Spotify is partnering with Netflix to bring select video podcasts to the streaming platform starting in early 2026. The deal will feature curated shows from Spotify Studios and The Ringer, expanding later to include more genres. The move reflects Spotify’s growing focus on video as a key driver for engagement and ad revenue, with video podcast consumption now growing 20 times faster than audio-only content.
Source: Spotify partners with Netflix for video podcast distribution deal | TechCrunch
For years, the narrative has been that movies, in contrast to TV series, were in decline. But there’s new data that paints a different picture. Streaming services are, in fact, relying more than ever on films to keep their growth engines humming. A Parrot Analytics analysis of thousands of titles across Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Netflix, and Max finds that movies deliver disproportionately high engagement relative to the volume of content hours they represent.
New research from BrightEdge offers insights into how Google’s AI Overviews ranks websites across different verticals, with implications for what SEOs and publishers should be focusing on. The data shows that 54% of the AI Overviews citations matched the web pages ranked in the organic search results. This means that 46% of citations do not overlap with organic search results. Could this be an artifact of Google’s FastSearch algorithm?
Publishers with OpenAI licensing deals benefit from a ChatGPT clickthrough rate almost seven times higher than those without agreements, according to the latest State of the Bots report from Tollbit. This suggests that AI gatekeepers’ discretionary deal-making, which currently largely locks out all but large, premium, English-language titles, will be a key determinant of success as AI adoption and diffusion continues to accelerate.
Source: Publishers with AI licensing deals have seven times the clickthrough rate
SAG-AFTRA has issued a statement condemning Tilly Norwood, the AI “actress” who has become a contentious subject in Hollywood after her creator, Eline Van der Velden, recently claimed that multiple talent agents were interested in signing the AI creation. “To be clear, ‘Tilly Norwood’ is not an actor, it’s a character generated by a computer program that was trained on the work of countless professional performers — without permission or compensation,” SAG-AFTRA wrote in a statement.
Independent music licensing group Merlin and Spotify have renewed their global, multi-year licensing partnership. According to the companies, the agreement, announced on Tuesday (September 30), “reinforces the vital role of independent music on Spotify and provides Merlin members continued access to a platform that reaches fans worldwide”.
Source: Spotify and Merlin ink multi-year global licensing deal
Rather than generate new songs, Adapt lets users reshape tracks in Epidemic’s catalog of 50,000 tracks and 200,000 sound effects —adjusting length, tempo, structure, or instrumentation with a few clicks. “It’s quite common you find a track you like, but then making it perfect for your story takes hours,” Höglund said. “The idea behind Adapt was to put those tools in the hands of creators so they can make those decisions immediately.”
Source: Epidemic Sound’s Bold AI Bet, Helping Creators And Paying Artists More
The figure was disclosed during a press briefing where executives outlined a three-pronged approach to combat AI-enabled fraud while supporting legitimate artistic use of artificial intelligence tools. “In the past 12 months alone, a period marked by the explosion of generative AI tools, we’ve removed over 75 million spammy tracks from Spotify,” the company confirmed in its official blog post announcing the measures.
Source: Spotify has deleted 75m+ ‘spammy tracks’ – as it unveils new AI music policies
Spotify on Thursday announced a series of updates to its AI policy, designed to better indicate when AI is being used to make music, to cut down on spam, and to make it clearer that unauthorized voice clones are not permitted on its service. The company says it will adopt an industry standard for identifying and labeling AI music in credits, known as DDEX, and will soon roll out a new music spam filter to catch more bad actors.
Source: Spotify to label AI music, filter spam and more in AI policy change | TechCrunch
Microsoft is in talks with select U.S. publishers about a pilot program to help launch a two-sided marketplace that would compensate publishers for their content used by AI products, starting with its Copilot assistant. Microsoft would become the first major tech company to build an AI marketplace for publishers, a milestone in building a sustainable business model for content companies in the AI era.
Source: Microsoft looks to build AI marketplace for publishers