business
Netflix Stock Price Drops 20% After Announcing Loss of 200K Subscribers
Netflix announced a loss of 200,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2022, which sent its stock plummeting more than 20%. The dip marks the streamer’s first decline in subscribers in over ten years, with the last reported loss taking place in October 2011. In a letter to shareholders, the company informed them that its “revenue growth has slowed considerably.” “Streaming is winning over linear, as we predicted, and Netflix titles are very popular globally,” Netflix continued. “However, our relatively high household penetration – when including the large number of households sharing accounts – combined with competition, is creating revenue growth headwinds.” The company went on to say that the boost in subscribers from COVID had obscured the picture. Previously, it had predicted a fi...
Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Named Web3 Advisor for Warner Recorded Music
Linkin Park co-founder Mike Shinoda has been tapped by Warner Recorded Music (WRM) to help shape the company’s “artist-centric approach” to Web3, it was announced Wednesday (April 20). As WRM’s community innovation advisor, Shinoda will support the company in partnering with artists to “bring their creative visions to life and build communities across new platforms, products, and experiences, while exploring new revenue streams,” according to a press release. Long interested in the crossover between music and tech, Shinoda has recently been a music industry innovator in the NFT space. In February 2021, he released his single “Happy Endings” feat. iann dior and UPSAHL as an NFT via the Zora NFT marketplace, which was billed as the first such project by a major-label artist. He followed that...
Spotify Scraps Greenroom Creator Fund Amid Live Audio Rebrand
Spotify has shuttered its fund for live audio creators less than a year after the funding program was first unveiled, a company spokesperson confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. Originally, live audio creators using Spotify Greenroom — which has since been renamed Spotify Live — would have been able to participate in the fund to receive payouts for their work. Spotify never disclosed how exactly the funding would be determined, but the company said in its initial announcement last June that a creator’s audience size and how their content was consumed would factor into the payments. But the creator fund never ultimately launched last summer, as Spotify said it would at the time, and a Spotify spokesperson said on Tuesday that the funding will be shifted to...
Johnny Depp Takes The Stand In Defamation Trial, Says Amber Heard ‘Grossly Embellished’ Abuse Claims
Over the course of six years, Amber Heard has reiterated accusations that ex-husband Johnny Depp had an alcohol and substance abuse problem that led to him beating her in fits of rage and stupor. Depp, taking the stand for the first time on Tuesday in a U.S. trial on whether Heard’s accusations amounted to defamation, claimed that his ex-wife “grossly embellished” his “quote unquote substance abuse” and that there’ve been “no moments where I would’ve been considered out of control.” Depp continued: “A lot of it is just plainly false. I think that it was an easy target for her to hit because once you’ve trusted somebody for a certain amount of years and told them all the secrets of your life, that information can of course be used against you.” Eleven jurors considered Depp’s testimony on t...
Post Malone Is Headed To Trial. But Will It Be In Front Of Jury?
Post Malone is definitely heading to trial over accusations that he failed to credit one of the co-writers of “Circles.” What’s less certain is whether that trial will feature a jury. With the case now hurtling toward a trial date next month, the two sides are still battling over whether it should be decided by a judge or jury. Malone says there’s “no basis” to put the case before 12 of his peers, but attorneys for accuser Tyler Armes say the star is trying “deprive plaintiff of his Constitutional right to a jury trial.” “It is no surprise that defendants have failed to cite a single case in in support,” lawyers for Armes wrote Monday. “This is clearly because such cases are typically tried before a jury.” Armes, a Canadian producer and songwriter best-known for his work in the band Down w...
Kering Founder François Pinault Could Acquire Deezer That’s Valued Over $1 Billion USD
Billionaire and Kering founder François Pinault and other founders of I2PO, a blank-check firm are set to acquire French music streaming platform Deezer at a valued deal of over $1 billion USD. According to Business of Fashion, Pinault and two other members of I2PO are planning on buying Deezer for approximately $1.16 billion USD and take the company public. Currently, the deal is allowing the combined entity is to raise at least 120 million EUR with original investors so plans to go public in July can proceed. Deezer is considered and unprofitable streaming platform with direct competition from major platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. Deezer’s largest markets include France, Brazil and Germany and will be expected to expand to the U.S. and U.K. post-acquisition. By 2025, Deezer aims ...
