Spotify Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

Spotify has announced it is cutting 17% of its staff, with around 1800 jobs expected to be lost in the process. Chief executive Daniel Ek broke the news on Monday, saying in a public memo that the "difficult" decision was made in reponse to economic growth slowing "dramatically." Ek said "substantial action to rightsize our costs" was required in order for the company to reach its financial targets.

Spotify has announced it will cut down 17 per cent of its workforce in order to save costs.The streaming platform previously laid off 6 per cent of its staff earlier this year in January, saying at the time it was doing so to promote “speed”.This time, chief executive Daniel Ek has said he made the “difficult” decision as economic growth has “slowed dramatically”. Spotify employs around 9,000 people, meaning 1,500 jobs will be lost in the current round of layoffs.“I recognise this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions,” Ek wrote.

Taylor Swift will reportedly earn over $100million (£78million) from Spotify streams alone in 2023.The popstar was recently crowned Spotify’s Top Global Artist of 2023, with Swift racking up over 26 billion streams on the platform.Now, Billboard has estimated that Swift will bring home $100million from Spotify alone. According to their royalty calculator, the 26 billion streams Swift has accumulated will have earned her $101million in royalties by the end of December 2023.

told NBC.“The Sound Town selected for each eligible user has the most similar taste profile to their own — based on their most streamed artists of the year and how those artists are streamed in other cities across the globe,” they added.Folks on X (formerly Twitter), however, beg to differ with Spotify’s dubiously “global” assessment.Platform users pointed out that all three of these cities are college towns and came to the conclusion that being placed in Burlington, Berkeley and Cambridge indicated LGBTQ listeners, with top artist-allies such as boygenius, Charli XCX and Janelle Monáe.According to Spotify, listeners “must have at least three top artists who over-index in a particular city” to match with their Sound Town.more people are tweeting about san luis obispo than even live there pic.twitter.com/sM8wvw9GGDthe tl rn pic.twitter.com/uuvZ94mzyyTheir data revealed that 0.6% of listeners matched with Burlington; 0.3% got Berkeley; and 0.1% were assigned to Cambridge.

Taylor Swift has surprise released ‘You’re Losing Me (From The Vault)’ on Spotify after becoming the streaming platform’s Top 2023 Global Artist.The pop singer took to her official X/Twitter page to share the news of her latest accolade and to announced that the “From The Vault” track was finally on the platform for her fans to stream.“Um ok this is unreal?? I just wanted to say to anyone who listened to my music this year, anywhere in the world, thank you. Getting named Spotify’s Global Top Artist in 2023 is truly the best birthday/holiday gift you could’ve given me,” began her tweet.Um ok this is unreal?? I just wanted to say to anyone who listened to my music this year, anywhere in the world, thank you.

The Hives, Linkin Park, L.S. Dunes and more have shared their Spotify Wrapped stats for 2023.Taking to their official X/Twitter page, The Hives thanked all of their fans for tuning in and listening to their music this year. “Behold! The Hives on Spotify Wrapped,” began their message.They continued: “The results are in! Music is finally measurable! The graphs are pointing up! Showing healthy growth across all platforms and engagement and stats this and that blah blah blah.

Spotify Wrapped has been launched, revealing the most popular artists, songs, albums and podcasts in the UK and giving users special insight into their own listening habits.Shared each year by the streaming platform, this latest edition introduces a range of new features and is available to access now via the Spotify mobile app (iOS and Android) or on desktop by heading to the website.As well as showing the usual insights into each user’s own listening habits, a new range of features have been rolled out for the 2023 edition too. These include a new section called ‘Me in 2023’ which reveals which one of the 12 listening styles best describes the way you listen on Spotify, and a new section called ‘Sound Town’, which matches you to a city based on your listening and shared artist affinity.Pre-existing insights such as Top Five Genres and Top Five Artists have also been given a new design, and some of the most popular musicians of 2023 have recorded messages that will be played if they feature as one of your top artists.An AI DJ feature has also been added to guide listeners through their personalised Wrapped – serving up a mix based on your taste and sharing commentary about some of your favourite artists, genres, songs and more.

