A new study by Signal Hill Insights, the Toronto-based research firm headed by Jeff Vidler, focuses on brand lift — increased awareness of a brand name when being exposed to it in a podcast ad. The research results are published on Pierre Bouvard’s Westwood One blog. Click through for details and key summary points. 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
Triton Digital has released its U.S. Podcast Report, an every-four-week rolling weekly average of downloads and listeners. This report covers the July 6 through August 2 period. Most remarkable is the stability of this report compared to the previous one. And we noticed the same thing in our previous coverage. Click through for details. Continue Reading
If Q2 was the Covid Quarter, NPR was infected. The U.S. public radio network lost about a quarter of its audience during that period. The main influence? Loss of morning and evening car commuting. But this trend is balanced by shifts to in-home device listening, increasing reach overall. Podcast revenue will surpass broadcast ad revenue for the first time. Click through for details. Continue Reading
The Australian Podcast Awards have sent our PR with details of this year’s program. The info includes submission date (September 1) rules changes from last year, and a full listing of categories and their descriptions. Click through for specifics, and to download the official PDF. Continue Reading
We received a notice that Lloyd Braun’s Whalerock Industries has founded a new podcast network: Echoverse, which will be devoted to science fiction, supernatural, and fantasy programming. No podcasts are live yet, but nine are planned. CEO Mark Stern has a deep background in TV and film. Accordingly, Echoverse will serve as both a podcast network and an incubator of extensible content for film and TV. Click through for details. Continue Reading
by Jeff Umbro
In this week’s column, Podglomerate CEO Jeff Umbro provides news and commentary about the PRX controversy, Libsyn’s financials, Spotify strategy, and an illuminasting infographic of the media corporate landscape. Continue Reading
We’ve been writing about AudioGo, the audio advertising buying platform from AdsWizz, for over a year, as it moved through a public beta. During this time the service added testing partners including Entravision and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Today the company announces that the service is emerging from beta into a full-on ad-buying service available to all. The platform now has several new features designed to support smaller buyers looking to capitalize on increasing audio consumption. The cost of entry is surprisingly low. Continue Reading
Thought Apple wasn’t very keen on online radio? Yeah, James Cridland did too. In this guest column, the famed radio futurologist reviews the newly rebranded Apple Music 1 Radio. Continue Reading
In the first online-only version of the annual IAB Podcast Upfront, the virtual format is allowing a greatly expanded version of the event. The 2020 edition of this podcast showcase to advertisers expands from one day to three days. While past years have spotlighted 12 podcast networks at most, this year will feature 20. The speaker list is loaded with celebrities. Click through for details. Continue Reading
Stream listening in June was a mixed story: A lift of only one percent month-over-month for the entire cohort, but 12 brands experienced month-over-month gain of 5% or more. Steady leader Pandora, whose stream volume sways the entire report, was almost exactly flat from May to June. The second-ranked entity, iHeartRadio, enjoyed an upward spike of five percent. The percentage leader in June was AccuRadio, up 11%. Continue Reading
Changes at Apple Music. The Beats 1 global live-streamed station undergoes a branding change, morphing into Apple Music Radio. More descriptive, if also more bland. Additionally, two new stations are created, forming a small ecosystem of streamed programming: Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country. All three stations are available in 165 countries. Zane Lowe remains as creative director. Continue Reading