Month: March 2024

Google is shutting down its Podcasts app in the U.S. in a matter of days. The company has begun warning the app’s users they will need to migrate their subscriptions to YouTube Music by April 2 to follow and stream their favorite shows going forward. Users who don’t make the move immediately will still have

As deepfakes proliferate, OpenAI is refining the tech used to clone voices — but the company insists it’s doing so responsibly. Today marks the preview debut of OpenAI’s Voice Engine, an expansion of the company’s existing text-to-speech API. Under development for about two years, Voice Engine allows users to upload any 15-second voice sample to

With TikTok potentially poised for a U.S. ban, YouTube is touting how well its own TikTok competitor, YouTube Shorts, is paying off for creators. The company on Thursday said its short-form video platform now averages over 70 billion daily views and over 25% of channels in YouTube’s Partner Program monetize their videos through revenue-sharing on

In the wake of Universal Music Group’s (UMG) public spat with TikTok, which saw the label pulling its full catalog from the video app earlier this year, the company is doubling down on its deal with Spotify. On Thursday, UMG announced an expansion of its strategic relationship with the streaming music service that will focus

Noisy recordings of interviews and speeches are the bane of audio engineers’ existence. But one German startup hopes to fix that with a unique technical approach that uses generative AI to enhance the clarity of voices in video. Today, AI-coustics emerged from stealth with €1.9 million in funding. According to co-founder and CEO Fabian Seipel,

Spotify has carved out a business for itself in music streaming, podcast entertainment and audiobooks. Now, in its ongoing efforts to get its 600 million+ users to spend more time and money on its platform, Spotify is spinning up a new line of content: e-learning. Starting with a rollout in the U.K., Spotify is testing

Today, during NBCUniversal’s annual technology conference, One24, the company revealed a slew of features coming to its streaming service Peacock ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July. The most notable feature to launch on Peacock is multiview, which allows subscribers to view up to four simultaneous matches at once. Next to picture-in-picture mode, many

The biggest content creator on YouTube, MrBeast announced on Monday that he’s filming a game show for Amazon’s Prime Video. On X, he wrote: “Big news gamers I’m going to be filming the largest game show in history and releasing it on Prime Video! Over 1,000 contestants, $5,000,000 prize, and many other world records.” Big

A new ad from Under Armour featuring boxer Anthony Joshua has come under fire from creatives on Instagram after its director claimed it as the “first Ai-powered sports commercial” — but critics in the industry say it blatantly reused others’ work without credit as part of an AI hype cycle cash grab. Director Wes Walker

Paramount Global has reached a binding agreement to sell its 13% stake in Reliance-controlled Indian media firm Viacom18 to Reliance for $517 million, both companies said Wednesday. The deal will increase Reliance’s stake in Viacom18, which operates dozens of TV channels as well as streaming service JioCinema, to 70.49%, Reliance said in a disclosure (PDF)

OpenAI’s legal battle with The New York Times over data to train its AI models might still be brewing. But OpenAI’s forging ahead on deals with other publishers, including some of France’s and Spain’s largest news publishers. OpenAI on Wednesday announced that it signed contracts with Le Monde and Prisa Media to bring French and

Spotify is enhancing its audiobooks streaming service with a feature that may be familiar to the app’s music consumers: Countdown Pages. These YouTube-like Countdown Pages were launched alongside other new additions for Spotify’s artists last year, offering a dedicated space on artists’ profiles where a timer could count down to a new release. Now, that

Spotify is adding music videos to its mobile and desktop apps in some markets. They are tightly integrated with the company’s music library as the streaming giant lets you seamlessly switch between audio and music videos in its mobile and desktop apps. However, music videos are only available in beta in 11 select markets for