Sony is reorganizing the branches of its music operation. Effective August 1, the company will unite Sony Music Entertainment and Sony/ATV Music Publishing under the single banner of Sony Music Group. Continue Reading
A group of leading podcast publishers is executing a series of city-specific podcast upfronts called Podfront (the series started as the Winter Podcast Upfront in Los Angeles in February), and the Detroit edition is happening today. Continue Reading
Blubrry has entered a partnership that will add a new monetization option for its podcast hosting clients. The deal is with Stagepass, a marketplace for creative professionals to auction off unique experiences. Continue Reading
Apple may be looking to shore up its podcast dominance with exclusive content. Bloomberg reported that the company wants to invest in original podcasts that would only be available on its Apple Podcasts platform. Apple has not commented on this potential new direction in podcasting. Continue Reading
Tapad, a New York-based global ad tech company specializing in digital identities, is announcing today an agreement with audio ad-tech platform AdsWizz. The deal weds Tapad’s key product — the “Tapad Graph” — into AdsWizz’s programmatic AudioMatic platform. The purpose here is to enable digital audio advertisers to smartly reach consumers across their devices. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that its Yield-Op supply side platform was recognized by ExchangeWire as The Wires APAC 2019 Best New Product or Service – Sell Side. The awards honor the best uses of ad tech in all aspects of media sales for the Asia-Pacific region. Continue Reading
Southern California Public Radio has launched a new podcast studio. The project, LAist Studios, is being branded with the local news outlet it acquired in February 2019 rather than with its KPCC call sign. Continue Reading
ESPN is making a preliminary announcement today of an upcoming new podcast, The ESPN Daily, which will launch in October. Details are scarce, but it appears to be a general sports news show influenced by the success of The Daily, the very popular New York Times morning show. Continue Reading
Westwood One has teamed with Audience Insights and MARU/Matchbox for an investigation into monthly podcast listeners in the U.S. Their survey included breakdowns based on how long the participants have been podcast listeners, with those who have been regular listeners for less than six months reporting some very distinct behaviors compared to the long-time fans. Continue Reading
The Consumer Technology Assocation released its latest projections, anticipating that 2019 will see $401 billion in retail revenue for consumer technologies in the United States. The report suggested that growth in streaming services, AI-enabled devices, and in-vehicle technology would be key in driving that 2.2% on-year increase. Continue Reading
The latest blog post from Megaphone is a series of visualizations about how average podcast length has changed over time. The company reviewed data from the 549 podcasts on the Apple Podcasts Top 200 list between March 6th-May 11th. The results showed a large number of podcast episodes running just shy of an hour, which Megaphone deemed a nod to classic radio formatting. Continue Reading
Amazon has been a dark horse in the digital music industry for years, and the conglomerate is beginning to emerge from the shadows as a more visible player in the space. Financial Times reported last week that Amazon Music Unlimited has grown its subscriber base by about 70% in the past year. Continue Reading