Australian podcast company Whooshkaa starts the week with a new tech development that enables its hosted podcasts to become Alexa skills. That means that the podcast can be played through an Alexa device by invoking the show name rather than accessing TuneIn, which is Alexa’s standard podcast platform. Continue Reading
Venture investors Justine and Olivia Moore analyze how venture funding and exit money are balanced between tech companies and content companies in podcasting. Tech gets most of the startup funding money, while content gets most of the exit (acquisition) money. Graphics spell it out. Continue Reading
More indications of the explosive growth in Latin music was provided by Nielsen at the Billboard Latin Music Festival last week. Population growth, demographics, and streaming metrics are all in favor. Continue Reading
Voiceflow, which seeks to be the leading drag-and-drop voice app builder, has closed a fundraising round totaling $3-million. Total fundraising over the last five months is $3.5-million. A roster of other investors reads like a Who’s Who of entrepreneurship. Continue Reading
Guest columnist Zach Fuller, of MIDiA Research, looks at the history of audio disruption, and explores how Amazon’s free streaming service could advance the company’s global aspirations. “Embellishing the Prime pipeline through a free-streaming service is effectively the same strategy that RCA employed to incentivise radio adoption.” Continue Reading
The great Luminary rollout continues. Today’s ruffle is less about publishers withdrawing from the platform, and more about technical issues. Twitter arguments in progress. And Luminary suggests that hyperlinks in show descriptions are security risks. Continue Reading
Steve Pratt of Pacific Content examines assumptions and realities of blog publishing frequency. Is daily the best setup for success? Is weekly optimal? Not necessarily in either case. Continue Reading
The Webby Awards were released this week, and the focus here is the Podcasts category. Scripps and Wondery each won a handful. Continue Reading
If smart speakers need a content hit to reach a next level (RAIN’s hypothesis, and we’re not alone), the Westworld experience on Alexa is pointing in that direction. The elaborate “skill” has won AdAge’s Creativity Award 2019 for Best Use of Voice Tech. The campaign was built by ad agency 360i. Continue Reading
Spotify’s launch in India’s listening market has proceeded with good news this year, but has reportedly hit a stumbling point in its negotiation with Saregama, India’s oldest record label. Continue Reading
In what is shaping up as a daily Luminary update, today we report more podcasts which have withdrawn permission to be included in the Luminary listening app. We learn from Podnews that Barstool Sports, a top U.S. publisher according to Podtrac’s monthly ranker, has pulled its 26 shows from Luminary. Endeavor Audio, creator of Blackout and The Bellas, is also out. Continue Reading
In a tech + tech deal, podcast platform Acast has acquired podcast hosting company Pippa. Acast’s offering and marketplace are dramatically expanded. Pippa said the acquisition is important and necessary. Continue Reading