Spotify

Apple has removed Epic Games’ battle royale Fortnite from the App Store after the developer on Thursday implemented its own in-app payment system that bypassed Apple’s standard 30 percent fee.

Playlists on Spotify are often the easiest way to start listening to music, given that the tracklist is already set. Today, the company’s giving Premium users more control over what

Apple said on Wednesday it would stop taking a cut of some sales for “qualifying” streaming video services on iPhones and other Apple devices, including Amazon.com’s Prime Video.

More than 220 British nationals are being split between two cruise ships off Panama after four passengers on one of the vessels died amid coronavirus fears.

Spotify’s always billed itself as a platform for creators, so today, it announced that it’s going to help artists in need. The company will allow creators to link out to donation pages, whether it’s their own, a friend’s, or just an organization’s.

The company is also reportedly working on allowing third-party music services like Spotify to run directly on its HomePod smart speaker, bypassing the need to stream them from an Apple device over AirPlay. Although the plans are thought to be in their early stages, Bloomberg says that the changes could arrive later this year in iOS 14 and in an update to the HomePod’s firmware.

Video streams from other platforms will also count, including Apple, Spotify, Tidal, and Vevo, and Billboard says the change will also impact genre album consumption charts, like country, Latin, and others. Billboard’s charts have historically been seen as a barometer of success within the music industry.

Sharing the news on her verified Instagram handle, Mariah said that the awards were presented to her over the weekend by the Guinness World Records.

Joseph Akinfenwa, aka Joeboy, is one of Nigeria’s fast-rising music artists. The 22-year-old went from singing in his bathroom to topping music charts in Uganda, Zimbabwe and Nigeria in the space of a few months.

Nigerian music heavyweights David ‘Davido’ Adeleke and Ayoola Agboola aka Kiddominant have been featured on American artist Chris Brown’s new album.

Attorneys general from 48 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico formally opened an antitrust probe on Monday into Alphabet’s Google, in a sign of growing government scrutiny of U.S. technology giants.

Afropop star Ayodeji Balogun aka Wizkid has become the first African artist to hit eight million monthly streams on Spotify.

Spotify reported today that it added 8 million new subscribers in the most recent quarter as the music streaming leader widened its lead over rival Apple Music.

Samsung has launched its Bixby Marketplace, a dedicated app store where third-party developers can offer their own Bixby-compatible services, similar to Amazon’s Alexa skills. The marketplace, which apparently started rolling out a few days ago, is officially open now for Samsung customers in the U.S. and Samsung’s native South Korea.

Facebook announced its cryptocurrency Libra and a global association of organizations that will govern it. And Facebook also announced Calibra, a new subsidiary that will build a digital wallet for Messenger, WhatsApp, and a standalone app on iOS and Android.

Children in Nigeria spend more time than others in over 10 countries watching videos and listening to music online, the latest report by a global cybersecurity company, Kaspersky Lab, has shown.

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have signed a multiyear deal to produce podcasts exclusively for Spotify, through their media company Higher Ground Productions. The announcement is light on details, but heavy on aphorisms, saying the move continues the Obamas’ mission to “create compelling content that entertains and inspires viewers.”

Apple is facing an antitrust investigation that was predictable the moment it announced it was getting into the music streaming business four years ago. The company can most likely expect a similar investigation down the road after it launches its video streaming service later this year.