A weekly column from the preeminent Radio Futurologist. THIS WEEK: How the BBC produced during coronavirus. How is Beats 1 doing? Ten best music radio stations. Radio recovery. Podcast promoter chat. And much more! Continue Reading
Podtrac has released the May edition of the measurement company’s Top Podcast Publishers ranker. (See graphic below.) iHeartRadio resides in the #1 spot, closely followed by NPR. The ranker shows the number of active shows owned by each of the… Continue Reading
WideOrbit is announcing a partnership with programmatic platform Rubicon Project, exposing WideOrbit’s network of audio publishers to Rubicon’s ad buyers. WideOrbit’s client list includes audio services, platforms, networks, radio broadcasters, and audio content publishers. Continue Reading
AdsWizz is announcing today that Anne Frisbie, an executive whose career roots go back to 1990s entrepreneurism, is joining the executive team as SVP of Global Supply. Frisbie comes to AdsWizz from nearly a dozen years with InMobi where she was SVP, Global Brand & Programmatic. Continue Reading
We learned from Podnews that the Podcast Academy, first announced in February, has finalized its Board of Governors. The board members each serves for a two-year term. The Podcast Academy was founded to foster excellence in the field, recognized by an annual awards program. Continue Reading
In an encompassing and deeply researched report, UK-based MIDiA Research has produced a manifesto for broadcast radio, laying out challenges and opportunities for the future. Titled Radio is Switched On Again: Strategies for 2020 and Beyond, the densely-packed 24-page document is for subscribers only, but MIDiA kindly sent a copy to RAIN News for review. Continue Reading
If there would ever been an indicator of podcastings’ maturity as a media category, or a podcaster emerging as a media mogul, it is today’ blockbuster news that Joe Rogan has signed an exclusive arrangement with Spotify, worth $100-million. It’s… Continue Reading
We are posting this before the official announcement of Webby Awards 2020 winners, and taking information from around-the-web leaks. From what we can find, some of the podcast winners are include a Luminary exclusive, and mostly well-known shows. Continue Reading
In an imaginative podcast project, iHeartRadio on Friday released 49 commencement speeches recorded by celebrities from Bill & Melina Gates to Eli Manning to Aaron Mahnke. The entire iHeartMedia network of 850 radio stations participated in the project. Click through for audio. Continue Reading
The collapse of travel during the Covid-19 pandemic is discouraging to the tourism industry. But streaming giant Pandora is using consumer survey results to encourage advertisers to adjust their messaging in afeel-good, look-forward way. Click through for two streaming audio ads running on Pandora — from Costa Rica Tourism, and from Proctor & Gamble. Continue Reading
Triton Digital released the latest edition of its Australian Podcast Ranker for a reporting period that includes the month of April — specifically, March 30 through May 3. Wondery makes its first appearance in the list, with 14 shows in the top 100. An Aussie magazine reveals podcast download figures that Triton doesn’t make public. Continue Reading
Podtrac is continuing to share weekly updates of U.S. podcast listening, both in downloads and audience, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Its latest data is for the week of April 27-May 3. A few other interesting trends are emerging out of Podtrac’s download growth charts for different categories. Continue Reading