Native Voice Announces Hands-Free Access to iHeartMedia Audio Content

Native Voice, an on-demand voice assistant platform that enables users to communicate directly by voice with their favorite brands, announced today a product collaboration with iHeartMedia to offer direct access to the nation’s largest library of live and on-demand music, radio and podcast content via voice. Early in 2023, anyone with a Skull-iQ enabled Skullcandy device (Grind, Grind Fuel, Push Active) can simply say “Hey iHeart” for immediate, hands-free access to iHeartRadio’s expansive world of content without having to download the iHeart app.

Crestron Electronics announced the Creston DM NAX distributed Audio-over-IP (AoIP) amplifier is now shipping and available. This highly-anticipated all-in-one AoIP solution provides all the connectivity and audio functionality integrators need to delight residential customers. The DM NAX amplifier also offers the audio flexibility, scalability, and interoperability for both Crestron Home and Crestron custom-programmed projects.

Super Hi-Fi, a start-up company from Los Angeles, CA, announced that it’s now creating more than 1 billion transitions every month for digital streaming music services, driven by iHeart, Peloton, and the recently launched Sonos Radio. That's 1 billion times its AI technology has created unique, perfect segues from a wide range of audio elements, proving the effectiveness of the company's approach to enriching the dead space between songs or segments.

Sonos launched Sonos Radio, a free, ad-supported streaming radio service, exclusively available in more than 10 million homes globally that use Sonos hardware. Complementing the 100+ streaming options available on Sonos, the new service introduces a cohesive way to explore radio, with a broad selection of radio available around the world today, bringing together more than 60,000 stations from multiple streaming partners alongside original programming from Sonos.

TV streaming service pioneer Roku has announced its Roku OS 8.2, a software update for Roku TVs that enables new features for compatibility with upcoming Roku TV Wireless Speakers; and Roku OS 9, an upcoming new software release with a variety of enhancements to provide new easy ways to search and control the entertainment experience. Roku will soon enable the ability to use Google Assistant devices to control Roku streaming. In addition, premium music services Spotify and Pandora Premium support are also coming to Roku devices.

iHeartMedia teamed with artificial intelligence (AI) platform Super Hi-Fi to deliver an optimized digital music listening experience. The new AI capabilities will allow iHeartRadio to revolutionize its digital music service by creating a listening experience that mimics the polished production of live radio. The integration brings the best of live broadcast radio to digital streaming music by delivering flawless song transitions, including precise crossfades, volume leveling and truly gapless playback.

While consumers increasingly use new music streaming services, they also want AM/FM radio to remain the same. According to a new research by Ipsos Research, over 9 in 10 want the way they operate their car radio to remain unchanged, and would not want it changed into a dashboard app. The research also found that, in the car, CD usage is over three times that of any other digital music service.