Tech

YouTube Shorts, the video platform’s answer to viral short-form content in the vein of TikTok, launched this summer and the top creators in the space are starting to emerge. TheSoul Publishing — a collective of top-rated YouTube channels and owner of the 9th most viewed vertical, 5-minute Crafts Family — has the highest performing short

Electric Monster Media, a newly formed digital media roll-up company, has acquired React Media, whose popular YouTube franchises built around reaction videos include React, People vs. Food (formerly Replay) and Try Not To. React Media, previously known as FBE (Fine Brothers Entertainment), was originally formed by brothers Rafi and Benny Fine in 2004, who hit

Audible announced “Cinnamon Bear: A Holiday Adventure,” a new family audio series with original musical numbers performed by a star-studded cast — including Alan Cumming as in the title role and Ryan Reynolds as Santa Claus. The original “Cinnamon Bear” radio series debuted in 1937 as a cliffhanger-style children’s show that featured daily episodes during

Creator Plus, a movie studio and distribution startup centered on digital influencers, has greenlit its second feature-length film: Country-club comedy “Diamond in the Rough,” starring Samantha Boscarino (Disney’s “Good Luck Charlie”) and TikTok star and entrepreneur Griffin Johnson (MTV’s “Ridiculousness”). Production is slated to begin this week in Los Angeles. Creator Plus expects to release

Quality Ventures — the private equity investment arm of hip-hop and sports powerhouse Quality Control — and the Network Advisory have entered into a strategic partnership to launch Vocal, a premium multi-platform podcast and audio streaming network that occupies the intersection of music, sports, fashion and culture. The announcement was made jointly by Quality Control

Spotify is finally introducing one of its most-requested features: real-time lyrics that display during song playback, available to users of its free and subscription tiers globally. Lyrics will be available in-app for many of the tracks in Spotify’s library, but not all of them. The lyrics are provided by Italy-based Musixmatch, which says its catalog

Tidal has announced a number of new updates including a new free tier and enhanced paid subscription tiers, direct-to-artist payments, what it describes as “fan-centered royalties.” Most interesting are the latter two categories, which partially address a longstanding complaint about streaming services: In a nutshell, under the current model, streaming services put all streams into

Backstreet Boys have entered YouTube’s Billion Views Club with the official music video for 1999’s “I Want It That Way,” the group’s lovesick anthem that has become their trademark song. The video for “I Want It That Way” on YouTube crested the billion-views mark on Nov. 15. Shot at Los Angeles International Airport, “I Want

If there’s two things Harry Sloan knows, it’s special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC) and the media business. Sloan has co-founded a record seven SPACs as the co-founder of Eagle Equity Partners, including the most successful such venture to date: sports-betting hub DraftKings, where he also serves as vice chairman. He’s also a well-known name in

Bad Robot, J.J. Abrams’ production company, is diving into podcasts in an exclusive, multiyear first-look deal with audio-streaming giant Spotify. Bad Robot Audio will be led by Christina Choi (pictured above), formerly with Audible and Spotify, who joins as head of podcasts at Bad Robot. The company’s new podcast division plans to produce and develop

Warner Music announced early Wednesday morning that its acquisition group has raised $535 million in a secured senior notes deal. What it intends to do with those funds, which now add up to nearly a billion dollars on hand, remains to be seen — but there’s no shortage of possibilities and it’s likely that the

Podcast studio Wondery has set up “Harsh Reality,” a six-part investigative series on trans reality TV star Miriam Rivera’s controversial 2004 British reality dating show “There’s Something About Miriam.” The series aims to unpack the true story of the show, starring Mexican model Rivera, which aired on Sky. Set in a villa in Ibiza, the

The past two decades have been a boon for composers, AV music publishers and production music library owners as content had a certain freedom of movement between various networks and platforms. In a market that saw AV rights-owners benefit from multiple revenue streams, that meant fresh financial opportunities with every new licensing agreement. However, recent

Warner Music Group has announced the launch of WMX, a services division that is intended to connect artists with fans and amplify brands. The new division includes a rebranded WEA commercial services & marketing network, as well as the company’s media & creative content arm. (WEA, an acronym that dates back 50 years, stood for

In an effort to be more transparent about the viewership of its top series and movies, Netflix will begin releasing weekly Top 10 reports for the streamer’s original and acquired content. The charts will track total minutes viewed for Netflix’s most-watched English and non-English-language movies and TV shows. As of today, Netflix has launched Top10.Netflix.com,

