Australia posted a 10.5% increase in its recorded music industry, reaching value of A$391 million in 2017. Last year marked the first time that streaming music revenue, at A$213 million, exceeded more than half of the music market, according to the stats from the Australian Recording Industry Association. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Spotify’s possible plans for a car player. A three-day weekend schedule at BBC Radio 1. Much more. Continue Reading
Blubrry teased a new ad-insertion feature to dynamically put advertisements in future and already published podcast episodes. The podcast company said this feature is currently being tested and will roll out “very soon” to its pro hosting customers. Continue Reading
Fruit Punch Music is a new subscription streaming service billing itself as “Spotify for kids.” The iOS app is focused entirely on children and family-friendly programming, promising a multipoint approval process to vet content. The ad-free, unlimited music service costs $3.99 per month of $24.99 for a year-long subscription. Continue Reading
The Triton Webcast Metrics Top 20 Ranker has seen Spotify’s listening metric streak upward since the music service joined the Ranker in January, 2015. Three years later, in January of this year, Spotify overtook Pandora for the first time. Continue Reading
Spotify has acquired mechanical licensing company Loudr, a move that could bring more expertise and technology into the streaming company to tackle that thorny topic. Loudr offers services to help content creators, aggregators, and music services to identify and pay mechanical royalties to publishers. Continue Reading
Podcast network Wondery announced that it has chosen DAX for its UK ad sales partner. Under the terms of the agreement, Wondery will sell its inventory through DAX, making it available to UK advertisers. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: NPR One and lessons in audience attention. Podcasts represent in the Peabody nominations. Farewell to PureVolume. Continue Reading
Spotify and Hulu are expanding their bundle deal. A joint subscription for the streaming audio and streaming video services was first announced in September. At that time, it was only available to college undergraduates. Now, the two companies have expanded the option to all customers. Continue Reading
Apple Music has a duo of updates today. First, the streaming music service has surpassed 40 million paid subscribers. The second announcement is a promotion within the ranks. Oliver Schusser has received a new title of vice president of Apple Music & International Content. Continue Reading
Cadence13 announced a new documentary podcast series about the life of baseball player David Ortiz. The four-part show about the three-time world champion with the Boston Red Sox MLB team will premiere on April 16. David Ortiz: The Big Papi Story will cover his career and pivotal moments from his life. Continue Reading
Spotify is back in the rumor mill, this time with questions about its free listening tier. Bloomberg reported that the streaming service is considering changes to improve the mobile experience. Possible changes include quicker access to playlists and more listener control over what songs they hear on select playlists. Continue Reading