11 h. ago Singer Neil Young removes music from Amazon in bid to 'save America'

Heart of Gold singer Neil Young shared a lengthy statement on his blog, in which he explained why his music isn't available to stream on Amazon Music any longer

Politics

2 w. ago Spotify removes 75m spam tracks in past year as AI increases ability to make fake music

Streamer to crack down on AI-generated spam by introducing filter to identify fraudulent uploadsSpotify has revealed it removed 75m spam tracks from its platform over the past year as artificial intelligence tools increase the ability of fraudsters to create fake music.The world’s biggest music streaming service announced a crackdown on vexatious tracks after admitting the rise of powerful AI tools had coincided with a significant amount of spam content being tackled by the streamer. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Even a rebrand may not be able to save America’s most storied gaming event

In this week’s newsletter: since 1988 the Game Developers Conference has been a core part of the gaming calendar – but exorbitant costs and Trumpism put that at riskEvery year for as long as I have been alive (read: since 1988), the annual Game Developers Conference has been held in California. It started out as essentially a house party: a gathering of 27 people in the living room of Atari designer Chris Crawford. By the mid-90s it had left Chris’s house and grown to more than 4,000 attenders, and in 2005 found a permanent home in San Francisco’s Moscone Center. These days, about 30,000 game development professionals of all kinds attend every year. The online GDC Vault is a precious trove of game development history and useful advice for any gaming discipline.GDC has developed a bit of an image problem in recent years, however, as we have reported before. It’s prohibitively expensive for developers: a conference pass is more than $1,500, and travel and accommodation in one of the w...

Politics

3 w. ago Massive Attack remove music from Spotify to protest against CEO Daniel Ek’s investment in AI military

The band cited a ‘moral and ethical burden’ placed on artists by revenue from their work ultimately funding lethal technologiesMassive Attack have become the latest act – and first major-label one – to pull their catalogue from Spotify in protest at founder Daniel Ek investing €600m (£520m) in the military AI company Helsing.In June, Ek’s venture capital firm Prima Materia led the defence tech firm’s latest funding round. Helsing’s software uses AI technology to analyse sensor and weapons system data from battlefields to inform real-time military decisions. It also makes its own military drone, the HX-2. Ek is also chairman of Helsing.Unconnected to this initiative and in light of the (reported) significant investments by its CEO in a company producing military munition drones and AI technology integrated into fighter aircraft, Massive Attack have made a separate request to our label that our music be removed from the Spotify streaming service in all territories.In our view, the his...

Events

4 w. ago Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil says he had a stroke and had to ‘learn to walk again’

The 64-year-old rock star revealed ‘my whole left side went out’

Politics

4 w. ago Strictly Come Dancing star picked own partner after 'rejecting' two professional dancers

Singer Toyah Wilcox danced with Neil Jones on the hit BBC Latin and ballroom dance show in 2024

Politics