Tilda Swinton, Steve Coogan and Massive Attack’s Robert Del Naja are some of the 2,000 people from across the arts and entertainment world who have signed an open letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.Miriam Margoyles, Maxine Peake, Frankie Boyle and Charles Dance are also among the signatories of the letter, which condemns various governments for “not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them” amid the current conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, as well as “every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them”.Citing Israeli Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant’s depiction of Palestinians as “human animals”, the letter goes on to argue that Palestinians “have become people to whom almost anything can be done”.“We are witnessing a crime and a catastrophe. Israel has reduced much of Gaza to rubble, and cut off the supply of water, power, food and medicine to 2.3million Palestinians.
Spotify Reveals Major Push Into Audiobooks, Adding 150,000 Titles To Existing Premium Subscription Plans
03.10.2023 - 20:31 / deadline.com
Spotify is making a major push into the audiobook sector, adding more than 150,000 titles to its premium subscription plans.
The streaming company announced details at an event at its New York headquarters today headlined by CEO Daniel Ek. The UK and Australia are the initial territories with audiobooks, and other parts of the world will soon follow, including the U.S. this winter.
“This is a big step in the evolution of Spotify,” Ek said. Recalling the founding of the company in 2006, he added, “the world looked very different than it does now.” The music industry at the time was in turmoil, beset by piracy and facing an existential crisis as legacy revenues plunged. After it had made a successful entry into the music business, Ek said, Spotify then moved to podcasting in 2018, finding that podcast listeners also listened to a lot of music and vice versa, creating a virtuous cycle.
Ther audiobooks effort will give Spotify Premium subscribers access to 15 hours of audiobook listening each month, with additional 10-hour re-ups available for stand-alone purchase.
Audiobooks can be downloaded for offline listening, with features enabling automatic bookmarking and ways to track monthly listening.
As with the music and podcast sectors, audiobooks “has one big, dominant player,” Ek said, alluding to Amazon.
The introduction of audiobooks “gives great flexibility to our business, which will help revenue and then profit,” Ek said.
“All major publishers” are on board for the initiative, Ek said.
The event in New York was also to include an author panel discussion and musical performances by Joy Oladokun and Alicia Keys.
MORE to come …
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