Spotify is set to release its annual ‘Wrapped’ feature once again this year, where music fans can look back at their favourite releases of 2023.The feature arrives at the end of each year and shares stats, rankings and summaries with subscribers about their most listened to songs, albums, podcasts artists and genres.The streaming service has already begun teasing the rollout of this year’s ‘Wrapped’. Last year saw Taylor Swift named as the most streamed artist in the UK, while Bad Bunny took the global title for the record-breaking third year in a row.Spotify has not yet shared an official date that users will be able to access their ‘Wrapped’ roundup, but it’s usually any time between the final days of November and the first week of December.

Spotify have confirmed that all songs on the platform must have a minimum of 1,000 streams before they can earn any royalties.The new regulations come following weeks of speculation about the new policies the streaming service would be introducing, including rumours that the company would be making it harder for artists to generate royalties from their music.These new amendments were finally outlined in a new blog post by Spotify yesterday (November 21), which noted several new policies that are being implemented in the hopes of containing the volume of content on the platform and minimising the risks of fraud.In these new policies, it was confirmed that Spotify would be introducing a payment threshold for 2024 – meaning that songs must hit 1,000 streams on the service before they can earn any royalties.According to Spotify data, there are around 100million songs on the service, yet only around 37.5million meet the new requirements to generate revenue.This means that around 60 per cent of tracks will not qualify for the new threshold, although Spotify did recall that these songs make up less than one per cent of the total number of streams on the service.Unsurprisingly, artists have been quick to share their take on the new changes to the royalty structure on Spotify, with some highlighting the negative impacts it will have on emerging talent.

have risen 366 per cent since 2020.The Met have said despite this statistic, investigators do not target any specific genre in their work: “The Met works closely with social media platforms to identify content we believe could provoke or cause violence,” said a spokesperson for the Met (via DJ Mag).

Spotify has confirmed the streaming thresholds for its new royalty model.Reports emerged last month that the streaming giant’s restructuring would mean that less popular tracks wouldn’t earn any royalties, despite the company reporting profits and subscriber gains.According to a Billboard report, a track would have to meet a minimum annual streaming threshold before it would start to generate royalties.However, the streaming threshold at which tracks will generate royalties has now been confirmed in a Consequence guest column by Kristin Graziani, president of music distribution platform Stem.“After doing some analysis on what Spotify has actually communicated to distributors, we can say that in reality, these changes are intended to benefit emerging and growing artists,” Graziani wrote.According to the article, Spotify is introducing three new policies in 2024. Firstly, all tracks will have to reach a minimum streaming threshold of 1000 streams within 12 months to be paid a royalty.

“Friends” theme song “I’ll Be There for You” non-stop since the actor’s shocking death Saturday.The Rembrandts tune has had over 1.3 million streams across Spotify and YouTube this week.Singer Charlie Puth, 31, even performed the song at his concert in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday before transitioning into his 2015 hit “See You Again,” which was written for the film “Furious 7” as a tribute to Paul Walker.And the hardcover edition of Perry’s 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” occupies the top spot on Amazon’s Best Sellers in Memoirs list, while the paperback version sits at No. 3, as of Monday evening.Perry played funnyman Chandler Bing on the NBC sitcom “Friends,” which aired from 1994 to 2004.The “Fools Rush In” star is believed to have drowned at his Los Angeles home Saturday afternoon.

Spotify has revealed that Taylor Swift has broken two new records on the streaming platform.The singer released her re-recording of ‘1989’ on Friday (October 27), the fourth album in a series of re-recordings. It follows an ongoing dispute between the superstar and Scooter Braun, former owner of her previous label Big Machine Records – read here for a refresher of the situation.Since ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’ was released, Spotify has said that Swift broke two new records.

big professional embarrassment from Spotify, Meghan Markle is allegedly close to making a big deal with its competitor, Audible. “Word of mouth is spreading that it will lead to a huge payout—even bigger than the millions Spotify splashed out—and Meghan is thrilled that she’ll be in the company of Michelle and Barack Obama, who signed a multi-year contract with Audible last year,” a source told “The Mirror.”Meghan, who the source said “seems very confident at the moment” in the potential deal, “knows her new deal with Audible could be make or break for her Hollywood dream.” The Duchess of Sussex, 42, and her husband Prince Harry, 39, have been the subjects of ridicule – and mockery on “Family Guy” – for their multi million dollar deals with Netflix and Spotify, which haven’t produced much content.

