In June, PRX and Google announced a new year of the accelerator, training, and funding program that was first formed in October, 2018. Today comes the announcement of winners. Twenty podcast teams from around the world, working in six languages across 11 countries, will benefit from training, mentoring, and funding up to $12,000 each. Click through for all the details. Continue Reading
Google has raised its game in programmatic audio. Google’s broad digital advertising platform, Ad Manager, is getting audio programmatic for the first time. Additionally, Google’s DV360 is enhancing its existing tools. DV360 is the abbreviated brand name of Display & Video 360, formerly called DoubleClick. The systems stumbles over RSS feeds, perhaps slowing adoption ion podcasting, though independent distribution platforms like Spotify and Pandora work fine. Continue Reading
Google Play Music will reportedly be shuttered. The timetable? September for Australia and New Zealand, October for everyone else. Users will have until end-of-year to retrieve their cloud-stored music. The existing YouTube Music will take over as Google’s on-demand streaming service. This shift is helpful to what has been Google’s audio-related miasma of branding. Continue Reading
PRX, Google’s partner in the Google Podcasts creator program, is announcing a new year of the accelerator, training, and funding program that was first formed in October, 2018. The program’s mission is to provide a global audio community with open resources, empower underrepresented voices, and showcase new work. The 2020 focus differs from 2019. Continue Reading
Google has unveiled an analytics tool for its podcast platform. The Google Podcasts Manager is the first move by Google to put data and analysis into the hands of creators using its service to distribute their shows. Continue Reading
Alphabet has released its first-quarter results, including figures and stats for YouTube. YouTube ads generated $4.04 billion in revenue. Continue Reading
Voicebot.ai has released its latest report on U.S. smart speaker adoption. According to its most recent surveys, the U.S. smart speaker installed base has grown 32% to 87.7 million adults. Continue Reading
Google is introducing some adjustments to its voice assistant’s responsiveness. A blog post outlined new tweaks to setting up Voice Match with Google Assistant, as well as fine-tuning how likely it is to be activated. Continue Reading
Google is launching a livestreamed video series to inform users about the capabilities of voice technology. The monthly series, VOICE Talks Presented by Google Assistant, will be created by a partnership between Google and digital content experts Modev Productions. Continue Reading
Pod Drop features new, interesting, and returning podcasts. Today, new shows from Gimlet & Google, BMW, and Grow Your Mind. Continue Reading
Google Assistant can now use a Sonos speaker as its default hardware. Sonos hardware received updates this week that will allow those devices to be the primary player for requests of the voice assistant. Continue Reading
Strategy Analytics released its latest analysis on the global smart speaker market. Its Q4 results found that Amazon is still the top brand by market share, followed by Google, although both are being challenged by companies in China. Continue Reading