Liberty Media, majority owner of Sirius XM and minority owner of Pandora, has offered a term sheet that would grant it ownership of a 40% stake in iHeartMedia for $1.159 billion. This move is an eleventh-hour deal in reaction to iHeartMedia’s difficult financial situation. It also isn’t the first time Liberty has broached a last-minute audio investment. Continue Reading
Today, Triton Digital®, a leading technology and services provider to the digital audio industry, announced a planned merger with UK-based podcast network and technology provider audioBoom, in which Triton Digital will combine with AudioBoom Group PLC, the corporate structure by which the British podcast platform company is traded on the London Stock Exchange. Exclusive interview with Neal Schore. 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
Apple has acquired Pop Up Archive, the online platform of building tools to transcribe, organize, and search audio files. This acquisition includes podcast search engine Audiosear.ch, which shuttered late last month. Apple’s only comment on the development is its stock statement: “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” Continue Reading
Musical.ly has been purchased by Chinese social media company Toutiao for between $800 million and $1 billion. The social app’s users can lip sync along with a track to make their own music videos. Continue Reading
Beverly Hills live music listening platform LiveXLive Media has agreed to acquire Slacker Radio for $50-million. The maneuver comes immediately after appointing Andy Schuon as company president; the acquisition is Schuon’s first action. He had been on LiveXLive’s advisory board. Continue Reading
Digital audio sales company AudioHQ announced today an alliance with British sports media company talkSPORT to distribute Premier Leagues football (soccer) match radio coverage, and represent its ad inventory. The distribution will happen on the TuneIn platform — TuneIn has for several years built a broad catalog of radio sports coverage. Continue Reading
A leading Australian radio group has forged a partnership with a leading Australian podcast company, as ARN and Whooshkaa join together to create a content network described as having “unprecedented reach and flexibility.” Continue Reading
Spreaker and BlogTalkRadio have agreed to a merger. The two audio companies will join forces to create a single combined entity comprising more than 50,000 podcasts and millions of listeners worldwide. The new company will offer services for podcast creation and monetization in an all-in-one solution. Continue Reading
Facebook’s possible plans for music content continue to take hazy shape as the company assembles tech and talent in that space. The latest development is the acquisition of Source3, a startup that specializes in “analyzing branded intellectual property in user-generated content.” The Source3 team and the company’s technology will be incorporated into Facebook’s ranks. Continue Reading
Digital audio companies leanStream and Media Sales Lab announced that they have merged into a single entity. The company will combine the audio ad network of Media Sales Lab with leanStream’s global audio streaming network of more than 400 radio stations. The merger is effective as of June 1 and the new business will retain the name leanStream, which will be responsible for producing the inaugural Digital Audio Advertising North Summit in Canada. Continue Reading
Pandora has sold its terrestrial radio station. It has handed off the South Dakota station KXMZ 102.7 to Haugo Broadcasting for $300,000. Pandora initially purchased the station from Connoisseur Media in 2015 for $600,000. The sale brings an end to a convoluted chapter in the audio company’s legal and licensing history. Continue Reading