James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Updates from across the radio and audio industries in the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, and South Africa. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Highlights from the Third Coast. How much do analytics matter in podcast advertising? Too much of a good thing is a bad thing, even when it’s holiday music. Continue Reading
AudioBoom has announced its membership in IAB UK, the United Kingdom arm of the Internet Advertising Bureau. It is the first podcast network to have accredited membership into the UK branch of the organization. Continue Reading
In the September report of Triton Digital’s Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker, overall stream listening inched upward a bit (one percent from thee previous month), and a couple of entities moved significantly. Continue Reading
Taylor Swift’s latest album has landed on all streaming services. The pop singer kept Reputation off streaming services for three weeks after its November 10 release date. At launch, the album was only available by digital download or as a physical copy. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio has reached 1 million registered users in Australia. The online audio company rolled out a new app for iHeartRadio Australia in February and also rolled out its podcasting library this year. Continue Reading
Sirius XM has added support for Apple CarPlay to its iOS app. The in-vehicle support means car owners with the CarPlay can connect their phone to access channels, on-demand episodes, and other favorite content. Continue Reading
Spotify is reportedly in talks with China’s Tencent Holdings about a potential swap of stakes in advance of both companies’ planned public listings. The possible development first appeared in the Wall Street Journal (paywall), which reported that the two businesses trade stakes of up to 10%. Continue Reading
Mobile app Stationhead is bringing more music into its platform. The service lets users try their hand at DJing, turning playlists into a radio-like broadcast on the app. It launched using Spotify’s API, but has now added access to Apple Music. Continue Reading
Last year, Spotify tapped into its data troves for a clever marketing campaign. This year, it’s back in action, all themed around resolutions for 2018. The push is dubbed “2018 Goals,” and it again highlights some of the unusual factoids and data points from Spotify listeners. The campaign was developed and executed in-house and covers 18 markets. Continue Reading
In what could be described as the Kerry Trainor era of SoundCloud, starting when the Vimeo ex-CEO took over the Berlin-based streaming platform, a quickened pace of product development seems to be in progress. It’s good news for the creator/uploader community which pays a lot of SoundCloud’s bills via subscriptions for cloud storage of tracks. Continue Reading
Indie label group and distributor Merlin has entered a deal with Dubset Media to open up new revenue streams. Under this arrangement, Merlin’s catalog will be added to MixBANK and MixSCAN, Dubset’s platforms for identifying music samples used in remixes and DJ sets. Continue Reading