According to a newly released consumer survey study by Adobe, twice as many smart speaker users report hearing advertisements than in the year-ago study. When you consider Amazon’s lead over Google in the realm of smart speaker devices, a general shift in the balance of advertising power could be underway as the marketplace becomes more saturated with the devices. Continue Reading
Short form audio producer SpokenLayer, best known for audio narrations of articles published by media juggernauts Heart, Tribune, TIME, and others. According to CEO Andy Lipset, the company is increasingly doing original programming production for branded content. The latest to launch is Lucky Charms Magical Mission, a leprechaun-hosted adventure to magical lands. Click through for Alexa sample. Continue Reading
Tom Webster (SVP, Edison Research) and Joel Sucherman (VP, New Platform Partnerships, NPR) held forth in a Zoom webinar to present the Smart Audio Report 2020, a collaboration of the two companies. The report consisted of a wealth of metrics, including specialty survey questions relevant to Covid-19, and “qualitative research” — videos of users talking about how they use smart assistants. Click for details. Continue Reading
Fifty-three million American adults own smart speakers. Because some people and households own multiple speakers, that adds up to 118.5-million devices — a 78% increase in overall device ownership year-over-year. This, and much other data, come from the NPR/Edison Research Smart Audio Report, released in a webinar today. Continue Reading
Google is reinventing a standard feature in smart speakers: the news update. Made famous by Amazon Echo’s “Flash Briefing,” Google’s version is invoked by “Play the news.” The initiative would bring the vast news collection capability of Google News into the voice activation realm. Continue Reading
Voice assistants have a steadily growing presence in smartphones and at-home entertainment. Now the technology is making a decisive move out onto the road with industry-leader Amazon. Continue Reading
The Spring 2018 edition of The Smart Audio Report, produced by NPR and Edison Research, will be released tomorrow (Wednesday July 18) in a 1pm webinar. It is a key research report about the adoption and use of smart speakers, arguably the most important new distribution platform since smartphones. In a teaser release, NPR and Edison have revealed a few key findings. Continue Reading
Canalys, a British research firm, has released its latest projections for smart speakers. The company anticipates that the smart speaker installed base will reach 100 million by the end of 2018. By 2020, it estimates the installed base will reach 225 million units. Continue Reading
Nielsen has released an Audio Today Report, this one including some metrics around the use of, and interest in, smart speakers and streaming services. Outside of that focus, the report examines the reach of Black and Hispanic listeners to radio, both now and over five years. Continue Reading
Sonos has filed an IPO. According to the paperwork, the wireless speaker company is looking to raise up to $100 million with the public offering. It said that as of March 31, it has sold 19 million products to 6.9 million households. Continue Reading
Guest columnist Steve Pratt is co-owner and Partner of Pacific Content. In this piece, he compares smart speakers in 2018 to the iPod in 2004. In 2004, the new iPod was “waiting for the podcast to be invented.” If smart speakers are poised in a similar moment, what sort of content might be in the future? Continue Reading
So far, voice assistants are commonly used to access audio entertainment, but as the technology advances, the next step could involve commerce and shopping. Voicebot and Voysis have collaborated on a report pointing to the future of voice shopping. The analysis predicts that, due to the high rates of ownership (79.8%), many people will first be introduced to voice assistant shopping on smartphones. Continue Reading