Amazon released its first quarter financials. The company did see some adverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. Its press release included some statements about measures taken to protect employees from the virus, but did not comment on the ongoing labor debates or union efforts happening among its workforce. Continue Reading
U.S. commercial radio raised $425,000 for Feeding America yesterday, in a rapidly organized effort called Radio Cares. Hundreds of stations and radio groups pitched in with on-air promotions. It was a virtuosic effort. What is podcasting doing, as a cohesive medium, in this national emergency. Maybe it’s time to develop a unifying trade organization. Continue Reading
ASCAP announced that it recorded record high distributions and revenues in 2019. The performing rights organization generated $1.274 billion in 2019 revenue, up from $1.227 billion the previous year. Distributions also surpassed $1 billion for the third consecutive year. Continue Reading
Apple has reported its financial results for the three months ending March 28. The performance overall showed slowing growth, although many of its important metrics still trended upwards. Continue Reading
We learned from RadioToday that Jay Walkerden has left Australian radio group Nova, and has started a podcast production and consulting company call Podshape. The exit from nova was apparently not friendly, according to the write-up, but details are short. Anyway, Podshape is the new venture for the Brisbane executive, who ran the podcast division of Nova. Continue Reading
In this week’s Q1 earnings call from parent company Sirius XM, we learned (and reported) that Pandora experienced a drop in monthly listeners to about 61-million, down from the year-ago Q1 report of 66-million. Sirius XM executives think they know exactly why. Continue Reading
Futuresource Consulting released a report with an outlook on how the coronavirus pandemic might impact music streaming. Given the uncertainty around how COVID-19 may continue to impact both individual listening habits and broader national economies, any sort of projections should be read with several grains of salt. But a surveys and forecasts can still help companies make their best guesses about where listening trends will go. Continue Reading
Alphabet has released its first-quarter results, including figures and stats for YouTube. YouTube ads generated $4.04 billion in revenue. Continue Reading
There’s another leadership change happening at Merlin, the independent label group and digital rights management group. Charlie Lexton has been promoted to the newly created post of chief operating officer. Continue Reading
Spotify’s first quarter of 2020 included positive results on many important metrics, even as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold around the world. The company is even remaining positive about the rest of the year, not changing its outlook for most key performance indicators, although it acknowledged the uncertainty ahead. Continue Reading
Podcast technology platform Spreaker sent us an announcement of a new customer layer called the Spreaker Publisher Plan. That might sound generic, but is actually a precise layer of service that fits between the platform’s open sign-up service and its enterprise hosting capability which was launched last year. In our view, this product targets an increasingly thriving layer of indie podcast networks. Click to know more. Continue Reading
Apple Music is now available on Samsung Smart TVs. It is the first TV brand to integrate the streaming music platform on its devices. The music program will be available on models dating back to 2018. Continue Reading