Podtrac coronavirus tracking: Continuing recovery of reach and downloads

Podtrac sent us the latest weekly update of U.S. podcast listening, both in downloads and audience, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (You can see everything HERE.) Its latest data is for the week of May 11 – May 17. The happy news for the podcast industry is that with this week’s metrics, Podtrac’s view of the industry shows steady recovery from a Covid-19 low point in the week ending April 13. Continue Reading

Dolby launches Dolby.io for enhancing and analyzing audio; we discuss with Will Mayo

Audio tech company Dolby has launched Dolby.io (company details at the same address) to “enhance and analyze media at scale.” The idea is to provide a brief code package in the form of an API (Application Programming Interface) which can streamline the mastering of audio — which can be a complex and lengthy process of analysis and adjustment. To understand better how this new tool  works, and how it might be applied, we reached out to Will Mayo, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at SpokenLayer (and RAIN Summit speaker). Continue Reading

Pandora: survey results encourage advertisers during Covid-19; audio samples of streaming ads

The collapse of travel during the Covid-19 pandemic is discouraging to the tourism industry. But streaming giant Pandora is using consumer survey results to encourage advertisers to adjust their messaging in afeel-good, look-forward way. Click through for two streaming audio ads running on Pandora — from Costa Rica Tourism, and from Proctor & Gamble. Continue Reading