In this week’s lengthy Q4 earnings call, the word “podcast” was mentioned six times: Three times each by Sudar Pichai (CEO, Google and Alphabet) and Philipp Schindler (Chief Business Officer, Google). Click for those details, and the financial rundown. Continue Reading
In Spotify’s Q4 earnings call with investors, the word “podcast” was not spoken in the prepared remarks. Only when an investor asked about it in the Q&A portion did the company address its podcast business by name. In reply, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek numbered four ways in which value has been added to Spotify’s advertisers: “AI is one of those ways, video is obviously another one, podcasting is the third, audiobooks is the fourth.” Onekey point: Leaving the door open to charging for ad-supported listening. Click for key points and quotes from Spotify’s Q4 earnings call. Continue Reading
Streaming audio juggernaut Spotify released Q4 earnings. “We ended 2024 with strong Q4 performance, as nearly all of our KPIs exceeded guidance and profitability reached record levels.” thecompany stated. Continued growth is expected for 2025.” Continue Reading
Broadcasting/audio giant Audacy has closed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy process which started a year ago. At this important juncture, CEO David Field steps out of his leadership roles of President, CEO, and board member. A new CEO steps in from the Board of Directors as the interim leader. Click for details. Continue Reading
We learn from Music Business Worldwide that Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek has cashed $27.8 million in Spotify stock (SPOT). While an interesting observation, the cash trade does not imply any negative sentiment. Click for info and the stock chart. Continue Reading
SiriusXM has released an updated strategic plan. We hear about “marketplace headwinds,” and learn that streaming is demoted as a business priority. Continue Reading
Global podcast behemoth Acast released Q3 earnings this morning. Click for top-line key metrics and several revealing graphics. Continue Reading
SiriusXM released its Q3 finance report, announcing $2.17 billion in third-quarter revenue, and $93M in free cash flow. Digging into the weeds of the publicly available comparative income sheet going back nearly five years, we see small percentages of revenue drops. Charting backwards over three decades, we see the broad sweep of audio pre- and post-digital. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s largest record company, suffered an off-the-cliff stock dip last Thursday following the company’s earnings call. The hinge point? unexpectedly low streaming revenue. The question was: Who set the expectation? Continue Reading
Acast, founded in 2014, released its Q2 earnings with a 10-year celebrative spirit. Key bragging points focused on net sales, gross margin, EBITDA, number of listens, and average revenue per listen. Click for muc more detail. Continue Reading
“I said that while many believe that Spotify has a great product, we needed to prove that we could also be a great business. I think we’re really starting to show this now.” (Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify) That’s from Spotify’s Q2 earnings release. Click for numbers and charts.
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Audio giant Audacy released Q1 earnings, characterized by CEO David Field as “a solid start to 2024.” Audacy’s financial positioning is complicated by a recent bankruptcy, but the company is moving smoothly through that financial reorganization process with uplifting net… Continue Reading