YouTube Launches Test of AI Music Generator That Can Mimic Demi Lovato, John Legend, Charlie Puth, Troye Sivan, T-Pain and More

Jem Aswad Executive Editor, Music If there is a bible for the music industry, it’s Donald Passman’s book, “All You Need to Know About the Music Business.” Since the first edition came out more than 30 years ago, it has guided countless musicians and executives, and has prevented many of them from making decisions they’d later regret. Considering the deep detail Passman gets into about contracts, royalties and other complicated business arrangements, his tone is remarkably conversational, and he makes sure readers don’t miss the important stuff: The section on business managers begins with him saying “Listen to me!!!” in italics with several exclamation marks.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor It’s a wonderful… robot? An AI-generated voice of Jimmy Stewart, the legendary Hollywood actor who died in 1997, reads a new bedtime story on the Calm sleep and meditation app. The voice of Stewart, who starred in films including “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Vertigo” and “Rear Window,” was recreated for the Calm story using AI voice-cloning technology. The project has the consent of Stewart’s family and his estate (managed by CMG Worldwide).

The top 12 contestants on The Voice‘s current 24th season have been revealed!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Ted Sarandos is happy the twin Hollywood strikes are over — but the Netflix co-CEO claimed the streamer didn’t see significant “interruption” in its ability to launch original series and films. “We are mostly just thrilled that the strikes are behind us.

NewJeans, followed by aespa, Jungkook and NCT Dream taking home the most trophies – view the full list of winners below.Held on December 2, the 2023 Melon Music Awards ceremony was hosted by IVE’s An Yu-jin at the Inspire Arena in South Korea. Most of the winners in each category were decided through a mix of digital sales, online voting and panelist votes, though the Record of the Year grand prize and special awards were based solely on panelist votes.Girl group NewJeans took home two of the four grand prizes of the night, namely Artist of the Year and Song of the Year – the latter with their song ‘Ditto’.

So many stars stepped out for the opening night of ChainFEST, the world’s first gourmet chain food festival!

Charlie Puth celebrated his 32nd birthday by receiving a very unique and very vintage present from his fiancee Brooke Sansone.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In its never-ending effort to try to reach younger news consumers, CNN has launched CNN Shorts — a new vertical video player on its website designed for smartphones. CNN already produces vertical-video news briefs for platforms including TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Now it sees a growing opportunity for CNN Shorts on its owned-and-operated platforms — where it can directly sell its own advertising.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Elon Musk this week angrily told big advertisers like Disney and Apple who have halted spending on X/Twitter to “go fuck yourself.” Bill Ackman, head of investment holding company Pershing Square Holdings and an investor in X, believes Musk has a point — opining that large marketers employ a double standard in reacting to Musk’s combative rhetoric and “free speech” stance. “I thought @elonmusk’s interview with @andrewrsorkin was one of the great interviews ever,” Ackman wrote in a post on X Thursday evening, referring to Musk’s appearance the New York Times’ DealBook Summit.

Paul Walker, are taking to social media to remember him on the ten-year anniversary of his death.Walker died on November 30 2013 after a high-speed single-vehicle collision in Santa Clarita, California. At the time, Walker was in the middle of filming for Furious 7, the seventh installment in the action series franchise, Fast And Furious.The movie was released in 2015 after some rewriting and the inclusion of Walker’s brothers, Cody and Caleb who were able to portray the role of Brian O’Conner.The hit song, ‘See You Again’ by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth was commissioned for the film’s soundtrack as a tribute to the actor who died aged 40.Now, fans of the franchise and the late actor, are showing their support on social media.The X/Twitter account under Walker’s name posted a black and white image of the actor with the caption: “10 years later we strive to honour your legacy… Love and miss you, Paul.”Another account posted a photo of Walker saying: “10 years today since you’re gone.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After Sports Illustrated was called out for publishing articles from apparently nonexistent authors with AI-generated headshots, the company that operates SI said the content in question came from a third party that had provided assurances those were written by humans. The Arena Group, which publishes Sports Illustrated, said it has ended its partnership with AdVon Commerce, the company that supplied the posts.

YouTube has launched a new feature that will allow users to make music using A.I. voice clones of some of the world’s biggest artists.Earlier this week, the streaming platform announced Dream Track – a text-based feature that will use artificial intelligence to generate songs based on what qualities the user wants, such as the track’s mood or concept.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor After a spate of major advertisers said they were halting spending on X over owner Elon Musk’s support of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, the tech mogul said he plans to file a “thermonuclear lawsuit” against a research group that had claimed to find ads on X/Twitter running against pro-Nazi and white nationalist posts. On Friday, Disney, Warner Bros.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor YouTube has updated its monetization policy for adult content in two areas: Creators are now eligible to receive ad revenue from videos that feature “non-sexually graphic dance, such as twerking,” as well as content related to breastfeeding. In a notice posted Thursday, the video platform said certain content showcasing “sensual dancing” is now allowable under its advertiser-friendly content guidelines.

NBC is heading to Memphis for its latest holiday special.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Get ready for Gawker 3.0: The twice-shuttered blog site has a new owner, who plans to bring the gossipy pop-culture brand back to life — but not in exactly the same way. Meng Ru Kuok, CEO and founder of Singapore-based Caldecott Music Group, acquired the assets of Gawker from Bustle Digital Group. In an email to Variety, Kuok confirmed that he has closed the deal buying the Gawker trademarks and domain name but not its article archives.

Chrissy Teigen and John Legend are making sure their kids know the importance of giving back!

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor TikTok has long touted the app as a place to discover new music — and its ability to propel songs into viral hits. Now TikTok is hoping to derive incremental revenue from music fans who use the app. The company’s new Add to Music App feature lets users save songs from TikTok to third-party music streaming services.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Director Rob Reiner and journalist Soledad O’Brien have dug into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy — and they claim they have found evidence about who was really behind the killing. Reiner and O’Brien are the co-hosts of “Who Killed JFK?”, a 10-part podcast series featuring interviews with authors, witnesses, CIA officials and forensic experts as part of their investigation into JFK’s assassination 60 years ago, on Nov.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor In the two years since Netflix launched its first games, the company has assembled a collection of 80-plus titles — but only a handful of those have been based on the streamer’s TV shows or movies, like a “Stranger Things” puzzle game and a “Queen’s Gambit” chess app. Now Netflix is bringing out four new exclusive games, each based on popular originals on the service, betting that the titles will play big among fans of those entertainment franchises.