On Being, a podcast/broadcast production developed and owned by Krista Tippett Public Productions (KTPP), and hosted by Krista Tippett, will move its distribution home from American Public Media (APM) to the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) on July 1. It’s not PRX’s first high-profile distribution “get.” Continue Reading
ESPN is trying something new with a documentary series, while taking a page from the Netflix playbook by releasing all five episodes at once. A five-part series on the history of the basketball dunk, called Dunkumentaries, launches today. Continue Reading
AccuRadio has announced a new channel launched in honor of First Contact Day. Wait — you don’t know what First Contact Day is? Read on. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Will iHeartMedia Survive? To SoundCloud, Love Dave. Audio advertising changing the tune for advertisers. David Lowery talks streaming, royalties, and solutions. Continue Reading
Eighty-five companies (so far) have grabbed seats at RAIN Summit West, the must-attend gathering of the online audio industry. The company attendee list includes broadcasters, Internet radio firms, digital audio advertising groups, research companies, technology service providers to the audio industry, law firms, music royalty administration companies, digital marketing services, and more. Click through to see. Continue Reading
Spotify has increased its war chest of cash, taking one-billion dollars in a debt offering to institutional investors that points explicitly to a future Initial Public Offering (IPO). The deal rewards investors with discounted pricing in the event of a Spotify IPO, and Spotify is punished if the public offering is delayed. Continue Reading
Yesterday’s announcement that Pandora switched out its CEO, replacing Brian McAndrews with Tim Westergren, was startling both in unexpectedness and lack of explanation. Tim Westergren is Pandora’s founding visionary, a musician with technology chops. What does this change signal? Continue Reading
We received word from AudioHQ of a new on-demand audio series to start this fall. It is the first original podcast program developed by the digital audio ad sales company. Partnering with AudioHQ are Laurence Fishburne through his Cinema Gypsy Productions company, and Larenz Tate’s TateMen Entertainment company. Continue Reading
Pandora founder Tim Westergren has assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer effective immediately, the company announced this morning. Former CEO Brian McAndrews is leaving the company. Continue Reading
A couple of session summaries emanating from the Radiodays Europe conference earlier this month indicate that public radio in Britain and Nordic countries is facing challenges of reduced listening to traditional radio among young people. Continue Reading
Spotify announced a dramatic increase in targeting options offered to streaming audio advertisers. Over 100 new segments are being brought to the U.S. advertising market, many of them sharpened by Spotify’s first-party data collection of listener behavior. Continue Reading
Kickstarter meets Wall Street. Music service 8tracks is filing for a Regulation A securities offering, hoping to raise $5-million or more through a public investment opportunity open to anybody. Required documents will be filed this week. After regulatory review, 8tracks expects the investment round to open by June. Regulation A is a relatively new investment type. Continue Reading