RAIN News

Apple’s next scripted show will star Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Apple’s plans for a major video push continue with the announcement of a new scripted TV show that expands the company’s connections with A-list Hollywood talent. In addition to the reboot of Amazing Stories announced last month, Apple has made a two-season straight-to-series order for a scripted drama centered around a network morning show. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon star in the new project, which is still untitled at this stage. Continue Reading →

Podtrac shares October 2017 podcast publisher ranking

Posted on November 9, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Podtrac posted its ranking of the top 10 podcast publishers for October 2017. The new ranking features the debut of iHeartMedia at the No. 2 spot. Its 525 shows secured a U.S. unique monthly audience of nearly 8.96 million and 33.59 million global unique streams and downloads. Continue Reading →

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Upcoming Taylor Swift album won’t stream for at least a week after release

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Taylor Swift made major waves in the music world in 2014 when she pulled her entire catalog off Spotify and other streaming services with free listening. Now the pop icon is at it again, with a plan to withhold her upcoming album Reputation from streaming services for at least a week after it releases on November 10. Continue Reading →

Digital music companies form European lobbying coalition

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Anna Washenko

A new coalition called Digital Music Europe will bring together several streaming music platforms and other digital music companies to represent their interests in the EU government. Deezer CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht will be the group’s president and Spotify Director of EU Regulatory Affairs Olivia Regnier will be the chairman. Continue Reading →

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Triton Digital top 20 ranker is out for August

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Triton Digital has released its Top 20 Ranker of the best-performing digital audio publishers and networks for August 2017. Due to Veteran’s Day and post-Summit travel, RAIN News’ usual complete coverage and historical trendline of the latest monthly results will be posted on Monday. Continue Reading →

Pandora bringing ad targeting to smart speaker audiences

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Pandora has opened up its audience targeting capabilities to include connected home segments. The audio company’s connected home app is currently built into more than 2,000 devices. Advertisers can apply the Pandora audience segments on audio ads that run specifically on voice-enabled devices. Continue Reading →

Amazon brings Echo speakers to Japan

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Amazon has rolled out its Echo smart speaker line in Japan. The Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot are now available by invitation in the country. The devices will begin shipping in Japan next week. Continue Reading →

Test Drive: Podchaser makes a shaky entry into the podcast database world

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Today’s Test Drive explores a tech niche that has been getting lots of buzz lately: podcast discovery. With the audio format on the rise in cultural cache and audience numbers, it makes sense that new properties would emerge to offer additional services to listeners. One of these is Podchaser, a podcast discovery tool currently in open beta and has more than 18 million podcast episodes. The theory of a massive podcast database that’s searchable and filterable is an admirable one, but Podchaser still has some big wrinkles to iron out. Continue Reading →

Podcast company Blubrry acquires Cast Feed Validator

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Blubrry, a directory and community for podcasters, announced that it has acquired Cast Feed Validator, an RSS feed validator for podcasts. According to the press release, Blubrry expects the deal to lead to more consistency for podcasters, improved site up-times, and hardware upgrades. Continue Reading →

Google Assistant adds support for song identification

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Google Assistant is getting its own song recognition software. The technology was first available on the Pixel smartphones last month, but it is now rolling out to all other Android mobile devices. Continue Reading →

Spotify data finds members listen to growing numbers of artists

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Anna Washenko

Spotify has shared a report investigating the range of music its members listen to on the streaming service. Using its own internal data, the company said that Spotify listeners are hearing 37% more artists than they were in 2014. That’s an increase from nearly 30 artists streamed per week to about 41 artists streamed per week. Continue Reading →

Scripps posts a loss in Q3, but Midroll and digital properties show promise

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Anna Washenko

E.W. Scripps hosted its earnings call for the third quarter of 2017, which included updates for podcasting business Midroll Media. The media company posted revenue of $216 million, down from $233 million in the year-ago period. Digital revenue, which includes Midroll, was up 13.3% to $17.8 million. Continue Reading →