NAD Files Lawsuit Against SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora for Lack of Transcripts

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) posted a release titled: “Lawsuit Challenges Inaccessibility of Major Podcast Platforms.” From the release:

The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and Disability Rights Advocates (DRA) have filed a lawsuit against three major providers of podcasts, SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora, to end their exclusion of deaf and hard of hearing Americans from each company’s extensive podcast streaming service.

Sirius XM bills itself as the “new destination for original, exclusive, and popular podcasts,” providing customers access to a slate of both original and third-party podcast content, including exclusive access to podcasts produced by Marvel Entertainment.

Stitcher ranked #1 in Triton Digital’s Report of top Podcast Networks for August 2021, with 451 active original podcast. Likewise, Pandora’s podcast service offers users access to hundreds of thousands of podcast episodes. Yet none of these multimillion-dollar companies provides transcripts for the plethora of podcasts available on their popular mobile applications.

Because Defendants do not make transcripts or captions available for any of the podcasts offered on their platforms, more than 48 million deaf and hard of hearing Americans are denied full and equal enjoyment of the content they offer hearing users. These failures to provide equal access violate the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as state and local New York law.

The NAD and five deaf Americans who wish to use each of Defendants’ podcast services but are excluded from doing so brought this action to end SiriusXM’s, Stitchers, and Pandora’s discriminatory business practices.

Howard A. Rosenbaum, CEO of NAD, said, “Podcasts are the latest form of entertainment, and it is imperative that deaf and hard of hearing people not be left behind. SiriusXM, Stitcher, and Pandora have a duty under federal, state, and city laws to ensure their podcasts are fully accessible.”

Plaintiff Mei Nishimoto said, “I want all podcasts to be accessible for myself, because I love to learn, and as a Deaf parent with a school-aged child, I need to screen what is appropriate for her age and interests, and advance her education.”

Plaintiff Dr. Amber Martin said, “Access to information and entertainment is as interesting and important to deaf and hard of hearing people as it is to others. There have been many times when someone told me about something they heard on a podcast that sparked my interest but there was no transcript. It’s disappointing not to be able to participate in the conversations with friends, but especially frustrating to know that I’m locked out of a lot of information I’d like to have.”

Plaintiff Jamie Munro said, “Podcasts are now ubiquitous and serves as a wealth of information to everyone, except the deaf community. We cannot be excluded again and must have full access to knowledge that is already readily available to everyone else.”

Plaintiff Rebecca Alexander stated, “Requesting accommodations is not asking to be given information out of privilege. Having equal access to information, including from podcasts, is a fundamental civil right. I am also concerned about being precluded from a platform that has important commentary from people, myself included, because of inaccessibility.”

DRA staff attorney Emily Seelenfreund said, “SiriusXM, Stitcher and Pandora’s complete failure to consider access for individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing is an embarrassment and an abject violation of federal and local disability law.

FOX News Media Expands Broadcast Partnership with SiriusXM and Pandora

FOX News Media and SiriusXM have expanded their existing broadcast partnership, announced John Sylvester, Vice President of FOX News Audio. As a part of the new agreement, all of FOX News Podcasts’ original programming is now available to Pandora’s more than 60 million monthly users across all tiers of the service. Additionally, the platform’s daily news digest, The FOX News Rundown, now airs weekday mornings on SiriusXM’s Patriot Channel 125.

In making this announcement, Sylvester said, “We are thrilled to expand our longstanding partnership, ensuring SiriusXM and Pandora’s combined over 100 million listeners continued access to our cutting edge news coverage as well as our best in class lifestyle and opinion programming.”

Through this new agreement, a one-hour version of The FOX News Rundown now airs on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125 each weekday at 5AM/ET. As FOX News Audio’s signature news and analysis podcast, the program features a team of FOX News Radio anchors and reporters, including Jaqui Heinrich, Dave Anthony, Lisa Brady, Jessica Rosenthal and Chris Foster, as they break down the day’s top headlines, present interviews with key newsmakers and provide insights from FOX News reporters stationed around the globe.

