Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Labels eye podcast projects. Podcasting in the Middle East. A podcast addict goes cold turkey. Continue Reading
Adam Parness is departing Spotify. He joined the streaming service in 2017 for a post as global head of publishing, and has played a key role in building up the visibility of songwriters and producers within Spotify’s ecosystem. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced that it has acquired Repost Network, a rights management and distribution company. The deal will allow SoundCloud to fold Repost features into its own offerings. Continue Reading
Samantha Hennig, Editorial Director of Audio at the New York Times, has announced that she is leaving the organization at the end of the month. In her role, Hennig helped create The Daily, a top U.S. podcast. Hennig was a featured speaker at the 2018 RAIN Podcast Business Summit in New York. Continue Reading
Sony Music will roll out two new features for royalty payments on its artist portal this autumn. First is Real-Time Royalties, which will provide immediate updates about a performer’s global earnings and account balances. The second feature is Cash Out. Continue Reading
Deezer has entered a partnership with Future publication Metal Hammer that will see new, exclusive content centered on heavy metal music appearing on the streaming service. Metal Hammer magazine is collaborating with Deezer on a series of interviews with notable names from the music genre. Continue Reading
The capabilities of voice assistants have been expanding at a rapid rate as developers continue to work with new partners and test the limits of what information the AI can provide. The latest news development is beginning at a small scale, but points to a much broader use case in the future. Continue Reading
Spotify released a blog post with some statistics about its redoubled efforts in podcasting. The company said that its monthly audience of podcast listeners grew 175% internationally over the past year. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced another integration for its a2x programmatic audio advertising exchange. The AdPerform DSP from audio CC is the latest ad platform to tap into a2x. Continue Reading
Music startup LÜM announced that it has closed its seed funding round. The business has secured a total investment of $1.2 million in less than a year. LÜM is currently running a beta version of its social media and music streaming service. Continue Reading
Audio brand Bose has adding support for Google Assistant to its smart speakers and voice-controlled soundbars. The integration will begin in the United States with an automatic software update to its full device lineup. Continue Reading
Edison Research has published its Infinite Dial 2019 report for Canada, its second exploration of the audio consumption habits for the market. The results are based on more than 1,000 phone surveys in the country, offered in both English and French, during the first quarter of the year. Continue Reading