Podcast ad tech company Gmball announces today the closing of Series A funding of $10-million, led by Union Square Ventures and Good Friends. The investment brings total fundraising for the company to $12-million.
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Amazon has launched Amp, a social audio platform with an interesting focus on building music shows. While early reports compare Amp to Clubhouse, Amazon’s promotional emphasis is on building interactive music shows, something like live, interactive radio. It also takes a stab at Spotify Shows. Continue Reading
Popular listening platforms, from streaming music to broadcast radio, have stepped into podcasting by pulling podcasting onto their platforms, mostly through acquisitions. Alphabet/Google/YouTube is taking a somewhat different tack, offering six-figure grants to podcasters and podcast networks to create video versions of their shows. This according to Bloomberg, which cites anonymous sources. Continue Reading
Podcast database and social listening platform has released the second edition of Podchaser 25, a February ranker of podcasts which are exhibiting spikes of popularity. Podcasher calls the list “a first-of-its-kind monthly ranking of the hottest, rising podcasts in the U.S.” Continue Reading
An English-language Russian radio station is taken off the air. So was Echo of Moscow — and a journalist from that station was asked about what’s next. James also shows off a speaker badge from a Ukraine event at which he spoke. And a detailed review of shortwave radio. And more — among the news items: Union Jack Radio in the UK has closed.
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Digital media outlet BuzzFeed wants a footprint in podcasting, and is partnering with Acast to get it done. The project will live in the BuzzFeed Studios imprint, and the plan is to lift off with six initial shows. Acast will launch and distribute the shows, and provide production assistance. Acast is even pre-credited for “creative direction,” interestingly. Continue Reading
In Podtrac’s Top Podcast Publishers monthly ranker for February we learn that podcast audience growth has enjoyed a strong upswing, as represented by Podtrac’s top 20 publishers. (Podtrac measures its clients.) Click through for the results, and RAIN’s remix, which re-sorts the top publishers by average listeners and plays per show. Continue Reading
In what might be an indication of podcast creation settling down from the Covid surge, the number of newly created shows in February was only 11% of a year ago. The trend projects that 2022 will produce a small fraction of 2021’s new podcasts. Click for details. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note, smart speaker edition
— True Lyme (Eve Bishop)
— Withdrawal Symptoms (Podshape)
— The Entirety (Conal Byrne)
Audioboom launched its creative division, Audioboom Studios, last October. Recently three shows were added to its production schedule — two in the True Crime category, and one which sounds like a crossover dating/cooking show. Details in the post. Continue Reading
RAIN News dropped in for the Veritonic Audio Intelligence Summit in Manhattan yesterday. In the “Second Story” space of the Kimpton Hotel Eventi, a Covid-vaxxed and tested audience of audio industry professionals gathered to attend a series of presentations which evangelized and explained how audio branding is made and tested, and how it can define brand identity. A key presentation was about sonic diversity. Then there was Tostitos. Continue Reading
Preeminent consumer research company in audio, Edison Research, released a Top Podcast Networks by Audience Reach list. SXM Media takes the #1 spot. This list differs from some other network rankers, because it gets its findings from consumer surveys of active podcast listeners, not from technology measurement of the measuring company’s clients. Continue Reading