AUDIO DISTRIBUTION PLATFORMS
Nearly every smartphone or mobile device user has, at least at one time, relied on online audio and video distribution platforms. In fact, many mobile devices come with one or more such applications preinstalled. Approximately 800 million users use iTunes per month, SoundCloud and Ask.fm provide music to at least 165 million monthly users, and at least 70 million users subscribe to Spotify each month. The content provided by foreign media figures could influence users through themes, lyrics, and cultural transference. The funding provided by sponsored performers or advertisements may even fund foreign operations. More likely, however, organized threat actors would be far more successful in weaponizing podcasts, alternative news streams, and other issue-specific vectors through content or sponsorship. While not as potent an attack vector as social media platforms, these applications, many of which integrate with the audio services mentioned above, can still normalize foreign sentiments and in some cases radicalize listeners to adopt the agenda of foreign threats.