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Futuri’s POST Announces POST AudioShield™, a Patent-Pending Feature to Protect Clients from Audio Copyright Fines

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Futuri’s POST Announces POST AudioShield™, a Patent-Pending Feature to Protect Clients from Audio Copyright Fines

Cleveland, March 2, 2021 — Futuri’s POST, the revolutionary podcasting technology used by more than 1,500 broadcast brands worldwide, today announced the launch of POST AudioShield™, a patent-pending feature that enables its clients to prevent copyrighted music from inadvertently making it into podcasts and/or social video that’s based on broadcast audio. By enabling the POST AudioShield™ feature, either globally or for a specific set of brands, POST clients can be sure that content published through POST is free of content for which they don’t have a license, like talking over the intro of a popular song.

An important component of the POST AudioShield™ feature: Content published through POST using the POST AudioShield™ feature still maintains POST’s PPM encoding for broadcast radio stations. Of the many reasons why this is important, a recent case study with a major morning in a Top 5 market using POST showed that when the show started using POST to consistently publish daily highlights, they saw meaningful ratings results. Looking at P18-49, the show experienced a +29% AQH Share, +47% AQH Persons, and +200% AQH Rating. There’s more on that here. 

“ROI drives everything we do at Futuri, and broadcasters have a big opportunity to improve their content ROI by making the most of the great content they develop for on-air use. That said, if you’re unintentionally sloppy with copyrights, that changes the calculus,” said Futuri CEO Daniel Anstandig. “We developed the patent-pending AudioShield™ feature for POST to give our partners in management piece of mind against those inadvertent copyright violations that can eat up hard-fought revenue with big fines.”

For more on how you can protect your content with POST AudioShield™, reach out to us today!

Mobile

The 5 Ways You’re Missing Out Without A Station Mobile App

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By Scott Lindy, Futuri Partner Success Team

We’re all aware of the massive increase in the percentage of people working from their homes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. What you may have missed, is the recent Nielsen data that shows that adult consumers aged 18+ streaming audio on smartphones increased from 50% every week in Q1 of 2019 to 64% in Q2 of 2020. Of course, that data counts podcasting as well as broadcast radio.

What that data doesn’t take into account is radio stations without their own mobile app. We know that a listener can get to your website via mobile phone or web browser to stream your station, and your stream might be available on an aggregator. But hey, if they’re willing to work that hard to hear your content on their mobile phone, why not give them that and more with a station-branded mobile app?

Without a station mobile app, here’s just some of what you’re missing besides the opportunity to get your audio streaming into the hands of listeners.

Getting Your Brand Into Connected Cars
Yeah, it’s a brave new world created by Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Although many consumers are unfamiliar with how a mobile app works in a connected car, if they have one, user adoption has started. The race is on! Your listeners’ acceptance and growth of these platforms will only grow and move faster in the coming months and years. If your mobile app can’t get your brand and content onto connected car screens right now, be prepared to play catch up for a long time. Your station’s image grows when you’re able to promote your app’s availability for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto — don’t forget about the real estate your brand gets on the connected dash when you have your own app! — but it’s also critical to remember that this is a new tech space for users. Hold their hand and make it easy for them to launch your app in their car. Creating fun videos and graphics with simple to follow instructions that listeners can easily find on your app is a must. Can your app do that? It should.

Mobile Access to On-Demand Audio and Podcasts
Recent industry studies show that nearly two-thirds of all on-demand audio is listened to on a mobile device. That means radio personalities who regularly create podcasts could possibly achieve their full potential of reach and growth by making their episodes available on major platforms like Apple Podcasts or Spotify but at what cost to your station’s brand? Your station’s mobile app should be the single most promoted destination and point of access for the on-demand audio you generate. In this case, no station app equals diminishing brand awareness amongst podcast listeners. A trend difficult to reverse.

Mobile Data!
Usage of mobile devices is far different and usually more frequent than desktop and laptop computers. Tracking your users most frequently used features in your app allows you to shape your strategy for how you’ll generate and promote in-app content and provide data to clients for premium advertising spaces. Tracking everything from pre-roll video views, notification click-throughs and contest entries to on-demand plays, custom features and exclusive ‘in-app only’ content is just the beginning of understanding what your station’s fans like about your app and how you can get yours in front of a bigger audience with the right message.

