Sony has reported its earnings for its fiscal year ending March 31, and streaming helped bolster growth for the company’s music division. Overall, Sony Music saw a 12% increase in revenue to $4.03 billion. Continue Reading
Castbox has secured a Series B funding round of $13.5 million for its podcast app, bringing the total raised to $29.5 million. SIG China led the round, with existing investors IDG Capital, Qiming Venture Partners and GSR Ventures also participating. Continue Reading
Amazon and Spotify have both announced developments involving country music playlists. First, Amazon has debuted a playlist containing country songs and artists chosen to appeal to an international audience. Second, Spotify’s Hot Country collection is now an “enhanced playlist” that includes original videos alongside the musical selections. Continue Reading
Panoply has hired a new vice president of sales. Ken Lagana joins the podcast company from a position as senior vice president of global sales and marketing at CBS Digital Media. In addition, Panoply recently announced a partnership with the publisher Macmillan. Continue Reading
Midroll Media’s podcast networks have shared their new show lineups. Earwolf, Stitcher, and Stitcher Premium are each expanding their programming. Continue Reading
Satcaster Sirius XM reported its Q1 financials yesterday. subscriptions up 330,000 to over 33-million. Revenue climbed 6% to 1.4-billion. Full-year guidance unchanged. CEO James E. Meyer commented on Pandora & iHeartMedia situations. Continue Reading
Sonos has filed the paperwork for an initial public offering as early as June. The smart speaker company is looking to raise capital in the hundreds of millions range, according to The Wall Street Journal. Continue Reading
The Music Modernization Act (MMA) has convincingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives. The pending legislation benefits the creative class of the music industry — songwriters and composers, and enjoys a remarkable degree of across-the-aisle support, both politically and in the music industry. Continue Reading
The week is barely half over and it has already been an eventful few days for Apple and Apple Music. The company has been involved in new partnerships and expansions in the United States, whole its European efforts have hit a possible roadblock. Continue Reading
We know from The Smart Audio Report conducted by Edison Research and NPR, that smart speakers have a special (and perhaps unpredicted) appeal to kids, and therefore to parents who are bringing Alexa devices into their homes. research summary. iHeartRadio is leaping into that space with an announcement today that it will be the default provider of live music content for the newly launched Echo Dot Kids Edition, and the FreeTime Unlimited skill in Alexa. Continue Reading
Podtrac has released its ranker of the top 20 podcasts for March 2018. Most of the entries are consistent with the list from February, with just a few shifts in the order. Podtrac’s March 2018 publisher ranking was released last week. Continue Reading
Pandora announced that it is bringing its paid experience to more gaming fans. Pandora Premium is now available on the Xbox One console from Microsoft. This app update includes standard Premium features and controls for navigating your library on the gaming hardware. Continue Reading