October 2020

Pandora continues to lose listeners

25/10/2020

Pandora continues to lose listeners with monthly active users (MAU) down 7% from a year ago according to the latest Q3 2020 financial results from parent company SiriusXM. MAUs were 58.6 million in the third quarter, down from 63.1 million in the prior year period. Total ad supported listener hours also declined from 3.12 billion in the period, down from 3.32 billion in the third quarter of 2019. Pandora added 105,000 net new self-pay subscribers […]

YouTube Music is now available on Apple Watch

25/10/2020

YouTube Music is now available on Apple Watch enabling users to browse music collections, control playback and select casting options directly from their watch. YouTube Music has been playing catchup to match the functionality of the soon to be switched off Google Play Music and to be a serious competitor to the other streamers such as Apple Music and Spotify. YouTube Music Premium users can now browse music collections, control playback and select casting options […]

Spotify launches Weekly Music Charts

25/10/2020

Spotify launches Weekly Music Charts to include Weekly Top 50 and US and Global album and song charts. Listeners have long been able to view the top daily songs on Spotify, but this new weekly offering expands its charts to allow fans and artists alike to better share and enjoy pivotal music moments, as well as get a definitive snapshot of what music is having the most global impact—from new album releases to new hit singles. […]

Global smart speaker market to grow by 21% in 2021

25/10/2020

Global smart speaker market to grow by 21% in 2021 and will reach 163 million units (including smart displays) according to research firm Canalys. In 2020, Mainland China, which has the COVID-19 pandemic under control, will lead, growing 16%, while the rest of the market is expected to grow 3% as countries continue to battle the coronavirus. With demand for stay-home entertainment expected to increase, global platform vendors have released new smart speakers and displays, ensuring […]

Spoken word audio share in the US up 30% since 2014

24/10/2020

Spoken word audio share in the US up 30% since 2014 and 8% in the last year, with the highest levels of growth coming from women, African-Americans, Latinos and 13-34-year-olds. These findings are part of the second annual Spoken Word Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research based on 1000 online interviews of a representative sample of 18+ US spoken word consumers and 4318 Share of Ear respondents aged 13+. Additionally, in-person interviews were conducted with individuals who […]

YouTube Music improves TV experience

24/10/2020

YouTube Music improves TV experience having recently launched several new YouTube Music integrations for listening wherever you are (smart displays, Google Maps and Waze, Google Home and Nest speakers). The initial launch of YouTube Music in the YouTube app on TVs was in July 2019 and this represents the first major upgrade to YouTube Music for listeners using their TV. New features include: Music Library – Easily access your saved playlists and liked songs in […]

iOS 14 widgets for Deezer SongCatcher and Flow

24/10/2020

iOS 14 widgets for Deezer Songcatcher and Flow have been introduced to provide quick and convenient shortcuts to two of Deezer’s signature features without having to first open the Deezer app. The Flow widget provides a mix of old favourites and new tunes tailored to your personal listening tastes. SongCatcher is Deezer’s built-in song recognition feature which can identify musical tracks playing near you and lets you add them straight to your favourites and playlists. […]