RAIN Notes: Monday, August 21
— Celebration (Pew Research)
— It’s a struggle (Insider Intelligence)
— MusicTok (Music Business Worldwide)
Search Results for: https
AdvertiseCast inks “Beautiful Anonymous”; host Chris Gethard emotionally describes the dealmaking
Libsyn subsidiary AdvertiseCast has signed an exclusive ad representation agreement with the podcast Beautiful Stories From Anonymous People, created, produced. It’s hosted by comedian Chris Gethard, who made a formal statement for the press release. Then he recorded a much deeper and emotional explanation on his podcast. Continue Reading
With Spotify’s recent raise, major music services are settled at $10.99 subscription level
Spotify made news during its Q2 earnings report (See RAIN HERE and HERE) for raising its monthly Spotify Premium subscription rate from $9.99 to $10.99. Investor reaction, as a whole, could be characterized as “It’s about time.” Our survey of current music subscription pricing does support some investor impatience with Spotify, with six competing services having already boosted to that level.
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RAIN Notes: Thursday, August 17
Acast partners with Podscribe, rejecting Spotify attribution solutions — (with Spotify response)
Acast has selected Podscribe as its “preferred attribution partner” in all markets. It’s a meaningful and sweeping endorsement of Podscribe’s performance analytics in podcast advertising. The other half of that handshake appears to be a back-of-hand reference to Spotify’s Ad Analytics tool which launched just two months ago. Continue Reading
Spotify tops Edison podcast network ranker (Q2)
Edison Research released the Q2 edition of its U.S. Top Podcast Networks ranker. It sorts the 10-position list by reach of each network’s shows. Unlike server-side rankers which measure downloads, Edison’s output is based on thousands of survey interviews. Continue Reading
SoundExchange sues Sirius XM (again) for misrepresentation and underpayment of music royalties
SoundExchange, the U.S. government-appointed organization assigned to collect royalties for the use of music in internet streaming, has sued Sirius XM. The charge is misrepresentation and underpayment of royalties in Sirius’ internet streaming service. Sirius vigorously denies any wrongdoing in its accounting. It’s an echo of a 2018 confrontation. Continue Reading
Instreamatic launches near-instant contextualized audio variations for CTV ads
Google-backed AI marketing platform Instreamatic has introduced Contextual Video & CTV Ads — a product identifier which might at first glance camouflage this audio-centric innovation. This is about creating seemingly unlimited variations of the audio voiceover in video ads to accomplish seemingly unlimited contextualization. Continue Reading
RAIN Notes: Tuesday, August 15
— Podcast Finances (Libsyn)
— Groundbreaking + New Heights (Interview Valet)
— Upshift (Sirius XM)
Descript podcast editor acquires SquadCast recording platform
Descript, the text-based audio editing platform, has acquired SquadCast, the cloud-based conversation recording system. As of today, SquadCast becomes a free-to-use component of Descript. Descript describes the acquisition as making a “complete stack.” Continue Reading
Bridge Media Networks invests in media which has “forgotten” the basics
Bridge Media Networks, an investment company owned by 5-hour ENERGY founder Manoj Bhargava, has announced widespread investment in major media companies across the categories of magazine, TV, and radio. Two major radio groups are part of it. Dollar amounts are not mentioned. Continue Reading
Startup turns any webpage into a podcast, accelerating an AI trend
At a time when AI is facilitating content creation in audio and other media categories, an ingenious new startup called PodStash reduces creative friction to practically zero. Not a creative tool for turning original content into audio, the key purpose is to turn any Internet text page into audio. (Wikipedia is a good example.) We dig in, and chat with the founder. Continue Reading