Top News:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify debuts AI Playlist in beta for its Premium users in the UK and Australia, letting Android and iOS users generate and revise playlists using text prompts — Spotify already found success with its popular AI DJ feature, and now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation.
Discussion:
Spotify, Variety, @tonyjebara, @stufflistings, @cweichen, @spotifynews, Music Ally, Filipe Roque on LinkedIn, Gautam Talwar on LinkedIn, Matt Cronin on LinkedIn, Jan-Paul Jeffrey on LinkedIn, Music Business Worldwide, @eldsjal, 9to5Google, 9to5Mac, @carnage4life, Mashable, @scobleizer, Steven Finch on LinkedIn, Tom's Guide, The Verge, BGR and CMU, more at Techmeme »
Sophie Culpepper / Nieman Lab:
How local US news outlets in the total solar eclipse's path are covering the event, using it as an opportunity to broaden their appeal beyond current audiences — “Celestial events tend to draw highly engaged audiences, and this one is no exception.” — Incarcerated New Yorkers facing a lockdown (and suing successfully against it).
Discussion:
@brianstelter, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, @laurahazardowen, @s_peppered, @jbenton, New Jersey Online and Adweek
Bloomberg:
Sources: if Skydance and National Amusements merge, David Ellison would become CEO of the combined company; Ellison aims to spend billions to rebuild Paramount — - Producer, tech heir has a month to seal a definitive agreement — He needs to sell Paramount's board on merger with his company
Discussion:
The Wrap, The Desk, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw
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Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: Skydance's bid for Paramount, backed by RedBird and KKR, would keep Paramount publicly traded; David Ellison and Jeff Shell would have leadership roles
Discussion:
The Desk, The Streamable, @thewrap, @benmullin, The Information, @jtoonkel, @rogoswami, Wall Street Journal, Variety, The Wrap and Alex Sherman on LinkedIn
Clara Aberneithie / Press Gazette:
Former Business Insider EIC Jim Edwards and two others launch MoneyIn2, a personal finance brand on Substack, offering two minutes of information per day — MoneyIn2 hopes to tell those who don't yet have money how to make it. — Open publishing and newsletter technology has “opened the market” …
Discussion:
Talking Biz News, @jim_edwards, @jim_edwards and Jim Edwards on LinkedIn
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney announces that Jay Ong, who led the Marvel Games team for nearly a decade, will now lead the global games licensing business across all franchises — Ray Gresko, formerly chief development officer at Blizzard Entertainment (who left prior to its the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard) …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter:
Sources: Netflix's film unit, whose structure has long been a source of Hollywood confusion, is being reorganized based on genre, with ~12 staffers leaving — Around one dozen people will depart the streamer as a result of the changes. … Several sources tell The Hollywood Reporter …
Corey Hutchins / Inside the News in Colorado:
More than 30 Colorado newsrooms, led by COLab, launch a statewide initiative to better cover the 2024 US elections by focusing on voter concerns — More than two dozen Colorado newsrooms have launched an unprecedented collaboration to better cover the 2024 elections.
Claire Atkinson / The Media Mix:
Sources: The Overseas Press Club is split about naming a new award after Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian-American journalist killed by an Israeli soldier — The Middle East conflict divides a group of international journalists. — The Overseas Press Club is at war over a new award for covering conflict.
Discussion:
@davidmcneill3, @lukeoneil47, @linaabuakleh, @rafat, @freddydeknatel and @lailaalarian
Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources say Soros Fund Management's move to become the largest shareholder in radio company Audacy could be the beginning of a bigger audio buying spree — The Scoop — George Soros thinks it's good business, and perhaps good politics, to be in your ears.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, @maxwelltani, @roblevine82 and @semafor
Bloomberg:
Nielsen data from 2021 to 2023: nine of the 10 most-watched streaming programs are reruns, but a majority of the 100 most popular titles are original series — Netflix isn't the most-watched streaming service in the US. But it does have the most hit shows. — We are inching closer to Paramount having a new owner.
Discussion:
The Verge, The Hollywood Reporter, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw, more at Techmeme »
Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
How Forbes, the Financial Times, Snopes, Trusted Media Brands, and other news publishers are updating on-site search with AI chatbots — Publishers are testing generative AI technology to update a rather boring function on their sites that hasn't been updated in a while: search.
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
Irish entrepreneur Michael O'Rourke brings UK news and lifestyle newsbrand Joe Media out of administration in a £3.6M deal, after a similar rescue deal in 2020 — Joe.co.uk previously went into administration in June 2020 but continued to suffer “sustained losses”.
Discussion:
The Sunday Times
New York Times:
Sources: OpenAI transcribed 1M+ hours of YouTube videos through Whisper and used the text to train GPT-4; Google also transcribed YouTube videos to harvest text — OpenAI, Google and Meta ignored corporate policies, altered their own rules and discussed skirting copyright law …
Discussion:
The Information, Gizmodo, MIT Technology Review, 9to5Google, @papapishu, @bsletten@mastodon.social, @nixCraft@mastodon.social, @joannastern@threads.net, Music Technology Policy, Mashable, @carnage4life@mas.to, Interesting Engineering, @florian4gamers, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, @dangillmor@mastodon.social, Colin Crowell on LinkedIn, @rosenzweigjane, @gavatron, @markandrejevic, @jcpxdesigns, @_leobriceno, @dschatsky, @dm_cooper, Nikunj Mehta on LinkedIn, Rob Eleveld on LinkedIn, The Verge, Siri Agrell on LinkedIn, Timo Kämäräinen on LinkedIn, @glenngabe@threads.net, @Dhmspector@mastodon.social, @clive@saturation.social, Milton Pedraza on LinkedIn, Ali Manning on LinkedIn, Nigel Caplan on LinkedIn, @edsu@social.coop, Bart De Witte on LinkedIn, Jonathan Usher on LinkedIn, Katie Paul on LinkedIn and Tim Palmer on LinkedIn
RELATED:
Peter Kafka / Business Insider:
Filings from the FTC's Meta lawsuit: Instagram had $32.4B in ad revenue in 2021, or 27% of Meta's revenue and more than YouTube's $28.8B ad revenue in 2021 — - Instagram generated $32.4 billion in ad revenue in 2021, making up 27% of Meta's total revenue.
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