Team Whistle is a content creator and distributor — mainly video, where the company serves 4.2-billion monthly videos globally. The company has formed a podcast network meant to attract advertisers targeting Gen Z and Millennial listeners. In support of this initiative, Team Whistle conducted a research survey focused on what young listeners want in a podcast. Continue Reading
Rhapsody International, the parent brand of the Napster music streaming service (originally called Rhapsody) and Rhapsody’s B2B white-label streaming provision service, announced that it is now powering Sonos Radio HD. In this cluster of brands there is one more: “Powered by Napster” which is the platform service brought to bear for Sonos. Continue Reading
by Dan Misener
“Leave us a five-star review!” — the plea of podcasters everywhere. How well does that work? Pacific Content’s head of audience development offers another fascinating research project in which he dives deep into star ratings, breaking out where they are concentrated. You’ll be surprised. Click through. Continue Reading
Podcast cntent and advertising company Stitcher partnered with signal Hill Insights to study podcast ads. the study premise was to examine how “brand lift” is best accomplished in podcast advertising — via host-read performances or announcer reads that can be distributed across shows. Continue Reading
In a new demonstration of ART19’s history of using Stitcher as a fertile executive hunting ground, the podcasting technology and monetization company has hired David Murray as its new CFO. (Click through for a timeline of acquisitions and executives at Stitcher, Midroll, Scripps, ART19, and SiriusXM). Murray will help lead ART19’s expansion from pure SaaS business into a full-fledged media company. Continue Reading
Due partly to momentum stretching back years, and partly due to changed listening routines during the 2020 pandedmic, YouTube now serves 2-billion music users. This according to Mark Mulligan, head of MIDiA Research in the UK. Click through for metrics, a graph, and links. Continue Reading
U.S. stream listening in September was steady as a month-over-month metric following August, according to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. While group leader Pandora dipped by about one percent, gains for iHeartRadio, RADIO.COM, and ESPN helped keep the overall ship on an even keel. Click through for RAIN’s long-term trend chart from 2009 to present. Continue Reading
Veritone, the artificial intelligence enabler and digital content licensing firm, has started a new monetization and licensing service for audio publishers and audio advertisers. The audio and video content is mainly news and sports, and is available for audio-only programs. Continue Reading
When is an impression an accountable impression? The answer isn’t as simple as you might think, especially for audio ads which play out with duration. Pandora is stepping into potential standardization with an “Audibility initiative,” which it plans to launch in collaboration with Moat, a division of Oracle Data Cloud which measures consumer attention across media channels. Continue Reading
UK-centered media company Global has struck a partnership with The Story Lab, an offshoot of dentsu international. The arrangement is focused on podcasts, with the two entities co-commissioning a slate of six new shows over the next 12 months. The launch show is set — it is Hunting Ghislaine, investigating the elusive and controversial life of Ghislaine Maxwell. Other original productions could be in True Crime, Comedy, Entertainment, and Sports. Continue Reading
by Jeff Umbro
In this week’s column, Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro covers key podcast news items from the past week. Megafy? That’s mega-Spotify. Also, a review of three radio quarterly earnings reports. Continue Reading
Yesterday’s virtual event, RAIN Digital Australasia, brought together 25 audio professionals from Australia, Malaysia, India, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Indonesia, Canada, the UK, and the U.S. in a four-hour sequence of discussions about the state and future of the digital audio business. Click through for highlight quotes. Continue Reading