Voicebot.ai has released a new report about the smart speaker market in Australia. The nation is now in the early majority stage of smart speaker adoption, reaching a similar point as the U.S., yet on a faster pace. The country’s hardware user base relative to population is now greater than the United States. Continue Reading
Steve Jones, Vice President at Disney and General Manager of ABC Radio, is in the news today as accepting a new role with Skyview Networks, where he will assume the double office of President and Chief Operating Officer. Jones will report to Skyview CEO Ken Thiele, starting April 9. Continue Reading
B2B digital music company 7digital has appointed Julia Hubbard as its chief financial officer. She will assume the responsibilities from David Holmwood, who has been the business’ acting CFO since June 2018. Continue Reading
SoundCloud has landed a new deal for international ad sales. The audio company has partnered with Southern Cross Austereo for an exclusive advertising deal in Australia. Under the terms of their arrangement, SCA will be the only seller of SoundCloud’s inventory for that country. Continue Reading
In Monday’s Q4 earnings call hosted by Cumulus Media, CEO Mary Berner noted that the company podcasting effort, organized in the Westwood One Podcast Network, earned topline revenue of $12-million in 2018. Click through for the chief executive’s remarks. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Vulture shares podcast insights. Qualcomm plans future smart speaker chip upgrades. Deloitte finds “subscription fatigue” for video. Continue Reading
MIDiA Research has released an executive summary of its subscriber report with a forecast for the global music industry from 2018 through 2026, and the analysis shows that streaming will continue to be critical to the sector’s success. By 2022, the report anticipates that streaming revenue is set to exceed the music industry’s total revenue from 2018. Continue Reading
Groove Music has formally been out of commission since 2017, and Microsoft is eliminating some of the few remaining routes for accessing the music platform. Groove Music began as a rebrand of Microsoft’s Xbox Music app. Continue Reading
Another new podcast platform is joining the increasingly-crowded startup scrum. The latest project is called Brew, a subscription-based app backed by the Y Combinator startup accelerator that is highlighting new or up-and-coming podcastors. Including the $150,000 from Y Combinator, Brew has raised $400,000 to date. Continue Reading
France’s music trade group SNEP reported that the nation’s digital revenue surpassed physical revenue last year. Overall, the French market posted 1.8% growth for its recorded music market in 2018, reaching €735 million. Continue Reading
Anghami, an on-demand streaming platform centered in the Middle East and North Africa, has expanded its content offerings to include podcasts. The company has added more than 250 podcasts to its library, including a blend of regional and international creators. Continue Reading
Google Podcasts and PRX announced plans for a second round of their podcast creator program. The pair introduced their plans to launch an accelerator project for aspiring creators in October. Continue Reading