Technology, hardware, and gadgets. WiFi speakers, digital dashboards, and more.
Sonos, the wireless speaker company, is setting its sights on an initial public offering of $105 million. The company filed paperwork this spring in order to pursue an IPO, although no date has been set at this time. When the offering happens, though, Sonos will make 5.55 million shares available at a price range between $17 and $19 per share. Continue Reading
The Spring 2018 edition of The Smart Audio Report, produced by NPR and Edison Research, will be released tomorrow (Wednesday July 18) in a 1pm webinar. It is a key research report about the adoption and use of smart speakers, arguably the most important new distribution platform since smartphones. In a teaser release, NPR and Edison have revealed a few key findings. Continue Reading
Canalys, a British research firm, has released its latest projections for smart speakers. The company anticipates that the smart speaker installed base will reach 100 million by the end of 2018. By 2020, it estimates the installed base will reach 225 million units. Continue Reading
The Audio Council of the Australian Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB Australia) today released an update to its podcast audience measurement guidelines. The released document is mainly influenced by the guidelines issued by the U.S. IAB Podcast Technical Working Group. There are three main points. Continue Reading
With the nettlesome lack of native audio in major social platforms (looking at you, Facebook and Twitter), socializing audio-first content can be a heavy lift. The Headliner app from Sparemin grabs the problem by the throat and presents a solution for posting audio content quickly in an attractive video package. Townsquare Media has bought in — for its entire radio network. Continue Reading
As podcast publishers, hosting companies, and advertising sellers circle around audience measurement standards, the IAB 2.0 Podcast Measurement Technical Guidelines represents a hot topic. some podcast entities comply now with those guidelines, others have a compliance schedule. Podtrac, which offers… Continue Reading
Sonos has filed an IPO. According to the paperwork, the wireless speaker company is looking to raise up to $100 million with the public offering. It said that as of March 31, it has sold 19 million products to 6.9 million households. Continue Reading
UK media company Global and its programmatic advertising platform DAX received two certifications from UK-based JICWEBS, an oversight organization focused on developing standards for digital advertising. The specific Global and DAX certifications are for Brand Safety, and absence of Ad Fraud. Continue Reading
Popular finance and economics radio show and podcast Marketplace has launched an Alexa experience which might represent an early foray into original smart-speaker audio content. Called Make Me Smart from MarketPlace, it contains wholly original information pieces that extend the Marketplace brand and voice into the leading smart speaker platform. Executive comment from Sitara Nieves. Continue Reading
Guest columnist Steve Pratt is co-owner and Partner of Pacific Content. In this piece, he compares smart speakers in 2018 to the iPod in 2004. In 2004, the new iPod was “waiting for the podcast to be invented.” If smart speakers are poised in a similar moment, what sort of content might be in the future? Continue Reading
So far, voice assistants are commonly used to access audio entertainment, but as the technology advances, the next step could involve commerce and shopping. Voicebot and Voysis have collaborated on a report pointing to the future of voice shopping. The analysis predicts that, due to the high rates of ownership (79.8%), many people will first be introduced to voice assistant shopping on smartphones. Continue Reading
London-based creative and ad-tech company A Million Ads has announced the completion of a venture capital funding round of 2.3-million GBP, targeted to product development and a U.S. expansion. The company creates “context-aware” audio ads Continue Reading