The awaited opening of YouTube Podcasts has arrived. Podcasts have long been posted to YouTube, of course, but until now there has not been a structured presentation of them, or promotion and discovery tools specifically for them. It is detached from traditional RSS distribution. Click through for details and images. Continue Reading
Jottings of Note
— Pre-Audible … Way Pre (NY Times)
— Taking the Measure (Westwood One)
— End of an Executive Era (YouTube)
Popular listening platforms, from streaming music to broadcast radio, have stepped into podcasting by pulling podcasting onto their platforms, mostly through acquisitions. Alphabet/Google/YouTube is taking a somewhat different tack, offering six-figure grants to podcasters and podcast networks to create video versions of their shows. This according to Bloomberg, which cites anonymous sources. Continue Reading
For his latest collection, music superstar Ed Sheeran is partnering with YouTube Shorts by producing one Short for each song. YouTube Shorts is the video behemoth’s competitive stab at Tik Tok. Continue Reading
The headline is that YouTube has its first home-built podcast, but the deeper story is that it’s a bottoms-up collaboration with National Public Media (NPM), the sponsorship sales division of NPR. Click for details. Continue Reading
The number includes current trials, but is still impressive: YouTube Music crossed the 50-million mark in subscribers. Lyer Cohen, head of YouTube Music, says “We’re in our own lane.” Much of the growth is international, especially Asia and South America. Continue Reading
Over 176 different songs surpassed 1 billion video views on micro-video platform TikTok. That from the company’s first annual music report. Over 70 artists have broken on the platform, and landed major label deals. While major surveys put YouTube as a leading music discovery environment, TikTok seems determined to build recognition for its role in finding and sharing songs. Continue Reading
Due partly to momentum stretching back years, and partly due to changed listening routines during the 2020 pandedmic, YouTube now serves 2-billion music users. This according to Mark Mulligan, head of MIDiA Research in the UK. Click through for metrics, a graph, and links. Continue Reading
The warning is clear, though without a timeline: “You will soon lose access to Google Play Music.” That’s what Android users see when they open the Google Play Music app — Google’s would-be direct competitor to Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. Users are advised to transfer their accounts to YouTube Music, where the subscriptions will continue. YouTube Music is a starkly different UEX environment and library proposition. 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
Alphabet has released its first-quarter results, including figures and stats for YouTube. YouTube ads generated $4.04 billion in revenue. Continue Reading
Short-form video has been a huge focus for Internet and media culture, and the field could be seeing some shifts. First, TikTok is moving to make its massively popular platform more in line with the major labels. Second, YouTube isn’t going to cede its video crown to the newer rival just yet. Continue Reading