We reported this week on Sirius XM’s financials (HERE). As usual some of the most interesting strategic insight was contained in the investor Q&A in the back end of the call. Of particular interest to investors (and to RAIN) were comments related to the Sirius acquisition of Pandora, which closed on the day of the earnings call. Continue Reading
Pandora announced the hire of a new vice president and head of brand communications. Brad Minor joins the audio company from JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he his role was managing director of brand, advertising, and media. Continue Reading
Facebook is broadening its options for how its users can integrate music into their experiences on the social media network. Those changes include an expansion of its Lip Sync Live feature and new ways to include music in posts and profiles. Continue Reading
TuneIn is expanding its perks for paying subscribers. TuneIn Premium listeners can now hear commercial-free news from radio and podcasts. Instead of the regularly scheduled commercial breaks, listeners will hear curated snippets of programming and updates that they might have missed. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that it has signed Grant Broadcasters, an Australian media company, as a client for its services in the delivery, monetization, and measurement of online audio content. “We are thrilled to be working with the Triton team, and are confident that their sophisticated technology will enable us to further grow and evolve our digital audio strategy, and reach our revenue goals,” said Rohan Dwyer, Grant Broadcasters’ group general manager of digital. Continue Reading
Sirius XM reported its third-quarter financial results. Net income for the period totaled $343 million, or 7 cents per diluted share. Quarterly revenue reached a new record of $1.5 billion, up 6% from the third quarter of 2017. The company also received updates on its planned acquisition of Pandora Media. Continue Reading
Dash Radio has raised a seed round worth $8.8 million in support of its free online radio platform. The round will also see some of the investors joining Dash Radio’s board, including Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Kevin Tsujihara. In addition to the funding round, Dash Radio has also reached a milestone of 10 million monthly listeners. Continue Reading
Amazon has two new developments around its voice assistant and smart speaker efforts. The first item is the launch of Amazon Alexa and the Amazon Echo line in Italy and Spain. The other development is a way to submit feedback on Alexa voice skills. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced a new integration with Instagram. The latest update allows users to share music from the SoundCloud library directly to their Instagram Stories. The deal is the latest in what has been a very busy fall season for the digital audio provider. Continue Reading
Merlin, the indie label group and digital rights agency, is marking the second anniversary of launching its office in Japan with some new data. The company announced that distributions to Japanese members have grown by 200% from the first half of 2017 and the first half of 2018. Continue Reading
Deezer has launched for markets in the Middle East and North Africa. The rollout comes on the back of an exclusive deal with the Rotana Group, which has the rights to a large library of Middle Eastern music. Deezer is offering its new users six months of its Premium tier for free. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced multiple deals this week, all centered on further raising the platform’s profile with DJs. First, the company announced integrations with several DJ applications. Second, it has secured a partnership with Dubset, a service for quickly licensing and distributing DJ mixes while managing all the appropriate royalties. Continue Reading