Tech

Spotify has launched a new Charts destination website that includes new Genre and Local charts, in addition to data and tools to give artists and listeners more information on releases. Available to all Spotify for Artists creators and Spotify listeners around the world, according to the announcement, “We created this destination for artists and fans to

France’s National Film Board (CNC) has launched a selective funding scheme for French audiovisual content that are pre-financed exclusively by non-European platforms, such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney Plus. Named the “fonds sélectif plateformes,” the dedicated scheme will have a total budget of €5 million ($5.7 million) and will go to projects fully financed by

ViacomCBS and Twitter announced a multiyear renewal of their global agreement under which the media conglomerate will continue to deliver premium digital content from its tentpole live events, shows and franchises on the social network. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The partnership covers all global markets in which Twitter and ViacomCBS operate.

GAMING “American Gods,” the hit Amazon Prime Video fantasy series adapted from Neil Gaiman’s 2001 namesake novel, will be transformed by Skyrocket Entertainment into new gaming content and products and migrated into the worldwide online gambling sector through its newly launched Skyrocket Studios division. Working in collaboration with games studio Bang Bang Games, known for

One week after Netflix kicked off the global launch of its initial mobile games on Android, the streamer is bringing the titles to users with Apple’s iOS devices. Starting Nov. 9, Netflix games will be available to access and download on the Apple App store for all members on iOS mobile and tablet devices. Then,

Justin Bieber has announced that he is partnering with virtual entertainment company Wave for “Justin Bieber – An Interactive Virtual Experience.” According to the announcement, the collaboration will give fans a “futuristic look into the metaverse, merging gaming, real time motion-capture, and live musical performance into an immersive interactive experience. Audiences will go on an

To Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, letting iPhone users “sideload” apps — that is, install them from sources outside the tech giant’s App Store — would be tantamount to making a car that didn’t have airbags or seatbelts. For Apple, “It’s just too risky to do that,” Cook said about the prospect of allowing

Michael Lewis, co-founder and former CEO of 3D cinema pioneer RealD, has been named chairman of the board of Campfire, a tech startup focused on advanced holographic collaboration for the enterprise market. Lewis’s appointment as Campfire chairman follows a “significant” investment in the startup by Alchemi Project, a company he formed to support businesses and

Ubiquitous dating app Tinder has hired its first ever content executive, Variety can report exclusively. After getting its feet wet with the successful “Swipe Night,” an interactive series where users choose plot outcomes, Tinder has recruited former NBCUniversal exec Jaime Freedman as vice president of content. Freedman will be responsible for building out a strategy

Profits at Tencent Music Entertainment, China’s largest digital music company, dropped in the third quarter of its financial year as the company felt the impact of the Chinese government’s multiple crackdowns on the tech sector. Net profits in the three months from July to September 2021 fell to RMB788 million ($122 million). That compares with

PR veteran Alyssa Schimel has been tapped to help run PR and marketing efforts for Shondaland, Shonda Rhimes’ Netflix-based production operation. Separately, Marco Esquivel has been upped to vice president of creative content. Schimel will serve as vice president of communications and marketing for the company. She’ll steer marketing strategies for all content produced by

Revolt, the media company founded by Sean Combs, announced the launch of its first-ever digital streaming app. The company calls the Revolt app a “one-stop shop” for users to view exclusive new series, extended versions of Revolt’s original programming, bonus content, livestreamed events and more. The Revolt app is now available to download on Apple

Phoenix Waters Productions in partnership with tech companies Marvion and Coinllectibles is launching digital entertainment studio Omnific Blockchain Studios to develop and produce entertainment-related non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital goods. NFTs have taken the art world by storm and are now encroaching into the entertainment scene. It will kick off with “Marvion’s Music Monarch,” an

Jet Media Network has closed a $2.5 million seed round of funding led by Los Angeles Media Fund. Other investors in the data-driven digital publishing company include 10X Capital, Gaingels, JetSynthesys, Spivy Private Capital and Equinox Systems. The investment comes as Jet Media Network is preparing to launch its first mobile app — a collaboration

The Walt Disney Co. has enlisted just about every part of the company for Disney Plus Day — which is actually a weeklong series of promotions, events and content premieres. It’s ultimately aimed, of course, at driving up paying subscribers for the global streaming service. Among the deals: Starting Monday (Nov. 8) through Sunday, Nov.

