Tech

Samsung Electronics is the first TV brand to integrate Apple Music, letting subscribers to the streaming-music service in over 100 countries access songs, music videos and more on Samsung Smart TVs. Apple Music is available on Samsung Smart TV models from 2018 through 2020. Subscribers can stream over 60 million songs ad-free, watch top music

Pluto TV, ViacomCBS’s free-streaming TV division, expanded its senior leadership team with two hires: Shampa Banerjee as chief product officer and Scott Reich as SVP of programming. Banerjee, who most recently was chief product officer at Eros International’s digital Indian entertainment platform, will oversee Pluto TV’s product road map, designing and developing the experience of

Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, plans to launch a $750 million private-placement debt offering, along with the option for buyers to purchase up to an additional $112.5 million of the convertible securities. Per the boilerplate text in the announcement Thursday, Snap said it plans to use cash from the offering for “general corporate purposes,”

Another top executive at Quibi has left the fledgling streamer: Megan Imbres, head of brand and content marketing, is leaving the company after a year in the role, Variety has confirmed. Imbres, whose exit comes two weeks after Quibi’s April 6 launch, oversaw creative development for all of the short-form streaming service’s brand and content

Facebook is rolling out a 10-part series with CNN International as part of a slate of programming collaborations celebrating Ramadan during the coronavirus pandemic. The short-form CNN International series is entitled “Together Apart: Stories of Ramadan,” with five-minute episodes focusing on weekly themes such as family, community, spirituality, wellness and hope, and illustrated by personal

Magic Leap, the augmented-reality hardware company whose backers include Warner Bros., AT&T and Alphabet, is making significant layoffs — and mothballing efforts to create consumer-oriented AR products. In a blog post Wednesday, Magic Leap founder/CEO Rony Abovitz announced that the company is “making targeted changes to how we operate and manage costs,” citing the current

As evidenced by many of the performers in last weekend’s “One World: Together at Home” benefit, the livestreamed-from-home concert concept is showing its limitations. The show saw Elton John performing from his driveway, complete with a basketball hoop in the background, and Paul McCartney singing straight into his iPhone, using the device’s vertical mode. More

YouTube has shaken up its slate of originals, bringing out a revamped lineup of shows and specials over the next two months designed for stay-at-home viewers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new lineup includes weekly series “Stay Home With: Yungblud,” following the U.K. recording artist and his band as they adjust to a remote lifestyle

Red Bull today released “The Cut,” an original songwriting series hosted by producer and DJ OG Parker. Available exclusively on Red Bull TV, “The Cut” features 18 unsigned songwriters and producers who have never met, as they’re randomly paired up and tasked with creating an original song from scratch with the hopes of winning a publishing deal. The contestants are given just

Lele Pons will reveal a part of her that almost nobody knows about — a lifelong battle with mental health issues — in a new YouTube-funded original series set to release next month. “The Secret Life of Lele Pons,” set to premiere May 19, is a five-part docuseries following the internet personality, comedian and singer

Tonight — Wednesday, April 22 — Billie Eilish and her brother/musical collaborator Finneas will perform a live concert from their home on Verizon’s Pay It Forward Live. The livestream will take place at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on Twitter @Verizon, Yahoo, Verizon’s Facebook and YouTube pages, Fios Channel 501 and 604, AXS TV, FOX

The Singapore government has withdrawn a series of cartoons that it published this week with the intention of warning people about the dangers of the coronavirus, and explaining the government’s lockdown measures known as a “circuit breaker.” On Monday the government began publishing cartoons featuring five superhero characters, collectively known as the Virus Vanguard. The

U.S. social media giant Facebook has unveiled a huge investment in Reliance Jio, a company which has been a game changer in India’s telecoms, media and entertainment sectors. The deal gives Facebook a 9.99% stake in Reliance Jio at a cost of $5.7 billion. “Today we are announcing a $5.7 billion, or INR 43,574 crore,

Netflix reeled in a staggering 15.8 million subscribers in the first three months of 2020 — a record for the company, fueled by the coronavirus quarantine — but execs are not sure what the long-term effects of the crisis will be on the business. “It’s an incredible tragedy for the world,” chairman and CEO Reed

Snapchat gained 11 million new daily users during the first quarter of 2020 amid the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, while Snap beat Wall Street expectations for revenue in the period. Snap said Snapchat’s average DAUs were 229 million in Q1 2020, an increase of 39 million or 20% year-over-year. Total daily time spent by Snapchat users

