Mediagazer: 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 (Anne Steele/Wall Street Journal)

1:30 PM ET, April 11, 2024

Top News:

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: CNN, Billboard, The Verge, Digital Music News, Rolling Stone, Music Ally, Pitchfork, The Hollywood Reporter and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

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: Tubefilter, Music Business Worldwide and 9to5Mac, 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, MediaNama, @artsjournalnews, Ars Technica, @eff@mastodon.social, MediaPost, SlashFilm, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Techdirt, Plagiarism Today and Slashdot, more at Techmeme »

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: @adage and Brian Bonilla on LinkedIn

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Substack now lets podcasters distribute their shows on Spotify, and says Substack podcasters on 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, RAIN News, MSPoweruser, Engadget and Branded Podcast Agency, more at Techmeme »

Jessica Jerreat / Voice of America:

Reporters Without Borders says Hong Kong authorities detained and deported a Taiwan-based RSF advocacy officer who had planned to cover the Jimmy Lai trial — A media watchdog said Wednesday that Hong Kong authorities expelled one of its officials who had arrived to cover the trial of pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai.

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders, @melissakchan, @krislc, @rebecca_vincent, @indexcensorship, @simjhenderson, @rsf_inter, @kevinkfyam, @tmclaughlin3, @ericwishart, @jojjeols, @jessicajerreat, Al Jazeera, Reuters and Bloomberg

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, Jeff Jarvis on LinkedIn, @niemanlab@mastodon.social, Whither news? and @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

Max Goldbart / Deadline:

The BBC names Alex Kay-Jelski, currently The Athletic's UK and Europe EIC, as Director of BBC Sport, starting in June 2024 — The Athletic's Editor-in-Chief for UK and Europe is joining the BBC to run its sports coverage. — Reporting into content boss Charlotte Moore …

Discussion: BBC

Katie Robertson / New York Times:

Axios changes strategy in response to AI: more events, a $1K/year membership program, and more subscription newsletters; Aja Whitaker-Moore will be the new EIC — “The premium for people who can tell you things you do not know will only grow in importance, and no machine will do that,” says Jim VandeHei, C.E.O. of Axios.

Discussion: Sara Fischer on LinkedIn, @djtweets and @danprimack

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

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:

Docs: Adobe offers its network of photographers $120 for videos of people engaged in everyday actions, or ~$2.62/minute to ~$7.25/minute on average, to train AI — - OpenAI's Sora has increased competitive pressure on Adobe — Adobe has built AI models with stock library, procured media

Discussion: BGR, @adamhlavac, @klendathucap, @brodyford_ and MSPoweruser, more at Techmeme »

Richard Smirke / Billboard:

The UK parliament's CMS Committee urges the government to address “pitiful returns” for songwriters from music streaming, including changing the revenue split — The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is pushing for a package of reforms that would include changing the revenue split between recording and publishing.

Discussion: Music Ally, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, @alcs_uk, @bpi_music, @dacsforartists, @becs_performers, @cj_dinenage, @commonscms, @creatorsrights, @fsb_policy, Music Ally, CMU and Music Business Worldwide

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More News:

Avi Asher-Schapiro / Context:
Unions representing animation and VFX workers plan to demand rules for how studios deploy AI, as most entertainment executives see AI displacing workers

Discussion: @contextnewsroom, @datasociety, @contextnewsroom, @aaschapiro, @aaschapiro, @matthewchattle, @aaschapiro, @enriqueanarte, @aaschapiro and @tnewmstweet

Rest of World:
Rest of World receives a $200K grant from Luminate to support its coverage of elections worldwide, including AI's effects and social media platforms' roles

Discussion: @restofworld and Anup Kaphle on LinkedIn

The New York Times Company:
The New York Times hires Matthew Rose, who has held multiple senior editing posts at The Wall Street Journal, as editorial director for its Opinion section

Discussion: @tunkuv and Matthew Rose on LinkedIn

Deadline:
As streamers cut spending globally, sources say Netflix remains the only major US platform still commissioning across Southeast Asia, albeit on a smaller scale

Discussion: Christian Grece on LinkedIn and Quark Henares on LinkedIn

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
ESPN and Peyton Manning's Omaha Productions strike a nine-year media rights deal, which includes Monday Night Football's ManningCast and other programming

Discussion: Awful Announcing, Next TV, New Jersey Online, ESPN Press Room U.S., Sports Media Watch, Variety, Bleacher Report, The Wrap, Barrett Media and Deadline

Earlier Picks:

Voice of America:
FCCC survey: reporting conditions in China have improved since the pandemic, but foreign journalists still face visa problems, surveillance, and harassment

Corbin Bolies / The Daily Beast:
Sources: the WSJ lays off at least 11, primarily on its visuals desk and in video roles; some laid off were in the “Journalists as Creators” YouTube partnership

Discussion: Poynter, @maxwelltani, @ianjsilvera, MediaPost and Talking Biz News

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Hundreds of political and news content creators ask Meta to reverse its default Threads and Instagram setting opting accounts out of seeing “political content”

Discussion: TechCrunch, @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social, @accountabletech, @accountabletech, @rweingarten, @washingtonpost, @accountabletech, @accountabletech, @accountabletech, @glaad, Accountable Tech, @randiweingarten@threads.net and Leanna Garfield on LinkedIn, more at Techmeme »

Sarah Fortinsky / The Hill:
Rep. Adam Schiff introduced a bill that would require companies training generative AI models to disclose all of the copyrighted work they used to do so

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: three Paramount Global directors, including Dawn Ostroff and Nicole Seligman, are expected to leave the board as Paramount discusses a Skydance merger

Discussion: The Wrap, Adweek, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, The Desk, @jtoonkel, The Information, Jessica Toonkel on LinkedIn and Los Angeles Times, more at Techmeme »

From Techmeme:

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads is testing custom feeds for certain profiles or topics; the Threads' version seems easier to use than Bluesky's custom feeds

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
One year after Sam Altman was dramatically ousted and reinstated, OpenAI remains dominant as it continues to push ahead on impressive new products

Financial Times:
Sources: xAI raised $5B at a $45B valuation, almost double its valuation a few months ago; SpaceX prepares a tender offer that would value the company at $250B+

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