SiriusXM announced a new agreement with independent media and podcast company audiochuck and its founder Ashley Flowers to launch a new channel exclusively for SiriusXM subscribers. 

Expected early next year, the channel will be curated by Ashley and the team at audiochuck to present episodes from the deep archive of its flagship show Crime Junkie – one ofthe country’s top-ranked podcasts – along with selections from its other top rated shows, such as Anatomy of a Murder, The Deck, CounterClock, and Park Predators.

In addition, Ashley Flowers will host a new series for the channel featuring in-depth conversations with celebrities and special guests about how they became Crime Junkies.

“I’m incredibly excited about the opportunity of reaching entirely new audiences with our content through SiriusXM’s wide reach. There has never been a true crime channel in audio, and I’m thrilled SiriusXM chose us to create the first ever channel by and for Crime Junkies,” said Ashley Flowers, audiochuck’s Founder and Chief Creative Officer. “We have such a deep catalog of content to share, but I am most excited about the new original programming we will do specifically for SiriusXM subscribers. SiriusXM has been an incredible partner to us over the last two years and I’m looking forward to working with them in even more ways in the years to come.”

The new channel and show is an expansion of SiriusXM’s relationship with audiochuck, which started in 2021 with an agreement that gives SiriusXM exclusivity to ad sales rights for the network’s acclaimed and award-winning podcasts via SXM Media, the combined advertising sales group from Sirius XM Holdings Inc.

“Ashley and her team at audiochuck have become the leaders in the incredibly popular true crime podcast space through their passion for high-quality audio and a storytelling style that’s both compelling to the listener and respectful of the subject matter,” said Scott Greenstein, SiriusXM’s President and Chief Content Officer. “With this new channel, and the combined marketing power of SiriusXM, audiochuck will be able to super serve their loyal listeners through an entirely new way to experience and interact with their shows, while further growing their fanbase by reaching audiences who may not yet be podcast consumers.”

This new audiochuck channel is SiriusXM’s latest endeavor to give popular podcasts a new platform, and SiriusXM subscribers exclusive access, having previously launched the Freakonomics Radio channel, which features programming from across the popular Freakonomics Radio Network catalog; as well as the Crooked Radio takeover last year, which brought Crooked Media’s Pod Save America and many of their other hit podcasts to Progress (channel 127) in the lead up to the midterm elections.

More details will be announced soon.

SoundStack, the audio-as-a-service (AaaS) company, announces the appointment of Michael Fischer as Vice President of Business Development. The appointment bolsters the company’s growing publisher discipline – which also includes customer enablement, support, and podcast business teams – with a further focus on broadcast audio enterprises, including National Public Radio member stations.

“With years of experience in multiple ends of the audio ecosystem – from mobile, to enterprise tech platforms, to renowned communications companies – Michael brings tremendous knowledge that will make it easier for an array of streaming businesses to grow,” stated Rockie Thomas, CRO of SoundStack. “He’s a perfect addition to the team as we continue to work with publishers who understand how partnering with an independent tech platform will open up to more choices and, in turn, more listeners and streaming/podcast revenue.”

An all-encompassing tech platform, SoundStack combines podcast/streaming audio hosting/delivery, monetization, and insights in one place. Advertising and publisher partners on or off “the stack” can also buy and sell audio ads programmatically in the SoundStack Marketplace.

Fischer has been selling digital services to media companies for more than a decade, with an emphasis on audio streaming. He joins the team after nearly seven years as EVP/Business Development with mobile application provider AirKast, where he guided broadcasters, podcasters, and independent audio communities on content and sales strategies. His varied experience includes over four years at Triton Digital as SVP of Engagement, and he was Director of Business Development RAIN (Radio and Internet News).

First focusing on a range of broadcast audio enterprises in the U.S., Fischer will also spearhead development of global markets.

About SoundStack

SoundStack is the audio-as-a-service (AaaS) company for every kind of digital audio business – podcasters, digital broadcasters, platforms, advertisers and more. Giving those businesses equal access to big tech that’s easy-to-use, and the ability to connect with any provider across the market, SoundStack makes audio hosting/delivery, monihtazation, and analysis simple and effective for everyone. Fully independent, the company’s team of 70+ audio tech experts is guided only by what delivers the best results for its 14k+ customers. SoundStack is headquartered in Pittsburgh with offices around the country, and is the parent company of Live365.

Visit www.soundstack.com for more info.

Spoken word audio listening time and audience size attain record highs in the U.S. according to The Spoken Word Audio Report 2023 released from NPR and Edison Research. The fifth iteration of the annual report places special focus on listening locations and explores spoken world audio consumption at home, at work, in-car, or other locations. The findings were presented in a webinar hosted by National Public Media (NPM) VP of Sponsorship Marketing Lamar Johnson and Edison Research VP Megan Lazovick and are available now at npr.org/spokenword audio.

