Infinite Dial Australia: Growth for podcasts and smart speakers in 2019

Edison Research has shared the results of its latest investigation into audio trends down under. The Infinite Dial Australia 2019 is the third edition of the report for this market. The report highlighted growth in podcasting and smart speakers for Australia, plus detailed some notable differences from the most recent U.S. data. Continue Reading

Spotify expected to launch in South Africa soon

Spotify is expected to roll out in South Africa later this month. The streaming service is hosting a press event on March 13 when it is expected to formally announce the expansion. The first indication of Spotify’s interest in South Africa came with a job listing posted in September 2017 for a senior editor/music programmer to be responsible for that region. Continue Reading

After a year of development, Pandora launches Dynamic Audio ads

When Pandora announced the Dynamic Audio ad product last February, the idea was to create a targeting technology that could personalize audio marketing to the listener to an unusually individual degree. The launch partner for that development venture was British ad company A Million Ads. Now, the two companies are starting to roll out the result of that work, on a testing basis with two advertisers. Continue Reading

James Cridland’s Future of Radio: Scripps – radio out, podcasting in; and triplej’s Hottest 100 shows radio still big for the young

by James Cridland

James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Analyzing Scripps’ move to cut radio and focus on podcasts. Other news from the the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and more. Continue Reading

Apple acquires Shazam

Over the weekend TechCrunch broke news from undisclosed sources in Apple that the tech giant was close to acquiring market-leading music-ID platform Shazam — Apple confirmed the acquisition this morning. The enormously popular and influential Shazam has historically taken the role of Switzerland, standing in the midst of Spotify, Napster, Apple Music and others, offering to funnel ID’d songs to the user’s preferred listening platform. That could change. Continue Reading