Spotify has reached a settlement with Wixen. The independent publisher filed a $1.6 billion lawsuit against the streaming service at the start of the year on claims that Spotify had hosted tens of thousands of compositions from Wixen without the correct mechanical licenses. Continue Reading
Warner Music Group released its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending September 30, 2018. Quarterly revenue increased 13.3% to $1.039 billion, with $596 million of that stemming from digital sources. For the full fiscal year, total revenue was $4.005 billion, up 12%, and total digital revenue for the year was $2.252 billion. Continue Reading
The latest survey from Adobe Analytics explored trends within smart speaker ownership. The majority of respondents (63%) are using their devices in their living room. The popularity of smart speakers in living spaces could guide how manufacturers and how voice skills further develop. Continue Reading
Midroll Media released a roundup of all eleven podcast ad effectiveness studies it commissioned from Nielsen during 2018. The studies demonstrated positive results for podcast advertising. The first top-line result is that the format generated up to 4.4 times better brand recall than display advertisements. Continue Reading
Pandora has hired a new head of country programming. Jennifer Danielson joins Pandora after almost 10 years with CMT, where she was most recently the director of music strategy. She will oversee programming for country music, which Pandora says draws more than 30 million unique listeners to the service every month. Continue Reading
Laura Walker is stepping down from her post as the president and CEO of New York Public Radio. Her departure marks the end of 23 years at the helm of the public radio operation. Walker guided New York Public Radio from its roots as a city-owned station to an independent nonprofit composed of eight radio stations and many other media properties. Continue Reading
Podtrac has published its ranker of the top podcasts for November 2018, which includes the company’s recently adopted verification labels. Fourteen of the top twenty shows of November are taking advantage of Podtrac’s verified platform. Continue Reading
Cadence13 has partnered with television channel TNT to produce a companion podcast for one of its upcoming programs. Root of Evil is an eight-part podcast about the Hodel family and their connection to the Black Dahlia murder. Yvette Gentile and Rasha Pecoraro, the daughters of Fauna Hodel, host the podcast. Continue Reading
Amplifi Media CEO Steve Goldstein gives some attention and respect to time-shifted audio. He argues that the broader industry should do the same; here’s why. Continue Reading
Tidal introduced a new personalized playlist to its feature set. The streaming service’s My Mix blends algorithm-generated recommendations with insights from its human-curated playlists to create listening recommendations based on an individual’s tastes. Continue Reading
Apple paid up a chunk of change and fended off a challenge in European courts in order to acquire Shazam. Now that the audio-identification app is officially under Apple’s umbrella, the first changes are happening under the new leadership. Continue Reading
Blubrry announced that it is the first podcast-hosting service provider to receive certification of its podcast statistics by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab. National Public Radio is the other podcasting outfit to receive certification under the IAB guidelines. Continue Reading