Rhapsody International announced that it has hired Scott Javor as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He assumed the role effective November 1 and will serve on the senior leadership team for the digital music company. Continue Reading
Sirius XM announced that Alex Luke has joined the company as senior vice president of digital content. In this position, Luke will lead programming on Pandora and head up editorial content for both Pandora and Sirius XM’s digital platforms. Continue Reading
After a five-year run without missing a week, radio futurologist James Cridland has ended his weekly “Radio Tomorrow” column in the RadioInfo trade publication. The final column (“Goodbye and Keep Listening”) serves as an announcement and farewell to readers. Continue Reading
Netflix has been leading an upheaval in how people watch movies and TV at home, but the company has paired its visual entertainment with some forays into audio. After launching a smart speaker skill and Sirius XM channel in support of its content, Netflix is now debuting its first original scripted podcast. Continue Reading
TuneIn has lost a legal battle in the UK brought by two of the major labels. Warner Music and Sony Music brought a suit against the digital radio operator in 2017, charging that TuneIn was offering access to international stations that did not have the licenses to play music in the UK. Continue Reading
Microsoft announced some updates to its Cortana voice assistant at its Ignite conference. The new features point to the company pivoting Cortana and focusing its uses on personal productivity and daily work tasks. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Digging into a UK ruling against TuneIn. Being the voice of your local bus. Other audio insights and analysis. Continue Reading
Sirius XM hosted a conference call this week to share its financial results from the third quarter of 2019. CEO Jim Meyer talked about developing out-of-car pathways to engage existing subscribers and drive new sources of growth. Also, Pandora’s path forward. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Canada’s Indigenous artists launch their own streaming brand. New HBO subscription app will include podcasts. Denim jackets get smart. Continue Reading
Sony posted another strong period for its second fiscal quarter. The whole music division had quarterly sales of $2.04 billion (219.28 billion yen), on operating profit of $349 million (37.48 billion yen). Continue Reading
The European Union Intellectual Property Office has released a new report on trends in digital consumption and piracy. The assessment found that overall music is the digital content most commonly accessed by people ages 15-24, with 97% streaming or downloading music. Continue Reading
Jeff Vidler shares key statistics about podcast listenership from the Canadian Podcast Listener report. In this guest post, he explains that podcasts are not a threat to broadcast radio’s listening time, but rather offer an opportunity to connect with more consumers. Continue Reading