Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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RAJAR MIDAS Report – Summer 2024
[UPDATE – 2 October: After I asked a question about the Need States chart, RAJAR published a revised version of the Podcast chart, and this is now included below.] RAJAR has just published a summary of its Summer 2024 MIDAS report. The research was carried out amongst 2,048 previous RAJAR respondents across two weeks in…
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Battlelines: Sky, HBO & Max in the UK
I’m fascinated to see how Sky manages the seemingly inevitable launch of Max as a streaming brand in the UK. Things came to a head this week as Sky launched a lawsuit against Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) accusing it of a contract breach, in large part because of how a new Harry Potter series is…
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Testing Google’s NotebookLM with RAJAR
Google has a recent-ish AI tool called NotebookLM. The idea is that you throw a lot of information into it, and it can sift through it, answer questions based on what you’ve told it and so on. Recently they added the ability to auto-generate a podcast! So I decided to test it. I gave it…
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Edison Podcast Metrics UK – Top 25 Q2 2024
The latest Edison Research Podcast Metrics for the UK has just been published with a top 25 based on reach during Q2 2024 This follows previous releases for Q1 2024, Q4 2024, Q3 2024 and Q2 2024. The top four podcast remain the same and in the same order this quarter. Then we get a certain amount of re-shuffling…
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When Should Big Concerts Go On Sale?
Yes – two blog posts about an impending gig that I won’t be going to is probably two too many. But one of the things I’ve always wondered about is when should a concert put tickets to major concerts on sale? You’ve got to assume that tickets to an Oasis gig in 2025 won’t be…
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Oasis for Breakfast?
Following the news that Oasis are to reform for a series of no doubt very lucrative stadium gigs, I thought I’d look to see how a sample of UK radio stations reacted to this widely anticipated news. Note: I used the various stations’ websites where they publish show track information. Not every station has this…
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The Dark Side of True Crime – A Must Read
This incredibly important article written by Sirin Kale, and published in The Guardian last week is really worth your time. It tells the tragic story of John Balson, a producer of true crime television programmes who saw things spiral badly. I think the article speaks for itself. But it does continue to highlight for me…
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You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changes Music by Glenn McDonald
Glenn McDonald, as the cover says, was formerly Spotify’s Data Alchemist. He joined when his previous company, The Echo Nest, was purchased by Spotify in 2014. In many respects, this book scratches a lot of itches for me, getting into some of the details about how Spotify works, and in particular some of the algorithmic…
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An Abundance of Emails – Biden/Harris
At some point in the not-so-distant past, my personal email address somehow ended up in a mailing list maintained by the US Democratic Party. To be clear, I did not sign myself up with them. And while I have a suspicion as to how my name was hoovered by the Democrats, I can’t prove it.…
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RAJAR Q2 2024
This post is brought to you in association with RALF from DP Software and Services. I’ve used RALF for the many years, and it’s my favourite RAJAR analysis tool. So I am delighted that I continue to be able to bring you this RAJAR analysis in association with RALF. For more details on the product, contact Deryck Pritchard via…
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Episode Artwork vs Show Artwork on Podcasts
In recent weeks and months, a lot of major podcasts have belatedly started adding “Episode Artwork” to their titles. Podcasts have long had artwork of course – a square shaped image that is used to accompany the title of a podcast and is seen in most podcast apps. This is what Apple refers to as…
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The UK Podcast Consumer 2024 – Edison Research
Earlier today, Edison Research held a webinar releasing the results of their 2024 UK Podcast Consumer research. This builds on some of the findings that they have already released as part of their Edison Podcast Metrics reports. Gabriel Soto, Senior Director of Research at Edison Research, presented the findings, which Edison has made available on…
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RAJAR MIDAS Report – Spring 2024
RAJAR has just released a summary of its latest MIDAS report for Spring 2024. The fieldwork was carried out in April 2024 amongst 2,143 former RAJAR respondents aged 15+ who were asked to complete a 7-day audio diary. The report compares all forms of listening: live radio, catch-up radio, podcasts, on-demand music service (e.g. Spotify),…
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