Key findings from the report include:

Spoken Word Audience size and listening time attain record highs: Almost half (48%)— approximately 135M people — of those in the U.S. age 13+ listen to some type of spoken word audio daily, up two percentage points (46%) from last year. Listeners in the U.S. age 13+ spend 31% of their daily audio time with spoken word, which is a 55% increase over nine years ago (20%).

Spoken word listening at home has grown dramatically: Sixty percent of the total daily audio time spent with spoken word audio is at home, 24% in the car, 13% at work, and 3% at some other location. The time spent listening to spoken word audio at home has grown to 41 daily minutes in 2014. Increases in at-home spoken word audio listening are seen across every hour in the listening day.

Spoken Word listening in-car has shifted post-pandemic, but AM/FM radio remains on top: Of all the daily time spent listening to spoken word audio, time spent listening in the car has declined from 36% in 2014 to 24% in 2023. In the car, 62% of spoken word audio consumed by those in the U.S. age 13+ is to AM/FM radio content, including over the air and streams.

For the first time ever, the mobile device is the primary way people listen to Spoken Word: 39% of spoken word audio consumed daily by this age 13+ in the U.S. is on a mobile device, followed by 35% on an AM/FM radio receiver. At home, 41% of spoken word audio is consumed on a mobil device, and at work, 47% of spoken word is consumed on a mobile device. AM/FM radio receivers still dominate in-car, garnering 60% of the token word audio listening there.

Podcasts represent a large and growing share of spoken word listening: Podcasts now represent over one-third (36%) of time spent with spoken word audio. Twenty-eight percent of time spent listening to podcasts goes to NPR/public radio. At home, 40% of spoken-word audio listening goes to podcasts.

“Each year we keep a close eye on the number of people who are listening and the amount of time spent with Spoken Word Audio. We’re happy to see that for 2023, more people than ever are listening and they are spending even more time with Spoken Word, providing a powerful opportunity for brands looking to expand and engage their audience.” said NPM VP of Sponsorship Marketing Lamar Johnson.

“Podcasting now accounts for over one-third of the time spent with spoken word audio. The cultural shift to digital benefits this space, or perhaps, it’s vice versa – the growing enthusiasm for podcasting is shifting the culture digital. Either way – podcast listening continues to grow,” said Megan Lazovick, VP at Edison Research,

How the study was conducted

Edison Research’s Share of Ear is a quarterly survey of Americans who are asked to keep a detailed one-day diary of their audio usage. Share of Ear utilizes a nationally representative sample of those age 13+. The sample for this study was 4,193.

Acast, the world’s largest independent podcast company, announced the continued expansion of its self-serve podcast advertising platform with real-time campaign planning tools for both advertisers and podcasters.

This latest innovation from Acast focuses on improving efficiencies in the media planning process by allowing advertisers to see up-to-date inventory availability for host-read sponsorship campaigns. Through a new feature called Availability Calendar, advertisers can now see all of the host-read sponsorship inventory available across Acast’s entire marketplace at that exact moment as well as the price of each podcast to ensure that it fits their campaign budget. 

This increased transparency significantly reduces the time that it currently takes advertisers to plan and book host-read sponsorship campaigns as well as makes it easier to distribute ad spend across multiple podcasts at the same time.

These new tools also give podcasters more control over their monetization potential through the recently launched AdCollab feature. Within AdCollab creator portal, podcasters can now instantly see a list of all the brands interested in working with them. The portal also now enables podcasters to instantly accept or reject brand proposals and allows them to connect directly with advertisers to immediately begin planning the production. With this improved visibility, podcasters can easily identify and act on more opportunities to earn money and grow from their craft.

These real-time media planning and collaboration tools follow a series of innovations to Acast’s self-serve platform since launching last year. In June, Acast made host-read sponsorships available on the platform, which provided advertisers access to the largest marketplace of podcast influencers. Soon after, Acast announced AdCollab, which enabled advertiser and podcaster collaboration for the first time. AdCollab also introduced automation into the host-read sponsorship buying process and has effectively reduced the time to book host-read campaigns by 85%.

“In launching our self-serve advertising platform and bringing AdCollab to market, Acast has made it easier than ever to book and produce podcast advertising campaigns. Now, we are helping advertisers to improve the efficiency of their campaign planning,” said Senior Director of Product at Acast Milly Botes. “Globally, podcast ad spend is inadequately distributed to the largest shows, but by improving planning and discoverability tools for advertisers, Acast is increasing the scalability of their brand message while also making it possible for each of the more than 100,000 podcasters on Acast to earn money from their craft.”

This news comes on the heels of Acast’s third quarter earning results. Globally, Acast saw a 32% increase in net sales growth and celebrated the milestone of having paid more than $300 million directly to podcasters since 2014.

