The NPR family has lost one of its icons. Carl Kasell passed away at age 84 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease. Kasell spent much of his life working in radio and broadcasting, and he joined NPR in 1975. Continue Reading
Spotify is soon to join the quarterly routine of reporting its business to U.S. and global investors — the Q1 date is May 2. Meanwhile, an April 24 media news event in New York is tickling rumors of changes to the Spotify free service, and its app interface. Continue Reading
Multiple analysts have weighed in recently with projections for Apple products. First, Ming-Chi Kuo of KGI offered insights on the Apple HomePod. Second, Ben Schachter of Macquarie Capital had thoughts about Apple Music. Continue Reading
RAI, Italy’s public broadcaster, will be making more investments in digital radio. It announced the plans at an event last week and the radio director shared some of the details. Continue Reading
Podtrac’s podcast publisher ranking for March 2018 is now available. The results show another month with little fluctuation among the top performers putting out podcasts, and only one replacement from the prior month’s chart. Continue Reading
Amplifi Media CEO Steve Goldstein shares his thoughts about the panel he recently moderated at a NAB show that featured insights and data about podcasts. Continue Reading
Streaming and download service Qobuz has named Yann Miossec as its new CEO. “Working with this brand, promoting its projects, is my dream challenge,” he said. The Paris-based company specializes in hi-resolution music, and it is planning a United States launch and a possible IPO in the near future. Continue Reading
8tracks announced a new partnership that will see audio ads roll out on its service in Canada. The audio platform will be exclusively represented by leanStream, Canada’s largest ad marketplace. Available ad units include pre-roll, mid-roll, or special sponsorships such as branded playlists and first impression takeovers. Continue Reading
Carl Chery has departed his role as head of artist curation for hip-hop and R&B programming at Apple Music. He’ll be joining the team at Spotify, which recently had its own big curator departure when Tuma Basa relocated to YouTube. Variety first broke the news. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio has made a tactical change to its feature set, moving its thousands of curated music playlists out from behind a subscription firewall. Calling the collection Playlist Radio, these lists are now visible and playable to all iHeartRadio users — previously they had been a selling point for the Plus and All Access subscription tiers. Continue Reading
Netflix has launched an interactive audio drama on Google’s smart speakers to promote its reboot of Lost in Space. The audio experience, which was produced in collaboration between Google and Netflix, gives listeners a branching narrative with multiple-choice questions and answers that lets them aid key characters from the program. Continue Reading
Mixcloud announced that it has closed its first-ever fundraising round. The audio platform received an investment of $11.5 million from holding company WndrCo, which specializes in businesses in media and technology. The money will go toward global scaling of the company, expanding the team, and diversifying the platform. Continue Reading