The House voted on Wednesday in favor of a bill to require TikTok to sever its connection with parent company ByteDance or face a ban, moving the legislation forward with surprising speed. President Joe Biden has already said that he would support the legislation, but TikTok faces an uncertain fate as the bill heads to the Senate. The bill received bipartisan backing with a 352-65 vote.
Source: The bill that could ban TikTok passes in the House | TechCrunch
This year’s Oscars were as much a celebration of books as they were cinema. Five of the 10 best picture nominees were based on books, and three of those – “Oppenheimer,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest” – took home the most statues overall. Which is why many of those partying in L.A. on Sunday night boarded planes across the Atlantic days later bound for the London Book Fair, in search of their next Oscar-contending project.
Conversations about the future of artificial intelligence can be found all over SXSW this year — and not all of the festival’s attendees are thrilled with the idea. Specifically, the film and TV fans catching screenings of world premieres including “The Fall Guy” and “Immaculate” made their AI displeasure loud and clear on Tuesday at the Paramount Theatre in Austin.
Source: SXSW Audiences Loudly Boo Festival Videos Touting the Virtues of AI
Music streaming giant Spotify announced today (March 7) that it will be raising subscription prices in France in response to the recent implementation of a new government tax on music streaming services. This decision comes after months of contention between the company and the French government, with Spotify arguing the tax unfairly burdens consumers and hinders its ability to operate in the market.
Source: Spotify to increase subscription prices in France to ‘offset’ new music streaming tax
The adult site is facing new obligations under the Digital Services Act (DSA), including strict requirements on age verification. The new rules apply to what the EU designates a Very large Online Platform (VLOP) – which Pornhub says it is not. “We believe the European Commission erred in its calculation of our user numbers”, the firm said. To be designated a VLOP, a site needs to be visited by more than 45 million Europeans on average every month – a threshold the EU says Pornhub meets.
It will be months, if not years, before the usefulness and the unintended consequences of the EU legislation will become clear, but already the DMA has forced tech giants, from Alphabet to TikTok, to change how they operate in the EU or face the threat of hefty fines. First-time DMA offenders can be penalized up to 10 percent of their company’s total worldwide turnover.
Source: Europe Enters New Era of Tech Regulation With Digital Markets Act
TikTok’s relationship with the music industry was never sustainable. As many digital media outlets realised in the mid-2010s, when they “pivoted to video” in an attempt to placate Facebook’s algorithm, only for the bottom to fall out of that platform, it’s never wise to place the fate of an entire industry in the hands of a private company whose motivations and modes of operation are opaque at best. Big stars who have built-in fanbases won’t be profoundly affected by their music being off TikTok, but new stars will.
Source: The music industry’s over-reliance on TikTok shows how lazy it has become | Shaad D’Souza
Artists are signing deals with game companies to debut new songs through interactive events and as background music for games themselves, in some cases weeks before those tracks are released on the likes of Spotify. Artists are also selling virtual goods featuring their likenesses and music for players’ avatars.
Source: Why Musicians Are Doubling Down on an Unlikely Venue to Reach New Listeners
In an eye-opening examination, Hollywood Takeover: China’s Control in the Film Industry delves into the complex relationship between Hollywood and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), revealing how China’s influence has shaped the content and narrative of mainstream movies. The documentary highlights instances where Hollywood studios have altered films to cater to the CCP’s preferences, often at the cost of creative freedom and authenticity.
Source: Hollywood Takeover: Documentary Exposes China’s Grip on Film Indus…
Spotify has added a new audiobook subscription tier, dubbed the Audiobooks Access Tier, offering a slightly less expensive but more limited option for users interested in streaming audiobooks on the platform. The new plan knocks down Premium prices by a dollar, to $9.99, and offers the same 15 hours of listening, but without ad-free music streaming options.