State Champ Radio Podcasts
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Apple Music Radio is coming to Apple Podcasts.
On Tuesday (Sept. 26), Apple announced that Apple Music subscribers will now be able to stream more than 2,500 “musically rich” episodes from Apple Music Radio on its podcasts app.
Apple Music’s original shows air across three global stations — Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits, and Apple Music Country — and feature such top talent as Zane Lowe (The Zane Lowe Show), Ebro Darden (The Ebro Show, Hip-Hop DNA) and Kelleigh Bannen (Today’s Country Radio, The Kelleigh Bannen Show). It additionally airs artist-hosted programs including Angel Hour Radio with Reneé Rapp, Time Crisis hosted by Vampire Weekend’s Ezra Koenig, OTHERtone featuring Pharrell Williams and Deep Hidden Meaning Radio hosted by Nile Rodgers.
Apple Music’s coverage of the 2024 Apple Music Halftime Show featuring Usher will also be available to Apple Music subscribers on Apple Podcasts.
In addition to Apple Music Radio shows, Apple Podcasts will now also include audio programming for subscribers to other connected apps, including Apple News+, meditation app Calm and “playlearning” app Lingokids. Starting next month, subscribers to several more apps — including Bloomberg, Curio, L’Équipe, Mamamia, Sleep Cycle, The Economist, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, WELT News and Zen with Apple Podcasts — will be able to connect their subscriptions as well.
Listeners with subscriptions to any of these apps will have those subscriptions automatically connected the next time they open Apple Podcasts. They can also connect their subscriptions manually by signing into their accounts from each app’s channel page on Apple Podcasts. Subscribers will be able to listen across Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, HomePod, CarPlay and Apple Watch with AirPods. The company notes that Apple’s latest operating systems — iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma — are required to connect subscriptions.
Once subscriptions are connected, listeners can browse all podcasts available to them from the Library tab. They can also learn more information about each show and follow any show for free to automatically download and be notified about new episodes. They will also receive personalized recommendations in Up Next on the Listen Now tab.
Maren Morris has been a country hitmaker since her 2016 breakthrough “My Church.” But last week, she released a pair of new songs — “The Tree” and “Get the Hell Out of Here” — along with a mission statement that makes it clear she’s no longer interested in playing by the rules of country music. […]
*NSYNC returned to a stage that they know well on Tuesday night (Sept. 12), making an unannounced appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards to present an award to Taylor Swift. There was a lot of buzz ahead of the awards show about what the group’s reported appearance could entail. Some fans wondered whether they […]
PodcastOne debuted its long-awaited listing Friday (Sept. 8), with officials from parent company LiveOne ringing the opening bell on the trading floor of the NASDAQ to celebrate what CEO Rob Ellin says is first ever spinoff of a minority stake in a publicly traded company. Shares of the new LiveOne subsidiary Courtside Group, better known as PodcastOne, fell 45% shortly after trading opened, dropping from $8 per share to close at $4.39.
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The tumble came amid growing criticism of one of PodcastOne’s acquisition targets — California-based Kast Media — by major podcasters like comedian Theo Von who accused Kast of failing to pay out $4 million in advertising fees collected by Kast on behalf of its podcaster clients.
In a video viewed more than 1 million times, titled “This Man Defrauded Our Podcast,” Von alleges that Kast Media founder and CEO Colin Thomson did not pay his show This Past Weekend with Theo Von for the advertisements it sold and booked for Von’s show. Von claimed This Past Weekend eventually cut ties with Kast Media, only to later be approached by Thomson and Ellin and was told on a phone call, “If you come over to our new network PodcastOne, we’ll pay some of what you’re owed in stock,” Von said, adding “it felt like to me they’re trying to leverage our podcast and other podcasts to then make their stock do well and if that happens, then we’ll get a share of our money.”
Von told viewers he declined the offer.
Ellin addressed the Kast Media scandal on Friday during a post-market opening interview with Yahoo News. He noted that PodcastOne is no longer hiring Thomson to join his the publicly traded company, but noted he hoped to help creators hurt by the Kast Media controversy.
“We’ve bought a distressed asset called Kast Media, a very distressed, troubled asset (that) owed a lot of money to its podcasters and couldn’t really afford to pay them. And the banks pulled out. And that host pulled out. So we acquired those and have added some very serious revenues to it,” he said.
Von isn’t the only podcaster to go public about the Kast Media scandal. Pro Wrestling podcaster Jim Cornette and cohost Brian Last have detailed their own experience with Kast Media and PodcastOne in a series of at least seven podcast episodes over the last two months. Former Sirius XM host Jason Ellis has also spoken out against Kast Media in a recent viral video.
Von said he will continue pursuing Thomson for the money he is owed by Kast Media.
“You f—ed with the wrong rat, homie” Von said while a picture of Thompson aired on the screen. “You can’t get me to shut up.”
