Amazon Alexa is getting some more updates for users to better control their music playback. Listeners can now request particular versions of a song when using an Amazon Music account. Continue Reading
Podtrac released its chart with the top 20 podcasts for February 2020. Most of the titles have not changed from the January ranker. The entire top eight is identical to the previous month’s results. Continue Reading
eMarketer has released original research showing that Spotify serves more U.S. listeners than Pandora (a U.S.-only streamer) does. This info catches up with Spotify’s U.S. ascendancy in stream listening, as charted by RAIN’s tracking of Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics. Continue Reading
In a day when baseball, basketball, hockey, Disney, schools and many other cultural institutions were suspended, yesterday also brought an announcement closer to RAIN home: Edison Research and Triton Digital have canceled the first live-audience presentation of The Infinite Dial, the annual public snapshot of American listening. The webinar is a go; click through for the registration link. Continue Reading
Spotify’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand is stepping down. Karen Lawson took on the role last June, and has not shared reasons for her departure. Continue Reading
Amazon is launching analytics for performers using its streaming service. Amazon Music for Artists is available as an app for Android and iOS devices, with a companion website. The app is launching as a beta. Continue Reading
Apple has reportedly signed new licensing agreements for its streaming service. Financial Times reported that the company secured multi-year deals with the three majors. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Radio World tracks the digital AM push stateside. Take your Rolling Stone reporter to work. Tencent’s not-so-Chinese roots. Continue Reading
Disgraceland is the latest podcast making the leap to the small screen. The show, hosted and launched by Jake Brennan in 2018, has told the tales of scandal and drama from the music industry. Continue Reading
A frightening audio commercial for the movie’s sequel wasn’t expected to play during the “Classical Lullabies” playlist on Spotify. At least, the mother who was soothing her young child didn’t expect it. Ad targeting gone awry? A poorly classified playlist? Or was it the sponsor’s fault? Continue Reading
Voice assistants have been a growing topic of interest for the audio industry, and businesses are still finding ways to further develop the technology. Last month, Spotify received a patent on a new way to make a voice assistant that can be responsive to human emotions. Continue Reading
RAIN published our annual Predictions feature in the first week of January. We challenged participants to predict a key metric in the RIAA 2019 report of streaming music revenue. Alexis van de Wyer and Steve Pratt were both right to a half percentage point. Continue Reading