Apple has hired Jeff Bronikowski as its new global head of strategic music intiatives. He joins from Warner Music Group, where he was SVP of global business development and head of new technology and innovation. Continue Reading
Spotify has leveraged acquisitions to build up its podcasting empire over the past several months. Some additional details have emerged about the company’s big deal from last week, its purchase of sports-centric media operation The Ringer. Continue Reading
Spotify is giving a bigger global rollout to its standalone Kids app. The software is rolling out today as a beta for anyone with a Spotify Premium Family subscription in the UK and Australia. Continue Reading
MusicWatch reported that 10.7 million people in the U.S. accessed a major streaming service through illicit account sharing. Those people represent a potential $995 million in unpaid access. Continue Reading
eMarketer’s latest report offers a snapshot of the U.S. smart speaker market, and the outlook is still rosy for Amazon. The company’s Echo line is projected to be used by 69.7% of U.S. smart speaker users in 2020 and by 68.2% in 2021. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has made a $75 million investment into SoundCloud. According to the press release, SoundCloud will put the money toward product development, as well as enhancing services for creators and listeners. Continue Reading
European trade organization EGTA, which serves radio/TV advertisers, is promoting World Radio Day (February 13) with materials that advocate for sonic branding. As part of this, the organization has declared 2020 as “The Year of Sonic” and has marshaled some interesting statistics and audio samples. Continue Reading
Megaphone is expanding into Europe. The U.S.-based company announced that its launch across the Atlantic begins today, with a new office opening in Germany. Continue Reading
Last week we poked around a public Westwood One podcast survey, and reported our impressions. Today, Westwood One releases the results, in both an executive summary format, and a detailed Powerpoint PDF. One of the most interesting aspects of the PDF is that it relates dozens of verbatim predictions about podcasting revenue growth. Continue Reading
SoundExchange has made a move to increase the rates paid to American music creators for international uses of their work. The rights management agency for performance royalties claims that U.S. music creators could be losing out on $170 million annually from this use case. Continue Reading
Andy Bowers, co-founder of Megaphone, has departed the company. The business was initially spun out from Slate’s Panoply division in January 2016 as a podcasting content management system with services in monetization and distribution. Continue Reading
A weekly column from the preeminent Radio Futurologist. THIS WEEK: Sometimes, your gut instinct knows what the data doesn’t. Also a look at the latest RAJAR results in the UK, and is the BBC boring? Continue Reading