Featuring a catalogue of more than 20 original FOX News Podcasts, the expanded partnership also includes popular podcasts such as the FOX News Radio Newscast, the FOX Business Hourly Report, and I’ll Tell You What, hosted by The Daily Briefing and The Five’s Dana Perino and FOX News politics editor Chris Stierwalt.

The agreement also makes FOX News Radio’s three nationally syndicated talk shows, The Brian Kilmeade Show, FOX Across America with Jimmy Falla and The Guy Benson Show available to Pandora listeners. This builds upon the streaming platform’s existing portfolio of FOX News programming, including the audio of FOX News Channel’s (FNC) top-rated shows, such as The Five, Special Report with Bret Baier, The Story with Martha McCallum, Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity, The Ingraham Angle and FOX News @ Night with Shannon Bream.

Reaching over 36 million listeners across more than 1,500 affiliated stations throughout the country, FOX News Audio is a rapidly growing division of FOX News Media. Per Podtrac analysis, FOX News Podcasts rank among the top 20 podcasts networks in the United States, based on average monthly downloads. In addition, in April 2020, the platform experienced a 60 percent increase in total downloads from the previous year.

Pandora Launched Desktop App for Mac

Pandora announced that the Pandora desktop app for Mac is available now. The Windows version is “coming soon”.

Today, we’re excited to launch our new Pandora desktop app for Mac for listeners across all tiers of service who like to enjoy their personalized Pandora experience on their computers.

The Pandora desktop app gives users full-featured access to Pandora right from their Mac. It solves the problem of having to flip through browser tabs.

New features have also been added:

  • Keyboard controls that let you play, pause, replay, skip, shuffle, or thumb up/thumb down songs right from your keyboard.
  • On-screen song notifications that graphically display the artists albums, and song titles for the music that’s currently playing.
  • App-based controls for Pandora’s new Pandora Modes feature, which lets you customize the music you hear on your Pandora stations using selectable “modes” including Crowd Faves, Deep Cuts, Newly-Released, Artist Only, and more.

Mac users can download the Pandora desktop app for Mac now. It requires macOS version 10.10 and above. Pandora says “stay tuned” for the launch of their new Pandora desktop app for Windows.

The information about the app doesn’t specifically say anything about podcasts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the desktop app will exclude them. It has been said that Pandora (and Spotify) are hoping that podcasts will increase their revenue. Unlike music, podcasts can be streamed without requiring a company to pay for licensing fees.

Pandora Announces Voice-Enabled Ads Powered by Instreamatic

Pandora announced an agreement with Instreamatic.ai, the platform for voice-enabled ads that allows media companies and advertisers to measure, manage, and monetize audio content by utilizing interactive voice AI technology. The two companies made an agreement to test interactive voice advertising.

Instreamatic explained how their voice-enabled ads work:

One of Instreamatic’s capabilities is voice AI that harnesses natural language understanding (NLU), enabling customer conversations to go far beyond “yes or no” interactions. Instreamatic’s AI functionality is also designed to study, interpret, and understand user intent, and continuously refines this understanding through deep learning mechanisms.

In this way, the platform continues to learn and increase its vocabulary and predictive power. By anticipating intent – sometimes even before the user speaks – the platform is built to iteratively improve both consumers’ ad experiences and the performance of ad campaigns.

In addition, Instreamatic’s technology enables each interaction to be carefully measured in order to deliver meaningful ad metrics that inform campaign strategy and drive ad spend decisions.

TechCrunch reported that Pandora’s new voice ads will allow listeners to respond by speaking aloud – either to get more information about the product being advertised, or to skip the ad if it’s not of interest.

The beta test of Instreamatic’s platform for voice-enabled ads will launch sometime later this year.

Pandora Stories Combines the Best of Podcasts and Playlists

Pandora Stories allows Creators to curate Playlists and Mixtapes comprised of music and comedy tracks from Pandora’s extensive catalog. Curators can further customize Programs with their own commentary, or that of a collaborator, by uploading Voice Tracks sequenced within the Program.

