The BBC is planning to create a new radio service that would act as a “Netflix of the spoken word.” Details are still scarce on this proposed plan, but it would involve paid access for BBC radio listeners outside the UK. There’s a fair amount to unpack in this development. Continue Reading
PodcastOne and leading Australian radio group Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) will jointly launch PodcastOne Australia in 2017. The deal marks an important internationalization of American-based podcasting, a dramatic territorial expansion of the PodcastOne brand, a milestone entree into the podcasting field for SCA, and a general lift for Australian podcasting. Continue Reading
Apple Music has entered an arrangement with Deutsche Telekom. Thanks to this deal, the German telecom is now advertising that its customers can have six months of free access to the streaming music service. Continue Reading
SoundExchange shared its data for Q3 2016 royalty payments. The company paid out $263.5 million in royalties during the period. That’s growth of 29.2% from Q3 2015’s $204 million. Continue Reading
Rubicon Project has entered into a partnership with ad-tech company Adform for programmatic audio advertisements. As a result, Adform’s clients will be able to buy 15- or 30-second ads on Spotify programmatically through Rubicon’s platform. Continue Reading
BPI, the British Phonographic Industry, has created a new initiative focused on bringing technology into its work in new ways. The BPI Innovation Hub will meet quarterly to connect tech companies with record labels. Continue Reading
According to Cowen & Co., Amazon Prime’s U.S. membership is about 49.5 million people. The third-party analysis is based on a panel of 2,500 U.S. consumers, since Amazon has not explicitly shared its Prime data. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Streaming and writing pop songs. Exploring podcasts for children. Continue Reading
NextRadio has introduced a newsfeed as a new way to present radio station content to listeners. The feed includes items from stations such as trending tweets from a particular user’s favorite programs and other related content such as artist and song facts or concert information. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Bob Lefsetz on Recode Media podcast; innovations at WNYC; interview with Radiolab founder; what’s next for political podcasts? Continue Reading
South Africa-based podcast and audio company iono.fm has received a new influx of seed funding. The company secured $175,000 (2.5 million rand) in a round led by Clifftop Colony. The financing will support strengthening domestic operations and investing in streaming services. Continue Reading
We covered the early results from Music Biz Consumer Insights and LOOP’s latest study of in-car listening, but the final report offers some more detail into the breakdown of technology choices and listener ages. For in-car listening, 75% of respondents said they listen to AM/FM radio. CD listening came in a distant second with 38%, while digital music files had 18% and streaming Internet radio had 15%. Podcasts secured just 6%. Continue Reading