientele. And the company has purchased office space which doubles its square footage. Continue Reading
Some Sirius XM subscribers have been informed that their subscription costs will go up starting in mid-February. The price hike is attached to a Music Royalty Fee already paid by some accounts. Continue Reading
Podcast measurement firm Podtrac has revised two of its Podcast Industry Ranking charts for November audience size, citing IAB podcast measurement guidelines. The action removed iHeartMedia from the Top 10 Podcast Publishers chart, and the Top 10 Snackable Podcasts chart (formerly Top 15 Snackable Podcasts). Continue Reading
Never a dull moment, or a dull year, in the online audio field. Here, we present RAIN’s annual Predictions feature, provided by industry leaders around the world. 2018 will carry forward the audio industry’s reputation for quick, disruptive change. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Questioning the top Podtrac “Snackable Podcast.” Big holiday download numbers for Alexa on Android. Start 2018 right with a hilarious podcast parody. Continue Reading
In the October report of Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker, overall stream listening inched upward a bit (one percent from the previous month). Hidden in that modest movement are significant gain by five of the top six entities, composed of three pure internet plays and three radio groups. Continue Reading
General Motors is reportedly adding podcasts to the dashboard of about one-million cars. Only a handful of podcasts will be included in a proprietary selection. The most interesting aspect of this venture is GM’s recognition of podcasting as a worthy audio category around which to build business relationships and proprietary distribution products. Continue Reading
The awaited Podcast Analytics suite from Apple has arrived in beta. Whatever its shortfalls in the minds of some industry observers, and however ambivalent some podcast publishers might be about the intrusion of new data, Apple’s reporting of podcast consumption will sharply influence the shape, growth and revenue prospects of podcasting. Details and RAIN analysis. Continue Reading
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) announced that five new House representatives have signed onto the Local Radio Freedom Act (LRFA), making a majority of support. LRFA is a non-binding resolution against any new performance royalty imposed on U.S. radio stations. At issue is broadcast radio’s historic exemption from paying artists and labels for playing music recordings over the air. Continue Reading
In a RAIN webinar last August, Melbourne-based podcast hosting and technology company Omny Studio announced a technology achievement that seemed either revolutionary or implausible, depending on one’s perspective. Omny claimed to offer podccast listening data captured from Apple’s Podcasts app. Today, prompted by the imminent release of Apple’s own podcast analytics, Omny has unfurled a description of its previously secret method. Continue Reading
Over the weekend TechCrunch broke news from undisclosed sources in Apple that the tech giant was close to acquiring market-leading music-ID platform Shazam — Apple confirmed the acquisition this morning. The enormously popular and influential Shazam has historically taken the role of Switzerland, standing in the midst of Spotify, Napster, Apple Music and others, offering to funnel ID’d songs to the user’s preferred listening platform. That could change. Continue Reading
In a whitepaper released yesterday on its blog, Triton Digital explains how podcast caching challenges the growth of podcasting, offeers supporting metrics, and and pledges its full support of platforms which move away from the practice. Continue Reading