In what might be the first podcast credibility ratings service, watchdog company NewsGuard has launched a data product for podcast streaming platforms which will, in the company’s words, “enable safe, responsible advertising on news and information podcasts.” Click for a lot more detail. Continue Reading
by Steve Goldstein
Streamlining is essential in any business, RAIN columnist Steve Goldstein asserts, from AT&T to Amazon to Major League Baseball … and, podcasting. Thanks to the creep of complexity, it’s taking more time to make an episode of a show or traffic an ad. Steve has got suggestions. Continue Reading
Dow Jones and TuneIn have announced a collaboration in which WSJ Radio will join the streaming audio giant with a dedicated 24-hour channel. TuneIn Premium subscribers will hear an ad-free presentation; anyone can listen to the ad-supported version. It’s not the first audio dance for Dow Jones. Continue Reading
The State of Podcasting 2023 is the ambitious title of a new iHeartMedia report. If the title reaches high, the data scale upwards too. The reach of podcasting, measured by daily listening. has soared upward for all age groups in timelines going back to 2015. There is also an interesting result when you put podcast listening next to Netflix subscriptions. Click for details, charts, and a download link. Continue Reading
The recently released Cumulus Media 2023 Audioscape study offers a deep dive into podcasting, smart speakers, and the status of AM/FM radio in those relatively new home speakers. Click through for charts, and a link to the study. Continue Reading
Today’s loudest buzz is about YouTube music, which has enabled podcast listening. The extension of RSS-driven podcast listening to YouTube Music enables web-based YouTube users to continue a partially heard podcast on one platform, to the other. Some users (and we) have uncovered gaps in the podfolio. Despite that, we find the YT Music podcatcher works essentially as in Google Podcasts. Continue Reading
After Spotify’s Q1 earnings report this week, we review the company’s responses to investor questions about podcasting and future new audio categories. Continue Reading
Only four newcomers cracked Triton Digital’s Podcast Report for March, , which ranks the top 100 podcasts by average weekly downloads. The top-10 cohort remained the same with some order shuffling. Click for lots of detail. Continue Reading
In nearly every listening metric, the Boomer generation lags younger groups when it comes to involvement in online audio generally, and podcasting specifically. That’s the conclusion of an interesting and revealing collection of data from Edison Research and NPR. Boomers act differently from younger groups in key audio-related behaviors, making older listeners clearly identifiable and attractive. Click for takeaways and a link to the study. Continue Reading
Spotify notified us of a new venture and technology accomplishment — called “broadcast-to-podcast,” it enables radio broadcasters a specialized tool that makes it simple to turn their existing audio content into on-demand podcast content. This repurposing is accomplished with two of Spotify’s acquisitions: Australia-based Whooshkaa and U.S.-based Megaphone. Click for lots of detail. Continue Reading
“Good job I don’t write radio commercials any more,” observes guest columnist James Cridland, who has explored AI in that regard. The result? Synthetic commercial copy, read by a synthetic voice. Click through to hear it. Also: The world’s biggest broadcaster, statistics about Canadian radio, and more. Continue Reading
Edison Research has performed an interesting and ingenious calculation, likening podcast category success to baseball batting average metric. (See it HERE.) The result (in the graphic below) shows True Crime as the highest-hitting (as it were) podcast batting average. Click through for the rationale, an explanation of how it works, and the graphic list.
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