Audio companies of all stripes have been hopping on the bandwagon of smart speakers. The BBC is the latest to take advantage of the new technology in a more unique way. The broadcaster has created an interactive audio drama where listeners can influence the end result of their story. The piece, titled The Inspection Chamber, debuted as an Amazon Alexa skill in the UK this week. Continue Reading
French regulators have laid out a plan for the ongoing rollout of DAB+ radio technology in the country. Nicolas Curien of the Le Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) detailed the plan during the WorldDAB General Assembly. Continue Reading
Music Business Worldwide is reporting that two of the major labels have started legal proceedings against TuneIn UK around possible breach of copyright. Sources told the publication that the suit alleges the UK branch of the online audio company had at least 800 unlicensed music streams in that market. Continue Reading
Apple’s plans for a major video push continue with the announcement of a new scripted TV show that expands the company’s connections with A-list Hollywood talent. In addition to the reboot of Amazing Stories announced last month, Apple has made a two-season straight-to-series order for a scripted drama centered around a network morning show. Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon star in the new project, which is still untitled at this stage. Continue Reading
Podtrac posted its ranking of the top 10 podcast publishers for October 2017. The new ranking features the debut of iHeartMedia at the No. 2 spot. Its 525 shows secured a U.S. unique monthly audience of nearly 8.96 million and 33.59 million global unique streams and downloads. Continue Reading
Taylor Swift made major waves in the music world in 2014 when she pulled her entire catalog off Spotify and other streaming services with free listening. Now the pop icon is at it again, with a plan to withhold her upcoming album Reputation from streaming services for at least a week after it releases on November 10. Continue Reading
A new coalition called Digital Music Europe will bring together several streaming music platforms and other digital music companies to represent their interests in the EU government. Deezer CEO Hans-Holger Albrecht will be the group’s president and Spotify Director of EU Regulatory Affairs Olivia Regnier will be the chairman. Continue Reading
Triton Digital has released its Top 20 Ranker of the best-performing digital audio publishers and networks for August 2017. Due to Veteran’s Day and post-Summit travel, RAIN News’ usual complete coverage and historical trendline of the latest monthly results will be posted on Monday. Continue Reading
Pandora has opened up its audience targeting capabilities to include connected home segments. The audio company’s connected home app is currently built into more than 2,000 devices. Advertisers can apply the Pandora audience segments on audio ads that run specifically on voice-enabled devices. Continue Reading
Amazon has rolled out its Echo smart speaker line in Japan. The Amazon Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot are now available by invitation in the country. The devices will begin shipping in Japan next week. Continue Reading
Today’s Test Drive explores a tech niche that has been getting lots of buzz lately: podcast discovery. With the audio format on the rise in cultural cache and audience numbers, it makes sense that new properties would emerge to offer additional services to listeners. One of these is Podchaser, a podcast discovery tool currently in open beta and has more than 18 million podcast episodes. The theory of a massive podcast database that’s searchable and filterable is an admirable one, but Podchaser still has some big wrinkles to iron out. Continue Reading
Blubrry, a directory and community for podcasters, announced that it has acquired Cast Feed Validator, an RSS feed validator for podcasts. According to the press release, Blubrry expects the deal to lead to more consistency for podcasters, improved site up-times, and hardware upgrades. Continue Reading