The Comcast Corporation has released a statement applauding the House of Representatives’ final passage of a sweeping bipartisan infrastructure bill for its focus on increasing broadband access. The bill passed in the House on Friday night, after months spent negotiating amid an internal rift among moderate and progressive Democrats. In its statement, Comcast heralded the

Crush Ventures, the investment arm of Crush Music, home to management clients Green Day, Weezer (pictured), Lorde, Sia, Panic! at the Disco, and Miley Cyrus, among others, has invested in the company 237 Global, which offers tech and services related to VIP ticketing that connects artists, athletes, influencers and celebrities directly with their fans virtually

Kanye West’s wildly unfiltered interview on Revolt TV’s “Drink Champs” program broke viewership records for the Black-owned multimedia platform, Variety has confirmed exclusively. West’s conversation with hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN, spanning two-and-a-half hours, had 3 million viewers in its first 12 hours of release, which is the most viewers Revolt TV has had for a single

Moonbug Entertainment, the company that produces the wildly popular children’s show “CoComelon,” has been acquired by Kevin Mayer and Tom Staggs’ unnamed media venture. Though the terms of the deal were not made public, Bloomberg reports that the pricetag was $3 billion. This marks the second acquisition for the former Disney execs’ company, which is

UPDATED: Shares of Penn National Gaming fell more than 20% Thursday, after the publication of an article in which several women alleged that they had “violent and humiliating” sexual encounters with Dave Portnoy, president of Barstool Sports. Penn National, which operates casinos, racetracks and online sports betting, owns a significant equity stake in Barstool. The

Demi Adejuyigbe is known in many corners of the internet as “the ‘September’ guy” for the videos he’s been making of himself singing, dancing and defying the laws of physics to the famous Earth, Wind & Fire song for the last few years. He sees the videos and the money they raised for charity as

T-Mobile is adding another streaming freebie to its customer perks. ViacomCBS, looking to beef up Paramount Plus’s subscriber rolls, inked a deal with T-Mobile under which the wireless carrier will give one free year of the ad-supported tier of the streaming service to all new and existing customers on postpaid plans. Starting next Tuesday (Nov.

Will K-pop sensation BTS put its name on an online comic series or cartoon? That’s in the cards as part of a new initiative announced Thursday (Nov. 4) by BTS-backer HYBE Corp. and Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings. The companies plan to expand beyond music and to diversify into games, comics and NFTs. The strategic partnership

American streaming firm Netflix faced up to a multi-faceted wave of pressure in South Korea, a country where it has achieved market dominance and which is a vital production hub, this week. The global success of Korean-made Netflix original series “Squid Game” has drawn new attention to the firm’s payments to creators. And it has

Just call them the Golden Girls for a new generation. TikTok stars Robert Reeves, Mick Peterson, Bill Lyons and Jessay Martin — known collectively as the “Old Gays” — have signed with Brian Graden Media (BGM) to develop a docuseries about their personal and professional social media lives, all while living together in Cathedral City,

Roku grew total net revenue 51% year-over-year to $680 million for the third quarter of 2021, but it was lighter than investors expected — and the company warned that ongoing supply-chain problems, which it expects to extend into 2022, could have a “broad” negative impact on Q4 results. The streaming platform’s active accounts reached 56.4

Engineer Derek ‘MixedByAli’ Ali, whose credits include music by Kendrick Lamar, Roddy Ricch, SZA, Summer Walker and the late Nipsey Hussle, and his Los Angeles-based music-tech startup EngineEars has teamed up with Dolby Laboratories to bring Dolby Atmos training programs and resources to the platform. EngineEars, which had secured $1 million in seed funding led

The NBA, which has the biggest presence on Twitter of any sports league, is staying on the social network’s court with an expanded, multiyear content deal extension. What’s new starting this year: The NBA will produce 40 Twitter Spaces events during the current season, bringing on players and other guests from the pro-hoops world for

Facebook announced that it will shut down the social service’s facial-recognition system, and as part of that will delete more than 1 billion people’s individual facial-recognition templates. For more than a decade, Facebook has used the opt-in system to automatically recognize people in photos and videos shared on the service. But the technology has drawn

In today’s podcast news roundup, Amazon Music bows transcripts for select podcasts synced with audio playback; BBC Studios launches subscriptions on Apple Podcasts; and more. PLATFORMS Amazon Music on Tuesday launched synchronized podcast transcripts in the U.S. for recent episodes of select Amazon original and Wondery podcasts, including “SmartLess,” “Dr. Death” and “Uncommon Ground With