RAIN Notes: Friday, October 13
— Corpus Electrica (Manoush Zomorodi)
— The Apple Influence (Ross Adams)
— Transition (Eric John)
RIAA asks U.S. government for protection against AI; targets Voicify
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has identified voice-cloning services as threats to musicians’ intellectual property, and reported Voicify particularly to the U.S. government. Voicify.ai was the only service called out by name, though it certainly is not the only service in the game. The RIAA makes two specific complaints. Continue Reading
Podchaser launches Airchecks, borrowing a radio term to describe AI verification and insights for advertisers
Podchaser, an Acast company, is releasing a new ad verification layer to its tech stack. Called Airchecks, and honoring the radio heritage of that term, the product leverages AI to analyze keywords and patterns in podcast waveforms. Two main goals propel this venture. Continue Reading
Spotify for Podcasters (S4P) upgrades for customization, discovery, and monetization
Podcasters who distribute on Spotify (the dominant podcast delivery system by far) are recipients of a substantial upgrade of tools for managing the Spotify portion of their businesses. The just-announced upgrade is in three parts, emphasizing presence, insights, and monetization. Click for details and screenshots. Continue Reading
Podtrac: Podcast consumption down 10% in September, and RAIN Remix
In the Top Podcast Publishers ranking in September from Podtrac, we are told that podcast downloads and play decreased in September. Meanwhile iHeartPodcasts, Wondery, and NPR repeated month-over-month to take the top three spots based on the ranker’s native sorting. But things get shaken up in the RAIN Remix, which resorts the Podtrac data to show audience and downloads per active show. Click for details and graphics. Continue Reading
“Laser-sharp targeting” from AI+analytics in Sonnant/Podder partnership
AI and machine learning company Sonant, and audio demographic analytics firm Podder, have partnered to create better audience insights for audio advertisers In a joint announcement, the two companies describe three main benefits. Continue Reading
Will Ferrell’s pod network to create multi-platform comedy show and talent incubator
Will Ferrell’s podcast network, Big Money Players, is working with iHeartMedia to create a multi-platform comedy creators program and multimedia comedy show. The talent incubator part of this will roll out at Ferrell’s discretion, highlighting his personally selected comedians. Those individuals will join the BMP network and be showcased across the iHeartMedia ecosystem. Continue Reading
New podcast creation on track to lowest yearly level since 2018
Looking at the monthly and yearly podcast creation statistics at Listen Notes [HERE], we observe that new podcasts have been started this year at the lowest rate since 2018. In a larger view, Listen Notes is reporting 3,195,616 active podcasts in the world, with nearly 178-million episodes. That means there are nearly twice as many podcast episodes as music tracks in Spotify. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Thursday, October 5
Latino podcast listeners control $2.8-trillion purchasing power and podcast ads motivate them
In its most recent Latino Podcast Listener Report from Edison Research, this segment of podcast listenership is portrayed as racing into podcast engagement, and highly receptive to advertising. As a national group, Latinos wield impressive purchasing power. Edison puts a number on that: $2.8-trillion, and dramatically computes that overall purchasing budget as greater than the GDP of the UK or India. Click for much more info, and a link to the presentation slides.
Continue Reading
Podtrac top 20 shows: 5 non-repeats after two years
In the “Nothing succeeds like success” category, we observe that only five non-repeating shows are placed in Podtrac’s Top 20 Podcasts ranking list for September 2023, compared to the same ranker from September 2021. But that’s more than last month’s comparison. Click for the comparison graphic, and the original ranker. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Wednesday, October 4
— In and Out of China (TED)
— Crushing News (Podnews)
— Long-form Advertising (Acast) Continue Reading