The company has announced its next “Stream On” event, where it plans to share updates on “creator tools, features, and programming.” The last event, in 2021, was used to lay out Spotify’s business vision in podcasting, music, and other arenas.
As my colleague Chris Welch reminded me, “This is where they announced HiFi!” Here’s hoping it actually arrives this time.
You might have noticed a bunch of new monitor announcements from Samsung this morning. Well, get ready, because there’s a lot more where that came from. CES kicks off Wednesday, and that means gadget announcements are about to come flying fast as soon as tomorrow.
Want to stay up to date? You can follow along here.
Here’s Jeremy Zimmer, head of the United Talent Agency, in an interview with Financial Times:
“A show that does really well will get more advertisers and more revenue will flow to Netflix,” he added. “Therefore, our clients who created that show should be compensated for that additional revenue.”
I’d expect Netflix to fight this request in a serious way — the whole point of this ads tier was to help it make more money, after all. But Zimmer has a point: Netflix has been cutting deals under different terms; now that those terms look more like traditional TV, it’s reasonable that creators would ask for something different, too.
so I wouldn’t put too much stock in Epic CEO Tim Sweeney’s declaration that Fortnite will be back on iOS in 2023.
But it’s certainly possible! Apple is reportedly looking into opening up iOS to third-party app stores this year [dramatic gasp]. If that happens, maybe there’ll be a way to bring back Fortnite, which Apple is currently blocking. I wouldn’t expect Apple to forfeit all control though, so take this prediction with a mouthful of salt.
Sherlock Holmes, Metropolis, and other 1927 titles entered public domain in the US yesterday, opening them up for anyone to remix, remake, or republish.
Now, am I going to post a full-length copy of Metropolis and give our legal team a panic attack on their day off? I’m not, but I’m sure there’s plenty of places to watch it.
Daniel Alegre will be CEO of Yuga Labs starting sometime in the first half of 2023. Alegre isn’t a huge name in the gaming space — he’s only been at Activision Blizzard since 2020; before that he was at Google for over a decade.
But Yuga is certainly hiring him for his gaming credentials: the NFT group is trying to rapidly morph itself into a metaverse gaming company. Now, it’s Alegre’s job to make it happen.
I asked ChatGPT to write a few bullet points summarizing today’s top tech news for me, but in good news for my ongoing job prospects, the AI bot told me it isn’t able to “keep up with current events.”
So without further ado, here’s your human-curated morning roundup:
–ChatGPT rejected me, but Stack Overflow has rejected ChatGPT
–Fortnite has dirt bikes now and got a visual upgrade, too
–Elon says he needs more time for the second data dump of internal Twitter communications. The first one was a total dud.
–DJI’s Mini 3 drone appears to have leaked ahead of a proper announcement
–And now I’m gonna go watch this new Last of Us trailer
In what can only be bad news for Mark Zuckerberg’s virtual-reality dreams, the publisher behind Oxford English Dictionary announced the results of its word of the year poll. In a three-way matchup between “metaverse,” “goblin mode,” and “#istandwith,” metaverse took home just 4 percent of the vote.
Goblin mode — a phrase I have exclusively seen on TikTok, Twitter, and news articles about its use on TikTok and Twitter — came in first with an overwhelming 93 percent. I look forward to Meta’s 2023 pivot to Goblin, Inc.
[The New York Times]
