The French government has created a new tax, targeted to streaming music services operating in the country. President Emmanuel Macron announced the finalization of the levy, which is set to take effect in 2024. “This is a real blow to innovations,” Spotify says. Continue Reading
Acast released a handful of metrics resulting from a survey of U.S. podcast listeners. We learn about in-car listening, a comparison with audiobooks, and more. Continue Reading
In Magellan AI’s reckoning of the top podcast advertisers (by spend) in November, we see a lot of repetition from the previous months. Eleven of the top 15 advertisers in the previous month of October landed on the November list again. We do some month-over month analysis, and a six-month comparison. Click for the numbers, graphs, and top-line points. Continue Reading
Journalism advocacy group Nieman lab has published its 2024 predictions. Featuring what Nieman refers to as “the smartest people in journalism,” the collection features dozens of writers, publishers, newscasters, and industry executives. We look at three audio-related contributions from Kerri Hoffman, Kristen Muller, and Eric Nuzum. Continue Reading
vCreative, a cloud-based software provider for the broadcast radio industry has chosen audio ad management platform Frequency to leverage next-gen tools for the production, management, and delivery of targeted ads in radio. Click to learn more about this deal, and a fascinating case study of real-time live ad customization. Continue Reading
In an encouraging sign of variety in listener choice, 44 Australian podcasts debuted on Triton Digital’s Australian Podcast Ranker for November. The ranker lists 200 podcasts, a first-time expansion of Triton’s format. The company cites “the influx of new podcasts.” Click for more info. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein
In this epic review of podcasting in 2023, guest columnist Steve Goldstein takes us on a retrospective tour of business developments in the fast-moving, still-evolving industry. What is a podcast — that existential question starts things off. YouTube. Gimlet. The job scene. Amp. Brand safety. The audio market generally. Research notes. Success at the top. AI. Omnichannel distribution. SiriusXM. Wall Street. Public radio. And … the opportunity of 2024. A must read. Continue Reading
Sound You Can See; Podcasting’s Video Dilemma, a new study produced by Sounds Profitable and Signal Hill Insights, explores the duality of podcasting as an audio and video format. Fielded in November the survey reveals a large volume of granular information about usage habits among video consumers of podcasts. Click for some key details, graphs, and a link to the complete 81-page PDF. Continue Reading
In a dramatic simplification of its mobile experiences, NPR is discontinuing the NPR One app. In this consolidation the company has moved NPR One features into the existing (and now revamped) NPR app. Click for details and history. Continue Reading
Pierre Bouvard of the Westwood One Blog has revealed portions of the Share Of Ear research study performed by Edison Research. Among many results, we learn that spoken word audio is generally up — due initially to the pandemic and accelerating since then — and ad-supported streaming music via Spotify and Pandora is down. Oh, and podcasting share has risen dramatically over seven years. Continue Reading