Beyonce
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Beyoncé and Peloton team up to gift fitness classes to HBCU students
Beyoncé and Peloton are donating fitness subscriptions to students at 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Twitter contractors reportedly made a 'game' of accessing Beyoncé's data
More than 1,500 people have oversight of user accounts, according to 'Bloomberg.'
Netflix dominates Grammy comedy nominations
Netflix has long been establishing itself as the go-to place for stand-up comedy specials. In fact, it might lay claim to having the best ones around after dominating the Best Comedy Album category in this year's Grammy nominations.
Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' hits Spotify and Apple Music three years late
Three years after Beyoncé's Lemonade dropped with little warning, the album is at long last available on Spotify (at which she has taken jabs in the past), Apple Music, Deezer and other streaming services. Until now, it was only available to stream through Tidal -- the star is one of many artists who have a stake in that service -- and Pandora.
Netflix debuts Beyoncé Coachella documentary on April 17th
You probably don't think of Netflix as a go-to place for music documentaries beyond Taylor Swift's tour movie, but it's determined to burnish its image. The service has teased the April 17th debut of a previously rumored documentary on Beyoncé's much-hyped performance at the 2018 Coachella festival -- conveniently, just ahead of the 2019 festival's second weekend. You won't find a trailer or other details, but there's little doubt that the teaser is a callback to both the yellow outfits Bey's team wore as well as the launch of her Homecoming Scholars Awards Program at the same time.
Tidal under criminal investigation in Norway over 'faked' streams
High-fidelity music streaming service Tidal is under criminal investigation in Norway for allegedly inflating album streams for Beyoncé's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo. The alleged faking of streaming numbers was exposed last year by Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN), which said it had obtained a hard drive with the tampered data. Around 1.3 million accounts were supposedly used to lift the play counts of said albums by "several hundred million", with Tidal paying out higher royalty fees to the two artists and their record labels as a result.
Old Beyoncé and SZA tracks briefly popped up on streaming services
A couple of previously unseen albums under the name "Queen Carter" have popped up on Apple Music and Spotify. It wasn't another surprise album launch, though -- the fact that it didn't happen on Tidal was kinda telling -- it was a leak. The two ten-track projects entitled Have Your Way and Back Up, Rewind contained old tracks, including Hey Goldmember from her role in Austin Powers way back in 2002. Some of them had been leaked in the past, while the others sounded too unpolished for a legit and intended Beyoncé release. If you were hoping to listen to them, you'd have to find the tracks via other means: they became unplayable until they were completely removed from the platforms a few hours later.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z's Tidal exclusive lasted less than two days
Beyoncé did a Beyoncé thing (along with her husband Jay-Z) over the weekend and released her (their) new album on Tidal with no prior warning. The pair are part-owners of Tidal, which was also the exclusive home of her previous album, Lemonade. But Tidal's sole dominion over the Carters' Everything Is Love didn't last long; it's already available to stream on Spotify Premium, Apple Music and Amazon Music Unlimited. The album will hit Spotify's free tier in two weeks.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z take digs at Spotify in latest Tidal exclusive
Beyoncé and Jay-Z aren't keeping quiet in the wake of Tidal's scandals around inflated numbers and late royalties... if anything, they're ramping things up. The power couple have released a joint album exclusive to the service, Everything is Love, that includes a not-so-subtle dig at Spotify. It's clear they're not having second thoughts about their streaming music choices.
Tidal reportedly inflated streaming stats for Beyoncé and Kanye West
Tidal is under fire once again for allegedly inflating its streaming numbers. This time, it's for misreporting the amount of plays Beyoncé's Lemonade and Kanye West's The Life of Pablo had by "several hundred million" false plays. According to a report (translated) from Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN), there's no way that the streaming numbers could've been that high without Tidal manipulating its data. More plays meant that the two artists garnered higher royalty payments. The publication received a hard drive brimming with Tidal play data including play times, song titles, user IDs and country codes.
