Spotify on Tuesday announced an overhaul of its mobile app that boosts the freebies, unlocking on-demand songs that previously were available only to paying customers. Users of the free version of the music-streaming service currently are limited to shuffled songs, but Spotify is opening up more on-demand mobile music as it rolls out this new version …
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Facebook is testing a new way to post video, called Premieres, that lets you release a prerecorded clip as though it were a live moment, with all the floating emoji and immediate interaction that approach opens up. Enlarge Image Facebook Premieres lets prerecorded video post as though its a live stream, like this clip from FBE Shows, one of the …
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YouTube is testing a program that allows uploaders to describe the contents of their video posts, aiming to reduce the instances that a creator’s work improperly loses the right to earn money from ads, CEO Susan Wojcicki said in a blog post Tuesday. The Google-owned video site is also testing out ways for creators to monetize on YouTube besides ads, …
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Netflix’s march to worldwide domination is tramping along. The streaming video service hit 125 million members in its first quarter, the company said in a better-than-expected earnings release Monday. The blowout quarter comes at a time of heightened annoyance at Netflix among some in the traditional filmmaking industry. Last month, Steven Spielberg said movies that have mere “token” theatrical runs …
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Philo, a fledgling skinny-bundle TV streaming service, is taking two steps closer to its big-league competitors. The live-TV streaming company will work on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV devices this summer, CEO Andrew McCollum said last week. An Android mobile app is next on the roadmap. When Philo launched in November, the TV streaming service worked on Roku, on …
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Video-streaming service Netflix and cable giant Comcast will offer bundles that could make it easier — or cheaper — to subscribe to both. The companies are expanding their 2016 partnership to include Netflix subscriptions in their cable packages, they said Friday in a statement. This means that Comcast customers who don’t subscribe to its high-end X1 service may be able to shift …
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Spotify and Hulu widened a popular bundle Wednesday to all of Spotify’s US subscribers. They’ll soon be able to get both services for a total of $12.99 a month. Spotify is also tweaking its free tier to be easier to use on mobile phones, according to a report by Bloomberg. The changes could give free mobile listeners more control over what’s playing …
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Google Maps, operated by the same parent company as YouTube, is identifying a shooting in San Bruno, California, on its map for the city, where police confirmed they responded to an “active shooter” there Tuesday afternoon. A red circular tag marked “San Bruno shooting” appeared in the center of one of YouTube’s San Bruno buildings on Google Maps at about …
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After an outcry in the court of public opinion, Apple’s controversial iPhone slowdown is generating one of the blockbuster device’s biggest legal threats. Fifty-nine separate lawsuits, in which dozens of customers are suing Apple over a software tweak that throttles some older iPhones, are seeking class-action status, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. Apple didn’t respond to a message seeking …
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Spotify expects to reach nearly 100 million paid subscribers and around 200 million total listeners by year’s end, the music-streaming service said Monday. The company made its predictions in a regulatory filing ahead of its plan to start publicly trading shares next week. In the filing, Spotify said it expects 92 million to 96 million paid subscribers by the end of 2018. By …
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