TechCrunch has a statement from Pandora’s VP of Artist Marketing and Industry Relations, Jeff Zuchowski.

“Podcasts can tell stories about music, but it’s difficult to include full songs, and regular playlists have songs but lack personal context from the artists behind them. We’ve created Pandora Stories to fill the void, bringing together the greatest strengths of both podcasts and playlists, and giving artists the opportunity to connect with listeners on a uniquely deep and personal level.”

Pandora explains that Voice Tracks are messages recorded by any Creator, artist, or featured guest that add context or commentary to the Program listening experience.

The Voice Tracks are not advertisements, but they can be used to promote music, comedy, or podcast releases. The Voice tracks “should instead be used to make listeners laugh, cry, or learn something new.”

A Voice Track can be set to play as an introduction to your Program, before or after a specific track within the Program, or as an unattached message playing as sequenced in a Playlist or at random in a Mixtape. Those who want to create Pandora Stories need to fill out a form.

If I’m understanding this correctly, Pandora considers the combination of the Voice Tracks and music in a Playlist to be similar to a podcast. Personally, I don’t think Pandora Stories are podcasts, or even podcast episodes. They are sort of a hybrid between podcasts and playlists.

Pandora Officially Announced Podcasts on Pandora

Pandora announced that they now have podcasts on Pandora. They have over 100,000 episodes across a wide variety of genres including News, True Crime, Sports, Comedy, Music, Business, Technology, Entertainment, Kids, Health and Science.

Pandora users will have podcasts recommended to them via Pandora’s Podcast Genome Project. It can also recommend specific podcast episodes to users based on each person’s individual tastes.

Interestingly, the information Pandora released includes a little bit about how to get your podcast on Pandora. There is now a form that can be filled out by those who run a podcast network or those who own and host a podcast themselves. Previously, it appeared that Pandora was only accepting podcasts from the networks they had partnered with.

Filling out the form means your podcast will be considered to be published. It is not a guarantee that your podcast will be on Pandora. Be aware that Pandora takes some time to review and approve podcasts. They do not want you to submit the same podcast twice.

When your podcast is approved, Pandora will send you an email from their Content Partnerships team with the next steps. Once your podcast feed has been “onboarded”, subsequent podcast episodes will automatically be added to Pandora.

Pandora Launches Podcast Offerings Powered by Podcast Genome

Pandora, the largest streaming music provider in the U.S., unveiled its podcast offering, powered by the Podcast Genome Project, a cataloging system and discovery algorithm that uses a combination of technology and human curation to deliver personalized content recommendations.

Pandora will roll out beta access to select listeners on mobile devices. Those interested in early access can sign up now with general availability in the coming weeks.

Similar to how its namesake the Music Genome Project has helped become the best and easiest way to discover music online since 2005, the Podcast Genome Project recommends the right podcasts to the right listeners at the right time. It solves the questions “is there a podcast that is right for me?” and “what should I listen to next?’

The Podcast Genome Project evaluates content based on more than 1500 attributes – spanning MPAA ratings, timely and evergreen topics, production style, content type, host profile, etc. – and listener signals including thumbs, skips and replays.

Similar to the Music Genome Project, the Podcast Genome Project combines these techniques with Pandora’s expert in-house curation team to offer episode-level podcast recommendations that reflect who you are today and evolve with you tomorrow.

Can your podcast get on Pandora? It depends. Pandora has partnered with: APM, Gimlet, HeadGum, Maximum Fun, NPR, Parcast, PRX-PRI, reVolver, Slate, The New York Times, The Ramsey Network, The Ringer, WNYC Studios, and Wondery. If your podcast is not on one of these podcast hosting sites, then you can’t get it on Pandora.

SiriusXM to Acquire Pandora

SiriusXM Holdings and Pandora Media today announced a definitive agreement under which SiriusXM will acquire Pandora in an all-stock transaction valued at approximately $3.5 billion.