Kanye's Tidal breakup is about ego, not money
The relationship between Tidal and Kanye West, one of the streaming service's original artist-owners, is seemingly coming to an end. According to various reports, which Engadget confirmed independently, 'Ye has decided to terminate his exclusive streaming deal with the company, claiming it owes him more than $3 million dollars. Most of that sum was allegedly supposed to be a bonus for him bringing in 1.5 million new subscribers with the release of his last album, The Life of Pablo, in 2016. Tidal is shutting down Kanye's claims and, per TMZ, doesn't seem to be too concerned with his threat to quit since he's still under contract. It's also been reported that, if he were to jump ship and join another streaming service, Tidal's prepared to take legal action.
Dodge Beyoncé's haterz in the 8-bit game 'Lemonade Rage'
If you've ever dreamed of being Beyoncé for a day, you're in luck. A small group of game designers created Lemonade Rage: an 8-bit adventure where you dodge haterz, bullshit and Illuminati conspiracists to smash cars, fire hydrants and good hair ads. It's basically the video game version of Beyoncé's video for the song "Hold Up" where she strolls down the street doing damage with a baseball bat. The more mayhem you cause, the more lemons you earn for lemonade.
Frank Ocean's 'Blonde' has been pirated 750,000 times
It seems streaming exclusives are continuing to create a rise in piracy. After a four-year hiatus Frank Ocean finally resurfaced, dropping his long-anticipated sophomore album, Blonde, on Apple Music last weekend. Critics and fans are enjoying it, but it's not all good news for the R&B singer. So far, the album has been illegally downloaded over a whopping 750,000 times.
Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' could be a permanent Tidal streaming exclusive (updated)
The crew at Tidal just scored another exclusive album... and this time, its creator might not have second thoughts about the deal. Beyoncé has released the visual album Lemonade solely on Tidal, and sources speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Mashable and The Verge understand that the superstar's latest will be locked to that one streaming service "indefinitely." It might even be a permanent exclusive, according to the insiders. You'll have the option of buying the album from third-party download services in the weeks ahead, but you'll likely be out of luck if you prefer on-demand rivals like Apple Music or Spotify.
The TUAW Daily Update Podcast for March 3, 2014
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
Apple reportedly pushing record labels for more Beyonce-like iTunes exclusives
Released this past December, Beyonce's self-titled album was initially only available as a full album download via iTunes. While the notion of an iTunes exclusive isn't anything new, an entire album from an artist as iconic and relevant as Beyonce as an iTunes exclusive was unprecedented. Beyonce's iTunes experiment paid off quite well. In just three days, the album netted 828,773 downloads, making it the fastest selling album in iTunes history. What's more, it also broke the first-week US iTunes album sales record while hitting the top spot on the charts in 104 countries. Now comes word via Billboard that Apple is hoping to secure more such exclusives in the future. Apple Inc.'s music chief Robert Kondrk has been pressuring major labels for releases similar to last year's Beyonce exclusive, excluding services like YouTube and Spotify to help shore up slowing download sales, according to music executives familiar with the conversations. The tense talks with label executives during Grammy Week in Los Angeles in January were spurred by Beyonce's success in launching her self-titled album exclusively on iTunes in December for one week, during which the album was only sold in its entirety. Now before passions get inflamed, keep in mind that this isn't about keeping albums off of streaming services like Spotify, but simply an effort to give album download sites like iTunes a bit of a head start. Billboard also writes that Apple isn't necessarily adamant that albums need to be exclusive to iTunes, only that they initially be made exclusive on music download sites. Recall that the Beyonce album was only exclusive on iTunes for 1 week. As a Spotify-head myself, I don't think this is all that bad or even controversial. It's no secret that artists see more money from album sales than they do from streaming sites. So if I have to wait a week or so to stream a new album, thereby helping out artists in the process, then so be it. Underlying Apple's push for exclusives is the fact that digital downloads are seemingly on the decline. Indeed, 2013 marked the first time that digital music sales experienced a decline since April of 2003 when the iTunes Music Store first opened up for business.
