In an Instagram video, Joe Rogan — the world’s most successful podcaster, by consensus and most measurement — announced that a member of his production staff has tested positive for Covid. Production of The Joe Rogan Experience is halted indefinitely. Rogan speculates “deep into next week” before the show resumes. Continue Reading
SiriusXM has closed its acquisition of Stitcher, three months after the July announcement that the satellite giant would buy the pioneering podcast company. Stitcher joins Pandora as a wholly-owned Sirius company. SiriusXM also has an exclusive ad sales partnership with Soundcloud. Today’s announcement puts the combined audience at 150-million listeners, and calls that reach “the largest addressable audience in North America across all categories of digital audio – music, sports, talk, and podcasts.” Continue Reading
In what is probably good news for AM/FM radio, listening moved back into the car in Q3, following the Q2 pandemical disruption of commuting. And there’s good news for podcasting too. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein
In this guest column, Steve Goldstein discusses spotify’s new feature which allows music into podcasts, via the Anchor service. He recognizes the important (while noting some clunkiness in the end product), and also notes that broadcast radio has spent years decreasing the role of “the passionate musicologist DJ’s of FM radios early days.” Continue Reading
Magellan AI has released its always interesting Top 15 Advertisers reports. One is “Movers and Shakers” (greatest increase from the previous month), and the other is top advertisers overall by spend. The Joe Biden campaign dipped its toe into the water with $163,000. By contrast, the top overall podcast advertiser in Magellan’s view was Better Help, spending $5.4-million. Therapy is clearly more lucrative than politics. Continue Reading
Curiouscast, the podcast network owned and operated by Canada’s Corus Entertainment, has released its fall schedule of new and returning shows. The lineup features three investigative podcasts including the award-winning Crime Beat (Season 3), and new shows 13 Hours: Inside the Nova Scotia Massacre and Whatever Happened To. Four shows are featured in today’s announcement. Continue Reading
One of Wondery’s best known shows, Business Wars, is preparing a new season that will be distributed exclusively by Wondery Plus, the company’s ad-free subscription service. Some podcasts presented in Wondery Plus also are distributed via RSS normally, with ads in the programs. In this case, the new season of Business Wars is called and “Wondery + Exclusive.” Continue Reading
Media and marketing network Entravision has announced its majority investment in Cisneros Interactive, a digital advertising company and division of Cisneros. Cisneros Interactive is well known to RAIN readers as the parent company of Audio.Ad, a sponsor and presenter at many RAIN Summits. Both companies serve Spanish and Hispanic American markets. Continue Reading
U.S. stream listening slipped about 3% month-over-month in August, according to the Triton Digital Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. The two leaders, Pandora and iHeartRadio, each slipped a bit from the month before. Click through for other details and RAIN’s unique long-term Webcast Metrics tracker. Continue Reading
If you don’t live in northern Colorado you’ve possibly not heard of NoCo FM, a digital media outlet featuring regional musicians. After expansion to include some California voices, the company has rebranded as Loudspeaker. It’s a three-pronged strategy: Podcast network, streaming music/talk platform, and a live event on Halloween. Click through for more info. Continue Reading
“Think of your favorite drive-time radio show,” Spotify says in an announcement. That is the only mention of “radio,” but it is telling. The company has launched a new listening product which jabs an arrow straight into radio’s underbelly, or apparently aspires to. This new product is (oddly) unnamed, but it mixes music and commentary similar to radio and enables users to become public DJs within the Spotify app. Click through for details, commentary, and how to find it. Continue Reading
From the start, the defining event of The Podcast Academy was going to be an awards program. Now, with a membership of over 500 podcast producers and hosts, the Podcast Academy is announcing The Ambies to celebrate excellence in podcasting. It’s next March in LA, and will include 24 categories voted on by Academy membership. Continue Reading