The new YouTube Music app has been rolling out gradually through the vast population of Android users. How does the refreshed app look and feel? How effectively does it surface YouTube’s immensely deep catalog? Continue Reading
SoundMachine announced that its Business Premium powered by Napster music service has launched in the UK. The corporate-focused premium music service offers scheduling and management features from SoundMachine alongside Napster’s music programming and catalog. Continue Reading
Tencent Music Entertainment is planning for an IPO in the United States, and the move could mean a windfall for several big music companies. Stakeholders in the Tencent music branch include Sony/ATV Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, and Universal Music Group. Continue Reading
Cadence13 is partnering with a pair of true crime storytellers for a new podcast investigating the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Marc Smerling and Zac Stuart-Pontier, who also co-created the Crimetown podcast and The Jinx television series, will be working on the new show, titled The RFK Tapes. The first episode is out today, on the 50th anniversary of his death. Continue Reading
This year, Apple focused its WWDC keynote entirely on its software and operating systems. That choice meant the presentation didn’t get into any big-ticket numbers about the company’s entertainment services. However, Apple has made some updates to add functionality to both its Podcasts and Apple Music platforms. Continue Reading
Several podcast companies have made headlines with fundraising news, and VCs seem ready to keep opening their wallets. TechCrunch monitored some of the recent developments of money funneling into podcast operations and found large leaps in both the number and dollar value of deals made in 2017. Continue Reading
YouTube is the top social media platform for American teenagers. That’s the result from the latest Pew Research Center survey of teens and social media, which found YouTube besting services from Instagram to Reddit with 85% of U.S. teens using the platform. Continue Reading
Podbean has launched its own supply-side platform for programmatic advertising. Its new PodAds service will offer targeted ad buys that are dynamically inserted into podcasts hosted on the network. Advertisers and media buyers can use PodAds to set their ad budget and select the shows to run them on by their desired geographic and category areas. Continue Reading
YouTube has hired Tuma Basa as its new director of urban music, confirming the move that had been circulating on the gossip mills for a few months. Basa was previously the top hip-hop curator at Spotify, where he built the Rap Caviar playlist into a must-listen destination for fans of the genre. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Mary Meeker’s annual Internet trends report, plus other news and views from the audio landscape. Continue Reading
Digital audio technology company AdsWizz won the Drum Digital Trading Award in the category of Best Overall Technology for Programmatic Trading. Of special note is that this awards program, which has been running annually since 2014, covers all media categories for digital advertising. So the top placement is not only a celebratory moment for the company, but a spotlight on the maturation of digital audio as an important programmatic advertising medium. Continue Reading
Start-up Scout.fm is elbowing its way into the crossover space of podcast listening smart speakers. The platform began as a series of experiments on the Amazon Alexa platform and after testing many different voice skills, the team developed a podcast service that tailors recommendations to each listener’s preferences. Continue Reading