Several podcast companies have made headlines with fundraising news, and VCs seem ready to keep opening their wallets. TechCrunch monitored some of the recent developments of money funneling into podcast operations and found large leaps in both the number and dollar value of deals made in 2017. Continue Reading
YouTube is the top social media platform for American teenagers. That’s the result from the latest Pew Research Center survey of teens and social media, which found YouTube besting services from Instagram to Reddit with 85% of U.S. teens using the platform. Continue Reading
Podbean has launched its own supply-side platform for programmatic advertising. Its new PodAds service will offer targeted ad buys that are dynamically inserted into podcasts hosted on the network. Advertisers and media buyers can use PodAds to set their ad budget and select the shows to run them on by their desired geographic and category areas. Continue Reading
YouTube has hired Tuma Basa as its new director of urban music, confirming the move that had been circulating on the gossip mills for a few months. Basa was previously the top hip-hop curator at Spotify, where he built the Rap Caviar playlist into a must-listen destination for fans of the genre. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Mary Meeker’s annual Internet trends report, plus other news and views from the audio landscape. Continue Reading
Digital audio technology company AdsWizz won the Drum Digital Trading Award in the category of Best Overall Technology for Programmatic Trading. Of special note is that this awards program, which has been running annually since 2014, covers all media categories for digital advertising. So the top placement is not only a celebratory moment for the company, but a spotlight on the maturation of digital audio as an important programmatic advertising medium. Continue Reading
Start-up Scout.fm is elbowing its way into the crossover space of podcast listening smart speakers. The platform began as a series of experiments on the Amazon Alexa platform and after testing many different voice skills, the team developed a podcast service that tailors recommendations to each listener’s preferences. Continue Reading
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has published a report calling for new government tools and federal regulations to support a healthy digital media market. The report suggested that future policies should focus on producing and promoting high-quality content by Canadians and encouraging rapid adaptation as technologies change. Continue Reading
Live365, the venerable internet radio platform for webcasters at all levels, is now streaming in Canada. Licensing from SOCAN and Re:Sound enables the company to distribute in the U.S. neighbor. “This is only the beginning of our expansion,” says CEO Jon Stephenson. Continue Reading
WNYC Studios has partnered with Whooshkaa to open up its podcasts to Australian advertisers. Across its show roster, which includes Radiolab and 2 Dope Queens, WNYC Studios reaches more than 7 million unique listeners every month. Continue Reading
Apple Music is adding another new department, this one focused on “data-driven conversations between Apple, labels, artists and the broader industry.” That’s the description in a job posting for the streaming service, which is hiring a Charts & Market Analytics Manager. Continue Reading
Tencent is moving forward with plans for an initial public offering of its music branch. Tencent Music and Entertainment has appointment Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America Merrill Lynch to lead the IPO, Financial Times reported. Continue Reading