Andrew Kalb is exiting ABC Radio. He has spend 22 years with the broadcaster and was most recently the executive director of programming/news. During his tenure, Kalb was critical in helping to launch the Start Here daily news podcast. Continue Reading
Fifty-three million American adults own smart speakers. Because some people and households own multiple speakers, that adds up to 118.5-million devices — a 78% increase in overall device ownership year-over-year. This, and much other data, come from the NPR/Edison Research Smart Audio Report, released in a webinar today. Continue Reading
People starting a podcast are a dime a dozen. So are people who stop podcasting. Steve Goldstein shares some statistics from Blubrry about the stopping and the starting. Continue Reading
SoundCloud continues to build out its leadership team with the addition of Ian Greaves. He is the audio company’s new director of international major label services, and will oversee SoundCloud’s new and existing relationships. Continue Reading
Spotify’s interactions with publishers and songwriters have gotten even more complicated, with the streaming service claiming that it overpaid on mechanical royalties in 2018. The Copyright Royalty Board issued its mechanical royalty payment rates in December 2018 after the music platform had already paid out almost a full year under a different rate scheme. Continue Reading
Soundcharts released an examination of China’s music industry, highlighting some of the rapid growth happening in this market. Wholesale revenue in China has tripled in three years with a compound annual growth rate of 44.2%. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A few big UK developments, including Heart launching a new breakfast show and ITV partnering with Global. Continue Reading
Zeno Media, which specializes in connecting diaspora communities to their homelands with streaming radio, has announced a new partnership with the Dominican Association of Broadcasters (ADORA) to develop and launch a mobile app for streaming the 165 broadcast members of ADORA. Continue Reading
Sirius XM is rolling out its new Essential subscription package in Canada. A similar package launched in the United States in April and now the satellite radio company’s Canadian branch is also adding access to this option. Continue Reading
Audioboom has received a cash injection for the development of original podcast deals, totaling $4-million (3.2-million GBP). The benefactor is familiar to observers: Nick Candy, a real estate investor who has infused Audioboom with venture capital about a year ago in two installments. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio commissioned a study from Ipsos Research exploring the reach and popularity of different audio formats. The results backed other studies on the continued dominance of radio, and noted that younger listeners are driving much of the growth in audio. Continue Reading
A collection of global music industry organizations and businesses have banded together to curb stream manipulation. Their “code of best practice” includes 21 points directed toward stopping efforts to artificially inflate stream counts and influence copyright payouts on audio and audio/visual platforms. Manipulation might include the use of bots, other automated processes, false accounts, and “pay for play” approaches to skewing stream counts. Continue Reading