Hypebot reports: “Along with building a following on MySpace, music marketers used to advise artists to have a blog on Tumblr. While some including Taylor Swift are still active there, most moved on long ago. Now Tumblr has been sold to Automattic, the company behind WordPress for what the Wall Street Journal calls a ‘nominal amount.'”
The Verge reports: “The ability to plop widgets anywhere on your home screen is one of the more convenient things about Android. But one huge company, Spotify, is doing away with its widget. As noted by 9to5Google, Spotify’s most recent Android app update quietly phased out the mini-player that previously let users pause / play music or skip tracks from their device’s home screen.”
VentureBeat reports: “Snap’s prior forays into the hardware world haven’t been as notable as its popular social media app Snapchat, but the company is apparently committed to seeing how far its Spectacles wearables can go with users. To that end, it today revealed Spectacles 3, glasses with dual cameras built in to capture 3D depth, which it says will enable digital augmented reality assets to interact with real world objects captured in a scene.”
Billboard reports: “Cinq Music, the music company that made waves last year by partnering with Janet Jackson for the release of her single “Made For Now” with Daddy Yankee will receive $40 million in Series C funding from parent company GoDigital Media Group. Cinq, a technology driven record label, distributor and rights management company, will use the funding to purchase music rights, both masters and publishing, and to further expand internationally.”
Variety reports: “The numbers always dazzle in China. The country has more than 60,000 movie screens, the most of any nation on Earth, almost all built within the last 10 years. It boasts more paid subscribers to streaming-video services than the rest of the globe combined, and Netflix doesn’t even operate there.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Disney’s upcoming streaming service will “be treated as the most important product that the company has launched” during his 14-year tenure, crowed CEO Bob Iger during an Aug. 6 call with Wall Street analysts. It’s a bold proclamation, and it comes with major repercussions. It’s also the closest Iger has come to publicly declaring an all-out war with Netflix.”
Variety reports: “Breaker, the blockchain-enabled entertainment platform, is getting into the television game. The company has added six-part miniseries “Bad Banks” to its library of film and music titles.”
Venture Beat reports: “Utomik said it has more than 1,000 PC games available for its subscription download service, and the company said its user activity has doubled compared to a year ago. Doki Tops, founder and CEO of Utomik, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company is focusing on “double-A” titles from independent game developers.”
gamesindustry.biz reports: “A class-action lawsuit is forming against Epic Games following a breach that exposed the personal data of Fortnite players at the end of last year.”
Hollywood Reporter reports: “Last week, following multiple mass shootings over the prior weekend, President Donald Trump held a press conference in which he condemned “gruesome and violent video games” for contributing to the “glorification of violence in our society.” Within hours, hashtags such as #VideoGamesAreNottoBlame and #GamersAreGood began trending on Twitter in response to Trump’s claims.”