Since launching in November of last year, Acast’s self-serve podcast advertising platform has grown to service organizations of various sizes and industries, from small to medium sized businesses, to household brand names, and even to podcasters themselves. In that time, nearly 40% of advertisers booked repeat campaigns.

To begin booking your host-read sponsorship campaigns through Acast’s self-serve advertising platform, please visit: https://apply.selfserve.acast.com/apply.

Veritonic, the industry’s comprehensive audio analytics and research platform, has unveiled a series of groundbreaking innovations for their audio attribution solution, including unparalleled flexibility and granularity for advertisers and brands. With an intensified focus on investing in cutting-edge big data technology, combined with its conversion event logs and robust user interface, Veritonic is addressing the escalating demands of the industry and reshaping the audio attribution landscape.

By increasing its investment in robust data tech stacks, Veritonic facilitates campaigns of all scales, effortlessly expanding measurement capabilities while upholding optimal performance, support, and adherence to Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Furthermore Veritonic’s conversion event logs provide clients with unparalleled flexibility and granularity, enabling them to comprehend conversion events and associated impressions throughout. 

Veritonic’s comprehensive conversion event logs enable their clients to model and analyze impressions, uncover geotargeting opportunities, evaluate IP distribution, analyze listener overlap among different campaigns, and more.

“As data providers, we take great pride and responsibility in ensuring that our audio measurement methodology is sound, understood, and designed in a way that enables us to continuously adapt to the needs of our clients and the demands of the advertising industry at large.,” said Scott Simonelli, CEO of Veritonic. “We remain committed to innovating our audio-first solutions to make measuring and optimizing audio campaigns as streamlined, efficient, and flexible as possible.”

For more information about Veritonic’s Audio Attribution capabilities or to get started, visit the website or contact sales@veritonic.com.

About Veritonic

World-renowned brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms rely on Veritonic’s comprehensive audio research and analytics platforms to research, test, and measure ROI of their audio assets and campaigns pre-market, in-market, and post-campaign. The resulting insight enables clients to gain confidence in their audio investment, mitigate risk through optimization, and increase their return as they engage consumers with compelling audio experiences.

Mad Max: Fury Road had a lot of fantastic things going for it, but few shined quite as brilliantly as Charlize Theron’s tough-as-nails take on Imperator Furiosa. The character was a testament to how many more fascinating stories George Miller could dream up for his beloved apocalyptic franchise. And while Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s eponymous antihero might look a bit different in the Fury Road spin-off’s first trailer, it seems like the movie is going to over-deliver on everything Miller’s fans have been waiting for.

Set in a hellish future where traditional societies have collapsed, and precious natural resources like water are scare, Furiosa tells the story of how a much younger version of Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) is forced to fight…

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The Resident Evil 4 remake will soon get a change in perspective. On December 8th, the PS5 version of RE4 will get a free update adding VR mode to the game.

“Resident Evil 4 VR Mode supports the full main story campaign and delivers an added level of immersion to Leon S. Kennedy’s harrowing rescue mission,” read the press release. “The experience lets players see the terrifying world directly through Leon’s eyes and soak in his surroundings with the 4K HDR display of PlayStation VR2.”

If the prospect of gunning down zombies in VR feels a bit too challenging to you as it does to me, RE4VR will feature a shooting range game mode that lets you acclimate to the controls and test the kinds of weapons Leon will use. And if that still proves…

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Will there be a future for fossil fuels? How much money do the most polluting countries owe the rest of the world? That’s all on the table at the United Nations Climate Change Conference underway in Dubai.

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The Cybertruck is here — for real this time — and for those who haven’t reserved one already, Tesla has a new ordering process. Today, you can preorder the visually perplexing, low-poly pickup truck on Tesla’s website with a refundable deposit of $250.

A small batch of early preorder holders took delivery of the first production Cybertruck models at an event in Texas. Since reservations went up on Tesla’s website in 2019, the automaker happily accepted $100 deposits to get in line to buy a non-configured Cybertruck model. During the last earnings call, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed there were over 1 million preorders.

For a short while earlier this week, the price to hold a place in line for the Cybertruck went up to $250. Afterward,…

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Tesla announced a new “Powershare” vehicle-to-load charging capability, only available on the new Cybertruck.

The feature will allow Cybertruck owners to power their camping equipment, power tools, or even their entire home during a blackout, just by using their electric truck as a mobile generator. The truck also features a 240-volt outlet in the rear bed that can be used to charge other EVs. An image on Tesla’s website shows the Cybertruck charging a Model Y.

The Cybertruck can put out as much as 11.5kW, which is more than the Ford F-150 Lightning’s 9.6kW of onboard power or the GMC Sierra Denali EV’s 10.2kW.

Tesla has been talking about manufacturing vehicles with bidirectional charging capabilities…

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