LONDON — The European Union leveled its first antitrust penalty against Apple on Monday, fining the U.S. tech giant nearly $2 billion for unfairly favoring its own music streaming service by forbidding rivals like Spotify from telling users how they could pay for cheaper subscriptions outside of iPhone apps. Apple muzzled streaming services from telling … Read more
“You wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag,” said that infamous 2000s anti-piracy commercial from the Motion Picture Association. “Piracy is stealing.” Do Not Steal Our Robot Dog! But would you pirate a song? Last year, over 17 billion visits were made to music piracy websites around the world, first reported by Wired. … Read more
Polite Society, Suzume, Kids vs. Aliens, They Cloned Tyrone, and When Evil Lurks are on the listImage: Amazon, Crunchroll, Shudder, Netflix No one can see every movie that comes out in a year. Heck, no one can even see all the good movies that come out in a year. These days, even if it’s literally … Read more
Piracy is a fact of life in the entertainment industry, no matter how much studios try to fight it—and in an age where the streaming industry is feeling more and more like cable television by the day—it’s going to remain that way for the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t mean it’s not interesting to see … Read more
The last major ad-free streaming service is going away. Starting Jan. 29th, Amazon users will start seeing advertisements appear on movies and TV shows for Prime Video, according to an email sent to subscribers on Tuesday. To keep Prime Video ad-free, you’ll need to pay an additional $3 a month, on top of the $139 … Read more
This week, Spotify shared an update on its policies, aiming to “better support those most dependent on streaming revenues as part of their livelihood,” according to a company post. The updates address “artificial streaming,” the number of plays required to monetize tracks, and new minimums for the length of noise recordings. Johnny Knoxville Loved Collectibles … Read more
Image: nikkimeel (Shutterstock) Apple Music subscribers can no longer sign up for the Voice Plan and existing subscribers’ auto-renew will turn off at the end of the billing period, Apple said in a blog post on Wednesday. Subscribers paid just $4.99 for Apple Music’s Voice Plan which launched in 2021 and allowed users to access … Read more
Detail of the YouTube logo outside the YouTube Space studios in London, taken on June 4, 2019. Photo: Olly Curtis/Future via Getty Images (Getty Images) A new survey suggests that American teens—a generation that doesn’t know what life was like without streaming—now favor watching videos on YouTube rather than the previously all-powerful Netflix. Netflix Passwords, … Read more