Target won't sell Beyoncé CD due to iTunes-exclusive launch
Superstar Beyoncé's self-titled album is breaking all sorts of records thanks to incredible marketing on the Apple iTunes store, but that has retailer Target a bit miffed. The company has reported that it won't sell the CD version because the record had its original release on iTunes before Target and other retailers had a chance to sell it. Billboard notes that Target had built up a strong marketing relationship with Beyoncé in the past, with one of her previous albums -- 4 -- offered in an exclusive Target-only version with six bonus tracks. In a rather terse statement, a Target spokesperson told Billboard: At Target we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, and when a new album is available digitally before it is available physically, it impacts demand and sales projections. While there are many aspects that contribute to our approach and we have appreciated partnering with Beyoncé in the past, we are primarily focused on offering CDs that will be available in a physical format at the same time as all other formats. At this time, Target will not be carrying Beyoncé's new self-titled album Beyoncé. It's unknown if the sour grapes attitude of Target will extend to Apple products. We reported that iPad sales were one of the Black Friday hits at Target and other retailers, so it's unlikely that the company will seek vengeance on Apple.
Daily Update for December 16, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get some of the top Apple stories of the day in five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the player at the top of the page. The Daily Update has been moved to a new podcast host in the past few days. Current listeners should delete the old podcast subscription and subscribe to the new feed in the iTunes Store here.
BEYONCÉ becomes the fastest-selling record on iTunes in just three days
Apple has just put out a press release announcing that the surprise self-titled album BEYONCÉ, which was announced only three days ago, (on the day of its release) has become the fastest-selling album on iTunes ever. In just three days, BEYONCÉ has sold 828,773 copies. It also broke the first-week US iTunes album sales and went No. 1 in 104 countries. From the official press release: Apple today announced that BEYONCÉ has become the fastest selling album ever on the iTunes Store worldwide with an unprecedented 828,773 albums sold in just its first three days. BEYONCÉ also broke the US first week album sales record with 617,213 sold and proved to be a global success going to number one in 104 countries. The self-titled, BEYONCÉ, is the fifth solo studio album from Beyoncé, which was made available exclusively worldwide on the iTunes Store on December 13 by Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records. The self-titled set is the artist's first visual album. BEYONCÉ is infused with 14 new songs and 17 visually stunning, provocative videos shot around the world from Houston to New York City to Paris, and Sydney to Rio de Janeiro, all before the album's release. The album represents Beyoncé's biggest sales week ever. The record sales of BEYONCÉ have much to do with the singer's star power, but it also doesn't hurt that every carousel at the top of the iTunes Store home page is dedicated to Beyoncé's new album. Needless to say, the surprise release of an album from one of the world's biggest superstars also generated quite a bit of coverage in both major and social media, which never hurts sales. BEYONCÉ is available for US$15.99.
Beyonce surprise releases new album, available exclusively via iTunes
Beyonce late on Thursday evening surprised fans when she released a completely new "visual album" available exclusively on iTunes. Self-titled Beyonce, the album features 14 brand-new tracks and features musical heavy hitters such as Drake, Frank Ocean, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and, naturally, Jay Z. Oddly enough, one of the songs even features Blue Ivy; you know, her almost 2-year-old daughter. On top of that, the new "visual album," true to its name, features full-length videos for each song and comes with a digital booklet to boot. The album description reads in part: Adding a striking dimension to the music, the complementary videos unfold amid an international backdrop of New York, Paris, Sydney and Rio de Janeiro. The album runs for US$15.99 and, as it stands now, is only available for purchase in its entirety. Come December 20, however, fans will be able to purchase individual singles from iTunes. Beyonce announced her new album via an Instagram video at around midnight EST. As a quick aside, it's interesting that Beyonce, of all artists, took this all-or-nothing album approach given that her husband -- Jay Z -- a few years back refused to release his American Gangster album on iTunes because he didn't want it chopped up and available on a song-by-song basis. In a statement sent out at the time, Jay Z explained, "As movies are not sold scene by scene, this collection will not be sold as individual singles." In any event, Billboard reporter Andrew Hampp speculates that the iTunes exclusivity period for Beyonce's new disc will last for about a week. You can preview and purchase the album on iTunes over here.