Netflix added a net 15.77 million paid streaming customers in the first quarter of 2020 — blowing away prior estimates thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and setting a record for quarterly gains. The streamer said it had 182.9 million paid subscribers globally as of the end of Q1, up 22.8% from a year earlier. Netflix

The 2020 SXSW Film Festival has set its virtual selection and screening dates on Amazon, garnering almost 40 shorts, features and episodic programs to participate in the digital workaround to coronavirus shutdowns. The virtual festival will stream from April 27 through May 6, in front of the Amazon Prime paywall, meaning any user with an

In 2019, Dmitri Siegel, VP-global brand at Sonos, was gearing up for the high-def audio company’s launch of Sonos Radio — which debuts today. It provides over 100 streaming options from 60,000 different stations — including exclusive artist-curated programming from Thom Yorke, Brittany Howard and David Byrne among others. But as he thought about how

Having trouble falling asleep during these distressing times? Laura Dern is lending her voice to the cause, teaming with mindfulness app Calm to narrate a “sleep story.” “The Ocean Moon,” the story read by Dern, was written by Chris Advansun and takes listeners to the countryside with soothing sounds like cresting waves and campfires. “Quality

AT&T wants to use WarnerMedia’s HBO Max, which launches May 27 in the U.S., as a carrot to get people to subscribe or upgrade to its most expensive TV, wireless and internet tiers. The telco on Tuesday outlined multiple promotional offers for HBO Max — regularly priced at $15 per month — that will be

WarnerMedia has set the start date for HBO Max: It’s slated to barrel into the streaming wars on May 27. The subscription-streaming package, with some 10,000 hours of content out of the gate, will debut May 27 in the U.S., priced at $14.99 monthly (the same as HBO Now). WarnerMedia announced the launch date Tuesday

Boss Baby Brody, a breakout toddler Instagram dance star, has signed with talent agency WME — along with his mom, Dani Schaffer. Brody (full name: Brody Schaffer), who lives in San Diego with his family, has 270,000 followers for his Instagram account that features dance videos captured by his parents. His dance video to “The

NBCUniversal’s Fandango division clinched a pact to buy Vudu, the digital movie and TV streaming platform, from retailing giant Walmart. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Fandango plans to maintain a Vudu office in the Sunnyvale, Calif., area and Fandango will be making job offers to the majority of Vudu employees. Fandango has

Travis Scott will premiere a new song on Fortnite as part of a new “experience” called “Astronomical.” Details were scarce at press time, but according to the announcement, “Astronomical” is “inspired by creations” from the rapper’s Cactus Jack company, “built from the ground up in Fortnite.” The company has set up multiple tour dates with

Twitch hired Tracy Chan, who’s leaving Spotify after four years, as head of product and engineering for music. At Twitch, Chan joins the Amazon-owned streaming platform’s growing music team under the helm of SVP and head of music Mike Olson. In the role, Chan will focus on evolving the Twitch experience specifically for live music

Michelle Obama is cracking open some of her favorite children’s picture books — which the former First Lady will read aloud in free live-streams over the next four weeks for kids stuck at home. In “Mondays With Michelle Obama,” she’ll read aloud from a different classic children’s book every Monday at noon ET, starting April

The music video for the Cranberries’ “Zombie,” the 1994 political protest song written and sung by the late Dolores O’Riordan, has surpassed 1 billion views on YouTube. “Zombie” is the third video from the 1990s — and only the sixth from the 20th century — to reach the YouTube billion-views milestone. The others are Guns

No one does it like BTS when it comes to taking care of their fans (known as ARMY). The septet’s Seoul concerts this month, which would’ve kicked off their worldwide stadium tour to promote “Map of the Soul: 7,” were canceled in response to the coronavirus pandemic. But the Korean group has put together a

Shares of Disney rose 4.5% Friday, closing to a 38-day high of $106.63, as investors were encouraged by new federal guidelines setting a timetable for when large venues — including theaters and theme parks — could reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic. That boosted Disney’s market capitalization to over $192 billion. And it ended Netflix’s brief

Netflix chief Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, donated $30 million to Gavi Alliance, the nonprofit immunization organization started by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Geneva-based Gavi announced the cash donation from Hastings and Quillin on Friday, saying it’s the first private-sector contribution toward its drive to raise at least $7.4 billion to