Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Today Pandora sent an announcement that observers have been waiting for: The leading internet radio platform has launched a private programmatic marketplace for its digital audio advertising inventory. “It’s clear the future of advertising is digital audio,” evangelizes John Trimble, Pandora’s Chief Revenue Officer. Continue Reading
After a delay, Apple has released its first entry into the smart speaker space. Reviews are now out for the Apple HomePod, and there’s a large amount of consensus about the device’s strengths and weaknesses. Continue Reading
When Pandora announced the Dynamic Audio ad product last February, the idea was to create a targeting technology that could personalize audio marketing to the listener to an unusually individual degree. The launch partner for that development venture was British ad company A Million Ads. Now, the two companies are starting to roll out the result of that work, on a testing basis with two advertisers. Continue Reading
The venerable E.W. Scripps Company, a multimedia national player in newspapers, radio, television, and digital media, has announced a tectonic and identity-changing restructure plan. As with many corporate reinventions, headcount will be reduced over 12-18 months, costs will be lowered, technology will be centralized, resources will be optimized across divisions. And radio will be ditched entirely. Continue Reading
Announced in June, projected to launch in December, launch delayed in November — Apple’s HomePod smart speaker is now on the calendar to hit the market on February 9, with pre-orders starting this Friday. Questions loom. Continue Reading
When Apple announced that it was delaying launch of its HomePod — specced out as a premium smart speaker with superior audio — it seemed like a clear fail to us. But Siri has started playing in the voice-control field, even without a speaker device. Continue Reading
The Media Rating Council (MRC) has published its Final Version 1.0 of its Digital Audio Measurement Standards. The MRC is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to evolve valid and reliable criteria for audience measurement, and its accreditation is a valuable stamp of approval. Continue Reading
Ad-tech company Instreamatic has won a spot in the Accelerator Pitch Event (Entertainment category) at South by Southwest in March. Instreamatic will present its interactive, conversation audio commercials to a live audience and judging panel on March 10-11 in Austin. Continue Reading
Media software company Futuri is announcing today that broadcaster Alpha Media will use Futuri’s suite of audience engagements products. They include POST, TopicPulse, and Alexa Skills. Continue Reading
Diversified Canadian media company Rogers announced its commitment to programmatic audio advertising, and has selected AdsWizz to provide technology for ad insertion, ad serving, and yield optimization. Continue Reading
Google has been using this week’s CES show in Las Vegas to continue making inroads into the voice control space. The company announced the launch of four new smart displays, which are touchscreen devices enabled with Google Assistant. The product segment is currently being positioned for use in the kitchen. Continue Reading
NPR has updated its Smart Audio Report with a post-holiday survey conducted by Edison Research. The headline result is that 16% of American adults (about 39-million people) now own a smart speaker. Smart speaker adoption is growing at the pace of smartphones several years ago. AM/FM radio listening is being replaced at a greater rate than any other activity. Continue Reading