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Recommended Reading: Apple's ambitious TV plan
Can Apple hack it in Hollywood? We talk to the man behind Apple TV+ Stuart McGurk, GQ UK Apple officially revealed it's TV streaming service in March, but it won't debut for the masses until this fall. There have been all kinds of reports swirling about content, including reports that Apple executives were micromanaging creative direction. GQ sat down with senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue to find out more about TV+, and get some clarity on a few of those rumors.
Amazon Prime Day adds a July 10th concert headlined by Taylor Swift
Everyone from Walmart to Target to eBay is coming for Amazon's online shopping crown, and now its Christmas-in-July event is adding yet another wrinkle: a concert. Leading up to to the two-day Prime Day 2019 on July 15th and 16th, Amazon Music will put on a show -- streamed live via Prime Video of course -- with performances from SZA, Dua Lipa and Becky G, not to mention a little-known headliner, Taylor Swift. Subscribers in 200 countries can tune in for the show July 10th at 9 PM ET. After it airs live, it will be available for replay for a "limited time," and it will also tie-in with promos for other Amazon stuff. Previews planned for the stream include teasers for Jack Ryan, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Carnival Row, its superheroes-gone-bad show The Boys and Undone, which comes from the duo behind Netflix's Bojack Horseman.
BBC Music is available in the US, but only on the web
The BBC is finally sharing its BBC Music site with audiences in the US. As of today, its trove of music reporting -- across radio, TV and the web -- as well as artist performances from Radio 1's Live Lounge are available stateside. That includes clips of Ariana Grande, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift and the Foo Fighters that were previously restricted to the UK.
Spotify and Taylor Swift appear to be BFFs now
If you thought Taylor Swift and Spotify were never, ever, ever getting back together after their ongoing dispute, apparently, you were wrong. The superstar singer filmed an exclusive video of her new single, "Delicate," for Spotify users. It's available now in the Spotify app for users in the US, UK, Sweden and Latin America.
John Boehner, Politics and the nuance of Taylor Swift GIFs
For an excellent example of how not to use the web to make a point one need look no further than Speaker of the House John Boehner. The Republican from Ohio took to the internet to lay out his argument against President Barack Obama's plan to provide free community college to millions of Americans. His chosen medium for conveying that message? Taylor Swift GIFs. Now, whether or not Swift endorsed the use of her image for spreading a political message is beside the point (though, I'm sure nobody asked her). What's more important is that the man who is next in line for the presidency after the vice president reduced a complex political argument to a series of 12 only barely appropriate animated GIFs.
The most streamed single of 2013 only earned its authors $4,000 each
Avicii's song Wake Me Up has been played more than 168 million times in the last year and a half, making it one of the most streamed songs, ever. You wouldn't be blamed, therefore, for thinking that co-writer Aloe Blacc has made some serious bank from his labors. Unfortunately, in an editorial for Wired, the songwriter reveals that he's only received $4,000 in royalties from Pandora, America's biggest streaming service. His voice is joining that of other artists like Taylor Swift, who believes that companies like Spotify and Pandora are seriously devaluing the work of songwriters. He also points an accusatory finger at outdated royalty laws that mean that he has no control over the price, or use, of his music so long as a minimum fee is paid - something that he hopes will change in order to enable musicians to make a living doing what so many people love. We'd make a joke about Blacc's breakthrough record being I Need a Dollar, but it'd probably be in poor taste.
Taylor Swift wants no part of the music streaming 'experiment'
Just days ago, Taylor Swift shook off Spotify. The star opted not to leave her new album off of the service and pulled the rest of her catalog. Lucky for us, Yahoo caught up with the globe-trotting star during a promotional tour in Japan for more insight on the matter. As you might expect, she echoed the sentiment shared by some of her fellow musicians: streaming services don't adequately compensate artists and the rest of the folks who have a hand in making albums. What's more, Swift goes on to call Spotify and similar offerings "experiments," and she isn't "willing to contribute my life's work" to those outfits that don't properly pay up. Spotify, for example, has been around since 2008, so we're a bit beyond the honeymoon phase. Subscription-based and ad-supported music streaming has taken root in our lives, and it's not leaving anytime soon unless there's some kind of drastic change.
Taylor Swift shakes off Spotify, pulls entire catalog
Just as 1989 looks set to become the first platinum album of the year, it looks as though the world's biggest pop star and its biggest streaming service have broken up: Taylor Swift's entire back catalog has disappeared from Spotify. Although neither Swift nor her label have acknowledged the move, Spotify has posted an impassioned, pun-filled appeal on its official blog requesting Swift returns her music to the service.
Allow Activision to introduce you to Taylor Swift
If you're anything like us, you threw off your Taylor Swift comforter this morning, changed out of those Taylor Swift jammies, and thought to yourself, "Today is one more day to win a chance to meet Taylor Swift." Thankfully, Activision and upcoming family-friendly music game Band Hero are teaming up to make that dream a reality. If you purchase a copy of Band Hero in the month of Novemeber (why, that's this month!), you can enter for a chance for two to meet Taylor Swift. Alright, alright, now calm down. You're panting. It's going to be alright. After you pick up your copy of Band Hero tonight, slowly remove the instruction manual from the inside of the game box and simply enter the code from its back at this website. According to the site, you could supposedly win some other stuff or something, but whatever.
Making the most of Preview.app for image editing
Inspired by Bear Grylls's (of Discovery's Man vs. Wild) "make the most out of your situation" scenarios, I present you with a tutorial for making the most out of Preview.app. While not as powerful as graphics editing powerhouse Adobe Photoshop, Preview can oftentimes get you from Point A to Point B -- and sometimes quicker too. Like Bear Grylls, you'll need to parachute out of a plane and into the house of a friend who doesn't have Photoshop -- just kidding. First, a little bit of background. Preview comes pre-installed on Mac OS X, and it's the default image viewer on the system. For PC-to-Mac converts, you could think of it as the Microsoft Paint of OS X; except that it can do a whole lot more. Besides the ability to open a host of image file formats (JPG, BMP, GIF, among them, and even PSD and AI files), Preview can also open PDF files natively. I actually prefer it over Adobe Acrobat for opening PDFs, as I find that they open much quicker using Preview. And like Adobe Reader, Preview contains advanced features, such as annotating.
Taylor Swift joins Band Hero, your daughter's head explodes
First, if you used to have a teen daughter before the head explosion thing, we're sorry about your loss. If you didn't, you may need a little additional explanation. Songstress Taylor Swift is sort of like Hannah Montana with a slight country twang (or more accurately, Hannah Montana if she didn't pretend not to have a slight country twang), and she's just joined Band Hero. No, you may not care, but if you've got a daughter of any age, we've got big news: You're going to be buying Band Hero. Or at least you would have, had her head not just exploded.
