Apple has hired Rebekah Horne as its new head of music and other services for Australia and New Zealand. In this capacity, she will guide services including Apple Music, iTunes, and the App Store for those markets. Continue Reading
Pandora has released its third-quarter financial results, capping off a busy three-month period that included its acquisition by Sirius XM. Quarterly revenue for Pandora totaled $417.6 million, up 16% from the year-ago period. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made over the past year to reinvigorate Pandora,” CEO Roger Lynch said. Continue Reading
Ad agency buyer Horizon Media has expanded its relationship with Jelli, the programmatic ad platform for radio. The latest development will see Horizon using Jelli’s SpotPlan demand-side platform, becoming the first media agency to power all of its programmatic radio ad buying operations for several of its clients agency-wide. Continue Reading
The Consumer Technology Association conducted a survey of Canadians’ technology ownership. While products such as televisions, smartphones, and laptops demonstrated near-ubiquity, smart speakers did show promising signs in the market. Continue Reading
Spotify announced that it is going to buy back some of its shares. “The repurchase program will be executed consistent with the company’s capital allocation strategy of prioritizing investment to grow the business over the long term,” the company said in a statement. Continue Reading
Universal Music Group has licensed its catalog to Boomplay Music, a top streaming service in Africa. Boomplay will add UMG’s library to its current catalog of 2 million tracks. The company currently boasts more than 36 million listeners across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A Cape Town radio station that’s thinking positively. How Ofcom’s new localness rules will impact radio in the UK. Continue Reading
Anchor has released data about how and where people are tuning in to podcasts created on its platform. Following several pivots, Anchor is now a service for free and fast podcast recording and distribution. Continue Reading
Apple reported its financials for its fourth quarter, which ended on September 29. The tech company posted quarterly revenue of $62.9 billion, up 20% from the same period last year. Net income was $2.91 per diluted share, an increase of 41% on-year. Continue Reading
Sonos has released new hardware in the smart speaker space, but its software options have thus far been limited to Amazon Alexa. The company had previously stated that it was working on adding support for Google Assistant this year. Continue Reading
Spotify’s revolving door act continues for personnel. Last week, the company announced that Doug Ford would leave his post as a senior director and head of music culture and editorial. On the other side, Spotify is currently recruiting for two senior roles in original content. Continue Reading
Italian digital audio firm DIGITALMDE has launched an unusual (probably unique) venture to demonstrate the appeal and value of branded podcasts. The company is launching a new content branch called MYVOXES, which will produce eight fiction series to demonstrate the power of audio storytelling. Continue Reading