Spotify gained a new user every three seconds in 2015, boasting over 20 million paying subscribers. And it's keeping its userbase interested by adding yet another custom-made weekly playlist – this time using a human algorithm that's informed by the listening habits of hipsters.

Storytelling has become a guiding principle for great marketing, letting companies neatly fit into consumers’ lives. But with one well-timed ad capable of changing someone’s shopping habits for years, how can brands address our milestone moments without seeming opportunistic?

With the arrival of Apple Music, continued growth of Spotify, and a vinyl revival, it’s clear that the music business is in a state of flux. So how will the way we find, play and share music change in the future? In the first of two reports we see how Spotify and vinyl are shaping the industry.

Averaging 2.2 million listeners per episode, NPR’sSerialpodcast is not just a cultural phenomenon, but a game-changer for a formally underappreciated medium. But why has the story of a 1999 murder in Baltimore struck such a chord? And what is it about the lure of audio that’s driving a talk radio revival?