Here’s Why Snoop Dogg Says He Pulled Death Row’s Catalog From Streaming
Snoop Dogg’s first course of action after purchasing the Death Row Records brand and catalog in February was seemingly pulling the whole catalog off streaming services — now he’s explained why. In a new interview with REVOLT’s Drink Champs on Friday, Snoop said he removed Death Row’s music — including his 1993 debut Doggystyle and Dr. Dre’s seminal The Chronic — from traditional streaming services “because those platforms don’t pay.” Instead, the rapper claimed he’s planning to launch a standalone “Death Row app” that will host the label’s music. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “Those platforms get millions and millions and millions of streams and nobody gets paid other than the record labels,” said Snoop. “So what I wanted to do is snatch...
Art Rupe, Pioneering Record Executive Who Helped Launch Little Richard’s Career, Dies at 104
Music executive Art Rupe, whose Specialty Records was a premier label during the formative years of rock ‘n’ roll and helped launch the careers of Little Richard, Sam Cooke and many others, has died. He was 104. Rupe, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, died Friday (April 15) at his home in Santa Barbara, California, according to the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation. The foundation did not release his cause of death. The Greensburg, Pennsylvania, native was a contemporary of Jerry Wexler, Leonard Chess and other white businessmen-producers who helped bring Black music to a general audience. He founded Specialty in Los Angeles in 1946 and gave early breaks to such artists as Cooke and his gospel group the Soul Stirrers, Little Richard, Lloyd Price, John Lee Hooker and C...
Crypto is going mainstream: Here’s how the future founders will build on it
Crypto has long been criticized for its lack of inherent value. However, the shift toward contactless transactions amid the pandemic has emphasized the value of digital currencies and blockchain technology in the modern world. For this reason, merchants have been slow to adopt cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. As it gains widespread usage, however, we can expect to see more businesses accepting crypto in the future. The global pandemic has changed the way a lot of us do business. The shift away from cash and face-to-face transactions toward digital cashless ones has introduced many people to the convenience of paying digitally. So, it’s no surprise that crypto is starting to gain traction as a viable payment option — one that will only continue to evolve. While sti...
Swedish House Mafia Make History With First-Ever Spotify Livestream at Coachella Afterparty
The dance music mega-group Swedish House Mafia made history early Saturday (April 16) when the trio became the first artists to be livestreamed by Spotify as part of the streaming platform’s new Spotify Live offering. Axwell highlighted the news while the Swedes performed at a private Coachella afterparty hosted by Spotify to celebrate the release of Swedish House Mafia’s first studio album, Paradise Again. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The group performed for over two hours at a highly curated event at a private mansion near the Coachella festival grounds with a faux lake and beach, where a bevy of VIP influencers, the DJ Alesso, the pop star Anitta and Euphoria actress Chloe Cherry also made appearances. They played many of the...
Cumulus Media Subject of $1.2B Acquisition Bid by Jeff Warshaw-Led Consortium
A consortium of investors led by veteran radio industry executive Jeff Warshaw has made an unsolicited $1.2 billion bid to buy Cumulus Media, the radio network that owns and operates 406 radio stations, the Westwood One syndication operation and a digital radio platform. According to press reports, Warshaw’s consortium is willing to pay $15-$17 a share for Cumulus and may go even higher if due diligence of the company’s financials justifies an increased valuation. Besides Warshaw, the other members of the investor consortium haven’t been disclosed. The news was first reported by Reuters. Warshaw is the founder and CEO of Connoisseur Media, which owns and operates 13 radio stations that broadcast in Connecticut, Maryland and Long Island, according to the company’s website. In 2020, he also ...
Weekly Report: Bison bank wins crypto license, Nexo and MasterCard to launch a crypto-payments card
Nexo Card was termed the world’s first crypto-backed payments card Circle has completed a $400 million funding round Michael Saylor says MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin buying spree will continue Portugal’s Bison Bank snaps the first-ever VASP license to a bank in the country Dogecoin co-founder Jackson Palmer is unimpressed by Elon Musk’s attempt to acquire Twitter ‘Tremendous success’ CEO Michael Saylor hails MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin buying spree In a recent letter to investors, MicroStrategy CEO and crypto bull Michael Saylor has lauded the decision to flood the firm’s treasury with Bitcoin. He said the company intends to continually “vigorously pursue” this ambition into the future. In the letter embedded in MicroStrategy’s 2022 Proxy Statement dated April 14, Saylor explained to stockhold...