Generating Revenue
You’re giving up revenue streams that continue to grow at a record pace by not offering mobile streaming audio and video pre-roll. With a mobile app, you can easily display advertising within your apps’ most frequented pages and features, and you can sell naming rights to different sections, and/or the app itself. Mobile advertising assets for a client can also include on-air mentions, website presence, and social media posts. But wait, there’s more! Think of the advertising opportunities made possible within app-exclusive content like exclusive on-demand audio, push notifications, weather alerts, app only contesting, and in-app alerts. Without a mobile app, your station leaves significant listener engagement opportunities on the table and the revenue that goes with it. Bonus: you keep 100% of the revenue you generate.

Going Beyond Your Music Stream With Cool App Features
If there’s anything we can all relate to, it’s those three or four apps we find ourselves using more than the others. When your radio station has a mobile app, you have the opportunity to build a digital bridge that stretches the palm of your fan’s hands to the personalities and music they love on your station. There’s a growing number of things you can only do with a mobile app to build connections with your fans. Features like Futuri Mobile’s Open Mic, which lets users record and share their voices on the air. In-app Flash Contesting from Futuri Mobile was created just for mobile users — say goodbye to caller 9 contests, which are a terrible experience for everyone except caller 9! Push notifications that speak to the targeted content you know your listeners want like weather and traffic alerts, new music about to play on the air, exclusive interviews only available (or available first) in the app. Whatever your listeners love the most about your station can become bigger and more personal to your fans when you use mobile app features in ways only your brand’s creative team can dream up.

No station app means diminishing brand awareness among podcast listeners — and that’s a trend difficult to reverse. Get started now, with Futuri Mobile, by filling out the form below.



It’s Go Time for Podcasting

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By Gale Parmelee, Futuri Partner Success Team

You likely started off 2020 with much optimism both personally and professionally.  I don’t think any of us planned to be in the midst of a global pandemic by the second quarter but nonetheless that’s what happened and here we are.  COVID-19 disrupted everything from the toilet paper supply chain thanks to “panic buying” to how people consumed media on a daily basis.  But with every challenge, there is opportunity!

Long before the Coronavirus was a household name, the term podcasting had already cemented its place in modern media consumption.  According to the Infinite Dial 2020 study from Edison Research and Triton, an estimated 212 million people 12+ were clearly familiar with the term podcasting and an estimated 155 million people 12+ had actually listened to podcast content.  Then the quarantine and lockdown orders hit.  What happened next?  Share of Ear data shows us that podcasting’s share of listening jumped 26% from first-quarter reports.  At the same time, there’s no question that COVID-19 disrupted the listening habits of traditional AM/FM radio across the country.  Some stations benefited tremendously from this shift while others found themselves in uncharted waters.  

The big takeaway is this, there’s never been a more perfect time to take the on-air content you already produce daily and instantly turn it into “on-demand” listening to meet the needs of your audience.  We’ve seen many radio stations in markets of all sizes across the country adjust their dayparts to accommodate new listening habits brought about by the pandemic, like working from home and no longer commuting in the car, being laid off or not shuttling kids to school or daycare, just to name a few.  I’ve had several air talent and programmers over the past few months share stories of listeners who would call in or message them saying things like “I miss hearing you guys in the morning” or siting a specific benchmark they loved to listen to but because their life changed they were not tuning in at the same time anymore and missing their favorite segments.  That’s a great example of how “on-demand” or “podcasting” can be your best friend right now and in the future! 

Let’s look at a morning show for example.  Everyone has those strong benchmarks that speak to appointment listening.  You put in many hours of prep, and in some cases production, each week to make those moments stand out on the air.  Then 7:20 am comes, you knock it out of the park in two and a half minutes, and then it’s all over.  Gone.  But does it have to be?  The good news is no!  Grab that audio and repackage it into a podcast.  Two things immediately happen that will impact your ratings and digital numbers. 

One, for PPM markets, Nielsen will give your station credit for PPM encoded timeshifted listening over the next 24 hours.  Not a PPM market?  There’s still a strong reason to share your content in podcast form, brand recall.  For diary markets that rely on listeners writing down your brand, podcast, and on-demand content aid in the recall of your radio station. 

Two, digital growth.  Pushing those full segments to your website and highlighting the best snippets from those segments on your social media channels, will extend your brand and garner more clicks from your station’s fan base.  In the vein of extending your brand, the current situation we’re in has also opened the door of opportunity when it comes to custom podcasts beyond what you’ve done over the air.  If you’re a news station, you could create a special in-depth podcast series on business recovery as we slowly emerge from the pandemic.  Music stations could help local musicians and venues who have been hit hard by the lack of live performances and miss their audiences by creating music podcasts that highlight a different artist each week.  This could be a combination of live performance/interview segment. 

