Instreamatic enhances its Contextual Audio Ads product with celebrity voices

Calling it “groundbreaking technology,” AI audio advertising platform Instreamatic is promoting its Contextual Audio Ads product. Today’s PR promotes two key features. Using AI, a near-infinite number of customization can be made for accurate targeting. Also, AI-cloned celebrity voices are available. Click for details and Instreamatic’s video demonstration. Continue Reading

“Synthetic Stories” — an AI-generated podcast launches and makes us think of AI audiobooks.

Synthetic Stories is a new podcast, and the first podcast (as far as we know) produced entirely by Artificial Intelligence (AI). That includes the script, the sound design, the music composition, the artwork, the voice performance, and the promotional materials accompanying the release. The presentation reminds us of synthetically produced audiobooks; we check on Apple’s progress with that. All these example are persuasive … a threat to performers, and a potential cost-cutting option to producers. Continue Reading

Spotify adds AI-powered DJ to music listening

If broadcast radio felt disgruntled by on-demand listening apps before, now there is a new offense: Spotify has introduced a DJ feature which uses a synthetic voice to create a radio-like presentation of the user’s saved music. It is called AI DJ, and the tool uses generative artificial intelligence to intro and extro a mix of tracks from the user’s library. Click for a launch video. Continue Reading

Buzzsprout starts podcaster advertising program at $20 CPM; 70/30 revenue split

Buzzsprout is creating buzz (sorry) for its new podcaster advertising program, Buzzsprout Ads, which allows podcasters to purchase midroll spots in Buzzsprout-hosted podcasts. The promotion is absent of details pertinent to Buzzsprout shows which will receive the ads. But by digging into the Buzzsprout Facebook community we were able to piece together the entire picture. Continue Reading

Apple’s new Delegated Delivery creates single publishing process for free and subscription podcasts

Apple announced a new feature for podcast publishers called Apple Podcasts Delegated Delivery. It enables podcast owners to place free and/or subscription podcasts onto the platform in an operation which significantly streamlines the current process. Delegated Delivery (which sounds to us like some kind of diplomatic envoy) will be launched in the fall. Click for details and Apple’s comments to RAIN. Continue Reading

“Demos Plus,” a new kind of podcast measurement with Daryl Battaglia (TRANSCRIPT)

Daryl Battaglia is SVP, Market Development & Strategy, at Triton Digital. This lunch conversation is all about podcast measurement, arguably the most important topic on the business side of podcasting. Daryl discusses current trends and a new audience measurement product soon to be released by Triton. Continue Reading

Veritonic announces Attribution, to measure audio ad performance

Veritonic is announcing today the launch of its audio Attribution solution, helping brands track and measure audio ad performance across any app, hosting platform or listening device. It is presented as a key component of Veritonic’s audio research and analytics platform, and the intent is to help advertisers better understand the impact of their audio creative, gain actionable insights, and improve ROI. Continue Reading

Media Creek becomes SoundStack in reorg-rebrand; launches SoundStack Engine; Live365 unchanged

Media Creek, an audio-tech holding company launched in February 2018, announces today a rebranding as SoundStack. In what a company representative calls “a unification/rebranding of all of the collective Media Creek brands,” SoundStack encompasses existing services Live365 and Empire Streaming. Also announced today: A newer service called SoundStack Engine, a platform for both live streaming and podcast distribution. Continue Reading