Netflix has reached a deal with the French cinema guilds that will see the streaming giant invest at least €40 million ($45 million) in at least 10 French and European films over the next three years, all of which will get theatrical releases in France. The deal, unveiled Tuesday, marks the first agreement of its kind in France with a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service.
Source: Netflix to Invest $45M in French, European Films in Deal That Could Pave Return to Cannes
Haldeman’s new company claims to be “building a first-of-its-kind decentralized music licensing marketplace for music and visual creators”. Speaking with MBW, Haldeman said that, “the more I’ve learned about the principles of Web3, the clearer it’s become that blockchain technology has the power to revolutionize the market for music licensing and create more opportunities for artists”.
Source: Riptide Music CEO Keatly Haldeman exits, launches Web3 music sync licensing platform, Dequency
Roughly five years after the implementation, in New York City, of the Freelance Isn’t Free Act, a local law intended to establish and enhance the rights of freelance workers—including authors, journalists, and other writers on contract—a similar law has been proposed at the state level.
Source: ‘Freelance Isn’t Free’ Bill Introduced in New York State
As part of the partnership, Hello Sunshine will build out the World of Women character universe and franchise into entertainment properties including feature films, scripted and unscripted TV series. The move is another sign of the growing popularity of NFTs and the potential they hold for traditional media companies on the prowl for intellectual property.
Spotter, a two-year-old startup that acquires rights to the video catalogs of YouTubers, announced $200 million in new funding led by Japan’s SoftBank. Spotter said that gives it a valuation of $1.7 billion — and will let the company invest $1 billion with YouTube creators.
Whether you listen to podcasts or not, it’s worth appreciating something odd about them. Podcasting has been one of the few areas of digital information and entertainment that hasn’t been controlled by giant corporations. That phase is ending, and there’s now a battle to become a Big Tech Boss of podcasts.
TreeTrunk, a startup, has developed a variation of the NFT-specific protocol known as ERC-721. TreeTrunk has modified the protocol in such a way as to make it easy for an artist to mint a master NFT of her work, then sell derivatives of that NFT to fans—who can in turn sell it to other fans.
Source: Ethereum NFT Protocol TreeTrunk Promises New Royalty Options for Artists – Decrypt
Cash-strapped museums suffering from a drop in visitor numbers and income during the pandemic may have found a lifeline in the form of a new partnership with a tech company and a commercial gallery. Four major Italian museums, including the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, have signed onto an ambitious project that will see them sell editioned digital replicas of priceless masterpieces from their collections as NFTs.
A group representing publishers such as News Corp and National Public Radio wrote to leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday to back two bills targeting Big Tech, including one that would open up smartphone app stores to more competition.
Source: Two U.S. Big Tech antitrust bills backed by publisher trade group
Initially, iHeart plans to use Veritone’s artificial-intelligence system to translate its most popular podcasts into Spanish across the iHeartPodcast Network. The company said among the podcasts first in line for translation en español are “Stuff They Don’t Want You to Know,” “Tech Stuff” and “Ridiculous History.”
Source: iHeartMedia Will Translate English Podcasts Into Other Languages Using Veritone’s Synthetic Voices