Google is testing out a new effort to bring its voice assistant to cellphones without internet access. The India pilot program offers a 24/7 phone number that people can call to pose their questions to Google Assistant. Continue Reading
The New York Times issued a milestone brag today: Its flagship podcast, The Daily, has surpassed one-billion total downloads. “That’s billion with a b,” the company clarifies. In an exercise of imagination, arithmetic, and fudging the unknowns, we are led to imagine what “The Daily” is worth to the Times. Continue Reading
Jay Soderberg has joined Locked On Podcast Network, assuming the post as the group’s first executive producer. Soderberg’s extensive experience in podcasting and audio includes 16 years with ESPN and most recently head of content for BlogTalkRadio and Voxnest. Continue Reading
Stream listening slipped about 2% month-over-month in May, according to the Triton Digital Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. Pandora, leader of the pack, dropped one percent from March, and stayed above 2-million average active sessions. Continue Reading
Pocket Casts, a popular podcast app, announced that it is adopting a new freemium subscription business model. The app will now be a free download, with all of its existing features available for no charge. Listeners who want additional customizations will have the option of the Pocket Casts Plus subscription. Continue Reading
The RIAA has released its mid-year report on the Latin music market in the U.S., and the genre is on track for continued growth through 2019. In the first six months of the year, the sector generated retail revenue of $232 million. Continue Reading
Instreamatic and AirKast have entered a new partnership centered on bringing more voice capabilities to mobile. Under this deal, Instreamatic’s voice dialogue marketing platform will be integrated into the AirBridge platform for enterprise mobile app development from AirKast. Continue Reading
Today Edison Research globally introduced The Infinite Dial South Africa in an 8:00am ET webinar. The results show a digital listening market that is less developed than the USA and Australia in some ways, including podcasting. Continue Reading
Acast and Wisebuddah have announced the winner of their LaunchPod contest, an effort to find new UK podcast talent. On Things We Left Behind, hosted by Surer and Saredo Mohamed, has been selected as the winner. Continue Reading
Pandora announced that a new integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice platform. The latest feature is called Alexa Linking, which will make it easier for listeners to activate Pandora on the Echo collection of smart devices. Continue Reading
Progress continues with the Mechanical Licensing Collective, the organization formed by the Music Modernization Act to administer the new blanket licenses. The MLC has said it will need $37.25 million to build the structure and set its first-year operating budget at $29 million. Continue Reading
Amazon announced that it is introducing a high-definition streaming music option. More than 50 million songs will be available in high-definition, with lossless, CD-quality audio. The service will also offer millions of tracks in Ultra HD, which is even better quality than CD audio. Continue Reading