The RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit, RAIN’s first virtual installation of its 20-year, highly regarded Summit series of business conferences, was a resounding success as two-dozen speakers from both hemispheres across 17 time zones delivered thought leadership to over 600 registered attendees. Continue Reading
We learned from Engadget that Mark and Jay Duplass have signed with Spotify to create Spotify-exclusive podcasts. This is not presented as an acquisition of the Duplass Brothers Productions firm, but that detail is unclear. What does seem clear is that the two men will jointly create new shows for Spotify, exclusively for Spotify distribution. Continue Reading
Podcast tech and attribution company Chartable has launched a feature called SmartPromos, which traces listener action from hearing an ad for a podcast, to downloading that advertised podcast.The intelligence behind this technology can be helpful to advertisers as well. Continue Reading
American Public media (APM) has sent PR descriptions of two new podcasts, and one returning show. The return is season two of Spectacular Failures, which is described as “ridiculous stories of business disasters. The new season drops on August 3. No trailer yet. One new show features comedian Tig Nagaro. The other comes from Marketplace and is a children’s show. Continue Reading
A weekly column from the preeminent Radio Futurologist. THIS WEEK: Lots of change in the UK! Bauer has enacted many of its strastegic plans. James invoked his positivity mode. Continue Reading
Impact, which is a content accelerator and online marketplace co-founded by Imagine Entertainment’s partners Brian Grazer & Ron Howard, has selected leading audio platform ART19 to host and distribute IMPACT: The Podcast. The show is described this way: “Impact’s new podcast brings together storytellers and entertainment industry leaders to explore the process of content creation and the way art shapes the world around us.” Tons of celebrity guests. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released its U.S. Podcast Report, an every-four-week rolling weekly average of downloads and listeners. This report covers the June 8 through July 5 period. Things look pretty much the same as the previous report, for the top 15 podcast networks. NPR is on top for average weekly downloads and listeners. Stitcher remains #2 for downloads, and moves up to #2 (displacing Entercom/Cadence13/Pineapple Street Studios to #3 — but we think Entercom/Cadence13/Pineapple Street Studios should win a special prize for longest network name). Click through to see the Top 15 Networks. Continue Reading
“Voice-activated tech is proliferating,” says Pandora, and the company has extended that aspect of digital lifestyle into responses to streaming audio ads. This week, Pandora is launching interactive Voice Ads to beta, following an alpha launch in December. The company asserts this as a first-to-market ad format in streaming audio, and the plan is to scale voice features to both listeners and select advertisers. Continue Reading
Comedian and media producer Will Ferrell is partnering with iHeartRadio to make a new podcast network with an opening slate of six shows. “The iHeartPodcast Network really knows how to make a podcast.” said Ferrell. The new group is called Big Money Players Network. Click through for show notes. Continue Reading
by Jeff Umbro
In this week’s column, Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro dives deep into the audiobook industry — related to podcasting as another on-demand spoken-word audio category, and quite different at the same time. Featuring an interview with Molly Barton, Founder and CEO of Serial Box. Continue Reading
Pandora is announcing its new live series of concerts, COVID-era style as virtual events. A sign-up process has started, for the first live-virtual event — Kane Brown on July 28. parent company SiriusXM will rebroadcast selected concerts. Sponsors are getting creative to foster fan engagement with their products. Click through for the RSVP link and more details. Continue Reading
The New York Times has acquired Serial Productions, home to legendary podcast Serial. Both organizations have attained critical, audience, and monetary success with sparse portfolios. the Times promises to grow the Serial Productions catalog, which currently contains two active podcasts according to Podtrac. Click through for more analysis and acquisition details. Continue Reading