Top News:
Songtradr:
Music licensing marketplace Songtradr acquires Bandcamp and plans to keep operating Bandcamp as a marketplace and community with an artist-first revenue share — (September 28 - Los Angeles) - Songtradr, a music licensing platform and marketplace company supporting artists, labels and publishers …
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Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Epic Games lays off 16% of its workforce, or ~830 employees, divests from music storefront Bandcamp, and intends to spin off “kid-tech” company SuperAwesome — Bloomberg reports that Fortnite developer Epic Games is expected to lay off 16 percent of its workforce.
Deadline:
SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP say they plan to “resume negotiations for a new TV/theatrical contract” on October 2, after the WGA ended its strike on September 27 — UPDATE: As Deadline first told you yesterday, SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP are meeting next week.
Discussion:
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Jennifer Maas / Variety:
WGA leaders lift the strike order as of 12:01am PT on September 27, release the tentative AMPTP deal, and let writers return to work before final ratification
Discussion:
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Todd Spangler / Variety:
Meta debuts AI chatbots based on over a dozen influencers, including Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, and Charli D'Amelio, on Instagram and Facebook, and plans to add more — Meta has turned more than a dozen celebrities and influencers into robots. — The tech company, at the Meta Connect 2023 confab Wednesday …
Discussion:
Meta, The Verge, NME, The Verge, The Information, Mashable, @ct_bergstrom@fediscience.org, Rolling Stone, TechCrunch, BGR, Engadget and The Messenger, more at Techmeme »
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Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Meta's celebrity AIs are generated AI animations built from filming the 28 people they represent; Meta would not comment on how the celebrities were compensated
Discussion:
Stereogum, Tubefilter, The Information, @brideoflinux, Gizmodo, The Guardian and New York Times, more at Techmeme »
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
X CEO Linda Yaccarino claims 90% of the top 100 advertisers “returned to the platform in the past 12 weeks alone” and that X will be profitable by early 2024 — According to X CEO Linda Yaccarino, the company formerly known as Twitter will be profitable by early 2024.
Discussion:
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Yogita Khatri / The Block:
NYC-based IYK, which lets brands, musicians, and creators build “digi-physical experiences”, including through NFTs, raised a $16.8M seed led by A16z Crypto — - IYK has raised $16.8 million in seed funding led by A16z Crypto. — The startup helps brands …
Discussion:
Fortune and Decrypt, more at Techmeme »
Tony Stubblebine / The Medium Blog:
Medium plans to block AI companies from training on posts published on Medium until the company can get concessions regarding credit, compensation, and consent — Fair use in the age of AI: Credit, compensation and consent are required. — · — · — Just now
Discussion:
@cryptomatonblog, @medium and @medium@me.dm
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
The FT reports 2022 UK operating profit up 179% YoY to £13.4M, revenue up 14% YoY to £422.5M, and 1.26M web and newspaper subscribers, up 9% YoY — Globally the FT Group grew revenues by 5% in 2022 according to unaudited accounts. — The Financial Times had its strongest year …
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Fox TV Stations signs a deal with Waymark, which uses AI to help local advertisers make high-quality commercials; Waymark works with Gray, Spectrum, and others — Fox TV Stations wants to help even the smallest local advertiser make an appearance on TV.
Discussion:
Radio & Television … and MediaPost
Shauneen Miranda / Axios:
Late-night TV talk shows return: Bill Maher on Sept. 29; John Oliver on Oct. 1, and Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and Jimmy Kimmel on Oct. 2 — Late-night shows are set to make their post-Hollywood writers strike return, but will they have any jokes about it?
Discussion:
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Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Reddit removes the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on Reddit activity but says that users will still have opt-out controls in “select countries” — Reddit said Wednesday that the platform is revamping its privacy settings with an aim to make ad personalization and account visibility toggles consistent.
Discussion:
Engadget, Mashable, Gizmodo, The Verge, @dangillmor@mastodon.social and r/reddit, more at Techmeme »
BBC:
New BBC social media rules: flagship presenters can't endorse or attack a political party while their show is on air, criticize individual UK politicians, more — High-profile presenters should be allowed to express views on issues and policies but stop short of political campaigning, a new BBC report says.
Discussion:
@garylineker, Financial Times, The Independent, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, The Guardian, Press Gazette and Variety
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