Amazon makes its music streaming service free with ads

Amazon is making its music streaming service free. The company previously offered free, ad-supported streaming only to customers who owned an Amazon Echo device. Now it’s rolling out free streaming to anyone using the Amazon Music app on iOS, Android, Fire TV and Amazon Music on the web in the U.S., U.K., and Germany. The company has been steadily making its music streaming service more accessible by reducing prices. Earlier this year, for example, Amazon said it would no longer charge the $3.99 per month for streaming from Amazon Music Unlimited to Echo devices or require customers to pay for Amazon Prime in order to gain access to Prime Music’s smaller, 2+ million song catalog. Instead, it rolled out an ad-supported version of Amazon Music for free to Echo owners. This is basically the same 2 million song catalog that comes with Prime Music, it just includes advertising and doesn’t require Prime membership.

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Ad Tech and Martech

InMobi Forges Global Partnership with Ad Net Zero to Further its Commitment to Sustainable Advertising Practices

CMSWire | September 15, 2023

InMobi, a leading provider of content, monetization and marketing technologies that help businesses fuel growth, today announced its strategic partnership with Ad Net Zero, the climate action program with the mission to accelerate the decarbonization of the advertising industry. This collaboration underscores InMobi's resolute commitment to sustainability, aligning with Ad Net Zero's mission to revolutionize the advertising landscape through decarbonization initiatives spanning ad production, distribution, and publication. The global advertising industry is at a critical juncture, as it grapples with the environmental impact of its operations. Recent statistics underscore the urgency of the issue, with the internet’s greenhouse gas emissions comprising approximately 4% of the global total – surpassing even the aviation sector. Notably, the energy required to serve one million ad impressions is equivalent to the carbon produced by manufacturing 2.4 million plastic straws. Recognizing the growing importance of sustainability in business decisions, InMobi has taken a proactive step by aligning itself with Ad Net Zero. As a leader in the ad tech industry, InMobi recognizes the significance of demonstrating sustainability efforts to both its existing clients and potential partners. A recent Deloitte survey highlights that 98% of consumers believe brands are responsible for contributing to a better world, and a considerable portion of consumers prefer to be patrons of sustainable brands. By joining forces with Ad Net Zero, InMobi embarks on a journey to align with the organization's five-step plan, designed to minimize the carbon footprint of advertising: Reduce emissions from advertising business operations Decrease emissions stemming from advertising production Diminish emissions from media planning and buying Lessen advertising emissions from awards and events Harness advertising's potential to drive behavioral change InMobi's dedication to sustainability extends beyond rhetoric to measurable action. InMobi Exchange, powered by Microsoft Azure which boasts of complete carbon neutrality, stands as a testament to its commitment. Furthermore, data gleaned from the Microsoft Azure Impact Emissions Dashboard showcases InMobi's impressive emission reduction metrics: InMobi's emission factor ranks within the top fifth percentile compared to average server emission factors Server usage demonstrates a remarkable 80-90% higher green efficiency compared to alternative on-premise solutions, even high-efficiency ones Direct SDK integrations, paired with machine learning, have driven emission reductions of up to 30% "InMobi's partnership with Ad Net Zero symbolizes our dedication