Yesterday Pandora delivered one of its happiest quarterly reports in a couple of years, revealing forecast-beating annual growth in revenue and monetization efficiency. Pandora stock was rocketing up an eye-popping 25% in afternoon trading today. “We’re entering a new era… Continue Reading
NPR, WNYC Studios, WBEZ Chicago, and This American Life have joined forces to acquire podcasting app Pocket Casts. Owen Grover, formerly executive vice president and general manager of iHeartRadio, will join Pocket Casts as its new CEO. Continue Reading
Cadence13 and Nielsen have released a research report titled The Purchasing Power of Podcast Listeners, the first in a series that will examine the behaviors and trends within this audience. The first report explores listeners of shows about sports, society & culture, and television & movies and their spending habits in the consumer packaged good categories of snacks, carbonated beverages, and beauty products. Continue Reading
Joel Sucherman has been promoted to the newly created role of Vice President, New Platform Partnerships at NPR. For nearly 10 years Sucherman developed the network’s digital portfolio as Senior Director, Digital Products. Continue Reading
The New York Times has hired Amanda McCartney as director of audio and podcasts. In this newly created position, McCartney will be responsible for selling the Times’ podcasts in collaboration with the publisher’s advertising team and working with direct-response podcast agencies. Continue Reading
Disney is taking the plunge into podcasting. During its NewFront presentation in New York City, the entertainment giant has announced that the Disney Digital Network will release at least one podcast this year. Continue Reading
Spotify shared its first quarterly earnings report since the company listed on the New York Stock Exchange last month. Despite a solid performance in listener and subscriber numbers, Wall Street was unimpressed with the results. Spotify’s stock price sunk after the data was released, falling from about $170 per share to about $153 per share. Continue Reading
audioBoom is contributing to “Better Hearing Month” (May) by launching the Listen-In Campaign in collaboration with the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Starkey provides hearing aids and healthcare to people with hearing impairment in 100 countries. The podcast company has enlisted at least 16 podcasts it represents to participate in the fundraising. Continue Reading
SoundCloud announced that Nancy Hood is joining the audio platform in the role of senior vice president, listener. In this capacity, Hood will lead the growth and expansion of SoundCloud’s global consumer listener business, including consumer subscriptions and advertising. Continue Reading
Spotify has announced a new deal with Instagram for an integration with the social network. Also, Music Business Worldwide reports that long-time exec Angela Watts is leaving the company. Continue Reading
Billboard is adjusting how it calculates streaming equivalents for two of its charts, as was previously discussed last fall. The new equations will give greater weight to streams from paid subscription on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard 200 charts. Continue Reading
Apple announced its financial results for the second quarter ending March 31. The tech giant reported quarterly revenue of nearly $61.14 billion. That’s a 4% increase from the second quarter of 2017. Quarterly earnings rose 30% on-year to $2.73 per diluted share. Continue Reading