Apple Music overtakes Spotify for number of paid subscribers in the US April 6, 2019 Apple Music’s streaming service has overtaken Spotify in terms of paid subscribers in the United States for the first time, according to Reuters. As of the end of February this year, Apple had amassed 28m subscribers for its product, compared with Spotify’s 26m, the report claimed. Read more: Social media giants to be held responsible [...]
Government set to hold social media firms responsible for harmful content April 5, 2019 Bosses of social media giants such as Facebook could be held responsible for rampant harmful content on their platforms, the government is set to warn next week. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will legislate for a new statutory duty of care which will be funded through a levy on media companies, according to a [...]
MPs slam BBC over ‘chaotic’ handling of freelance presenter tax system April 5, 2019 MPs have launched a scathing attack on the BBC over a “muddled and chaotic” approach to freelance workers that left hundreds of presenters liable to tax investigations. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last year launched an inquiry after it emerged the complex employment status of the broadcaster’s freelancers could mean tax laws were being broken. [...]
Conde Nast names media veteran Roger Lynch as new global chief executive April 4, 2019 Publishing giant Conde Nast has named Roger Lynch as its first global chief executive as the company merges its US and international operations. Lynch, the former boss of US streaming service Pandora Radio, will also join the firm’s board when he assumes the role on 22 April. Read more: Vogue publisher Conde Nast's accounts reveal [...]
Snapchat set to shed users to Instagram after controversial 2017 redesign April 4, 2019 Snapchat will see a decline in users from this year as an ill-fated redesign pushes people to rival social media platforms, a new report has stated. This year 14.5m people in the UK will use Snapchat, down 2.3 per cent on last year, according to a forecast published by Emarketer. Read more: Fraudsters use Facebook [...]
Media firm Entertainment One on track as it shifts focus to film production April 4, 2019 Peppa Pig producer Entertainment One today said it is on track to hit its full-year targets, thanks to strong growth in its portfolio of children's TV shows. In a trading update the Canadian firm said it has enjoyed strong underlying earnings performance, growing by more than 25 per cent in its family and brands division. [...]
Facebook hit by major data breach that left millions of user records on Amazon public software April 3, 2019 Millions of Facebook users have been affected in a major data oversight that left a trove of records publicly available on Amazon cloud-computing servers. Researchers at cybersecurity firm Upguard found that in one example, media firm Cultura Colectiva had posted 540m user records in a public database that included information such as account names, Facebook [...]
Audioboom posts record quarterly revenues as it cashes in on podcast boom April 3, 2019 Podcast platform Audioboom has posted a surge in quarterly profits as appetite for on-demand listening continues to grow. The London-listed firm saw its revenue rise 180 per cent year-on-year to $4.6m (£3.5m) in the three months to the end of March. Read more: BBC removes podcasts from rival Google service Audioboom said it has boosted [...]
Cinema websites crash amid rush for Avengers: Endgame tickets April 2, 2019 Cinema websites have ground to a halt after a rush of customers hoping to buy tickets for the new Avengers film brought servers to their knees. Odeon, Cineworld and Imax all suffered website outages due to the surge in demand, while Vue established a virtual queueing system that cited wait times of more than an [...]
Global music industry revenue grows 10 per cent as streaming booms April 2, 2019 Global music industry revenues grew almost 10 per cent last year as the rise in streaming services offset a decline in physical formats. Revenues grew 9.7 per cent in 2018 to hit $19.1bn (£14.7bn), according to the latest figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Read more: Music streaming revenues overtake ownership [...]
