RAIN Notes: Wednesday, February 22
Jottings of Note
— Sonic Adventuring (Studio Resonate)
— New Native (True Native Media)
— Automated Efficiency (Frequency / Sounds Profitable)
News
“This will be a major loss” — NPR plans 10% workforce reduction in erosion of ad dollars
National Public radio will lay off at least 100 people, about 10% of its workforce. The exact positions and layoff count will be determined by March 20. “We’re not seeing signs of a recovery in the advertising market,” CEO John Lansing said. Click for more. Continue Reading
Actionable audio ads, Zellennials, and the power of testing: More from Veritonic’s Audio Intelligence Summit
More notes from AIS2023, Veritonic’s Audio Intelligence Summit in New York, featuring Charles Cadbury, Scott Marino, Samantha Sweig, James Clarke, Thad Smith, and Danielle Linden. Continue Reading
Parcast founder and Spotify exec Max Cutler stepping down
Max Cutler, founder of the Parcast production and podcast content group, and Spotify VP, is leaving Spotify. Cutler was an influential force in Spotify’s podcast adventures, and this high-profile exit comes a month after Dawn Ostroff exited the company in a sweeping workforce reduction. It appears to be part of what CEO Daniel Ek promised in a recent Q4 earnings call. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Tuesday, February 21
Jottings of Note
— Podcast Programmatic Pickup (The Sonic Truth)
— Bubble Or Blip? (Bubble Trouble)
— From Bitter To Sweet (Sonic Seasoning)
Sirius XM tops Edison ranking of top podcast networks
Edison Research has released its Top Podcast Networks for combined Q3-Q4, 2022. The list ranks podcast networks based on total audience reach from Edison Podcast Metrics, and reflects an expanded sample which now includes weekly podcast listeners age 13-17. Click through for the visual. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Friday, February 17
Jottings of Note
— Pre-Audible … Way Pre (NY Times)
— Taking the Measure (Westwood One)
— End of an Executive Era (YouTube)
Triton Digital January US Podcast Report: NPR retakes top spot; only one debut
Triton Digital released its January Podcast Report, which measures weekly downloads of Triton measurement clients. NPR regains #1, assisted with the highest number of episodes created in the month. Not much switching around within this stable ranking. Continue Reading
From Joe Rogan to Freakonomics: Top 50 podcasts in H2 2022 (Edison Research)
Edison Research has released its measurement of the top 100 podcasts in the U.S. for combined Q3 and Q4. As the company emphasizes, this is the only podcast ranker which doesn’t count downloads, and isn’t restricted to clients. Edison builds this ranking through a survey of 10,597 podcast consumers ages 13 and older in the U.S. Continue Reading
Veritonic Audio Intelligence Summit: Power, Attribution, Myth-busting
On Wednesday Veritonic presented its second annual Audio Intelligence Summit, a half-day series of presentations whose main theme was the primacy of audio. A series of eight onstage discussions explored the power of audio branding, the monetization of podcasts, and much more. Part 1 of our coverage here.
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Acast: Revenue growth and optimistic outlook in Q4 earnings
Global podcast company Acast released its Q4 earnings, in a comprehensive, downloadable, fully designed PDF. Gross profit, net loss, and lots of detail, plus comments from CEO Ross Adams. Continue Reading
MusicWatch creates “Generation Audio” with eight age demos
“Audio is a category ripe for segmentation.” –Russ Crupnick, Managing Partner, MusicWatch MusicWatch has ingeniously (and laboriously) measured listening tendencies and habits across a wide age spectrum, breaking down the results by individual. The result is a more granular… Continue Reading