Normally in the music industry, it’s more or less impossible for ordinary investors to buy music rights. Thus, Web3 startups saw an opportunity to tokenise music assets, allowing fans access to music rights in a wholly new fashion. Of course, this garnered a lot of interest during the Crypto boom a couple of years ago.
Mobile
Amazon has reached a deal with Embracer Group, the company that holds the IP rights for “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” to release a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The upcoming game will be an open-world MMO adventure set in Middle-earth, featuring the stories of
Video game consultant Rami Ismail was a bit sleepy in an early morning meeting, until his client said something particularly strange: “I’m really just looking for a way to get my game its Bigolas Dickolas moment.” “I had to absolutely wake up very fast to politely find a way to explain I had no idea
TikTok has upended how music is discovered, used and consumed these days; now, its long-term effort to build a business around that is getting a boost. The Bytedance-owned app today announced a search feature called “NewMusic”, which users can use to find new tracks, and artists can use to promote them. To see new music
Netflix is planning to cut its spending by $300 million this year, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The report indicates that part of the reason why the streaming giant is looking to cut costs is because it delayed its plans to crackdown on password sharing in the U.S. and elsewhere
After the film “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” became a hit, topping $200 million at the worldwide box office, Hasbro wants more. Hasbro-owned production company eOne announced Thursday that it is launching a new free, ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channel dedicated to the widely popular role-playing tabletop game. Variety was the first to cover
In a significant move made by Disney, the company announced Wednesday that U.S. customers are getting a new app that combines Disney+ and Hulu content. During Disney’s quarterly results, CEO Bob Iger revealed that the new streaming option will launch later this year. However, the company also plans to keep Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ as
After aggressively promoting its new lifestyle social media platform Lemon8 in the U.S., ByteDance appears to be brewing another content app for its biggest overseas market. Lemon Inc, a subsidiary of ByteDance, has submitted a trademark application for a range of book publishing products and services, according to a filing posted on the United States
Amazon announced Monday the launch of its new unit Amazon MGM Studios Distribution, which will allow the company to license Amazon Originals and other titles to third-party media companies, which could include streaming services (free, ad-supported or subscription), cable TV as well as pay TV distribution. For the first time, titles such as “The Marvelous
Hulu Live TV announced Thursday that it is adding new channels to its library, bringing the total to over 90 channels across live sports, news and entertainment. The streaming service will soon launch channels like PBS Kids, local PBS stations and Magnolia Network. In the coming months, local PBS affiliates will roll out to Hulu
A few weeks before Warner Bros. Discovery launches its new HBO Max/Discovery+ streaming service, Max, TechCrunch spoke with WBD chief technology officer Avi Saxena and chief product officer Tyler Whitworth about building the new platform from the ground up, rolling out new features, improving functionality, adding new tech and all around designing the product. They
Warner Bros. Discovery announced Friday that its streaming business will turn a profit in 2023. The company previously said it expected to break even by 2024 and become profitable in 2025. “It is an important time for Warner Bros. Discovery. We’ve come through some major restructurings and have repositioned our businesses with greater precision and
Google is celebrating Star Wars Day with a special easter egg featuring Grogu, also known as Baby Yoda. When you type “Grogu” or “Baby Yoda” into the Google Search bar, the character will appear in the bottom right corner of your screen. Once you click on him, he will use the Force to knock out
A coalition of more than 50 European consumer and digitals rights groups, smaller ISPs and broadcasters have inked their name to a joint statement urging EU policymakers and Member States to reject a controversial network fee proposal being lobbied for by major telcos in the region. They suggest any move to legislative for a mechanism
At the 2023 IAB NewFronts event Tuesday, NBCUniversal revealed four new ad formats for brands to expand their advertising reach with Peacock Premium subscribers, including AI-powered shoppable ads, among others. The company also announced two new original films set to arrive soon on the streaming service. The first ad format that grabbed our attention was