Netflix says it’s heard the complaints about how it “cherry picks” the self-reported data it releases about content viewed on its platform. So the company has announced a major expansion of its Top 10 lists, with weekly reports at top10.netflix.com detailing the most-viewed TV shows and movies globally (for both English and non-English titles) and

Netflix has released new data for its global smash hit “Squid Game” — showing it as No. 1 with a bullet. “Squid Game” pulled in a staggering 1.65 billion hours of viewing in 28 days following its Sept. 17 premiere, according to Netflix. That’s equivalent to more than 182,000 years in total. The overall viewing

Ned Monahan, Spotify’s head of global hits and overseer of several of the platforms top playlists, is leaving the company, a rep confirmed to Variety. His next move has not been made public, although Hits, which first reported the news, says that he’s going to an unspecified start-up label. Monahan, with global hits lead Becky

The New York Times Op-Docs has acquired Rona Segal’s acclaimed documentary short “Mission: Hebron” for distribution and will debut it on nytimes.com and The New York Times YouTube page on Nov. 16. In Israel, national military service is mandatory at the age of 18. In “Mission: Hebron,” six ex-soldiers go on camera to recall their

Who are the GOATs in the Disney and Pixar universes? You’ll soon be able to pit fan-favorite Disney and Pixar characters against each other in “Disney Melee Mania,” coming exclusively to gaming subscription service Apple Arcade. In the upcoming game, each player chooses an iconic Disney or Pixar hero to do battle in three-on-three matches

NBCUniversal’s international flight plan for Peacock starts this week: Starting Nov. 16, Sky TV and Now customers in the U.K. and Ireland will get access to the streaming service for no additional fee. Comcast had announced plans this summer to launch Peacock as a free add-on for Sky’s satellite TV customers in Europe, representing a

Snap has struck a licensing deal with Sony Music Entertainment — which means the music of all three major labels/ publishers and many indies is now available on the platform (which prefers to be called a camera company, not a social media network). Those partners include Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Publishing

Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Timbaland has announced his latest venture and partnership, Ape-In Productions (AIP) — an entertainment company and virtual community that will launch and promote Bored Apes as successful music artists in the metaverse. The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) phenomena has generated over $1 billion in trading to date, and Universal Music

Soon you’ll be able to make your TikTok posts growl like Chewbacca — or snark like Rocket Racoon. As part of Disney’s sprawling Disney Plus Day festivities, the company unveiled a partnership with TikTok that will let users of the short-form video app add text-to-speech sounds from popular characters across its Star Wars, Marvel and

Spotify is acquiring Findaway, a digital audiobook distributor, as the streaming giant looks to steamroll into a new category of audio entertainment. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory review and approval. Spotify positioned the pact as letting it quickly

MoviePass, which burned through hundreds of millions of dollars before shutting down amid lawsuits and an FTC complaint, may be getting a second act. Stacy Spikes, one of the co-founders of the theater-subscription company that shut down in 2019, has acquired the assets of MoviePass in a bankruptcy proceeding. And he says he’s looking to

Disney shares sank as much as 9% in early trading Thursday after the media conglomerate posted earnings that missed Wall Street expectations and revealed a significant slowdown for its flagship Disney Plus streaming service. Disney Plus hit 118.1 million for the quarter ended Oct. 2, up just 2.1 million over the prior period and a

In today’s podcast news roundup, Audible punches the laugh-track with six upcoming scripted comedy shows; Nas and Minya “Miss Info” Oh are hosting a talk show about hip-hop on Spotify; former ESPN sportscaster Michelle Beadle set to premiere her sports and pop-culture podcast with The Athletic; and more. PROGRAMMING Amazon’s Audible announced six new original

The addictive series “Squid Game” continues to saturate global culture and streaming charts, and YouTube is no exception. As of Wednesday, the Netflix original has eclipsed HBO’s juggernaut “Game of Thrones” on the platform to earn 17 billion views across a spectrum of long and short form videos, a new report from content analytics firm

YouTube is giving a thumbs-down to its longstanding “dislike” feature. In an effort to thwart “dislike attacks” on creators, YouTube said that starting Wednesday (Nov. 10) it will start hiding public dislike counts. The change will roll out gradually across the entire platform. However, the dislike button will remain: YouTube viewers can still dislike videos,