Vivendi has reportedly been in discussions with Tencent for several months to develop a deal for the Chinese conglomerate to acquire a stake of Universal Music Group. But even as the discussions drag on, there’s still plenty of uncertainty around whether an agreement will come together. Continue Reading
Two days after releasing the November edition of its Top Podcasts industry ranking, which showcases the top 20 U.S. podcasts according to Podtrac measurement, the company removed two programs which appeared on the list for the first time. The revision follows an investigation by James Cridland of Podnews. Continue Reading
Valence Media, the parent company for Billboard, has acquired Nielsen Music. This means the chart company and the source of its data will be united under one roof. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Continue Reading
Luminary is launching an Alexa skill for its podcast platform. Paying listeners can use voice commands to control playback or to begin a paying subscription. Continue Reading
Pocket Casts, the podcast listening platform, has released the latest update to its Android app. Version 7.6 of the app brings a new tab format, a revised Up Next list, and a new theme. Continue Reading
YouTube Music has been expanding its programming to keep pace with the offerings of other on-demand streaming platforms. Its latest additions are three personalized playlists for music discovery. Continue Reading
Apple has hired Zach Kahn to helm PR for its podcasting business. He will start the role in January and will report to Senior Director of Communications Tom Neumayr, who confirmed the hire to Variety. Continue Reading
Stream listening slipped 3% in September, according to the Triton Digital Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker, pulled down by Pandora’s key listening metric which dropped 4%. Overall webcast listening in Triton’s top-20 cohort stayed level from the same month last year. Continue Reading
WorldDAB released an infographic with statistics about ownership and coverage for digital radio. The data for Europe and Asia Pacific found that the UK is still the leader for cumulative receiver sales of DAB and DAB+ sets with more than 41.2 million sets. Germany has seen cumulative receiver sales of 14.6 million, and Norway has seen 6 million. Continue Reading
Edison Research has released the latest edition of its Podcast Consumer Tracker to subscribers. In a blog post, the company publicly shared shared the most popular genres for weekly listeners during the third quarter of 2019. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that its Podcast Reports service will expand to yet another new market. It will apply its podcast metrics to the Latin America region. Triton’s metrics have certification from the IAB Tech Lab, and offer a ranking by average downloads. Continue Reading
Voxnest released its annual report, with data and trends about another twelve months of growth for podcasting. The company highlighted three big moves within the industry in 2019, and shared four projections for the coming year. Continue Reading