Tech

Twitter fell short of Wall Street earnings expectations for the second quarter of 2020 as total revenue fell 19%, despite packing on a record 20 million daily active users in the period. What Twitter calls “monetizable” daily active users increased 34% year over year to 186 million, adding 20 million in Q2 and representing the

Atari and developer Hello There Games released a new rhythm-based, touch-screen-optimized mobile game “Beat Legend: Avicii” on Thursday, featuring 15 of late producer, performer and songwriter Tim “Avicii” Bergling’s tracks. “Beat Legend: Avicii” is the first in a planned series of musical-artist-focused, rhythm-based mobile games from Atari and Hello There Games. Music royalties from the

The New York Times Company officially announced that it is acquiring Serial Productions, the podcast company behind the breakout hit “Serial.” As part of the Times, Serial Productions will independently commission and edit its own stories, which “will now be amplified by the Times,” the company said. The publisher and media company paid about $25

Demi Moore was only a teenager when people began noticing her very distinctive voice. “One of my first jobs as a young girl was that I worked for a collection agency,” Moore says on the Variety and iHeart podcast The Big Ticket. “I had to make calls to people whose bills were past due —

The series of videos from The Weeknd’s blockbuster album “After Hours” continues with “Snowchild,” a semi-autobiographical song from the album that gets a semi-autobiographical animated treatment from the D’ART Shtajio studio, the first black-owned Japanese animation studio in Japan. The clip — which is loaded with easter eggs for fans — begins with his busted-nose

Apple is publicizing a study it commissioned looking at the App Store’s fees and terms — as the tech giant tries to make the case that its practices are in line with the rest of the industry. The upshot? Not surprisingly, the report says, Apple takes a cut from app developers that’s akin to rival

The New York Times Company announced that COO Meredith Kopit Levien, who has overseen its digital businesses for the last three years, will succeed Mark Thompson as president and CEO effective Sept. 8. Kopit Levien, 49, will become the youngest chief exec of the media and publishing company. She also will join the New York

Verizon has assembled a lineup of celebs and activists for its inaugural Citizen Verizon Assembly next week, tapping Yara Shahidi, Karamo Brown, Andrew Yang, Ben & Jerry’s CEO Matthew McCarthy and more for a livestreaming event discussing strategies for driving social change. The July 28 event is part of the telco’s corporate-responsibility initiative committing to

Spotify and Universal Music Group, one of the industry’s three biggest music companies, announced a multiyear global music licensing pact. Under the deal, UMG will “deepen its leading role as an early adopter of future products” on Spotify’s platform and “provide valuable feedback to Spotify’s development team,” the companies said. Universal Music also will collaborate

Twitter is combating the spread of posts and accounts related to the conspiracy movement known as QAnon. On Tuesday evening, the social media company shared a message on its Twitter Safety account detailing its plan, saying posts about QAnon could lead to danger outside of the Twitter platform. “We’ve been clear that we will take

The Verzuz series is coming to Apple Music and Beats 1 with a face-off between Snoop Dogg and DMX scheduled for Wednesday, July 22 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET. The series, founded by hitmakers Swizz Beatz and Timbaland found its audience on Instagram Live — and will continue to live there — and is

Snapchat boosted its daily active user rolls with a hefty gain of 9 million in the second quarter of 2020, as the company grew revenue 17% year over year to beat analyst expectations on the top line. But investors had been expecting a bigger coronavirus-fueled lift from still-unprofitable Snap, which again — citing the pandemic

Juice WRLD’s posthumously released album “Legends Never Die” posted the biggest debut of 2020 on the Rolling Stone Top 200 Albums chart, and also topped its Artist and Songs charts, with 8 of the top 10 songs on the former chart. With 517,800 album-equivalent units, “Legends” becomes the first album to shift more than 500,000

Just For Laughs Group will be going fully virtual for the first time since its 1983 inception. The annual comedy festival, held in Montreal, will forego its typical crowds for an online venue in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Keeping with its original postponed dates, the festival will welcome online audiences Oct. 9 and

Netflix is finally making its debut on smart displays, rolling out across the Google Nest Hub line of devices worldwide starting today. Users who have both Netflix and a Google Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max smart display can now stream the subscription VOD service in all territories where both the devices and Netflix are

