In eMarketer’s latest projection of ad revenue to podcasting, the market research company forecasts two headline points: 1) Podcasting ad revenue will surpass $1-billion in 2021, and 2) Podcast ad revenue will capture 20% of digital radio ad spending in 2020. Click through for a chart and the company’s forecast of programmatic ad buying in podcasting. Continue Reading
iHeartRadio, one of the world’s largest podcast publishers, and Tongal, a content creation and talent crowdsourcing platform, are teaming up on The Next Great Podcast, an open call for submissions to win resources for developing a new iHeartRadio podcast. Tongal, which has been a resource for film production, will likely gain more recognition in podcasting with this venture. Semi-finalists get $1,000 each, and the winner gets an on-ramp to making an iHeartRadio podcast. Continue Reading
In its recent Q2 earnings call, Sirius XM discussed streaming, its multiple acquisitions, and podcasting in some detail. Remarks about podcasting are quite interesting, somewhat shading the industry as young and largely immature, while evangelizing the production and marketing power of SiriusXM. Click through for many quotes. Continue Reading
In a consumer-friendly infographic, Spotify highlighted some key (non-finance) results related to its Q2 earnings report last week. Juuust under 300-million users now, and 138-million subscribers. And the service is available in 92 countries. Click through to see the whole thing. Continue Reading
It’s not binding legislation. The Local Radio Freedom Act is a resolution bill which declares support among House Representatives in D.C. for opposing a performance royalty levied on American radio. As of this week, with the addition of 12 new signatures, the current House of Representatives is not majority aligned against a royalty … which the NAB calls a “tax.” Advocacy group musicFIRST sent us an opposition statement. Continue Reading
Pandora is releasing a raft of survey results gleaned from a study conducted by the streaming company in league with Publicis Media Exchange and Edison Research. The purpose is for advertisers to better understand levels of consumer adoption of streaming. Pandora is releasing a raft of survey results gleaned from a study conducted by the streaming company in league with Publicis Media Exchange and Edison Research. The purpose is for advertisers to better understand levels of consumer adoption of streaming. Click through for extensive results/ Continue Reading
Pandora is announcing that its Alexa “skill” set now includes podcast listening and controls. In addition to the basic hook-up between Alexa and Pandora’s podcasts, the new skill set includes a request for a specific episode (“Alexa, play the latest episode of Ted Talks Daily”), requesting an episode by topic (“Alexa, play the Ted Talks Daily episode about procrastination”) and using playback controls for hands-free podcast control while in the skill. Continue Reading
SiriusXM held its Q2 earnings call, during which the cost of the recently acquired Stitcher was revealed — it is $265-million. Buying Simplecast cost the satellite company $28-million. The earnings call also reminded investors of a February SoundCloud investment of $75-million. On the financial side, Sirius subscription revenue notched up a bit from the same quarter in 2019.
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The Insider Interviews podcast, created and hosted by marketing strategist and journalist E.B. Moss has posted a new episode featuring a live chat with RAIN president Brad Hill, and an excerpt of the recently produced RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit. Click through to listen/see the video version. Continue Reading
In a webinar yesterday, Megan Vartan (Edison Research) and Jayne Charneski, Front Row Insights & Strategy), presented Radio’s Roadmap to Gen Z Listenership, a consumer survey of the so-called Zoom Generation. Zoomers, of Gen Z, are true digital natives aged… Continue Reading
The RAIN Global Podcast Leadership Summit, RAIN’s first virtual installation of its 20-year, highly regarded Summit series of business conferences, was a resounding success as two-dozen speakers from both hemispheres across 17 time zones delivered thought leadership to over 600 registered attendees. Continue Reading
We learned from Engadget that Mark and Jay Duplass have signed with Spotify to create Spotify-exclusive podcasts. This is not presented as an acquisition of the Duplass Brothers Productions firm, but that detail is unclear. What does seem clear is that the two men will jointly create new shows for Spotify, exclusively for Spotify distribution. Continue Reading