Financial services company Square is acquiring a majority ownership stake in the TIDAL music streaming service, as announced by Square founder/CEO Jack Dorsey on Twitter (which he also founded and runs). Dorsey made the announcement on Twitter, befittingly. Click through for his statement and rationale. Continue Reading
Podcast creation and monetization web service Sounder has raised $2.1-million, a year following $1.8-million the young company scooped up in March 2020. Over 14 months, the company has attracted about 4-million of seed financing. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia is announcing today its new partnership with Novel, an indie UK podcast company, to produce narrative investigative podcasts. Eleven shows are planned; two are described in today’s announcement: Click for details. Continue Reading
Acast, the international podcast hosting platform and advertising marketplace, has acquired RadioPublic, the podcast network and tech innovator founded in 2016. It’s a partnership of values and technology affinity. Click through for details and context. Continue Reading
Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), the large commercial radio group in Australia, is making a splashy launch of LiSTNR, a new listening app that brings together the network’s radio content, news, music streaming channels (non-interactive), and podcasts. Click through for details. Continue Reading
Behemoth audio company iHeartMedia will buy leading digital audio technology provider Triton Digital from media juggernaut E.W.Scripps, exactly 28 months after Scripps acquired Triton. The deal further fortifies iHeart’s imposing array of audio production and monetization platforms across radio, streaming, and podcasting, while closing out Scripps’ short-lived deep dive into digital audio. History and perspective. Continue Reading
UK-centered media and technology company Global has activated its investment arm, Honeycomb Investments LTD, to acquire 8.8% of iHeartMedia, the largest American commercial radio group and top podcast publisher. Remembering that Liberty also owns a stake in iHM, we speculate a brewing battle of buyers, as listener reach and advertising pull are increasingly parts of a cross-category landscape. Continue Reading
One of the world’s largest podcast hosts, Libsyn, has acquired the Auxbus podcast creation platform. The deal expands Libsyn’s suite of podcast hosting and measurement, adding tools for planning and recording shows. Auxbus has developed proprietary (patent-pending) tech that automates parts of the audio creation process. Continue Reading
Evergreen Podcasts, a four-year-old network representing 64 shows that were downloaded over 4-million times in 2020, has acquired an undisclosed equity share of Ars Longa Media. Ars Longa is a preeminent podcast company serving the health, wellness, and medical education genres. The group owns 13 shows. Continue Reading
Descript gets a cash pile of $30-million to further its audio/video production business. The plan is to expand from a consumer service targeting amateur creators, adding a new focus on enterprise tools for the internal communication needs of companies. Currently, Descript markets to independent creators, amateur, semi-pro, and professional, with smart tools that record, transcribe and edit audio and video combined. Click through for details. Continue Reading
AdLarge Media is announcing its agreement with TPX (Toronto-based The Podcast Exchange) for exclusive representation of AdLarge’s digital audio inventory. The cabana division of AdLarge is where that inventory resides, and is mostly podcasts. This initiative represents AdLarge’s first entry into a non-U.S. market. Continue Reading
The deal is not yet closed, but the agreement is. As rumored, Amazon will acquire Wondery, the last of the major creative networks in podcasting’s resurgent era to lose indie status. Amazon positions the company as joining Amazon Music, where Amazon’s podcast directory lives, but we see a future in Audible Originals for wondery’s creative production. Founder/CEO Hernan Lopez will step down to manage his new foundation; COO Jen Sargent will take over. Click through for quotes and context. Continue Reading