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:
Variety, Spotify, Music Ally, Music Business Worldwide, @eldsjal, CMU, 9to5Mac, @carnage4life, Mashable, @scobleizer, Steven Finch on LinkedIn, Tom's Guide and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw
RELATED:
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 Streamable, The Desk, @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
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
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:
New Jersey Online, @s_peppered and @jbenton
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:
@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 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.
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
CBS hires Wendy Fisher, who ran newsgathering operations at ABC News, to lead a newly formed national weather news operation across CBS' news and stations unit — CBS is forecasting that viewer interest in the ins and outs of national weather is about to gain new wind.
Discussion:
Radio & Television … and @bristei
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, 9to5Google, MIT Technology Review, @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:
Anthony Boadle / Reuters:
Elon Musk says X is “lifting all restrictions” in Brazil after a court ruling to block certain accounts, which X is defying, and calls on the judge to resign — Elon Musk is challenging a decision by a Supreme Court justice in Brazil who ordered his social media platform X …
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Forbes, @shellenberger, The Verge, @globalaffairs, CNN, @elonmusk, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Reclaim The Net, Financial Times, @shellenberger, Associated Press, @lindayax, @elonmusk, @esjesjesj, @ggreenwald, @elonmusk, Al Jazeera, @elonmusk, @arthurvneto, @lorakolodny@threads.net, Reclaim The Net and The Information, more at Techmeme »
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, passed away in March at age 41, according to a post on Genius attributed to his family — Mahbod Moghadam, the controversial, never-boring co-founder of Genius and Everipedia, as well as an angel investor …
Discussion:
@joshconstine, Moghadam Family on Genius, @cherrrywood, @azeemk_, @longlivetheduke, @markjeffrey, @mattturck, @johncoogan, @schlaf, @defidave22, @shanazakhan14, @thedataroom, @semil, @turnernovak, @typesfast, @darbyw, @geoffreywoo, @maiyegun, @bradflora, @dgt10011, @joshconstine, @amlewis4, @iankar_, @lutherlowe, @sameoldshawn, @thesamparr, @eriktorenberg, @robaeprice, @aseidman, @austen and @dmitricherniak
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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