Good Conversation, Smart Music … Oh, and Directions. (GM)
Google is rolling out its Gemini audio chat interface to replace Google Assistant in GM vehicles built from 2022 onward. The AI‑powered system enables natural, two‑way conversation for navigation, music, podcasts, translation and casual chat, aiming to keep drivers’ hands on the wheel. The upgrade will reach more than four million eligible Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC models. Gemini also adds Dolby Atmos support for Cadillac high‑def audio.
IHeart Exec Launches a “Conversation Company” For Podcasts and Live
iHeartMedia CMO Gayle Troberman announced the launch of Bubbler Media, a "conversation company" that blends podcasts, live experiences, and audience research to help brands engage consumers. The venture is positioned as a move beyond traditional "sae" marketing, emphasizing real‑time dialogue....
IHeartMedia Makes Exclusive Deal with Citizen Skull
Citizen Skull Productions has inked a multi‑year developmental agreement with iHeartMedia, granting the podcast giant first‑look rights on all of the studio’s scripted projects. The partnership targets premium sci‑fi and horror audio series, with the inaugural title “Prodigal” slated for...
Real Results and an Attribution Void: Podscribe Benchmark Report
Podscribe released its Q1 Performance Benchmark Report, delivering the latest metrics on audio advertising across streaming, podcast, and video‑podcast formats. The data show streaming audio achieving higher conversion rates and lower costs than podcast‑only campaigns, while a larger U.S. YouTube...
IAB Event Will Focus on AI Reshaping Digital Advertising
On May 28, 2026, the IAB Tech Lab will host its annual summit in New York City, themed “Welcome to the Agentic Web.” The conference will explore how AI agents and conversational interfaces are transforming digital advertising, with three dedicated...
RAIN Notes: April 21
Bauer Media has partnered with Experian to bring data‑driven, hyper‑local targeting to its digital radio advertising. Experian’s MicromarketerG3 aligns listening areas with postal districts, feeding the audioXi platform so ads reach the right listeners in specific neighborhoods. The combined solution...
Rising Financial Metrics Mark Audioboom Q1
Audioboom reported a strong first‑quarter, posting $22.5 million in revenue, a 30% increase year‑over‑year. The high‑margin Showcase advertising marketplace drove a 63% revenue jump, while adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $1.4 million, lifting the margin to 6.2%. Monthly distribution climbed 79%...
Cumulus Media Bankruptcy Plan Approved
A federal judge in Texas has approved Cumulus Media's reorganization plan, erasing $592 million of debt and securing up to $100 million in lender financing to sustain operations. The plan keeps CEO Mary Berner and CFO Francisco Lopez‑Balboa at the helm through...
Spotify’s “Wrapped” Branding Influence … Wrapped
Spotify’s annual Wrapped feature has transcended music, spawning a branding meme that other companies now mimic to showcase personalized year‑in‑review data. The trend includes direct adoptions like Mastodon’s “Wrapstodon,” Tax Wrapped’s government‑spending visualizer, and LinkedIn’s advertiser summaries, as well as...
RAIN Notes: April 14
Jacobs Media will unveil TechSurvey 2026 results on April 23, covering radio listening habits, YouTube use, short‑form video, concert attendance, in‑car audio tech and podcast preferences. Michael Mignano joined Union Square Ventures as a general partner, completing a full‑circle journey after...
Rumor Fact(ory): DistroKid Explores $2B Sale
DistroKid, the DIY digital music distributor that claims to handle roughly 40% of new releases and serves over two million artists, is reportedly exploring a sale valued at $2 billion. The company’s last disclosed valuation was $1.3 billion in a 2021 funding...
Audiobooks, E-Books, Printed Books — a Pew Research Comparison
Pew Research’s 2026 reading‑habits survey shows print books still lead American readers, but their dominance is eroding. Audiobook consumption has risen steadily since 2015, reaching 26 percent of adults in 2025, while e‑book usage holds steady around 31 percent. Over the past...
Steve Goldstein: The Attention Economy Comes for Podcasting
Steve Goldstein argues that podcasting has been fixated on download counts, a metric that reflects distribution rather than consumption. He highlights an industry shift toward engagement indicators such as streams, completion rates, and repeat listening, mirroring practices of Spotify, YouTube,...
TV Podcast Consumption: A New Audience Study
Samba TV’s new study, Podcasts On The Big Screen, reveals that 13% of American households streamed podcasts on television in Q1 2026. The measurement leverages chip‑based data from roughly 28 million U.S. TVs and cross‑device identity matching. The metric applies to Netflix‑linked...
Spotify Enables a Pure Audio Experience with New Video-Off Setting
Spotify introduced a set of toggles that let users turn off three types of video content: short looping visuals on the Now Playing screen, full‑length music videos, and all video podcasts. The controls are available on both desktop and mobile...
RAIN Notes: April 9
AdsWizz is hosting a webinar on April 23 titled “Scaling Podcast Advertising: Unlocking Growth with Context and Confidence,” aimed at helping advertisers break through scale ceilings caused by over‑filtering and brand‑safety constraints. The session will cover where scale is lost, episode‑level...
