Amazon announced a rollout of several products in Canada. First, the Echo suite of smart speakers and the Alexa voice control system have launched in the country. Second, Amazon has launched Prime Music for Canadian listeners. Continue Reading
Kickstarter has relaunched the subscription service Drip. The crowdfunding site acquired Drip in March 2016, saving the platform from shutting down. In its original form, Drip allowed fans to subscribe to individual performers. Under Kickstarter’s umbrella, the subscriptions will still be for individuals, but more than musicians can participate. Continue Reading
YouTube has entered a partnership with Ticketmaster for a deal that will allow artists to include tour dates on their official music videos. The new feature will roll out first to any artists with North America Ticketmaster shows. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group has signed a licensing deal to bring its catalog to Mdundo, a streaming service in Africa. The company offers both streaming and downloads, although the Warner library will only be available to stream. Mdundo has both ad-supported and paid streaming options. Continue Reading
Pandora announced new integrations with Sonos wireless home speakers. Listeners can control their music played on a Sonos device with the Pandora mobile app. It’s difficult to predict whether a company like Sonos, one that doesn’t operate its own in-house voice assistant, will see a benefit from being service-agnostic. Continue Reading
Edison Research and the Knight Foundation collaborated for a study investigating the podcast audience, with interviews of nearly 29,000 podcast listeners. All of the participants are age 18 or older and listen to at least one audio podcast from NPR, WNYC, American Public Media, WBUR, PRX, or Gimlet Media. A comparison of these results with the more general habits detailed in The Infinite Dial surveys show some marked distinctions between casual and serious podcast listeners. Continue Reading
Latin American digital audio specialist Audio.ad announced the launch of AudioTrade, its own programmatic demand-side platform. AudioTrade will allow agencies and advertisers to purchase digital audio advertising for online radio, music streaming, and podcasts. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: A look into Spotify’s use of data and machine learning. Analysis of radio listening in Switzerland. Continue Reading
Podcasting company Acast has hired Guy Scott-Wilson as the content director for Australia. In this position with Acast, he will be responsible for expanding the company’s presence and local content strategy. Continue Reading
Spotify has hired a new managing director for the region of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Michael Krause was most recently at Deezer, spending a year as CEO of EMEA for the music company. Continue Reading
VSporto, a network of sports podcasts, has entered a deal with Gow Media to have its programming syndicated on SB Nation Radio. The partnership will see VSporto’s shows air on more than 100 SB Nation stations affiliates on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings from 11 pm to 7 am CST. VSporto’s shows cover college sports, the NFL, and the NBA. Continue Reading
August webcast listening showed a 4% increase across the board in Triton Digital’s Top 20 Webcast Metrics report for August, with each streaming entity in the group gaining ground from July. That unanimity is rare. Continue Reading