RAIN Notes: Tuesday, September 28
Jottings of Note
— Oops (RAIN)
— Take Two (Ximalaya)
— Doing Good for Bad (Ashley Flowers)
Cumulus announces Audio Active Group; renames Westwood One blog
Cumulus Media has announced the creation of the Audio Active Group. In the company’s words, it is a “full-service advisory to offer comprehensive insights, media planning, creative, and measurement services for audio advertisers.” The well-known Westwood One blog, edited by Pierre Bouvard, has been renamed. Click for details. Continue Reading
musicFIRST promotes new survey results, seeking to end AM/FM music royalty exemption
A newly released national poll commissioned by artist advocacy group musicFIRST intends to paint a picture of an American public that wants AM/FM terrestrial radio broadcasting to pay artist royalties for recordings played on-air. We cover the survey results and both sides of an ongoing lobby battle. Continue Reading
Audio advertising +29%; streaming/podcasting +51% (Magna Global)
Media intelligence company Magna Global has released the latest edition of its U.S. Advertising Forecast report, measuring ad spend in the first half of 2021, compared to H1 2020. This upward-pointing research shows gains all over the place, including audio. Magna breaks out pureplay digital audio, which shows much higher gains than all audio combined. Continue Reading
Spotify changes name of ad division; launches brand campaign to advertisers [video]
Spotify is best known as a subscription service, but the platform serves more non-paying users to its ad-supported service. That part of the business contributes the smaller portion of revenue, but has always been meaningful to company growth and executive… Continue Reading
Podcasting reach grows across age groups in 2021 (Nielsen)
Looking at four podcast listener age groups, Nielsen has determined that each group has grown in size from 2020 to 2021. There are other metrics within that phenomenon. The pandemic flattened listener growth temporarily, and created more at-home listening. Click through for details and more metrics. Continue Reading
International Podcast Day (Sep. 30) steps away from live stream celebration
The annual International Podcast Day is Thursday of this week (September 28), and is also an organization which started it in 2014. That year, and each year since, the leaders have created extensive programs of live-streamed podcasts. Things are changing this year. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Friday, September 24
Jottings of Note
— 51st State? (Audacy)
— Music data (DDEX)
— Bond … Pod Bond. (Podcast Radio)
Tech and Kids/Family podcasts bookend men/women gender listening divide
In the recently released Podcasting Today 2021 report from Nielsen, we see an interesting gender breakdown of podcast listening — no doubt useful for podcast advertisers to be aware of. We also look at income and age breakdowns. Click through for details and visuals. Continue Reading
Buyer outlook: 38% plan to increase podcast spend, but a third don’t buy it at all
In a buy-side survey of marketers by WARC and iHeartMedia, an interesting chart catches our eye. It is a budget outlook for 2021, indicating which media categories will be increased, and which are not used, by percentage of responses. Click for details and graphics. Continue Reading
Steve Goldstein: How local radio can (finally) unlock its digital future
by Steve Goldstein Radio ownership is down. Digital listening to broadcast radio is only 12% in the U.S. There is no single reason radio’s digital conversion is slow, Steve Goldstein says in this guest column, while noting that “history has been unkind to repurposed content on new platforms.” He offers better examples from other industries and provides a suggestion for radio.
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RAIN Notes: Wednesday, September 22
Jottings of Note
— New Phase (Korri Kolesa)
— Marvelous (SiriusXM)
— What’s it Worth? (Podcast Editor Academy)