Apple is rolling out its Services platform to 20 new markets. The move brings Apple Podcasts, the App Store, and more to a vast new international audience. Apple Music is going even bigger, launching in 52 more additional countries. Continue Reading
Sonos is making its first foray into content with the launch of a streaming radio service. Sonos Radio is an ad-supported service available for free exclusively for Sonos customers. The platform houses more than 60,000 stations, including ones from streaming partners such as TuneIn and iHeartRadio and ones directly from Sonos. Continue Reading
Podcast Radio, the london DAB+ station which plays a 24-hour schedule of podcasts, is announcing today that Alan Alda’s Clear + Vivid, an interview show hosted by the actor, is joining the stations lineup. Some of Alda’s conversations feature Julie Andrew, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, Paul McCartney, Betty White, Tom Hanks, Stephen Fry, Madeleine Albright, Conan O’Brien, and Michael J. Fox. Continue Reading
Country music streaming reached a new high for the week of April 9. Nielsen Music/MRC Data found that country music racked up 1.244 billion on-demand audio streams for that week. That result marks a new high, besting the 1.201 billion audio streams from the week ending March 5. Continue Reading
Vivendi reported first-quarter financials for Universal Music Group. The label generated €1.769 billion in revenue, up 12.7% on-year in constant currency. Actual growth for the period was 17.8%. Continue Reading
8tracks, the venerable, crowdsourced, highly differentiated streaming music service which shut off at the end of 2019 is back. Thanks to a new investor who acquired some of 8tracks’ assets, the web app has reopened, with a promise to activate mobile apps next. Jeff Treichel is the new CEO — he has a Harvard MBA and a varied background in investing and board directorship. Continue Reading
Apple Podcasts is now home to 1 million shows. My Podcast Reviews reported on the count, which came from its Podcast Industry Statistics measurement system. Just under half of those million podcasts appear to be active. Continue Reading
Advertise Perceptions has issued a report called the Coronavirus Effect on Advertising Report. It’s a trade survey of marketing and sales execs, one-third marketers and two-thirds agency buyers. Digital audiio is presented. The purpose is to determine how ad spends are shifting among media categories during the coronavirus disruptions, and to project how and when those shifts will play out through 2020. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web. It’s another batch of pandemic stories from several podcasting insiders. Read on for the latest insights from Megaphone’s Max Turck, Pacific Content’s Steve Pratt, and Podcast Pontifications’ Evo Terra. Continue Reading
Plex has launched a new version of its music player software. The company’s R&D division has created an update to Plexamp, named as a nod to the Winamp music player. The original Plexamp was launched in December 2017 as a software program that could play any music format. Continue Reading
Amazon is continuing to make tweaks and adjustments to the experience of using its Alexa voice assistant. One of the latest developments is a long-form speaking style for the AI. This feature is designed to help skill developers to make it easier for customers to engage with a large volume of content, such as in a news article or podcast. Continue Reading
Apple Music has taken the browser-based version of its streaming service out of beta. This web iteration of the platform has been in testing for months after its initial introduction in September. Continue Reading