Voice-activated home speakers, commonly called “smart speakers,” arguably represent the most important new audio distribution platform since the smartphone.
Samsung is planning to phase out its voice assistant called S Voice. The service will reportedly be discontinued on June 1, 2020. This platform pre-dates the tech company’s Bixby voice assistant, which will remain in use. Continue Reading
As Australians worked from home during much of march, radio group Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) worked up some streaming metrics for the month. This report covers live radio streaming, smart speaker listening, and podcast plays. All streaming metrics in this report are up in double digit percentages. Continue Reading
Canalys has published its 2020 outlook for the Internet-of-things industry. It projected that smart speakers, smart personal audio devices, and wearable bands would see a 9.8% increase in shipments for a total of 718 million units during the year. Smart speakers are forecast to see just 1.5% year-on-year growth. Continue Reading
Google is launching a livestreamed video series to inform users about the capabilities of voice technology. The monthly series, VOICE Talks Presented by Google Assistant, will be created by a partnership between Google and digital content experts Modev Productions. Continue Reading
Jacobs Media has released the results for its annual survey into radio and media. The 2020 Techsurvey had 504 commercial radio stations in the U.S. and Canada participating. The slides show insights about radio, podcasts, streaming audio, and smart speakers for a divided digital audience. Continue Reading
Speech recognition tools are known to be flawed systems that make occasional errors in comprehension. However, a new study revealed that those errors aren’t so occasional for black users. The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Continue Reading
The Infinite Dial 2020 broke out trends in hardware ownership. Many types of audio are closely tied to particular devices, so understanding how and where people are listening helps create a clearer picture of the current market. An estimated 76 million people in the U.S. own a smart speaker. That 27% share is up from 23% in 2019 and 18% in 2018. Continue Reading
Sonos is planning to roll out new software infrastructure for its audio devices in June. The company said that it expects to roll out a new operating system and app for controlling its hardware. For now, the update is being called Sonos S2. Continue Reading
Amazon Alexa is getting some more updates for users to better control their music playback. Listeners can now request particular versions of a song when using an Amazon Music account. Continue Reading
Voice assistants have been a growing topic of interest for the audio industry, and businesses are still finding ways to further develop the technology. Last month, Spotify received a patent on a new way to make a voice assistant that can be responsive to human emotions. Continue Reading
Westwood One released its 2020 Audioscape, a roundup of listening and device-use trends from Q3 of Share of Ear — an ongoing subscription research project produced by Edison Research. Continue Reading
The major tech companies making voice assistants all faced consumer backlash in the past several months over privacy issues. While many took steps to give users more control over participating in human review programs, the exposés also revealed that many smart speakers record their users at times when the individual hadn’t uttered a wake word. New research from a group of universities explored the extent to which popular TV shows can accidentally turn on a smart speaker’s microphone. Continue Reading