Matter of fact, if you use a system like Futuri’s POST, you’ll have the ability to add a video component to that as well that will shine when it hits your social channels and website.  Talk about bringing together your station’s fanbase with that of the local/regional music scene!   Of course, in addition to the audience engagement you get from these efforts, there is a monetary component your GSM or digital sales team will love.  

We’ve all become accustomed to the phrase “the new normal.”  It doesn’t have to be a negative term when it comes to radio and overall media in general.  You can turn that into an opportunity today!  Keep in mind too that Smart Speakers have essentially placed “radios” back into homes that have not had actual radios for years, hitting a new record high in share, increasing 40%.  The best part is, they are not only perfect for streaming, but for listening to podcasts as well.  I recently heard an interview with a restaurant owner who said: “forget thinking out of the box, it’s time for a whole new box!”  Like broadcasting, the hospitality industry has been faced with big challenges since March.  This particular restaurateur was spending less time on the “doom and gloom” angle and more time on what opportunities have presented themselves for his business.  Perhaps we should do the same?  Toss out that old box, and start fresh.  Pay attention to our consumers, where are they?  What do they crave?  How have their lives changed and how can we deliver content to them on their own schedule?  I think it’s safe to say that we are never going back to the normal we knew in January 2020.  So let’s get excited, blaze new trails, adapt to change, and continue to enhance the lives of millions that are informed, entertained, laugh, and cry with us every day.  What segment did you do on the air today that will become a podcast right now?  It all starts with one.  Deliver awesome, on-demand content that is ready to be enjoyed when your fans are ready to enjoy it, with Futuri. They’ll thank you for it.

 

how radio can cash in on booming digital ad spending

How Radio Can Cash in On Booming Digital Ad Spending

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With brands spending at record rates on mobile, digital audio, and digital video, radio stations can showcase their best products and add new offerings to grow revenue.

Here’s some good news for radio broadcasters: The digital ad market is surging and now is the time for local stations to cash in. Local radio companies have invested heavily in digital audio, mobile and digital video, positioning them to grab a larger share of digital ad dollars. Consumers are shifting their media time to mobile devices and that’s good for radio’s digital products.

Just how much money are we talking about?

  • U.S. marketers spent $28.4 billion on digital advertising in Q1 2019, up 18% from Q1 2018, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. 
  • The strong quarterly growth comes after a banner year in 2018, when digital ad sales jumped 22% to $104.7 billion, compared to 2017 levels. 
  • Mobile advertising spending doubled last year to $70 billion, compared to 2017 levels. 

As more consumers turn to their smartphones for entertainment, digital audio and video streaming are booming, and advertisers want to reach these audiences.  

  • Thanks to red-hot podcasting and digital streaming, brands are doubling-down on digital audio, spending $2.3 billion last year, up 23% from 2017’s $1.7 billion. 
  • Digital video is similarly growing at a breakneck pace, with ad spend up 37% in 2018 to $16.3 billion, compared to 2017.  

So what are the takeaways for broadcasters? Here are a few suggestions

Keep your mobile apps fresh

The best radio station mobile apps feature live streams, on-demand content, podcasts, and user-favorite features like contests. These are all key components to creating a positive mobile experience for your users. Make sure your mobile app is easy to use and continually revisit to explore new features and integrations. And don’t forget that with the growth of Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and SDL, mobile apps compatible with these technologies are your ticket into the connected car in a meaningful way.

Podcasts, podcasts, podcasts

Your listeners and your advertising partners can’t get enough of podcasts, so focus on developing more original on-demand audio and make your broadcast content available for on-demand, time-shifted listening. Offer advertisers opportunities in your on-demand audio including exclusive sponsorship and even branded podcasts. 

Develop mobile ad opportunities

For local advertisers, offer mobile ad opportunities that go beyond banner ads. You can create branded content, including video and podcasts, and you can also offer sponsorships for popular sections of the app, such as weather or traffic. Lastly, make sure that your live stream quality is as strong as your over-the-air broadcasts to ensure users have a positive listening experience. Pre-roll, midroll, and post-roll video ads give local businesses a chance to get into digital video. Also, be sure to present podcast ad opportunities, these are a major growth area for digital audio.

Dig into digital video

Both users and marketers are clamoring for more digital video. Radio stations can shoot video in studio or in the community. Local events, sports and concerts all offer opportunities for video. There’s even opportunities to create video to accompany original podcasts. Local businesses can buy pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll video as standalone or in conjunction with audio spots. Radio can also produce branded video content for local advertisers, leveraging both their production and sales capabilities.

So how do you tackle all this to-do list? Futuri Media can help. 

