This morning comes an announcement that audio content and marketing company Amplifi Media is joining with mobile app builder jacapps, to develop voice-activated “skills” for radio listening in Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. The new company is called SonicAi, abbreviated as SAi. Continue Reading
7digital has made another acquisition. The latest purchase is FlowRadio, an aggregator of live radio stations, on-demand radio programs and podcasts. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Early successes for Serial Productions’ sophomore act. Ink spilled about UK and its golden age of radio. Much more. Continue Reading
Venerable podcast listening app today announced an expansion into original programming, and the creation of a network of shows. The new shows are ad-supported, branching off from an existing portfolio of 50 Stitcher-original programs in a subscription service. Continue Reading
The RAIN Digital Audio Advertising Summit in Chicago closed with a lively discussion on the state of podcasting. Several luminaries from the field shared their thoughts on the health of the industry, the need for measurement, and whether Apple would continue its dominance. Continue Reading
The latest PodcastOne content partnership is with the renowned Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, and results in the launch of Geffen Playhouse Unscripted podcast. The new show dropped its first episode this week. Continue Reading
One of the highlights of the recent Radiodays Europe conference in Amsterdam, attended by more than 1,500 public and private broadcasters from across much of Europe (see Part 1 of my report here) was an update on Norway’s current year-long, region-by-region shutdown of the FM band, designed to move listeners to DAB+ channels. RAIN News Publisher Kurt Hanson’s “Part 2” from the conference. Continue Reading
National Public Radio (NPR) will launch Up First, a 10-minute, 6:00AM podcast news bulletin drawn from its widely distributed Morning Edition syndicated radio show. In starting an online-only podcast that seemingly competes with the live daily radio show which spawned it, NPR intends to address a discrete audience that might not be familiar with NPR radio programming, and possibly drive that audience into a deeper involvement with the NPR ecosystem. Continue Reading
Kurt Hanson, RAIN Founder and CEO of AccuRadio, attended Radiodays Europe (RDE) this week in Amsterdam for RAIN, part of the media partnership between RAIN and RDE. This is Part 1 of his on-the-ground report. Continue Reading
The Radio Television Digital News Association released the first part of its report series on the United States’ newsrooms. A large focus of this installment is online activity for both radio and television news. For the survey’s radio respondents, 55.5% said they started an important online venture in 2016. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Many slides and missives from Radiodays Europe, plus a smattering of other news from around the audio and radio world. Continue Reading