eMarketer found that the audience for voice assistants in the United States is reaching a critical mass. The company projected that 111.8 million people in the country would use a voice assistant at least monthly in 2019, representing 33.8% of the population. Continue Reading
Spotify has announced some feature updates for its family plan. The biggest new introduction is that parents can set the explicit content filter on all of the connected accounts. Continue Reading
Bloomberg reported that Spotify is planning to test increasing the price of its family plan by 13% in Scandinavia. The company has declined to comment on the leak. Continue Reading
Marvel is launching another fictional podcast show in partnership with Stitcher. The new project is titled Marvels and is due to debut this fall on Stitcher Premium. Continue Reading
YouTube is making a change to its Content ID system that may lead to a spike in the number of blocked videos. In a blog post, the video platform announced that it would no longer let rightsholders use its manual claiming tool for monetizing “creator videos with very short or unintentional uses of music.” Continue Reading
Wondery secured a strong fanbase for its Dr. Death true crime show, and the audience is only going to get bigger. The company announced that it is releasing translations of the program to reach international listeners. The first two translated episodes were released yesterday, and the rest of the season will be published weekly. Continue Reading
Swarms of podcasters populated the Rosen Shingle Creek resort hotel in Orlando, FL this week for two full days of learnings, plus some spillover before and after. As RAIN has attended year after year, we observe the mood becoming more serious and determined as the podcast industry’s challenges become as widely apparent as its opportunities. Continue Reading
Smart speaker sales continue to soar around the globe. Strategy Analytics found that unit sales nearly doubled from the second quarter of 2018 to reach 30.3 million in the second quarter of 2019. Continue Reading
Qobuz made its long-awaited launch in the United States in February, and the high-resolution streaming platform has now shared some insights about the first six months of the rollout. Continue Reading
The CBC, a national public media operation in Canada, has revealed its first ever slate of podcasts that will be adapted for television. During Podcast Movement, the CBC announced that five of its original podcasts will be translated into TV series. Continue Reading
Liberated Syndication, often known as Libsyn, has filed its financial reports for the quarter ending June 30. The podcast company posted revenue of $5.7 million, up from $5.3 million in the year-ago period. Podcast hosting generated the bulk of Libsyn’s revenue. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia announced its second-quarter financial results, its first since ending a period of bankruptcy and restructuring. The company posted $913.3 million in revenue, an increase of 2.4% from the year-ago period. Continue Reading