The navigation app Waze has integrated seven audio streaming services into its mobile app as part of the Waze Audio Player. The additions are Pandora, Deezer, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, NPR One, Stitcher, and Scribd. Waze already had a deal with Spotify, which will continue to be available alongside the new partners. Continue Reading
Omny Studio has released a speech-to-text tool that will allow radio stations and podcasters to create transcriptions of their content. The feature, leveraging the automatic speech recognition engine from Speechmatics and Amazon Transcribe, includes 29 different language options. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio has launched in Mexico thanks to a partnership with Grupo ACIR, a leading broadcaster in the nation for more than 50 years. iHeartRadio México is available now in beta in the market and will officially launch on November 3. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Investigations into the space for podcast measurement, where it’s fragmented and where it’s not. Continue Reading
In the recently released Q3 report from RAJAR (Radio Joint Audience Research), UK listeners are becoming more digital, while overall radio reach remains high. Continue Reading
Streaming radio host Live365 has announced licensing agreements which open its internet radio streams to audiences in the U.K. This opens a new market of listeners for the recently revived iconic internet radio brand, and also UK broadcasters and pureplay webcasters. Continue Reading
The Audio Production Awards 2018, produced by AudioUK, has announced the shortlist of finalists in 20 categories. Continue Reading
We reported this week on Sirius XM’s financials (HERE). As usual some of the most interesting strategic insight was contained in the investor Q&A in the back end of the call. Of particular interest to investors (and to RAIN) were comments related to the Sirius acquisition of Pandora, which closed on the day of the earnings call. Continue Reading
Market research firm Strategy Analytics has another snapshot of the smart speaker market. The company released a ranking of the top smart speaker models in the United States from a poll of more than 1,000 people during July and August. The results for Amazon look positively rosy, full of potential for Google, and not-too-bright for Apple. Continue Reading
Pandora announced the hire of a new vice president and head of brand communications. Brad Minor joins the audio company from JPMorgan Chase & Co., where he his role was managing director of brand, advertising, and media. Continue Reading
Facebook is broadening its options for how its users can integrate music into their experiences on the social media network. Those changes include an expansion of its Lip Sync Live feature and new ways to include music in posts and profiles. Continue Reading
TuneIn is expanding its perks for paying subscribers. TuneIn Premium listeners can now hear commercial-free news from radio and podcasts. Instead of the regularly scheduled commercial breaks, listeners will hear curated snippets of programming and updates that they might have missed. Continue Reading