Mediagazer: Substack now lets podcasters distribute their shows on Spotify, and says podcasters on Substack collectively earn $100M+ per year, up 100%+ over the past year (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy's letter to shareholders: Prime Video now reaches 200M monthly viewers, and streaming TV advertising is growing quickly — Prime Video has a big audience, and now Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has put a new number on it: The premium video service has more than 200 million monthly viewers.

Discussion: About Amazon, Ad Age, Observer, The Wrap, Sebastiaan van Wijngaarden on LinkedIn, Beryl Tomay on LinkedIn, Josh White on LinkedIn, Washington Post, MarketWatch, Media Play News, The Streamable, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter and Cord Cutters News, more at Techmeme »

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Paramount is shutting down Showtime's streaming service on April 30, after it integrated Showtime's programming into the top-tier Paramount+ plan in June 2023 — Sunset of premium TV service's standalone apps comes after its integration into Paramount+ With Showtime package

Discussion: TVLine and The Hollywood Reporter

The Information:

Sources: TikTok is testing an AI feature that generates a virtual influencer and a script for a video ad based on prompts submitted by advertisers — TikTok touts itself as a platform where creators can stand out and build a following. But the company has begun discussing with advertisers …

Discussion: Brandon Perlman on LinkedIn and The Verge, more at Techmeme »

Doja Daoud / Committee to Protect Journalists:

Q&A with Gaza journalist Diaa Al-Kahlout, Gaza bureau chief for the Qatari-funded newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, on being held for 33 days in Israeli custody — Diaa Al-Kahlout, the veteran Gaza bureau chief for the Qatari-funded London-based newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed …

Discussion: Naomi Zeveloff on LinkedIn, Doja Daoud on LinkedIn, @caseyrights, @gypsystrategy, @jfsteinfeld and New York Times

Brian Bonilla / Ad Age:

A look at The Way Upfronts, a quarterly event debuting in May and led by Sugar23, where producers and celebrities will pitch their projects to brands to invest — Host committee includes Scarlett Johansson, John Legend, Tom Brady, Elizabeth Banks and Steven Soderbergh

Discussion: Brian Bonilla on LinkedIn and @adage

Variety:

Taylor Swift's music returns to TikTok, ahead of her next album due out on April 19, after UMG pulled her songs as part of an ongoing dispute with TikTok — As of Thursday morning, multiple Swift songs — including “You Belong With Me,” “Lover,” “Cardigan,” “Mirrorball,” “Fearless …

Discussion: New York Post, Billboard, Financial Times, Reuters, TechCrunch, CNN, Deadline, Engadget, The Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg, The Verge, Rolling Stone, Music Ally, Digital Music News, Mashable, Pitchfork and Music Business Worldwide, more at Techmeme »

Flipboard:

Flipboard makes 400 creators and 11,000 of their curated magazines visible in the fediverse and integrates fediverse notifications into the Flipboard app — Today Flipboard is taking two big steps toward opening its platform to the fediverse, making 400 creators and 11,000 …

Discussion: TechCrunch and @Flipboard@flipboard.social

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Spotify is developing tools to let subscribers speed up, mash up, or edit songs as a type of playback feature; rights holders would still get paid — Streamer is developing tools that would make it easier for fans to create custom versions of their favorite music

Discussion: UPROXX, Music Business Worldwide, Tubefilter and 9to5Mac, more at Techmeme »

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Substack now lets podcasters distribute their shows on Spotify, and says podcasters on Substack collectively earn $100M+ per year, up 100%+ over the past year — Substack announced on Thursday it's introducing a few new features for podcasters on its platform.

Discussion: On Substack, Spotify, Engadget, MSPoweruser, RAIN News and Branded Podcast Agency, more at Techmeme »

Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:

The MPA announces plans to work with US Congress to enact a SOPA-like anti-piracy law; SOPA was fiercely opposed by the tech industry and failed to pass in 2012 — The Motion Picture Association said it will work with Congress to enact an anti-piracy law similar to legislation that failed …

Discussion: The Verge, CMU, @artsjournalnews, MediaNama, Ars Technica, @eff@mastodon.social, MediaPost, SlashFilm, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Techdirt, Plagiarism Today and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Jarvis / Nieman Lab:

Excerpts from an analysis of the California Journalism Preservation Act, which has yet to pass the state Senate, including its many weaknesses and alternatives — “If there are resources to be put to work, we must ask where those resources should come from, who should receive them, and on what basis they should be distributed."

Discussion: @jeffjarvis, @localmediarocks, @deansusanking, @ckrewson, Free Press, Jeff Jarvis on LinkedIn, @niemanlab@mastodon.social, Whither news? and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

Emilia David / The Verge:

The Weather Company launches ReelSphere, an AI-powered video creation tool that provides captions, hyperlocal weather overlays, and an AI “meteorologist” — Generative AI could be coming to your local TV station as The Weather Company, aka the people that run The Weather Channel …

Discussion: The Weather Company, Next TV and The Weather Company