Spotify has announced its intention to expand to South Korea in the new year. The announcement doesn’t include a more specific timeline, but does try to establish Spotify’s cred in Korean pop music. Indeed, the service’s K-Pop portal is rich with discovery. Competition awaits in South Korea. Click through for details and screenshots. Continue Reading
Leading performance rights organizations (PROs) ASCAP and BMI have jointly announced the launch of Songview, a searchable database of music ownership rights. Better organization and transparency in the tangled field of music ownership has long been needed, according to nearly all experts in the field, to more accurately and quickly direct royalty payments to the proper creators. Continue Reading
Magellan AI released an end-of year State of Podcast Advertising report — a look back at various 2020 metrics, and notes looking ahead to 2021. Following are a few of the many data explorations covered in the free doc. Continue Reading
Over 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views on micro-video platform TikTok. That from the company’s first annual music report. Over 70 artists have broken on the platform, and landed major label deals. While major surveys put YouTube as a leading music discovery environment, TikTok seems determined to build recognition for its role in finding and sharing songs. Continue Reading
by Jeff Umbro
In this week’s column, Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro unleashes an epic list of lists — 32 media brands which released end-of-year “best podcasts of 2020” roundups. From Esquire to Vanity Fair. From Town & Country to Teen Vogue. Dive in now; thank Jeff later. (Or blame him; your choice.) Continue Reading
U.S. stream listening in September was steady as a month-over-month metric following August, according to Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker. While group leader Pandora dipped by about one percent, gains for iHeartRadio, RADIO.COM, and ESPN helped keep the overall ship on an even keel. Click through for RAIN’s long-term trend chart from 2009 to present. Continue Reading
Digital audio ad platform DAX has announced an agreement with Audiomack, a crowdsourced music streaming platform, to exclusively represent U.S. ad sales. Audiomack serves about 20-million monthly active listeners (MAUs). Adding that reach to DAX’s existing portfolio brings the number to 115-million MAUs that DAX can target for advertisers. At the same time, DAX notes, the Audiomack deal strengthens DAX’s base of Gen Z and Millennial audience. Continue Reading
The Spotify podcast deal-making dreadnought sails on, now signing the ex-royal couple Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to an exclusive production arrangement. The model seems to be taken from the Spotify/Obamas deal which tied a new production company, Higher Ground, to Spotify (not an equity acquisition). Likewise, Harry and Meghan have fashioned a production company called Archewell Audio. Click through for details and a trailer. Continue Reading
Triton Digital is announcing that its subsidiary podcast hosting platform, Omny Studio, has expanded its multilingual support for clients, adding German and Italian. Added to existing support for English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, Omny now gives a native language app experience in six languages. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein
In this year-in-review guest column, Steve Goldstein ruminates on audio’s growth from outdated also-ran in the media universe, to an essential component of the media mix. And the audio story is more than just Spotify and SiriusXM. Continue Reading
ABC Audio has released its end-of-year special programming. these shows will be distributed to network radio stations, immediately followed by posting to the ABC New Radio specials podcast feed. That feed is currently populated mostly by daily updates. Click through for details. Continue Reading