  • Top-quality mobile apps: With Futuri Mobile, we can design mobile apps with custom features to showcase your best content and create an immersive mobile experience. Our apps are highly customizable; choose from one of three starting points and create a station app that has any of literally hundreds of customizations. 
  • Get into the video business — without derailing other parts of your business: To help time-strapped hosts and producers with content, we’ve added TopicPulse Instant Video. Subscribers can access dozens of videos daily, based on the day’s hottest topics that they easily can customize with their station branding and even their own PPM-encoded audio. Distribute these on your mobile, web, and social channels. And our POST podcasting system makes it incredibly simple to turn your audio into a video with a licensed image and a dynamic waveform designed to drive engagement. It’s a great way to take advantage of YouTube and other video sharing platforms for your audio content.

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By embracing mobile, digital audio, and digital video, your station can participate in the fast-growing digital and mobile ad boom, as well as bring more innovative and exclusive content to your audience. That’s a win-win for everyone. 

6 reasons your station needs a better audio strategy

Six Reasons Your Station Needs A Better Audio Strategy Now

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Audio is the “it” media of the moment and radio stations are primed to be the go-to source for all audio – from on-air to on-demand to podcasts. AM/FM stations are experts in high-quality, local audio and feature charismatic hosts who connect with listeners and feel like trusted friends. These ingredients make for great radio, as well as time-shifted audio and podcasts, allowing more listeners to find content they like and to listen on their schedules.

Time-shifted audio and podcasts can attract new audiences, generate incremental revenue, and increase brand engagement.  How much upside is there? According to a new study by Futuri and Nielsen, about 80% of radio listeners said they would listen to time-shifted radio content. Podcast listening is booming as well. In a survey of podcast listeners, the University of Florida and Futuri found that, on average, podcast users listen to 4 podcasts per week for either 30 or 60 minutes.

Despite radio’s built-in advantages, many stations are missing out on on-demand audio’s potential. Still need convincing? Here are six reasons why your station should dive into time-shifting and podcasting:

You can leverage content you’re already creating   

Stations produce hours of programming, but once the live broadcast is over that content is history. By posting segments to your website or social media for future listening, you can extend the life of your audio.  Hosts can take bite-sized snippets of popular benchmarks or post segments that might be too long for radio such as an interview with musicians or local personalities. Either way, fans can listen on their own time and you’re expanding the reach of your content and brand.

Time-shifted audio can expand your social media reach

By posting radio segments across social media your station can attract more users and extend engagement. In fact, more than half of radio listeners say they’d listen to short, time-shifted radio segments on social media, per the Futuri and Nielsen study. Users who tune into time-shifted audio are also more likely to share that content on their own social accounts, the report noted. Radio content can also be posted to podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify, as well as YouTube. To boost engagement consider adding photos, video, and station branding. These are all things made super easy by our software POST.

Younger listeners gravitate to on-demand audio

Younger Americans consume audio when and where they want on their digital devices. Time-shifted audio and podcasts cater to these preferences and can help stations connect with elusive young adults and male listeners. In fact, the Futuri and Nielsen study showed men 18 to 34 years-old were most interested in time-shifted radio programming. The University of Florida and Futuri podcast study also noted that self-identified podcast listeners (meaning those who consider themselves to be podcast listeners, whether or not “true” series-style podcasts or other on-demand audio — consumers often don’t differentiate) tend to be younger audiences who overwhelmingly listen on mobile devices. Podcast listeners are also educated, with about half holding a college degree, the study noted.

Grow your owned digital platforms

With original podcasts and time-shifted audio, you can use your content to populate your websites and mobile apps, increasing the value of these channels. By driving more traffic to your owned platforms, your sales team can leverage increased audience to generate more ad revenue. About 80% of podcast users listen via mobile devices, according to the University of Florida and Futuri study, creating added incentive to post content to your website and mobile app.

Digital audio can grow your ratings

Digital content is obviously important for developing new and creative opportunities for your partners to advertise, but when time-shifted audio is PPM-encoded and distributed quickly, it can have a positive impact on your ratings. Stations receive PPM credit for any listening within 24 hours of the content’s initial broadcast. Also, according to the Futuri and Nielsen study, almost half of listeners who have accessed your time-shifted content will share it on their social media channels, easily broadening your station’s reach and impact. POST software is integrated directly with your station’s board and specifically designed to directly capture your PPM-encoded audio for easy use on all digital platforms.

Strengthen your position as local experts and trusted friends  

Radio listeners value AM/FM stations for their local expertise and their familiarity with hosts and DJs. Similarly, podcast listeners value hosts who are knowledgeable and trusted sources of information. Who better than radio personalities to extend those talents to podcasting? Hosts can take topics they are passionate about and create podcasts thereby creating a new community of listeners. Stations can also produce audio around off-air activities to give listeners more access to engage more deeply.

