Vivendi has been looking for a buyer to take over up to 50% of Universal Music Group for several months, and the process has yielded interested parties. Now, the French conglomerate has officially entered talks with China’s Tencent Holdings for a deal around the major label. Continue Reading
The Amplifi Media CEO recaps the highlights and takeaways from the Voice Summit conference. The event covered “the good, the bad, the weird” of this early stage in voice technology. Continue Reading
Pod Drop highlights noteworthy new and upcoming podcasts from across the vast and fast-growing category. iHeartRadio, Thrive Global, Radiotopia, and Podglomerate all announced new titles for the summer. Continue Reading
Both Apple and Google responded to privacy issues surrounding their voice assistants last week. Now Amazon is also heading off potential issues for its Alexa platform. Continue Reading
Spotify has launched a new partnership with AT&T. This deal will make Spotify’s paid service available as one of the options for a free entertainment subscription through the Unlimited &More Premium wireless plan. Continue Reading
Podtrac shared its ranking of the top ten podcast publishers for July 2019. Overall, average U.S. monthly audience remained flat from June and rose 50% from July 2018. Continue Reading
In an interesting piece of consumer research, Coleman Insights has determined that The Joe Rogan Experience enjoys the highest podcast brand recognition — by far. The study was fielded in May, when a thousand 18-64-year-old monthly podcast listeners were asked to name the podcasts with which they were familiar. Continue Reading
RAIN, the leading knowledge and networking organization for online audio and the digital evolution of radio, is pleased to announce that Bill Wilson, CEO of Townsquare Media, will keynote RAIN Summit Dallas on September 24. Bill Wilson has been a digital frontrunner in music, internet media, and radio for over 25 years. Continue Reading
As if often the case, much of the interesting content during Spotify’s Q2 earnings call this week transpired during the investor Q&A. There, CEO Daniel Ek and Head of Investor Relations Paul Vogel spoke of the company’s global ambitions, how podcasting is shaking out for Spotify, and a mention of audiobooks. Click through for quotes. Continue Reading
Apple detailed its plans for revising category options in its podcast app back in June. Today, the new classification system is rolling out. Continue Reading
Human review of voice assistant recordings has been a fiery topic of late, and actions are already being taken to improve privacy for their users. Apple announced that it will globally suspend its grading program, while Google has stopped the practice in Europe. Continue Reading
PodCo Media Networks is being spun off from marketing firm Reed-Edwards Global as a separate podcast content network. Along with launching as a standalone, PMN has also acquired two business podcasts. Continue Reading