Rhapsody International, the parent brand of the Napster music streaming service (originally called Rhapsody) and Rhapsody’s B2B white-label streaming provision service, announced that it is now powering Sonos Radio HD. In this cluster of brands there is one more: “Powered by Napster” which is the platform service brought to bear for Sonos. Continue Reading
Podcast cntent and advertising company Stitcher partnered with signal Hill Insights to study podcast ads. the study premise was to examine how “brand lift” is best accomplished in podcast advertising — via host-read performances or announcer reads that can be distributed across shows. Continue Reading
In a new demonstration of ART19’s history of using Stitcher as a fertile executive hunting ground, the podcasting technology and monetization company has hired David Murray as its new CFO. (Click through for a timeline of acquisitions and executives at Stitcher, Midroll, Scripps, ART19, and SiriusXM). Murray will help lead ART19’s expansion from pure SaaS business into a full-fledged media company. Continue Reading
Due partly to momentum stretching back years, and partly due to changed listening routines during the 2020 pandedmic, YouTube now serves 2-billion music users. This according to Mark Mulligan, head of MIDiA Research in the UK. Click through for metrics, a graph, and links. Continue Reading
Veritone, the artificial intelligence enabler and digital content licensing firm, has started a new monetization and licensing service for audio publishers and audio advertisers. The audio and video content is mainly news and sports, and is available for audio-only programs. Continue Reading
When is an impression an accountable impression? The answer isn’t as simple as you might think, especially for audio ads which play out with duration. Pandora is stepping into potential standardization with an “Audibility initiative,” which it plans to launch in collaboration with Moat, a division of Oracle Data Cloud which measures consumer attention across media channels. Continue Reading
Yesterday’s virtual event, RAIN Digital Australasia, brought together 25 audio professionals from Australia, Malaysia, India, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Indonesia, Canada, the UK, and the U.S. in a four-hour sequence of discussions about the state and future of the digital audio business. Click through for highlight quotes. Continue Reading
In this week’s third-quarter earnings call, iHeartMedia executives preached digital, podcasting, and the recent acquisition of Voxnest. Click through for quotes. Continue Reading
In an intermediary report before its end-of-year accounting, Podtrac has released a chart of the top 25 new podcasts through Q3. This ranker is based on average number of U.S. downloads per episode. Even though it has been an extremely newsy year, and we observed the launch of news podcasts from major media brands, only two podcasts categorized as News made the list. Click through for key points and the entire list. Continue Reading
Triton Digital, parent company of podcast hosting and technology company Omny Studio, is announcing today that Omny is being introduced into Gaana, India’s largest audio streaming platform. Gaana is perhaps best known as a music streaming app. But, like Spotify which is a better known brand globally outside of India, Gaana also distributes podcasts. Until now Gaana has mostly traded in Indian-produced shows, presented either in Hindi or English. The Omny Studio portfolio will bring a more global reach with nearly 30,000 podcasts. Continue Reading
Podcasting consolidation continues, as Spotify — an acquisition giant in the field — announces that it is buying Megaphone, one of the world’s leading podcast hosting and ad-tech companies. The deal represents not only Spotify’s growing imperialism in the podcast space, but the deepening influence of modern ad technology and audience targeting on the business of podcasting. Continue Reading
iHeartPodcast Network Australia, which is managed by Australian radio group ARN, is partnering with DM Podcasts (Diamantina Media). At the same time, ARN is announcing that iHeartPodcast Network Australia is a sponsor of the 2020 Australian Podcast Awards, which happen later this month. Continue Reading