RAIN Notes: Wednesday, September 20
— Triangulating (The New Media Show)
— Enduring Partnership (Blubrry)
— New Phase (Michael Fischer)
News
Recorded music attains new revenue record; streaming grows from 75% to 84%
The recorded music industry reached an all-time high in total revenue for the first half of 2023 — $8.3-billion across all reported categories. Streaming accounted for $7.0-billion, 84% of the total. On average, there were 96-million music subscriptions in H1 2023. All this and more from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its annual mid-year report. Continue Reading
Acast partners with Slip.Stream for music in podcasts
Creating original music for podcasting is a heavy lift creatively and economically. Acast steps into the breach in partnership with Slip.Stream, an online database of royalty-free music. Acast research says that most listeners prefer to listen to podcasts that use music to set the tone and mood of an episode. Click for details, how it works for podcasters. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Monday, September 18
Project Gutenburg, MIT, and Microsoft collaborate on free audiobook project
Project Gutenberg, whose mission is to make copyright-free books available online, has partnered with Microsoft and MIT in an AI project to narrate thousands of open-access audiobooks with synthetic voices. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Friday, September 15
— Latino Learnings (Edison Research)
— Exposition (Laura Beil)
— Fixer-Upper (Acast)
RAIN Notes: Thursday, September 14
— Economical (The Economist)
— Holistic (E.B. Moss)
— P.S. from PM (Podcast Movement)
RAIN Notes: Wednesday, September 13
RAIN Notes: Tuesday, September 12
— Small-biz Victory (Acast)
— World’s Best Tailgate? (ESPN)
— Synthetic Personalities (Jacobs Media)
RAIN Notes: Monday, September 11
NPR adjusts to revenue realities with flat budget projections for -23/24
In the wake of whiplash change, calm fiscal waters appear to prevail at NPR. In a presentation of the public radio giant’s topline finances for fiscal 2022-2024, a small drop of 2.4% is projected for 2023. (The 023 fiscal year… Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Thursday, September 7
— Degrees (Kevin Bacon)
— End of a [Short] Era (NPR)
— Truly Artist Centric (Mark Mulligan)