Insider: October 23, 2020

iHeart acquires Voxnest. iHeartMedia has entered into an agreement to acquire Voxnest, the analytics and ad tech platform that encompasses, among other things, the hosting solution Spreaker. The addition of Voxnest technology to its podcast portfolio will allow iHeart to access greater levels of monetisation, in the form of more targeting and programmatic buying, according to the release.

iHeartMedia previously owned a minority stake in Voxnest, but has now upped the investment as part of its ongoing push into podcasting over the past couple of years (epitomised by the purchase of Stuff Media and content partnerships with the likes of Will Ferrell, Charlamagne Tha God and others). CEO Bob Pittman said: “The addition of iHeart’s offerings to Voxnest will ensure critical mass for the platform and accelerate its growth.”Spotify’s morning show. Another launch that sits at that intersection of music, spoken word and personalisation which Spotify has been very interested in of late (cf. that new layering feature in Anchor that allows podcasters to include some entire songs in the Spotify version of their shows). This time, it’s a new show for Spotify users in the US called The Get Up, which will drop at 7am eastern on weekday mornings.

The three hosts — Kat Lazo, Speedy Morman, and Xavier “X” Jernigan — will anchor spoken word segments that will then be interspersed into a personalised playlist of songs tailored by the listener’s preferences and listening history. As a user experience, it sounds not dissimilar to the Your Daily Drive playlist, although of course rather than pulling in short news briefings from other publishers, Spotify will be providing the spoken word content too.

Naturally, the idea of a “morning show” that mingles chat between regular hosts and music is a pretty familiar one, and those who make something similar in radio at the moment might note this development from Spotify with curiosity and even alarm. The key differentiator for The Get Up against any radio competitors, though, is the way the music will be chosen. This could either be a big draw for listeners who want to hear only their favourite tunes, as host Speedy Mormon puts it in the launch announcement:

“Nowhere else do you get a morning talk show with personalized music catered to you. The fresh format, coupled with the camaraderie between Xavier, Kat, and myself, makes for a truly fun, informative, and entertaining adventure.”

There is another perspective though, which says that part of why listeners become loyal to one music radio show over any other is because of the taste and curation it offers. Traditionally, hosts can select songs and promote artists they care about as well as operating within the station’s playlisting system, so for the listener there’s a discovery element to the experience as well as a familiarity. Will a morning show that just plays songs you already know and like be as attractive? I’m fascinated to find out.James Purnell to leave the BBC. The Director of Radio & Education at the BBC, former Labour politician James Purnell, has announced that he will be leaving the corporation to take up the role of President & Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Arts London. In his Twitter thread announcing the departure, Purnell said:

“I’ve had seven very happy years at the BBC. The BBC works in funny ways but it works — and the main reason is a disparate group of individuals are bound together by a commitment to making a difference.”

Purnell has overseen, among other things, the launch of the BBC Sounds platform and a big increase in audio educational content as homeschooling became widespread during lockdown this year. His lack of editorial experience or background in programme making made him a surprising appointment when he joined the BBC in 2013; his time serving as a Labour MP and minister also made him controversial to critics of the BBC, especially those on the right of the political spectrum.

His departure now is not entirely unexpected: when the new BBC Director General Tim Davie took over at the start of September, he reorganised the audio division and created a new, smaller, executive committee to lead the corporation, of which Purnell was not a member. With the new management turning to other executives for leadership roles, it seems like it was a natural time to move on.

It’s unclear yet whether there will be a replacement in the same role, since the job has changed substantially since Purnell was appointed in 2016. There is now a full time commissioner just for BBC Sounds, Jonathan Wall, and a Chief Content Officer, Charlotte Wall, who is responsible for all non news output from the BBC.Duolingo does true crime. Another interesting one for those tracking how multilingual content is evolving in the podcast space: the language learning app Duolingo is dabbling in true crime. The outfit already produces the Duolingo Spanish Podcast, Relatos en inglés con Duolingo and the Duolingo French Podcast, but all three have stuck to fairly traditional learning formats so far. Now, the Spanish feed will be getting a series about El Gran Robo Argentino in 2006, a case which saw five men steal a fortune worth $20 million. It’s hosted by Martina Castro of Adonde Media.Going country. Scooter Braun (of feuding with Taylor Swift fame) is getting into podcasting via a development deal between his Ithaca Holdings company and Spotify. The first product of this collaboration is Country Shine with Graham Bunn, a country music podcast about the Nashville-centred industry. In the Billboard story, Braun also notes that he was an early investor in Spotify.