Author: Brad Hill

Apple acquires Shazam

Posted on by Brad Hill

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 →

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Apple drops out (and here’s why) as smart speakers enter crucial holiday season

Posted on by Brad Hill

The news that Apple has withdrawn its timetable to launch the HomePod smart speaker this year is a final buttoning down of the holiday lineup of smart speakers, as we enter Black Friday week. The broken promise of a Q4 launch is certainly disappointing to Apple loyalists who are deep into the ecosystem. Was the HomePod squeezed out of its market position by a surprise maneuver by Sonos? Continue Reading →

U.K.’s Global acquires AudioHQ which becomes DAX, bringing that programmatic platform to U.S.

Posted on by Brad Hill

In one of the most interesting and consequential deals we’ve reported this year, UK radio juggernaut Global has acquired U.S. digital audio advertising company AudioHQ. Linked with that, Global will launch DAX, its programmatic audio ad platform, in the U.S., operated by AudioHQ — whose name will change to DAX. We spoke with the principles. Continue Reading →