A man in Denmark was sentenced to 18 months in prison today for using fake accounts to trick music streaming services into paying him 2 million Danish kroner ($290,000) in royalties. The unusual case reveals a weak spot in the business model behind the world’s biggest music platforms. The 53-year-old …
Read More »Apple Fined $2 Billion as Europe Sides With Spotify
Apple has a Spotify problem—and it just cost the iPhone maker a $2 billion fine from the European Commission. For years, the two companies have been at war as the streaming service lured users away from Apple’s iTunes and accused the tech giant of exploiting its dominance to stifle innovation. …
Read More »Watch Usher’s Super Bowl 2024 Halftime Show
Singing, dancing, roller-skating—Usher is the consummate performer. On Sunday, following months of hype, he took the stage at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl 2024 halftime show, cramming three decades of his hits into a 13-minute performance. Performing in a series rhinestone-covered outfits, Usher took the field …
Read More »What’s the Value of 3 Million LPs in a Digital World?
Kindle libraries; troves of infinitely streamable songs on Spotify and Apple Music; scores of shows and films on Netflix, Max, and Hulu. Even the Criterion Collection is online now. Cultural archives now live on server farms, so much so that the value of physical media seems ever-shifting. While there’s some …
Read More »What Is Apple One, and Should You Subscribe?
big tech companies are always looking for new ways to tie us into their ecosystems, but there is something to be said for the simplicity of a single monthly subscription. Apple One bundles several Apple services into one payment that is cheaper than subscribing to the same services individually. If …
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