iHeartMedia celebrated Earth Day yesterday with the unveiling of a new initiative that encourages listeners to make small changes aimed at preserving the environment. The year-long campaign is dubbed iHeartRadio Earth. Continue Reading
Cisneros Interactive and Brandwatch collaborated on an investigation into how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted digital listeners in Puerto Rico. The results are based on 700 online surveys taken between March 23 and April 6. Quarantining has led many Puerto Rican listeners to place a higher value on audio content. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group has made an investment in Africori, a digital music distribution company operating across Sub-Saharan Africa. Africori has worked with more than 6,500 artists and 700 labels, offering music rights management and artist development services as well as distribution. Continue Reading
Apple is rolling out its Services platform to 20 new markets. The move brings Apple Podcasts, the App Store, and more to a vast new international audience. Apple Music is going even bigger, launching in 52 more additional countries. Continue Reading
Sonos is making its first foray into content with the launch of a streaming radio service. Sonos Radio is an ad-supported service available for free exclusively for Sonos customers. The platform houses more than 60,000 stations, including ones from streaming partners such as TuneIn and iHeartRadio and ones directly from Sonos. Continue Reading
Vivendi reported first-quarter financials for Universal Music Group. The label generated €1.769 billion in revenue, up 12.7% on-year in constant currency. Actual growth for the period was 17.8%. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. It’s another batch of pandemic stories from several podcasting insiders. Read on for the latest insights from Megaphone’s Max Turck, Pacific Content’s Steve Pratt, and Podcast Pontifications’ Evo Terra. Continue Reading
Plex has launched a new version of its music player software. The company’s R&D division has created an update to Plexamp, named as a nod to the Winamp music player. The original Plexamp was launched in December 2017 as a software program that could play any music format. Continue Reading
Apple Music has taken the browser-based version of its streaming service out of beta. This web iteration of the platform has been in testing for months after its initial introduction in September. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web, once more with a focus on stories emerging from the coronavirus pandemic and its impact. Today, an exec suggests connecting with company podcasts, independent musicians’ output grows, and podcast stats about kids from PRX. Continue Reading
A streaming music app co-owned by Sony Music and Universal Music is adding a free tier. The labels operate NOW That’s What I Call Music! brand, which includes the NOW Music app for both iOS and Android mobile devices in the UK. The app now offers a free, ad-supported counterpart to its usual mid-tier subscription of £4.99 per month. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group has appointed Oana Ruxandra as its new chief digital officer and executive vice president of business development. She rejoined WMG in 2018 after two years at Universal Music Group, and was most recently the company’s interim head of business development and its EVP, new business channels – chief acquisition officer. Continue Reading