Thomson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Beyoncé played three sold-out nights at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., over the holiday weekend — and Billboard was there for all three shows. On the new Billboard Pop Shop Podcast, we’ve put together a roundtable discussion about the trio of concerts with Gail Mitchell, Billboard‘s executive director, R&B/hip-hop; Cat Johnson, Billboard‘s business development and […]
As the Hollywood strikes continue, five of the most popular late-night talk show hosts had an idea to meet up every week to discuss the complexities behind the ongoing discussions and protests. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news As a result, Spotify revealed on Tuesday (Aug. 29) […]
This past Friday, we got new music from three of the biggest child TV stars-turned-pop superstars ever: Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande. Gomez put out the carefree pop song “Single Soon,” Cyrus released the reflective ballad “Used to Be Young,” and Grande put out a 10th-anniversary digital deluxe edition of her debut album […]
The 2024 Super Bowl isn’t until Feb. 11, and while we don’t know who will perform at the halftime show yet, we know at least one person who won’t: Ed Sheeran. The singer/songwriter did an interview with Andy Cohen last week and when he was asked about headlining the Super Bowl, he suggested he’d be […]
LiveOne will capitalize on the booming podcast industry by spinning off its PodcastOne business as a standalone entity through a dividend to shareholders as of August 28, the company announced Thursday. PodcastOne shares were approved for listing on the Nasdaq exchange on Monday (Aug. 14) and will begin trading under the “PODC” symbol on Sept. 8.
LiveOne, which also owns the music streaming platform Slacker Radio, will issue a dividend of about 19% of PodcastOne shares to its shareholders and retain the remaining roughly 81% of the outstanding shares. LiveOne CEO Robert Ellin said he expects PodcastOne stock will be priced between $8 — the minimum price for Nasdaq-listed stocks — and $12 per share. A third-party valuation of PodcastOne in February put the company at between $230 million and $274 million.
“We will be very aggressive to continue to grow that and it’s a big part of the reason we’re taking the company public,” Ellin said during a conference call for investors on Thursday (Aug. 17). The company currently has a pipeline “of over 10 additional acquisitions that we’re carefully taking a look at,” he added.
PodcastOne has a number of popular podcasters including Adam Carolla, Dr. Drew Pinsky and Jordan Harbinger. It ranked 10th in Podtrac’s publisher ranking for July 2023. Last week, LiveOne obtained the exclusive network distribution and advertising rights to comedian Brendan Schaub’s portfolio of podcasts including The Schaub Show and The Fighter.
PodcastOne already has two important acquisitions in 2023. LiveOne entered into a letter of intent to acquire Kast Media, a podcast network expected to add up to $10 million in annual revenue and boost earnings for PodcastOne. The company also has a binding letter of intent to acquire Guru Fantasy Reports, owner of fantasy football website Fantasy Guru, that Ellie said he expects will close “in the next few weeks.” The all-stock deal is expected to add annual revenue of $2.5 million and over $600,000 in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.
PodcastOne had revenue of $10.6 million in the quarter ended June 30, accounting for roughly 38% of LiveOne’s total revenue. Last week, LiveOne raised its guidance for PodcastOne’s full fiscal year revenue from $34 million to a range of $42 million to $47 million.
Separately, LiveOne also plans to make Slacker Radio a standalone, publicly traded entity through a merger with Roth CH Acquisition V Co., a special purpose acquisition company. LiveOne and Roth have signed a letter of intent but no merger date has been announced. LiveOne said it expects Slacker to have a pre-money valuation of $160 million.
Peter Case hasn’t done a coast-to-coast tour with a band since 1989 — and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Part of the reason is financial, the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. His national tour in support of his second solo album, The Man With the Blue Post-Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar, was “a fun tour” but “a bad deal on a van that we’d rented,” and a few canceled shows for health reasons meant the outing lost money. So after talking to his agent, Case went back on the road as a solo act. This time, though, Case came home with more money than he spent.
The way Case sees it, musicians have long toured as solo artists for the financial benefits. “Part of the reason Woody Guthrie played solo all the time was because he couldn’t afford a band,” says Case, who released his 16th solo album, Doctor Moan, in January through Sunset Blvd. Records and is the subject of the 2023 documentary Peter Case: A Million Miles Away, directed by Fred Parnes.
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Case, a native of upstate New York, was influenced by solo musicians since his formative days spent in San Francisco, where he went from busking on street corners to co-founding the band The Nerves in 1976, and later Los Angeles, where he co-founded The Plimsouls in the 1979.
“I came from a time when solo players were really a thing,” he says. “I remember going to see James Taylor in 1969, I think it was. He would just play solo, you know, and he’d be great. He was a really great guitar player. He had really good songs on his first couple albums. It was great. Or you’d see John Hammond Jr. and he’d be rocking the house, stomping his feet and blowing this incredible harmonica. He played 12-string guitar and he was great. I saw [American folk singer] Dave Van Rock. I saw [singer-songwriter] Laura Nyro play solo. I saw [blues musician] Lightnin’ Hopkins play solo.”
Case likens his first solo shows, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, to “throwing a cat into a tub of cold water.” The audience at the intimate venue wasn’t going to be “blown away by the lights and the smoke and the volume” of his amplifier. All he had was his guitar and his songs. As the musician John Hiatt once told him, “When you play solo, it really plugs you into the worth of what you’re writing.”
Listen to the Behind the Setlist’s interview with Peter Case below, or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, iHeart, Amazon Music, Audacy, Podbay, Podtail and Audible.
