Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify, has often been quoted taking the long view of the streaming music industry, and the destiny of his company. Today is a milestone in Spotify’s business history, as SPOT begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Memorializing the moment, Ek posted a letter on his company’s internal blog. “We are only in the second inning,” he said. Continue Reading
Things are looking good for Amazon’s musical efforts these days. Amazon is amassing a growing music audience that now numbers “tens of millions” of paying customers, while its Amazon Music Unlimited program has more than doubled its subscriber count in the past six months. The success of smart speakers and a growing number of Prime membership subscribers have been the main factors in Amazon’s music audience expansion, according to a top exec. Continue Reading
Podcast company Podbean has unveiled an update to its statistics, making them fully compliant with the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines. The revised system will be released starting April 3. The company noted that the changes will probably lead to a reduction in the numbers reported to its users. Continue Reading
Rhapsody International has promoted Brian Ringer to a new role within the streaming music company. His new position is as executive vice president and general manager for Asia Pacific, and he’ll be responsible for strategic growth in the market. Continue Reading
James Cridland’s Future of Radio is a column by the Australia-based radio futurologist. THIS WEEK: Many sources weigh in on the death, life, and longevity of radio, plus plenty of other news from across the audio world. Continue Reading
The Atlantic shared two announcements to its podcasting program. First, the publisher has hired Katherine Wells as its first executive producer of podcasts. Second, The Atlantic is launching its third podcast in May. Continue Reading
DAX, the digital audio exchange from broadcaster Global, has released research into the outlook for digital audio advertising in the UK. The data from research firm MTM examined the sentiments toward digital audio held by advertisers and media agencies. Interest is generally high, with 80% expecting to put more money into digital audio over the coming year. Continue Reading
Consequence of Sound, a music news blog, has made two moves into building out its in-house audio content business. First, today the company announced the launch of the Consequence Podcast Network. In addition, AdLarge has told RAIN News that its digital audio division cabana entered a podcast advertising sales partnership with Consequence of Sound. Continue Reading
TuneIn announced a new subscription offering specifically for accessing its audio content on Amazon Alexa. TuneIn Live offers access to premium live audio from the company, including news stations, talk shows, and professional sporting events, on smart speakers. Continue Reading
Podcast network Wondery has secured a $5 million funding round. The money will go toward expanding its podcast lineup and make new hires. Greycroft, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and Shari Redstone’s Advancit Capital led the round. Continue Reading
Today marks the launch of Clipisode, a group video creation app which makes it easy to create crowdsourced group video podcasts. Though not marketed explicitly to radio or podcasters, Clipisode seems ideal for engaging listeners on a parallel platform, and was tested by radio DJs and podcasters. Continue Reading
Apple Music is getting an update that will place a spotlight on videos. The main “browse” tab now includes a music video section. The newest version of the streaming service comes with the iOS 11.3 update today. Continue Reading