to ushering in a more sustainable era for the advertising industry," states Kunal Nagpal, Chief Business Officer at InMobi. "We are proud to stand alongside fellow tech companies and agencies, united in the pursuit of a greener, more responsible future. By fully embracing Ad Net Zero's comprehensive plan, we are steadfast in our commitment to minimizing our environmental impact while advancing the power of advertising." "Ad Net Zero is thrilled to work with InMobi as they support more sustainable advertising solutions, contributing to our collective global impact. InMobi’s commitment is another significant step toward an eco-friendly future for the industry,” says John Osborn, Director of Ad Net Zero in the U.S. InMobi’s partnership with Ad Net Zero follows its global sustainability commitment to Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), where InMobi is undergoing a 24-month goal validation process, at the end of which InMobi will commit to ambitious Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions reduction targets in line with SBTi sector guidelines and the GHG Protocol standards. InMobi also continues its partnership for the second year with Givsly, the leading purpose driven B2B marketing solution, and shared the stage with Givsly, Dentsu, and IPG Brands at Cannes Lions 2023 to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and the path that can be taken for a sustainable ad tech stack. Recently, InMobi served as the primary audience partner in AdTechCares’ campaign with Project Drawdown, a nonprofit organization working to reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere. AdTechCares is a 501 (c)(3) organization that leverages ad tech to combat misinformation and keep humanity well, and InMobi is a founding member. About InMobi InMobi is a leading provider of marketing and monetization technologies. With deep expertise and unique reach in mobile, it is a trusted and transparent technology partner for marketers, content creators and businesses of all kinds. InMobi’s mission is to power its customers’ growth by helping them engage their audiences and build meaningful connections. Its affiliated businesses – Glance, an unconsolidated subsidiary that offers a lock screen-based content discovery platform, and video platform Roposo – help InMobi create new content and commerce experiences in a world of connected devices. InMobi is headquartered in Singapore, maintains a large presence in San Francisco and Bangalore and has operations in New York, Chicago, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Delhi, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Melbourne, Seoul, Tokyo, London and Dubai. To learn more, visit inmobi.com. About Ad Net Zero Ad Net Zero is a climate action program to help the advertising industry tackle the climate emergency by decarbonizing ad operations and supporting every industry to accurately promote sustainable products and services. Originally founded by the UK Advertising Association in partnership with the IPA and ISBA, Ad Net Zero launched its 5-point action plan in the UK in November 2020 and has since gained over 100 UK supporters. The action plan aims to achieve net zero emissions in ad development, production, and media placement, as well as use advertising’s positive influence to help shift consumers towards more sustainable behavior. Its first non-UK territory launched in Ireland in June 2022, followed by a global roll-out at Cannes LIONS 2022. In February 2023, Ad Net Zero launched in the US, supported by the 4A’s, ANA and IAB, where it now counts over 70 supporters. Ad Net Zero has widespread backing from across the industry and proudly counts support from the world’s six biggest agency holding groups, media owners, tech companies, advertisers, and independent creative and production agencies. For more information, please visit www.adnetzero.com.

