Pocket Casts, a popular podcast app, announced that it is adopting a new freemium subscription business model. The app will now be a free download, with all of its existing features available for no charge. Listeners who want additional customizations will have the option of the Pocket Casts Plus subscription. Continue Reading
The RIAA has released its mid-year report on the Latin music market in the U.S., and the genre is on track for continued growth through 2019. In the first six months of the year, the sector generated retail revenue of $232 million. Continue Reading
Instreamatic and AirKast have entered a new partnership centered on bringing more voice capabilities to mobile. Under this deal, Instreamatic’s voice dialogue marketing platform will be integrated into the AirBridge platform for enterprise mobile app development from AirKast. Continue Reading
Today Edison Research globally introduced The Infinite Dial South Africa in an 8:00am ET webinar. The results show a digital listening market that is less developed than the USA and Australia in some ways, including podcasting. Continue Reading
Acast and Wisebuddah have announced the winner of their LaunchPod contest, an effort to find new UK podcast talent. On Things We Left Behind, hosted by Surer and Saredo Mohamed, has been selected as the winner. Continue Reading
Pandora announced that a new integration with Amazon’s Alexa voice platform. The latest feature is called Alexa Linking, which will make it easier for listeners to activate Pandora on the Echo collection of smart devices. Continue Reading
Progress continues with the Mechanical Licensing Collective, the organization formed by the Music Modernization Act to administer the new blanket licenses. The MLC has said it will need $37.25 million to build the structure and set its first-year operating budget at $29 million. Continue Reading
Amazon announced that it is introducing a high-definition streaming music option. More than 50 million songs will be available in high-definition, with lossless, CD-quality audio. The service will also offer millions of tracks in Ultra HD, which is even better quality than CD audio. Continue Reading
NPR has long been a leader in podcasting, and now the organization is forecasting breakthrough financial returns on the audio format. Deborah Cowan, chief financial officer at NPR, said that the network has projected that corporate sponsorship revenue from podcasts will reach $55 million in the 2020 fiscal year. Continue Reading
Triton Digital announced that it has hired Daryl Battaglia for the post of senior vice president of market development and strategy, audience research. Battaglia joins the company from Nielsen, where he held jobs such as heading strategy and product development for the Media Analytics unit. Continue Reading
Toyota announced that new Prius models will come with additional connected car technology. Apple CarPlay, Amazon’s Alexa voice AI, and the car manufacturer’s Safety Connect system will come standard beginning with the 2020 car makes. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s International Radio Trends is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A new milestone on the horizon at NPR. Several sets of statistics on radio in the U.S. Much more. Continue Reading