Netflix has canceled production of Turkish original ‘If Only’ over government censorship of a gay character in the script, a source close to the streamer has confirmed. The announced show was to have been produced by Turkish production powerhouse Ay Yapim and has been described in promotional materials as the story of “Reyhan who is

The video entertainment sector in Asia will shrink this year as the coronavirus and economic slowdowns weigh heavily on advertising revenues. Many countries will not see recovery to 2019 levels for several years. The upheaval is accelerating the shift from the traditional TV and pay-TV sectors to over-the-top consumption and business that will increasingly go

Michael Brooks, a political commentator who hosted the web series “The Michael Brooks Show” and “The Majority Report,” died of a “sudden medical condition,” the show’s Twitter account announced on Monday. He was 37. “It is with a heavy heart that we announce the unexpected passing of Michael Brooks: a son, brother, friend and true

The streaming-rights revolving door continues: Netflix will be the U.S. streaming home for the original trilogy of Universal’s “Jurassic Park” films starting next month. That comes after NBCUniversal’s Peacock got a brief 17-day window on the titles — the original 1993 “Jurassic Park,” 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” and 2001’s “Jurassic Park III.” For

Three months after HBO Max launched with all eight “Harry Potter” movies, the octet of titles about the Boy Who Lived will be rolling off the WarnerMedia service next month. Fans of Harry Potter’s Wizarding World have only about a month left to binge on the eight films based on J.K. Rowling’s novels on HBO

Lily Cornell Silver, daughter of Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell and the group’s former manager Susan Silver, launches her IGTV series “Mind Wide Open” today (July 20) in honor of her late father’s 56th birthday. According to the announcement, the mission of “Mind Wide Open” is to help destigmatize the conversations around mental health. For the

A Trump reelection campaign video soundtracked with a rendition of Linkin Park’s “In the End” was pulled by Twitter Saturday night, after the band filed a copyright-takedown notice demanding its removal. Linkin Park confirmed Saturday night it had taken action to remove the video. “Linkin Park did not and does not endorse Trump, nor authorize

California’s Central District court ruled on Thursday that comedian Mo’Nique’s discrimination lawsuit against Netflix can move forward, denying Netflix’s attempt to dismiss the claim. Mo’Nique, whose legal name is Monique Hicks, filed a race and sex discrimination suit against the streaming service in November. She alleges that Netflix broke the law when it gave her

TikTok has kicked off a new user-safety video series, enlisting several big creators on the platform, pushing the message that users should be wary about spreading false information on the app. The video series, called “Be Informed,” provides advice on how to evaluate content online and use those skills and TikTok’s in-app features to help

The Twitter hackers behind the unprecedented coordinated July 15 attack on high-profile accounts of multiple celebrities, politicians, tech titans and Silicon Valley companies went after about 130 separate accounts, the company said late Thursday. The FBI and the New York Attorney General announced probes of the security incident. The scammers hijacked accounts with tens of

Netflix announced that chief content officer Ted Sarandos has been appointed co-CEO of the company, alongside co-founder Reed Hastings. Sarandos, who will continue to serve as content chief, joined Netflix over 20 years ago. He’s also been elected to Netflix’s board of directors. “Ted has been my partner for decades,” Hastings said in announcing the

Netflix again saw a boom from COVID-19 lockdowns, packing on 10.1 million net new streaming subscribers in the second quarter — easily setting a new Q2 record for the company. The results topped Netflix’s prior forecast of 7.5 million paid-subscriber adds in the period, though several analysts had predicted an even bigger haul. The streamer

Vox Media, whose brands include New York Magazine, Vulture, The Verge and SB Nation, is cutting 6% of its workforce, laying off about 70 employees. According to a memo sent to company staff Thursday, CEO Jim Bankoff said the majority of the employees being pink-slipped were furloughed in May (when Vox Media said it was

Sports radio talk shows, long a staple of AM/FM dials, are coming to Twitch — in the form of live, interactive video broadcasts. In the first deal of its kind, Amazon-owned Twitch will distribute video simulcasts of top sports talk programs from radio broadcaster and audio streamer Entercom Communications. Under the agreement, Twitch initially will

NBCUniversal just launched Peacock — and a surprising number of the big movies on the streaming service are set to roll off soon, with some leaving as early as tomorrow. That includes the original 2009 “Fast & Furious” starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker from Universal Pictures, which is expiring at 3 a.m. ET on