News 93 - RAIN News

Apple Music launches “Spatial Audio” (Dolby Atmos) — like Amazon, no extra charge

Posted on June 8, 2021 by Brad Hill

Starting today, Apple Music is streaming what it calls Spatial Audio, which is the Dolby Atmos format often called immersive audio. Dolby Atmos is not new, but its implementation by Apple is, announced yesterday at the company’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). The launch in Apple Music matches Amazon Music’s similar dive into the specialty high resolution music format. Both companies are refuting the once-standard model of charging more for HiRez listening. Continue Reading →

Les Hollander takes broad CEO role as DAX reorganizes

Posted on June 7, 2021 by Brad Hill

Les Hollander has been named CEO, North America at DAX, the digital audio ad exchange, according to a release from parent company Global. That announcement is wrapped in a company realignment which sees DAX US and DAX Canada brought together into a single operation. Continue Reading →

RAIN Notes: Thursday, June 3

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Brad Hill

Jottings of Note

— The How (The Drum)

— Good Ones (Welp Magazine)

— It’s Not the Size that Counts (AdWeek)

Continue Reading →

Spotify’s new mid-year blast of subscriber self-awareness: Only You

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Brad Hill

Spotify has long encouraged musical self-reflection in its subscribers with an end-of-year feature called Spotify Wrapped. Now comes Only You, a similar round-up of individual preferences and new playlists based on those preferences. It will be a continuing new product bundled into the Home panel. Continue Reading →

Magnificent Noise launches first self-distro’d podcast, “Bubble Trouble” with Will Page

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Brad Hill

Bubble Trouble is a new podcast hosted by former Spotify Chief Economist Will Page and Arete Research founder Richard Kramer, which promises to describe inconvenient truths about financial markets. The show is a sort of coming-out for Magnificent Noise, a network helmoed by ex-SVP of Audible Eric Nuzum. Continue Reading →

RAIN Notes: Wednesday, June 2

Posted on June 2, 2021 by Brad Hill

Jottings of Note

— Nominated (British Podcast Awards)

— Closing a Gap (Ossa)

— Podcast Marketing, Mais Oui! (Ausha)

Continue Reading →

YouTube paid $4B to music industry in the last 12 months

Posted on June 2, 2021 by Brad Hill

In what appears to be a report timed to the end of Q1, YouTube paid $4-billion in music royalties in 12 months. More than 30% of that payout to the music industry came from monetization of user-uploaded music. Continue Reading →

SiriusXM, Pandora, Stitcher launch new channels, podcasts, and events for Black Music Month

Posted on June 2, 2021 by Brad Hill

June is Black History Month, siriusXM is marshalling its sprawling inventory of audio platforms in a combined celebration and promotion. The company, along with its Pandora and Stitcher subsidiaries, announced the launch of three exclusive limited-engagement channels, a groundbreaking original podcast, and specialty music programming. Continue Reading →

Apple fails to launch podcast subscriptions in May as promised; postpones to June

Posted on June 1, 2021 by Brad Hill

Publicly heralded, quietly postponed. Promised for May, now it’s June in an email to participants. Apple acknowledges problems and notes that thousands of creators and networks around the world submitted their plans for subscriptions and channels. Those business plans disrupted. Continue Reading →

SiriusXM CEO: “We’ll continue to be opportunistic,” and predicts double-digit growth “for years to come”

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Brad Hill

In an interview at this week’s J.P. Morgan Technology, Media & Communications Conference, CEO Jennifer Witz held forth about SiriusXM’s business strategies and accomplishments. She predicted revenue growth, noted that podcasting is still small, and promised an opportunistic approach to acquisitions. Continue Reading →

iHeartRadio unleashes metrics: Users, downloads, social

Posted on May 25, 2021 by Brad Hill

iHeartRadio sent out an email blast headlining 150-million registered users of the audio app, and 3-billion app downloads. The company historically does not disclose monthly average users. Continue Reading →

Apple and Amazon Music crush the Hi-Res added-value model, adding HD audio to regular subscriptions

Posted on May 24, 2021 by Brad Hill

Hi-Res audio (also called Hi-Def, HD, HiFi, and other nicknames) has been an added value feature in music streaming apps since Tidal charted that course with its 2x pricing model. Now that business model is at risk of being debunked. We test Amazon’s ULTRA HD. Continue Reading →