ENCO Systems Upgrades Its DJ Replacement Technology with Upcoming Release
ENCO Systems pre‑announced an upgraded version of its aiTrack content‑insertion platform, with a formal debut slated for the NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas. The new aiTrack is a fully cloud‑native, automation‑agnostic solution that leverages large language models, real‑time data...
Spotify Launches New Playlist Technology for Smarter Podcast Streaming
Spotify is extending its Prompted Playlist feature from music to podcasts, allowing the AI‑driven tool to auto‑generate podcast queues based on listening history and real‑time signals. The rollout is limited to Premium subscribers in Canada, the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and...
APM / Streamguys Join to Launch New Marketplace for Podcasting and Livestreaming
American Public Media (APM) has teamed with streaming specialist Streamguys to launch the Inform Media Network, a private marketplace for digital underwriting and sponsorship across podcasts and livestreams. The network already includes at least 30 non‑commercial stations, delivering roughly 55 million...
Podchaser Releases March “Power Score,” Measuring Post-Launch Succeses
Podchaser has launched its first Power Score, a numeric ranking that evaluates podcasts released in the past month based on audience growth, engagement and distribution reach. The March edition named "The Book Club" as the top‑scoring show with an 81...
Baseball’s “Massive Opportunity” For Audio: Audacys’… Um … Pitch
Audacy has teamed with the New York Mets and Sportsbug to provide real‑time digital radio play‑by‑play of Mets home games at Citi Field, launching on March 26. Sportsbug’s technology cuts the typical 30‑ to 90‑second audio delay to under one second, allowing...
Delta Airlines and YouTube Premium Launch In-Flight Concerts Recorded in Planes
Delta Air Lines has teamed with YouTube Premium to launch a new in‑flight music discovery series, featuring live‑style concerts filmed inside a Boeing 767. The initiative offers SkyMiles members a 14‑day YouTube Premium trial, beginning with a 30‑minute performance by...
RAIN Notes: April 2
iHeartMedia announced the hiring of former NBCUniversal executive Jamie Cutburth as vice president of marketing and promoted Andrew Festo to vice president of events and experiences. Cutburth will drive tent‑pole storytelling and cross‑platform packaging, while Festo will oversee live and...
Streams up; Downloads Down. RIAA’s 2025 Year-End Report
The RIAA’s 2025 year‑end report shows recorded‑music revenue climbing to a record $11.5 billion, driven primarily by streaming and subscription services. Paid subscriptions contributed $6.4 billion, a 6.8% year‑over‑year increase and more than half of total revenue. Vinyl sales hit the $1 billion...
New Audio Ad Service Seeks Reach + Relevance
StreamGuys has launched SGCreative, an audio advertising platform built with Nueva Network, a specialist in U.S. Hispanic media. Nueva reaches roughly 600 radio stations across more than 100 markets, covering about 97 % of the Hispanic population. SGCreative uses AI to...
RAIN Notes: March 30
iHeartMedia announced a partnership with the bipartisan America250 initiative to deliver a unified national radio experience for the United States’ 250th birthday on July 4. The two‑day shared soundtrack will be broadcast across more than 800 iHeartRadio stations and streamed via...
RAIN Notes: March 26
Paul Riismandel highlighted a "new phase of maturity" for podcasting after the Podcast Evolutions and SXSW events, emphasizing authenticity as a measurable performance lever that builds trust and drives campaign results. Video is emerging as a complementary format, not a...
Trash(no)more: Reminder to Radio as April 1 Approaches
Attorney and digital‑media specialist David Oxenford issued his annual reminder to broadcasters as April Fools approaches, warning that the FCC’s Broadcast Hoax Rule (Section 73.1217) strictly prohibits false announcements of crimes or catastrophes. The rule demands a clear disclaimer for any fictional...
Apple Formally Releases HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) Podcasts
Apple has integrated its HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video protocol into iOS 26.4, enabling podcasters to publish native video episodes within the Apple Podcasts app. Listeners can switch between audio‑only and video streams without interrupting playback, and episodes adapt to...
IHeartMedia / Tik Tok Alliance Sought to Reinvent Album Releases
iHeartMedia and TikTok have launched a joint album‑release framework that merges live radio, social media, and fan‑generated content. The pilot, built around Bruno Mars' first solo album in a decade, streamed the nine tracks via iHeartRadio Talkback and TikTok Live before...
Quince, McDonald’s Top Magellan Podcast Advertiser Lists
Magellan AI released its February rankings of podcast advertisers, highlighting both the highest spenders and the fastest spend growth. Quince and McDonald’s topped the list of total spend, while sports podcasts captured the majority of investment across the top fifteen....
RAIN Notes: March 18
Substack unveiled the Substack Recording Studio, a desktop‑only video production suite that adds pre‑recording and live capabilities, letting creators brand each show. ZipRecruiter introduced the ZipRecrooners, an a cappella group promoting its hiring platform through a musical TV spot. A...
Podcasts vs Radio: Time Spent Metrics Favor Both by Age (Edison Research)
Edison Research’s Weekly Insights reveals stark age‑based splits in spoken‑word audio consumption. Listeners aged 13‑24 favor podcasts over AM/FM radio by more than two‑to‑one, while the 55+ cohort prefers traditional radio by an even larger margin. Podcast share peaks at...
