Jottings of note:
Farewell to Fellow Fanatics
Digital music exec Rachel Whitney announces her departure from Spotify, where she was Head of Editorial, Nashville. She calls the departure bittersweet, and announces that she’ll take a “sabbatical” this summer, “before picking up my next project in the fall.” Whitney spent three years at Pandora and 1.5 years at YouTube before joiningSpotify in March 2020, where she characterizes her colleagues as “this incredible group of music fanatics.” In her announcement (HERE) Whitney promotes Music Health Alliance, which helps provide healthcare to music industry professionals across the country.
Legacy Media Getting Rocked
Scott Klass, CMO of audio-as-a-service company SoundStack, has posted the second segment of a radio interview series. (We mentioned Part 1 HERE.) The subject here is KCRW’s Nathalie Hill, Chief Audience Officer at KCRW. She discusses AI, and asserts that there’s not enough discussion about how AI is changing audience behavior. “Legacy media institutions are getting absolutely rocked by how quick the shift is happening.” And there might be an identity issue pubic radio must face. “I think there’s a whole generation of people who don’t understand what public radio is, how it’s funded, or that it’s even nonprofit.” She’s got solution ideas. READ
Two For One
iHeartPodcasts usually spaces its new podcast announcements at least a day apart, but today brings info about two drops. First, Science Stuff, hosted by author and cartoonist Jorge Cham. It launches a weekly pub schedule starting March 12. Trailer HERE. Then, iHeart’s Black Effect Podcast Network starts up its first True Crime effort titled Hunting 4 Answers. It addresses missing and murdered Black women in America, which is characterized as an epidemic. It’s an ambitious daily production; we see five episodes ready for listening HERE.