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Ad Tech and Martech

OpenX Teams up with Cedara to Become the First Adtech Platform to Deliver a Complete Programmatic Campaign Emissions Solution

Business Wire | October 05, 2023

OpenX Technologies, Inc., one of the world’s leading omnichannel supply-side platforms, today announced a milestone partnership with Cedara, the Carbon Intelligence Platform. With this integration, OpenX becomes the first digital advertising company to offer automated emissions measurement on campaigns, reduced campaign emissions, and a custom carbon offset portfolio solution for remaining campaign emissions via Cedara’s platform. By pairing Cedara’s media emissions reduction and offset capabilities with OpenX’s status as the first Net-Zero adtech company, this partnership leads the industry’s sustainability initiative with best-in-class solutions for measuring and reducing emissions both at a corporate level and in media distribution. This fully integrated solution will enable buyers to: sync organizational emissions data with media buys access highly curated and third-party certified projects achieve transparency and customization into how and what offsets are leveraged through the creation of custom offset portfolios seamlessly onboard and measure emissions from OpenX’s campaigns Cedara provides automated omnichannel emissions measurement and deep business intelligence across both organizational and campaign-level emissions for advertisers and the media supply chain. Paired with OpenX’s comprehensive media activity data, this partnership enables transparent and accurate emissions measurement to deliver a truly sustainable supply path for buyers. We are thrilled to partner with OpenX, as they have a long-term commitment to sustainability and are consistent innovators. Our partnership gives buyers an end-to-end, sustainable programmatic product that they simply can’t get anywhere else, said Eric Shih, COO at Cedara. “With Cedara, we are able to offer an end-to-end solution that enables brands to measure the impact of their digital activity and provides control over and transparency into how and where quality offsets are used while delivering performance across our publisher portfolio,” said Joseph Worswick, VP EMEA and Head of Global Sustainability at OpenX. “In keeping with OpenX’s commitment to our own emissions reduction, we’re excited to see more businesses successfully build sustainability solutions as it shows the demand from digital advertising is growing.” About Cedara Cedara, founded in 2021, is on a mission to help businesses decarbonize and to build a more sustainable future for society. With its end-to-end climate management software platform, Cedara enables organizations of any size, along with their employees, to measure, reduce, offset and report on all carbon emissions. Cedara adopts a high-impact, data-driven approach to develop transformative solutions for enterprises and their partners to accelerate the shift to a climate-friendly economy. To learn more, please visit cedara.io. About OpenX OpenX is a supply-side platform that is a leader in advertising technology, and is helping to create a world where the open web thrives. The company powers advertising on web, mobile, and connected TV formats, enabling marketers to reach their target audience across OpenX’s global network of publishers. OpenX works with more than 130,000 premium publisher domains and receives more than 300 billion ad requests every day. OpenX is a certified CarbonNeutral® company and is verified for having fulfilled their SBTi Net-Zero targets. Visit the company’s website at www.openx.com.

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Ad Networks

Tinuiti Named Premier Launch Partner for Microsoft Advertising Network For Retail

PR Newswire | October 12, 2023

Tinuiti, the largest independent performance marketing firm across Streaming TV, Google, Meta, and Amazon, has been named as a premier launch partner for Microsoft Advertising Network for retail. Now, retailers can launch a profitable retail media program quickly to generate incremental sales and unlock additional high-margin revenue with high-quality ads. The Microsoft Advertising Network for retail is also a great new opportunity for brand advertisers to generate incremental sales with their retail partners. Tinuiti brand clients have access to: Ready-built retail media ad supply. Access to a large high-intent shopper audience across Microsoft Advertising Network with co-sponsored product ads. Real-time reporting to see detailed SKU level performance data. We're excited to announce our partnership with Microsoft Retail Media to simplify how brands connect with more customers online by making the retail media activation process more efficient. The configuration closely mirrors a conventional Shopping campaign, while offering the additional capacity to optimize sales for our clients across multiple retailers and overseeing the listings of identical products on different platforms, said Evan Kirkpatrick, Vice President, Head of Shoppable Media at Tinuiti. Skai's omnichannel marketing platform will be the first third-party platform integrated into this new retail solution, offering advertisers additional flexibility into how they buy retail media ads and monitor media spending. Earlier this year, Tinuiti won two Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards — the Growth Media Division as Microsoft's Advertising Channel Partner of the Year, and the Search/Shoppable Media Division winning the Microsoft Advertising Client Partnership of the Year. These two accolades add to Tinuiti's list of Microsoft Partner Awards. Last year, Tinuiti took home Microsoft's two biggest awards: Global Agency of The Year and Agency Partner of the Year (Americas) — marking the first time any independent agency has ever done so. The Microsoft Advertising Network for retail allows both retailers and advertisers to engage with shoppers across their customer journey from awareness to purchase. It is available in the US only today. About Tinuiti Tinuiti is the largest independent performance marketing firm across Streaming TV, Google, Meta, and Amazon, with more than $3 billion in digital media under management and over 1,200 employees. With industry-leading expertise in search, social, Amazon and marketplaces, addressable TV, mobile apps, Influencer, Lifecycle, and more, Tinuiti understands that success requires both strategy and channel expertise. Each solution is delivered through Tinuiti's performance planning framework, GAMMA, and is enabled by a proprietary suite of marketing intelligence and media activation technology – Mobius. For more information visit http://www.tinuiti.com.

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