Label services company Kobalt has made a big investment in independent artists. It has combined its recording business under the AWAL brand and is putting $150 million into marketing and advances for indie performers. AWAL is also hiring 100 more employees, about doubling the headcount under Kobalt’s umbrella. Continue Reading
Google is opening up a new option for musicians to curate their presence online. The company offers Posts, where verified people can supply content that appears in the Knowledge Panel when they are the subject of a search query. In effect, this allows artists to directly message their fans or potential fans. Continue Reading
Voxmatic is looking to put voice commands into the hands of podcasters large and small. The business has launched a free platform for the creation personal skills on the Amazon Alexa platform for podcasters. Its starter kit offers individual skill/flash briefing publishing. It plans to add a professional package later this year. Continue Reading
Facebook continues its assembling of music industry deals. The social media company has secured a broad licensing deal with Warner Music Group that covers use of both its recorded music and music publishing catalogs. Continue Reading
The Infinite Dial kicked off with a look at ownership trends in technology and media. Most telling, the research from Edison and Triton focused on the growth in smart speakers. Awareness of the device segment was 71% for Amazon Alexa, up from 57% last year, while Google Home awareness rose from 45% in 2017 to 56% in 2018. Considering the recent ad blitzes for the segment, John Rosso joked that those who haven’t heard of them are “probably living in caves and staring at their tablets.” Continue Reading
The Infinite Dial 2018 shows steady growth in online audio. The latest installment of the research project found that 64% of survey respondents, or an estimated 180 million people, listened to online audio in the past month. Weekly online audio listening has risen at an even more dramatic clip. Continue Reading
AM/FM radio is holding onto its strong lead as the most-used source of audio in cars. According to the latest Infinite Dial results, 82% of respondents ever tune in to AM/FM radio. That rate is the same as was reported in 2017, and down from the 84% in 2016. Continue Reading
While the Infinite Dial is broadly concerned with listening patterns of American adults and teens, podcasting holds special interest for many online audio stakeholders — creators, distributors, hosting companies, advertising networks, and digital audio advertisers and their agency buyers. The… Continue Reading
Pandora continues to top the awareness of audio brands in the Infinite Dial 2018. The audio company had 85% awareness among the respondents. iHeartRadio rated second in awareness at 67%, followed by Spotify at 65%. Both Apple Music and Amazon Music clocked in with 60%. Continue Reading
Amazon has updated Alexa to accommodate some more complex and subtle voice commands for music listening. The voice system can now react to contextual requests based around time, such as “Alexa, play Rihanna songs I haven’t heard in a while” or “Alexa, play the hip-hop music I was listening to last week.” Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Apple developing high-end headphones. Growth of branded podcasts. AI creates an infinite podcast. Continue Reading
Spotify’s latest strides toward a direct public offering has led to some speculation around how the labels that own stakes in the streaming company will distribute their windfall. But independent artists and labels are looking for more assurance that they won’t be shortchanged. Continue Reading