Spotify have announced that less popular tracks won’t earn any royalties whatsoever, despite the company reporting better-than-expected third-quarter profits and subscriber gains.The Swedish streaming service gained an extra 6million paying subscribers from June to September, bringing its total to 226million. This exceeds its forecast that their paid subscriber levels would pass the 224million mark.Despite these gains, however, Billboard reports that Spotify is restructuring its royalty system and plans to de-monetize tracks that had previously received 0.5% of Spotify’s royalty pool.” The plans will reportedly be implemented early next year.The changes in the royalty system are set to benefit more established artists and labels, while the biggest difference from the old system is that a track will need to reach a minimum number of annual streams before it starts generating royalties.Spotify is reportedly also planning to crack down on “fraud” and will issue financial penalties against distributors and labels it deems guilty of this.

Spotify is planning to roll out major changes to its royalty model, Music Business Worldwide and Billboard report. Per those publications, the company will execute this plan in the first financial quarter of 2024 in an effort to “combat three drains on the royalty pool — all of which are currently stopping money from getting to working artists.” These drains, apparently, are low-streaming tracks, “fraudulent activity” on the platform, and non-music “noise” audio that, in the current model, is placed on par with bona fide songs.

Spotify by Sony, including Gravity Rush, Shadow Of The Colossus, Soul Sacrifice and more.The SIE Sound Team account on Spotify is the one-stop shop for the soundtracks to a selection of the most acclaimed games on PlayStation, such as Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Bloodborne, Demon’s Souls, The Last Guardian and more.With this recently released lot, fans will be able to listen to the soundtracks to Echochrome, Fantavision, Freedom Wars, Gravity Rush, Patchwork Heroes, PoPoLoCrois, popolocrois: a new departure, PoPoRoGue, Shadow Of The Colossus, Soul Sacrifice, What Did I Do To Deserve This, My Lord!? 1 & 2, White Knight Chronicles, White Knight Chronicles 2 and Wild Arms (as pointed out by X user AniPlaylist).At the time of writing, these have not appeared on any other streaming services like Apple Music, so it might be a matter of time before the aforementioned soundtracks become available elsewhere.For fans of Shadow Of The Colossus, it is a boon that they no longer have to rely on YouTube to listen to the soundtrack, which is one of the highlights of the reflective experience of playing the game.In Jack Richardson’s exploration of Team Ico’s original action adventure for NME‘s Remastered column, he argued that the emptiness and minimalism of the game’s direction is specifically haunting in a way that is unique to the medium.“Games have two stories: the one that takes place in the game and the story of us playing it. There’s certainly an artistry behind combining these two as closely as possible, but it’s not a necessary goal,” he said.“When we play Colossus, we’re constantly challenged to interpret what’s going on as we do it.

The Rolling Stones.The Catalan team announced news of the partnership with the classic rock veterans earlier this morning (October 19) – confirming that a new kit has been designed with help of the band.Taking to X (formerly Twitter), the team shared a video showcasing the special edition attire. For the most part, the design is the same as the original – bearing the signature maroon and navy stripes, and emblem in the left-hand corner – however, the new design also sees the band’s iconic Tongue and Lips logo printed in the middle.“DONE DEAL! FC Barcelona and Rolling Stones sign deal ahead of the next El Clásico,” the caption reads, also paying a nod to Spotify in the partnership.

Sampha has spoken about his inspiration and mindset while writing his highly-anticipated second studio album, ‘Lahai’.This week sees the experimental singer, songwriter and producer perform three sold-out shows at St John’s at Hackney Church in London. With the help of Spotify, the London-born singer wanted to gift his loyal fans a carefully curated experience in an intimate setting.On Wednesday (October 11), Sampha told the crowd to “feel free” and roam around the circular stage while they got “an intimate look into his production rehearsal”.

