The first episode of Carpool Karaoke: The Series aired on Apple Music this week. The show’s debut demonstrates an ongoing shift in Apple’s aspirations and in what the company’s place in the entertainment world will be. Continue Reading
Europe’s Nordic region continues to be a standard-setter for digital music adoption. The Polaris Nordic Digital Music Survey 2017 surveyed residents in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark about their listening habits. It found that 80% of all inhabitants between the ages of 12 and 65 used at least one streaming service in the past year. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: Audiobooks versus podcasts; Rap Caviar gets video; happy birthday to 8tracks! Continue Reading
Deezer has added support for the Google Home smart speaker in select markets. The voice controls let you access your Deezer library, and Google Home owners can ask the device directly to play their Flow playlist, a lean-back selection of personalized music choices. Continue Reading
The New York Times has published a data visualization comparing the popularity of top artists across the U.S. The publication used a cross-section of Billboard’s Top 100 artists and YouTube viewing data to create heat maps of where those performers are listened to the most (and the least). The artist maps offer insight into where and how some newer big acts got their surge to the top, who is keeping the familiar names atop the charts, and which regions have the most die-hard fan support for local heroes. And yes, there are some interesting surprises. Continue Reading
Short-form podcasting app Anchor has added a new feature designed for posting audio to social networks. The mobile app has added a tool to create a video clip with transcriptions of the audio playing. Those videos can be shared to platforms including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Continue Reading
CBS News Radio has switched distribution partners. Skyview Networks will be the new distributor starting in 2018. The exclusive multi-year agreement ends CBS News Radio’s relationship with Westwood One. Continue Reading
The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has unanimously upheld a ruling against the Personal Audio podcasting patent. The latest court decision is another win for both the EFF and the podcasting community after a few tense years in court. Continue Reading
The Podtrac publisher rankings showed little change after a comparative shake-up in June. The updates for the latest month are that Radiotopia, a regular name on this list, has been combined with the shows from parent network PRX. Both are now listed together as PRX, and landed at No. 4. Continue Reading
Tidal has hired a new CEO, its fourth in about two years. Richard Sanders is the latest exec to enter a post that has become a revolving door for the niche streaming service. Former SoundCloud exec Jeff Toig exited Tidal’s top role in March. Continue Reading
iHeartMedia Networks Group President Darren Davis has agreed to a four-year contract extension, a month before his 25th anniversary with the company. He began his iHeart (and radio) career as an intern at WASH-FM in Washington, D.C. Continue Reading
The Australian Radio Network announced that it would adopt AdsWizz technology on iHeartRadio, to offer programmatic buying to its advertisers. The broadcaster is calling it “one-to-one targeted audio advertising.” Continue Reading