In December the Interactive Advertising Bureau announced a new annual schedule for its Podcast Upfront event, formerly in the fall. Going forward it would be a springtime event, planned for May 11-13 in 2021. Today the trade organization revealed its presenters. Continue Reading
Audacy, the new branding of both Entercom radio group and its RADIO.COM listening app, is pushing its new identity into the public sphere today by announcing the two new podcasts from subsidiary Pineapple Street Studios. The shows will enjoy exclusive full-series binge listening on Audacy, while outside podcast apps will distribute normal RSS feeds on a weekly cadence. Continue Reading
Libsyn, one of the world’s largest podcast hosting companies, announces today that it will acquire AdvertiseCast, a podcast ad planning and buying platform. The purchase is supported by $25-million in funds that the publicly traded company raised privately. While this funding is apparently motivated chiefly to enable the AdvertiseCast purchase, the investment is also intended “to provide Libsyn with additional capital for other strategic acquisitions.” Continue Reading
Today global podcast platform Acast makes public Acast+, a suite of tools giving podcasts ways of offering subscriptions to their shows as aternatives (or additions) to ad-funded shows. With Acast+, podcasters can offer ad-free streams, exclusive content, early access and much more to paying subscribers. Continue Reading
NPR announces the finalists in the netwrok’s most recent Student Podcast Challenge, targeted to college students for the first time. Fascinatingly, the contest intersected the Covid pandemic, a collision might have given students more time to focus on audio projects, and definitely influenced the content. Click through for links to each submission for listening. Continue Reading
Entercom, the second largest radio holding company in the U.S., a major podcast producer and audio streamer, has rebranded the entire organization as Audacy. Podcast subsidiaries Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios remain unchanged. Click through for lots of images of redesigned websites and the (former) RADIO.COM listening app. Continue Reading
New podcasts of note.
The Rock Podcast (PodcastOne)
Crushed(Religion of Sports / PRX)
No Kidding? Me Too! (KMG Utopia Studios)
Tinkercast, an outfit founded by renowned podcast producer Guy Raz (former host of TED Radio Hour), has reached an agreement with Sony Music to produce a slate of podcasts for kids and families. No details of future shows, but the existing podcast Wow In The World (328 episodes) is bundled into the deal. Continue Reading
As online gaming grows to huge proportions, ad tech company Audiomob has launched audio ads for mobile games, and a demand-side platform (DSP) for setting up campaigns. Related to the entwining of gaming and audio, Pandora builds a collection of videogaming playlists. Continue Reading
As with other sports, media rights in Major League Baseball are tightly controlled and splintered among many options, some free and some dependent on subscription. Now MLB is loosening its grip on streaming audio baseball games. But not entirely. Continue Reading
Podcast ad-rep company True Native Media has hired three new account executives, doubling the firm’s staff, Founder/CEO Heather Osgood announced. “Today is a huge milestone,” she said, noting that the expansion is happening merely six months after founding the company, and without external funding. Continue Reading
You know an app is buzzworthy when research organizations study it. So it is with Clubhouse, the iOS-only, Android-excluding social audio app that has quickly gained high awareness. Toronto-based Signal Hill Insights partnered with social media researcher Digital Hug in a two-phase study of usage of, and sentiment for, Clubhouse. Continue Reading