As part of its pitch to advertisers this week at the IAB NewFronts, Amazon announced today it has plans to bring over 100 Amazon Original series and movies from Amazon Prime Video to its ad-supported free streaming service Amazon Freevee (previously known as IMDb TV). The titles will be released throughout the year, the company
Roku delivered its first quarter results on Wednesday with better-than-expected revenue and the addition of 1.6 million active streaming accounts in the period. Although the company’s results came in above analyst estimates, Roku told investors that it sees its advertising business remaining challenged. The company’s revenue for the quarter reached $741 million, up just 1%
Peacock losses continue to widen this quarter, NBCUniversal parent company Comcast reported Thursday, just days after the company announced that Jeff Shell’s time as NBCU CEO was up. Peacock had $704 million in losses in Q1 2023, a significant jump from $456 million in the same year-ago period. In the fourth quarter of 2022, Peacock
Warner Bros. Discovery has found a new partner to bring HBO content to India: Mukesh Ambani-backed Viacom18. HBO Original, Max Original and other Warner Bros. television series will arrive on JioCinema next month and will air shows “on the same day as the U.S.,” Warner Bros. and Viacom18 said in a statement. The “exclusive” content
YouTube Music is officially adding podcasts to its platform in the United States on Android, iOS and the web. The rollout comes a few months after YouTube podcasting head Kai Chuk revealed that podcasts would be added to YouTube Music soon. The update allows users watching podcasts on the main app to continue listening to them
Last week, a song using AI deepfakes of Drake and the Weeknd’s voices went viral, but neither major artist was involved in its creation. Meanwhile, Grimes has taken to Twitter to offer 50% royalties on any AI-generated song that uses her voice, then declared that she is interested in “killing copyright,” which would probably undermine
In its first-quarter earnings call, streaming music service Spotify talked in more detail about how AI advances are impacting its business. On the positive side, the company offered an update on the user adoption of its new AI DJ feature, which offers personalized music selections introduced by a realistic-sounding DJ voice powered by AI. But
YouTube TV users have long complained of poor picture quality, low bitrate and other issues that impact the streaming experience. The company finally addressed the issues, including an increased bitrate for some live content, a fix for the 5.1 surround sound syncing issue and a major upgrade for the YouTube TV app for Apple TV.
A few months after Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) sued Paramount over the streaming rights for “South Park,” Paramount is now striking back. On Wednesday, April 19, Paramount countered sued WBD, alleging that the company is withholding two required payments of $26 million each, bringing the total unpaid fees to $52 million. “South Park Studios has
Google Fi, the cell phone carrier operated by Google, is getting a series of new updates and rebranding to Google Fi Wireless. The rebrand adds a bit of clarity about what exactly the service offers to its customers. As for the new updates, Google Fi Wireless is adding cellular connectivity for the Pixel Watch or
As Twitter’s legacy blue check mark system finally comes to an end, the social network’s new paid-for verification system is causing more than a little chaos, with CEO Elon Musk himself stepping in to pay for some celebrities’ verification when they refuse to do so. However, another little nugget to emerge from the carnage today
Disney+ has announced that six Spider-Man films and the 2018 film “Venom” will be launching on the streaming service in the United States. Tobey Maguire’s trilogy of “Spider-Man,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3” and Andrew Garfield’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” will arrive on the platform tomorrow, while Tom Holland’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and Tom Hardy’s “Venom” will
Netflix’s flubbed foray into livestreaming was a topic of discussion during the streamer’s first-quarter earnings on Tuesday with co-CEO Greg Peters telling investors how sorry the company was for “disappointing so many people,” and explaining in more detail what had happened. Over the weekend, Netflix had been set to release its first live reunion special
Paramount+ has ordered a “Star Trek: Section 31” original movie event with Michelle Yeoh reprising her role as Emperor Philippa Georgiou, according to a blog post on the “Star Trek” official website. This will be the first “Star Trek” movie based on a character from the 2017 series “Star Trek: Discovery.” A release date has
A song featuring the voices of Drake and The Weeknd called “Heart On My Sleeve” has amassed over 250,000 Spotify streams and 10 million views on TikTok. But the two renowned musicians had nothing to do with the song — an artist going by the name “ghostwriter” generated the song using AI. Drake and The
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