The combination of these two companies creates the world’s largest audio entertainment company. The combined company will engage in cross-promotion between SiriusXM’s base of more than 36 million subscribers across North America and 23 million-plus annual trial listeners and Pandora’s more than 70 million monthly active users.

The acquisition will enable leveraging of SiriusXM’s exclusive content and programming with Pandora’s ad-supported and subscription tiers to create unique audio packages while also utilizing SiriusXM’s extensive automotive relationships to drive Pandora’s in-car distribution. The press release mentioned “expanded monetization opportunities through both ad-supported and subscription services in and out of the vehicle.”

The press release says: “Following the completion of the transaction, there will be no immediate change in listener offerings.” I think the key word here is “immediate”. This is not a promise that things will not change.

The acquisition could bring up some issues for people who canceled their SiriusXM subscription because they strongly disagreed with the hiring of Steve Bannon. It may also be problematic for the people pushing SiriusXM to cancel Pearl Jam Radio. People who don’t want anything to do with SiriusXM, but who do want to continue using Pandora, face a moral dilemma.

Now might be a good time to find out if your favorite podcasts that are on SiriusXM or Pandora are available somewhere else. That will make it easier if the podcast disappears after the acquisition is final.

Pandora has Acquired AdsWizz

Earlier this year, Pandora announced that it would acquire AdsWizz. That same day, AdsWizz confirmed the acquisition in a tweet that linked to a press release on Business Wire. Pandora posted the same press release on their website.

Pandora is the world’s most powerful music discovery platform. AdsWizz has created the end-to-end technology platform that is powering the digital audio advertising ecosystem. From dynamic ad insertion to advanced programmatic platforms to innovative new audio formats, AdsWizz efficiently connects buyers and sellers in digital audio.

Pandora announced that the addition of AdsWizz will upgrade Pandora’s ad tech capabilities, provide its advertisers with greater audience reach, and expand the company’s revenue opportunities.

AdsWizz is one of the few ad tech firms that is completely dedicated to digital audio, serving some of the largest players in the industry. With digital audio advertising growing 42% year-over-year, according to the IAB, the combined offering of Pandora and AdsWizz will capitalize on this trend, making it easier for publishers to monetize their inventory and for advertisers to buy and measure their campaigns.

Once fully integrated, advertisers will be able to transact through AdsWizz’s global marketplace across Pandora and other leading audio publishers. Pandora will support the growth of AdsWizz’s core business and invest in technology development that serves all constituents.

The press release states that AdsWizz will become a subsidiary of Pandora. Alexis van de Weyr will remain the CEO of AdsWizz. Pandora agreed to pay $145 million in a combination of cash and stock, with a minimum of 50 percent paid in cash and stock (with a minimum of 50 percent paid in cash and the remainder to be paid, at Pandora’s election, in either cash or stock. This transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2018.

This American Life is Now on Pandora

This American Life LogoPandora, as you may know, started streaming the amazingly popular Serial podcast in October of 2014. Now, Pandora has added another well known podcast, This American Life. New episodes of This American Life will go live on Pandora on Mondays and can be enjoyed via iOS, Android, tablet, or on the web.

This American Life first went on the air in 1995 in Chicago. Since then, it has expanded to become a popular weekly public radio show broadcast nationwide. Episodes have been heard on over 500 stations and downloaded by more than two million people each week.

Ira Glass is the host of This American Life. The podcast is produced in collaboration WBEZ Chicago (who are also the creators of Serial). Each week, the producers choose a theme and present various stories that fit that theme.

Pandora has put a This American Life Station together for Pandora users who are new to the podcast. Pandora has a selection of past episodes for users to explore.

Interestingly, there is no mention of exclusivity in the press release Pandora released about the addition of This American Life. (When Serial was added, it was said to be exclusive to Pandora.) It is possible to find the newest episode on the This American Life website or to subscribe to it via iTunes.