Podcast company Acast is rolled out in France. Yann Thébault, a former Spotify director, has joined Acast to lead the French operations. Acast France will focus on support for independent podcasters and publishers, work with media groups and brands, and further development of the domestic podcast market. Continue Reading
BPI has published its 2019 yearbook, a report with more important numbers about the impact of streaming in the UK market. The 2019 edition found that recorded music revenue in the UK rose 20% over three years. Continue Reading
Thanks to Podnews.net we learned that Google Podcasts now has a web-app presence in addition to its fuller-featured Android app. The experience is rudimentary for sure, but the experience does offer podcast playback in Google’s customary clean format. Continue Reading
Tencent Music Entertainment released its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year of 2018. “Our initial public offering in December 2018 has launched us onto the international stage, elevated the global recognition towards our brand, and endorsed our successful track record,” CEO Cussion Kar Shun Pang said. Continue Reading
Bob Shennan has been promoted within the BBC. Beginning in April, his new post will be the newly created role of group managing director. Shennan’s tenure with the BBC began back in 1987. Continue Reading
Pandora introduced a new feature that allows listeners to customize the experience of listening to their lean-back stations. Pandora Modes offers more control over the algorithmic choices made in the programming of their stations. Continue Reading
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