RAIN Notes: March 17
Audacy is deepening its sports‑focused advertising strategy with a new webinar, “The Business of Sports Fandom,” scheduled for March 23, which will explore fandom avidity as a measurable marketing currency. The event features unnamed sports hosts and media experts and is...
Libsyn Reveals 2025 “Surge”
Libsyn, a leading podcast hosting platform, reported a 48% year‑over‑year increase in advertising revenue for 2025, driven by 4.8 billion ad impressions and record creator payouts. The company also disclosed that upfront advertiser commitments have doubled heading into 2026. In conjunction...
$40B Lost to Sound and Sports Piracy: New Government Report
The United States Trade Representative released its 2025 Notorious Markets report, highlighting $40 billion in annual losses from music and sports piracy. The 61‑page document catalogs dozens of high‑profile piracy sites such as DHgate, MegaCloud, Private Layer and The Pirate Bay,...
Nielsen Modernizes, Launching “mSurvey” For Digital Data Collection
Nielsen has introduced mSurvey, a digital diary system that modernizes how the company gathers listening habits from U.S. radio audiences. The platform replaces the legacy paper diaries and expands measurement to include podcasts, satellite radio, and digital music streams. By...
February Podcast Production Drops to New 12-Month Low (Listen Notes)
Listen Notes reports a 12% decline in new podcast launches in February, dropping to 12,852 from January's 18,863. The figure marks the lowest monthly addition in the past 13 months, though it still adds nearly 13,000 titles to the global...
RAIN Time Travel: March 2016 Headlines
The March 2016 audio‑industry roundup highlights a surge in streaming growth, financing activity, and subscriber milestones. Spotify secured a $1 billion debt facility tied to an IPO and hit 30 million users, while Tidal celebrated three million subscribers amid legal disputes. SoundCloud launched...
Audio and Podcasts Best Venues for Consumer Engagement in Sports (Audacy)
Audacy’s new "State of Audio: Sports Fandom" report reveals that the most avid sports fans are younger, more diverse, and increasingly reachable through audio channels. The study shows a 40% lift in purchase and usage among the fandom cohort when...
Music Streamer Quboz Implements AI Detection
French streaming service Qobuz has rolled out a proprietary AI detection system that scans both its existing catalog and new uploads. Tracks identified as 100 % AI‑generated are flagged with visible labels across all Qobuz applications. The move targets the rapid...
IHeartMedia Partners with Middle East State of Qatar for New Podcast Effort
iHeartMedia has signed a multi‑year partnership with Qatar’s Government Communications Office to build a state‑of‑the‑art podcast studio and launch original Arabic shows. The deal will also bring popular global podcasts to Arabic‑speaking audiences and deliver masterclasses for local talent. iHeart...
Podcast Advertising Projected to $1B/Year by 2029 (EMARKETER)
A new eMarketer survey of 100 U.S. marketers shows digital audio advertising is gaining traction, with 67% of respondents already allocating budget to the channel. While only 25% plan to increase spend within the next year, 83% view incremental reach...
RAIN Notes: February 25
Google announced the acquisition of ProducerAI, the former Riffusion, to boost its AI‑driven music generation suite. The platform, already integrated with Google’s Lyria 3 model and Gemini AI, will let Google Labs users create full songs and lyrics from text prompts...
Podcasts Overtake Spoken-Word Radio in Key Metric (Edison Research)
Edison Research’s Share of Ear study shows podcasts have finally overtaken spoken‑word AM/FM radio in daily listening time, a shift that began in 2015 when radio commanded 75% of the audience and podcasts held just 10%. Over the past decade,...
RAIN Notes: February 24
The 2026 Ambies awards, delayed by weather, will stream live tonight from Brooklyn’s On Air Fest, directly competing for viewers with the 9 p.m. State of the Union address. Simultaneously, veteran podcast executive N’Jeri Eaton announced the launch of Type C Studios, a...
RAIN Notes: February 23
HeartMedia’s new study defines a growing audience – bicultural Latinos who identify equally as American and Hispanic – and highlights their media habits. Radio remains dominant, reaching nine‑in‑ten of this group each month, while 90% regularly consume English‑language content and...
Steve Goldstein: Apple Just Moved the Center of Gravity in Podcasting
Apple’s recent rollout of native video in Apple Podcasts marks a pivotal shift, turning video into a core podcast format and introducing Apple’s first large‑scale video ad revenue share. This move accelerates the “liquid content era,” where shows fluidly switch...
Downtown Music Completes Merger with Virgin Music
The episode announces that Downtown Music Holdings has finalized its $775 million acquisition and merger with Virgin Music Group, a deal first revealed in December. Founder Justin Kalifowitz is exiting Downtown, marking a leadership transition as the combined entity positions itself...
RAIN Notes: February 19
The episode covers three main topics: Audible’s new sync feature that highlights ebook text in real time with audiobook narration, insights from audio‑industry executives on how advertisers can leverage the evolving AI‑driven audio advertising ecosystem, and the International Federation of...