RAIN Notes: Thursday, February 9
Jottings of Note
— Wisdom of a Certain Age (Lemonada Media)
— Infinity Measured (Edison Research)
— ChatGPT In Action (Ron Rivlin)
News
Google reduces podcast involvement in surging AI focus
Google has withdrawn a key podcast listening product, signaling a trim of its podcast initiative. At the same time, Google appears to be rallying a counter initiative to the high-buzz ascendance of AI tool ChatGPT (owned by OpenAi). Recent Backstepping… Continue Reading
American Music Fairness Act reenters Congress, probably bound for stalemate
It has been in circulation since 2021, when the American Music Fairness Act was introduced to Congress.The proposed bill intends to rectify what musicians and their chief lobbying organization, SoundExchange, call a “decades-long injustice.” The argument is over a historical anamoly which has always exempted broadcast radio stations from paying creator royalties — songwriters for the most part. Continue Reading
Spotify earnings message: “Speed plus efficiency”
Spotify was ready for investor questions about the recent reorg. The company’s remarks emphasized a shift from previous spending to future operational efficiency. This core message was connected to every aspect of the product, with some emphasis on podcasting (thanks to relentless investor questioning about the podcast business) and especially the recent departure of Dawn Ostroff, who ran the podcast business. Click for quotes. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Friday, February 3
Jottings of Note
— Boiling Down the Artwork (True Native)
— 185 Nominees (Podcast Academy)
— A Healthy Sign (JAR Audio)
Spotify Q4: 489M users, 205M subs, 100M tracks, 5M podcasts, 300k audiobooks. (Oh, and financials)
“So, by the end of the year, we had more than 100 million tracks on our platform and more than 5 million podcasts and more than 300,000 audio books being enjoyed by almost 0.5 billion listeners.” –Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify… Continue Reading
SoundStack grabs execs from Veritonic, AdsWizz, and Libsyn
SoundStack, the self-defined “audio-as-a-service” podcast tech company, blasted into February by announcing a triple executive raid. Three new executives join SoundStack’s marketing, finance, and product groups. Click for deets and pics. Continue Reading
Libsyn’s links with YouTube to flow data into the AdvertiseCast marketplace
Podcast host Libsyn is announcing a data integration partnership with YouTube. The result is that data about podcast consumption on YouTube will flow into the Libsyn-owned AdvertiseCast advertising marketplace. More announcements to come, Libsyn says. Continue Reading
Marketers bullish on podcast programmatic … but most selected marketers don’t know what programmatic is
In an exceptionally interesting report from global podcast behemoth Acast — “The Rise of Programmatic Podcast Ad Buying” — we learn about a generally bullish attitude among podcast marketers toward podcast programmatic. And there is an interesting detail about how the respondents were screened. Continue Reading
We asked ChatGPT to answer questions about the audio business. It gets an F for programmatic.
The experience of a business meeting with ChatGPT ranges from bland to baffled silence. The headlined AI platform doesn’t seem to recognize programmatic advertising at all, and provided a weirdly uninformative list of popular podcasts. Other queries returned sensible, concise replies. Continue Reading
Podcast veteran Paul Riismandel joins Signal Hill Insights as Chief Insights Officer
As it expands its podcast measurement practice, Toronto-based audio research firm Signal Hill Insights has announced the addition of Paul Riismandel (pictured) in the role of Chief Insights Officer and Partner. Riismandel joins from SXM Media, the ad sales division… Continue Reading
Drive Time Metrics ads sixth patent for measuring in-car media usage
Drive Time Metrics (“DTM”) announced this week the expansion of its patent portfolio with the issuance on November 15th, 2022 of its sixth patent, US Patent Number 11502852 B2: In-vehicle Media Content Monitoring and Report Generation, covering what consumers are listening… Continue Reading