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Once you’re creating and posting time-shifted audio, make sure to promote it on-air. The Futuri and Nielsen study found that only three out of ten radio listeners were familiar with time-shifted audio, and only 16% have listened in the last month. This leaves a lot of room to raise awareness and educate audiences.     

At Futuri, we’ve developed tools to help radio stations create on-demand content quickly and easily. Our POST podcasting and on-demand management system allows hosts and producers to grab PPM-encoded audio segments and seamlessly post them to social media and online channels. Nielsen reported that stations that use POST attracted three times more time-shifted listening within 24 hours of the original broadcast than other stations, and those numbers were even higher among the key 18 to 49 years-old demographic.

With POST, you can add licensed images and graphics, as well as station branding and text to make your audio segments stand out. Basic, station-branded video and the ability to send content to YouTube is now included with POST, but for videos that really stand out with high-quality, fully-licensed clips and images customized directly to your audio our premium POST Video features are an absolute necessity. In the race to attract listeners, promote sharing and go viral, speed and appearance are what matter.

By embracing on-demand audio, stations can move beyond focusing on day parts and shows and focus on content distributed on multiple platforms. In the race to stay ahead of pure play audio companies and other local media outlets, these strategies are crucial.

Today's Podcast Listener: 2019 National Survey Report

Major New Podcast Study Reveals Listener Habits, Trust in Hosts

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National study also contains insights on implications for radio

Las Vegas, Nevada, April 9, 2019 – Most podcast users are millennial males, listen weekly, and engage with podcasts at home, according to a major new study by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) and Futuri Media, a leading audience engagement and sales intelligence technology firm.

Results were presented at the National Association of Broadcasters’ NAB Show on April 9 as part of a panel discussion titled “Radio’s New Analytics: Understanding Listeners, Delivering Results.”

The study, which included a national survey and in-depth interviews, was conducted in February 2019 with 2,000 regular podcast users who listened to podcasts in the past six months, and 18 participants who gave in-depth interviews on their habits. The study did not define podcasting vs. other types of on-demand audio, and respondents self-identified as podcast listeners. The study results suggest that consumers now consider several types of on-demand audio to be podcasts.

While the study was not limited to those who use terrestrial radio, the sample was large enough that it delivered several insights on the radio format preferences of those who also listen to podcasts regularly.

The study found that nearly three-quarters of users have been listening to podcasts for less than three years and, on average, listen to 4 podcasts per week for either 30 or 60 minutes. Users listen to podcasts on multiple platforms, but YouTube is far and away the dominant platform (70%), followed by Spotify (34%), iTunes/Apple Podcasts app (33%), Pandora (30%), and Google Play music app (23%).

Not surprisingly, nearly 80% of survey respondents listen to podcasts on their mobile devices. What is somewhat surprising is that the users listen to podcast most frequently at home (3.9 on a 5-point frequency scale), followed by in vehicles (2.8/5).

Politics and Government podcasts are the most popular, with 15% listing it as their favorite genre. Music was next (11%) followed by interviews/conversations, comedy, sports and recreation and non-fiction storytelling, cited by 8 – 9% of respondents.

Listeners trust their podcast hosts highly, prefer host-read ads, and look for creative, informative, humorous, and integrated podcast experiences. They want to listen to hosts who are authentic, feel like a friend, and share the users’ passions and beliefs.

The study also found that among radio listeners who listen to podcasts regularly, 25-34 is the top age cell with both spoken word and music formats, with spoken word format attracting a more male audience (73% vs. 27% female), and music formats having a more even, but female-leaning split (51% female to 49% male). The top five favorite radio formats for regularly podcast listeners surveyed were Classic Rock (11%), Hip-Hop/Rap (10.9%), Country (10.4%), News/Talk (9.7%), and Alternative Rock (6.6%)

The study, which was supported by Futuri Media and their POST podcasting system, was designed and executed by UFCJC Telecommunication Professor and Director of Media Consumer Research Sylvia Chan-Olmsted with the help of doctoral student Ms. Rang Wang on the survey and undergraduate students in a capstone class who helped conduct the interviews. More insights from the study can be found at http://bit.ly/2019podcaststudy.

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Futuri is the leading provider of cloud-based audience engagement software for the enterprise. Brands rely on Futuri to make their content more relevant, accessible, engaging, and results-driven. Founded in 2009, Futuri holds 12 published or pending patents in 151 countries. Named to the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies for seven consecutive years, Futuri is the only audience engagement platform that includes solutions for sales, marketing, and content teams.