Only one-third of Brits consume information via news brands by Jack Benjamin
The new Media Nations report from Ofcom finds only 34% of the UK public consume news either via print or online news brands. Podcasting performs well as a method for distributing news, allowing legacy news companies to generate ad revenue and reach newer audiences. TouchPoints data shows for all adults aged 15+, just 3% are consuming podcasts made by newspapers or magazines. A noteworthy bit of data in the TouchPoints findings is in the 55+ demographic, where 31% of respondents consume podcasts produced by radio stations, 14% higher than the overall average population. Which makes the case for stations to produce ‘catch-up radio’ podcasts of their shows, as the 55+ demographic is largely underserved.
Spotify is raising its prices yet again by Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson
A blog post published yesterday by Spotify announced Premium subscriptions would increase in markets across South/Southwest Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific regions. An example email shows starting in September billing in regions using the Euro will go from 10,99 € to 11,99 €. Discussing the same price-hike, Bob Lefsetz levels an acerbic finger at the music industry at large for stagnation that has led to a world where a massive music app finds more success in being a multimedia app. HBO had The Sopranos to jump-start both HBO and prestige TV as an artform. Netflix burst onto the ‘legitimate’ TV scene with House of Cards. Podcasting had its Serial moment over a decade ago. Music labels, by comparison, have not cracked an album that both elevated music and that particular company in a long time.
Reactions to the Bloomberg Wondery Article
In response to yesterday’s article alleging Amazon was effectively shuttering Wondery, ABC News Executive Producer, Podcast Programming Laura Mayer wrote a piece on the podcasting industry. In the Bloomberg article, an internal memo cited the industry changes brought on by video as a reason why narrative podcasts are being offloaded elsewhere. Mayer pushes against the premise narrative podcasting is unfeasible or slipping in the video world, reflecting on her childhood experience with legacy narratives like This American Life, and her experience producing Shameless Acquisition Target. TechCrunch has an article saying Amazon denies Bloomberg’s reporting that Wondery is being shut down. Instead, a statement from Amazon clarifies that Wondery’s narrative podcasts are being merged into Audible branding while personality-driven podcasts remain under the Wondery brand. TechCrunch’s reporting of the Amazon statement does not address Bloomberg’s source claiming 110 Wondery jobs will be eliminated during this restructuring process.
Xiaomi Unveils New AI Voice Model to Boost Auto, Home Tech by Yuan Gao
The new open source voice model released by Xiaomi Corp is built to compliment automotive and appliance tech. This marks a continuation of Xiaomi’s expansion outside of their original core smartphone business, with electric cars becoming a significant market that has married into an overall tech race in China to improve AI. On that note of being able to talk to an actual good AI assistant while driving: agnostic of which company or car model pulls it off, effortless voice control of apps while driving could be a boon for in-car podcast listening, as it would empower changing content on the fly.
As for the rest of the news…
- Listener.com founder Casey Adams has announced an official integration with newsletter platform beehiiv that’ll feed newsletter analytics back into podcasters’ Listener dashboard.
- Podscribe has a bundle of new upgrades to reporting, including By Campaign and Device reports, expanded international coverage in the Podscribe Ranker, and genre-level insights in their Lag Reports.
- The New York Times is expanding The Athletic, with two new podcast licensing deals to expand their subscriber base.
- Westwood One and Cumulus Media’s Pierre Bouvard has a new piece looking at the relationship of brand awareness and sales effect.
- Keegan Hipgrave’s podcast Keegan & Co. joins iHeart Australia.
- Riverside has launched a beta test of podcast hosting/RSS feed distribution, along with a tutorial video showing off the feature.
