James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Several updates centered on the BBC. The Economist on the (distant) driverless car future. Much more. Continue Reading
The Wondery podcast network continues its multi-region expansion, most recently in a new partnership with Ranieri and Co, which will represent Wondery podcasts to the Australian and New Zealand buying markets. Ranieri was founded by Rob Ranieri and Nick Randall. the company produces shows in addition to representing podcasts. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia is deepening its relationship with Hollywood/podcast star Will Ferrell, joining to launch Big Money Players Network, a nascent podcast network for comedy shows. The new enterprise plans to release 10 new shows in the next two years, and follows the success of “The Ron Burgundy Podcast,” an iHeartRadio original production. Continue Reading
In an interesting deal announced today, podcast tech/advertising company Voxnest is partnering with book distribution company StreetLib, to facilitate podcasters as book authors, and authors as podcasters. Your first question might be “How?” as was ours, and details are not… Continue Reading
Stream listening slipped about 4% month-over-month in June, according to the Triton Digital Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. Pandora, leader of the pack, dropped three percent from March, at just over 2-million average active sessions. Continue Reading
Findings from The Canadian Podcast Listener 2019 show that podcasts can help advertisers unlock this attractive audience. On-demand consumers have a marked affinity with podcasts, with weekly users of digital on-demand media indexing well above traditional media for being monthly podcast listeners. Continue Reading
Amazon has been bringing its Alexa voice assistant to a global audience, and now it is launching an option to better serve the diverse U.S. audience. Starting today, Alexa can speak Spanish in the U.S. Continue Reading
Two independent music distributors have entered a partnership with China’s Tencent Music Entertainment. The deal means that TuneCore and CD Baby can bring their clients’ work to audiences the huge Chinese audience. Continue Reading
Apple is now hosting some musical rivals on its set-top box. This week, the Apple TV received apps for both Spotify and Amazon Music. Continue Reading
Nielsen released a report examining audio trends among black and Latinx consumers. These combined groups represent about a third of the U.S. radio audience ages 12 and up in 2019, with weekly radio reach hitting 32.7 million black Americans and 43.2 million Latinx this year. Continue Reading
DAX U.S., a branch of UK media and tech company Global, announced a new partnership with Frequency, which self-describes as the first “creative management company.” The deal will offer data-driven dynamic audio advertising for DAX clients, providing them with personalized ad creative based on real-time data and an individual’s listening history. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia has entered a partnership aimed at producing fictional podcasts to potentially become film and television projects. The deal is with Blumhouse Productions, a company best known for its horror titles such as Glass and The Purge. Continue Reading