GamesBeat reports: “Global games investment rose 38% from $3.1 billion to $4.3 billion in 2024, according to a report by game venture capital firm Hiro Capital. And if you look at games, mixed reality, and sports tech, the numbers showed over $10 billion was invested in those categories in 2024, based on data from Dealroom that was analyzed by Hiro Capital.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “With TikTok facing a possible shutdown in the US – if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the app – rival Triller has been working to pick up market share in the short video social media market. Last fall, it hired ex-TikTok exec Sean Kim to head up the company’s Triller app division, and earlier this month, the app launched the website SaveMyTikToks.com, which promises to upload TikTok users’ videos to Triller, in an effort to pick up users looking around for a Plan B if TikTok goes dark stateside.”
Screen Daily reports: “Stallone has joined the company as strategic partner and investor. Boston private equity investor Atreides Management; Thomas Tippl, former vice chairman and chief operating officer of California video games company Activision Blizzard; and Swiss private equity firm DAA Capital have also invested.”
Phone Arena reports: “Introduced last year as a new way for viewers and creators to connect on YouTube, the Communities feature is now being expanded to more people, the company announced over the weekend. Along with the expansion of the Communities feature to more users, YouTube announced that it has decided to give the Community tab a new name: Posts. Still, apart from having a new name, the tab will work the same as it did before being renamed.”
Music Ally reports: “The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has been publishing its reports on women in music for several years now, focusing on the representation of women artists, songwriters and producers in the year-end Billboard Hot 100 charts. Last year’s study saw positive results in terms of growth. The headline this year is ‘Women in music hold on to gains, but have more room to grow’.”
VentureBeat reports: “Y Combinator-backed startup Martin AI announced today it has raised $2 million in seed funding to develop what it claims is a more intuitive and personalized AI assistant that could rival upcoming offerings from OpenAI and Google. The round was led by Pioneer Fund with participation from FoundersX Ventures, Eight Capital, SV Tech Ventures, Sandhill Markets, Splash Capital and notable angel investors including DoorDash cofounder Andy Fang.”
Music Business Worldwide reports: “B2B music streaming and audio technology company Tuned Global has partnered with AI music startup AudioShake to offer new AI features. The collaboration will enable Tuned Global clients to separate song stems and generate word-by-word lyric transcriptions, the companies announced Wednesday (January 29).”
Digital Trends reports: “Amazon Music is the latest streaming company to announce a price increase. In an email sent to subscribers, Amazon indicated that the price for an individual Amazon Music Unlimited subscription will be going up by one dollar, on the first billing date on or after March 5, 2025.”
Games Industry Biz reports: “PlayStation Plus will begin focusing solely on PlayStation 5 games starting January 2026. In a blog post announcing its monthly games for February, the firm said PlayStation 4 games will “no longer be a key benefit” on PS Plus and will “only occasionally be offered” on its monthly games and games catalog services.”
GeekWire reports: “Microsoft says it’s generating revenue from its artificial intelligence products and services at a rate of $13 billion annually, exceeding the $10 billion run rate that the company foreshadowed previously. The company on Wednesday reported $69.6 billion in revenue for the December quarter, up 12%, with earnings of $3.23/share, topping Wall Street’s expectations by both measures.”
