RadioWorks and Maple Street Studios become founding members of the first ever IAB audio council

RadioWorks, incorporating Maple Street Studios, is joining other industry thought leaders which include Spotify, YouTube, Myspace, Last.fm, BlinkBox and Mixcloud, audio researchers Audience.net, media owners Absolute Radio, Bauer and Global Radio, alongside Red Apple Creative.

The Audio Council has been established by the IAB in response to the growing significance of audio within the digital landscape, with the remit of educating the market on digital advertising disciplines, helping to develop future business models for the audio sector and increasing the value of the online audio advertising sector.

Michael Charnley-Heaton, Chief Executive of the RadioWorks Group commented: “The traditional boundaries of broadcast media have been blown apart by the digital explosion, allowing advertisers to target their consumers more creatively.

“We are looking forward to sharing ideas with some of the major players on the Audio Council and hope we can deliver insight into how to leverage digital audio content for commercial return to advertisers.”

A key Audio Council output for 2013 will be a research project designed to show the scale of the audience for online audio.

The Council work will build on a number of initiatives completed in 2012 including a white paper which examined how consumers feel about advertising within an online audio environment.

The IAB’s Editorial Manager and Chair of the Council, Stuart Aitken, commented: “At the IAB we’re always interested in working closely with key players of all sizes within different sectors and we are looking forward to working with all Audio Council members throughout the coming year to ensure our objectives and plans come together.”