by Matt Deegan
Guest columnist Matt Deegan (Folder Media) reports on radio and podcast acquisition activity. In this edition, Matt muses on iHeartRadio’s tie-up with TuneIn, which put iHeart’s radio station streams in TuneIn’s streaming audio app. He notes that BBC pulled its streams out of TuneIn, and speculates on how Global fits into iHeart’s larger picture … or vice versa. Continue Reading
BBC Sounds, the digital player app produced by and representing the BBC, released a brief Q2 metrics report. The deck is free. Click through for some details and the download link. Continue Reading
Featuring listener voices in a podcast adds personality and engagement, but isn’t very common. That might be because setting up a phone number, harvesting messages, recording them, and placing them in a show is an awkward and difficult production task. The problem seems to be entering a solution phase as at least two companies are launching products this week to simplify and digitize the interactivity. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released its consolidated Streaming Rankers for June, covering the U.S., LATAM (Latin America), EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), and the Global report. Click for details and the download link. Continue Reading
VURBL, a free streaming audio platform for all audio types, has struck an agreement with DAX for U.S. ad reselling. It is an exclusive deal for DAX. Continue Reading
James Cridland returns with a richly informative newsletter about radio around the world. In this edition: As one European country readies its abandonment of FM radio, a campaign to rescue it begins. BBC Sounds releases Q2 stats. And much more. Continue Reading
The Australian Radio Network is frequently known as “ARN,” and today begins a new era in which the company formally adopts that acronym as the enterprise brand. The rebrand signals a recognition of, and commitment to, the broader defining concept of audio. Click for details and a clarifying graphic. Continue Reading
In its quarterly report of smart speaker shipments, London-based research company Omdia reports that Google took the top spot from Amazon in the U.S. And interestingly, Apple’s HomePod increased its shipments from a year ago at a surprising rate. Click through for the chart. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Charting a Career Move (Karo Chakhlasyan)
— More Than Opinionated (NY Times)
— Not Called Artists for Nothing (TuneCore)
Yesterday we covered the financials of Spotify’s Q2 earnings report. The broad strokes in the financials are: positive numbers, slightly missed expectations, and a stock drubbing. (SPOT stock has recovered about half of yesterday’s loss as of this post.) Today we look at podcast news. Huge year-over-year revenue jump. Continue Reading
Acast Creative, a unit of the global podcast company which produces podcast content (shows and/or episodes) for brands, is expanding with a U.S. launch this week. Acast has tapped Shantae Howell as Creative Director of the Americas to lead the team and expand the success of Acast Creative in the U.S. market. Continue Reading
In a hefty, wide-ranging partnership, iHeartMedia and its Triton Digital subsidiary are going into business with TuneIn. In the agreement iHM’s 850 radio stations will be piled into TuneIn. iHeart will also become TuneIn’s premier local ad sales representation partner. Further, Triton will monetize TuneIn’s local inventory, which promises to help advertisers reach new audiences at scale, according to the press notice.
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