The Killers‘ ‘Mr Brightside’ has been revealed as the UK’s most streamed song in Spotify history.To celebrate the app’s 15th anniversary, Music Week reported that Spotify have made a list of the biggest artists and tracks since its launch in October 2008. ‘Mr Brightside’ (released September 29, 2003) has over 1.8 billion streams globally as of October 9, 2023.

Spotify are reportedly set to launch a new ‘Supremium’ tier that contains extra features for higher prices.A report in The Independent say the new tier will cost twice the current price at $19.99 (£16.33) and that it will offer lossless audio – a feature currently offered on Apple Music for free.The tier will also reportedly include new statistics about listening, a new audiobook feature as well as AI playlist generation tools. The Independent say the changes have been noted by technology expert Chris Messina, who, according to the publication, “found mentions of the update with Spotify.”The new audiobook feature has already been rolled out and it allows users to stream up to 15 hours of audiobooks for free each month.The streaming platform rolled out the new feature in the UK and Australia earlier this week (October 3), and are set to bring it over to users in the US by the end of the year.

Spotify has introduced a new feature, allowing users to stream up to 15 hours of audiobooks for free each month.The streaming platform rolled out the new feature in the UK and Australia yesterday (October 3), and is set to bring it over to users in the US by the end of the year.It comes after Spotify began introducing audiobooks to its library in September last year, however, they were never offered to users for free, and even premium subscribers had to pay individually for each title.Now, with the new launch, the platform has confirmed that it will be offering all paying subscribers 15 hours of free audiobook listening each month. It has also introduced more payment plans to its system, meaning that users can pay to extend the 15-hour limit, or pay to purchase the whole book outright.A large number of literary titles are available on the service, and having struck partnerships with publishing giants such as Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster, Spotify now claims to be the “largest of any subscription-based audiobook streaming platform currently on the market”.

failed partnership with Spotify continues to make headlines. Daniel Ek, the chief executive of Spotify, hinted that the highly publicized deal between the royals and the major streaming giant did not succeed because consumers were not impressed.The Duchess and Prince’s Harry’s company Archewell Audio produced a mere 12 podcasts during a two-and-a-half year span, after signing with Spotify in December 2020.During a recent interview with the BBC, host and technology writer Zoe Kleinman asked the CEO if he believed the partnership, which ended on June 15, 2023, was worth the $20M price tag.“You had some pretty big names,” she said.

Spotify has no plans to completely ban AI-generated content from the platform, according to boss Daniel Ek.Earlier this year, a fake collaboration between Drake and The Weeknd was removed from the streaming service as well as other sites like Apple Music, Tidal and YouTube. The song, titled ‘Heart On My Sleeve’, reportedly generated 20million streams overall in under 48 hours.During a new interview with BBC News, Ek claimed there were valid uses of artificial intelligence in making music.However, he said the technology should not be used to impersonate real artists without their consent – as was the case with the faux, unauthorised team-up between Drake and The Weeknd.Ek said that the technique of using AI in music was likely to be debated for “many, many years” to come, and explained that he believes there are three “buckets” of AI use:When asked about the challenge the industry is facing in regulating the use of artificial intelligence, Ek responded: “It is going to be tricky.”He said: “You can imagine someone uploading a song, claiming to be Madonna, even if they’re not.

according to the office’s records. It comes after the 42-year-old’s multi-million dollar Spotify deal fell through in June, axing her award-winning podcast from airing a second season.

Spotify has launched a new tool, which allows artists to pay to have their music promoted on the site’s homepage.The new marketing feature – named Showcase – was announced last week (September 13), when Spotify shared a blog post confirming it will be offering artists a new way to target potential listeners.The feature works by allowing the artist to select a song, an EP or an entire album to appear as a mobile banner on the site’s homepage, and cater the promotion to a specific demographic of listeners.Musicians will then be able to select a headline for the Showcase banner – to declare whether it is a new release, if they’re currently on tour, if the song is a deep cut or currently gathering a lot of streams – and the final Showcase recommendation will appear as a banner at the top of the home screen.The streaming giant has also claimed that the users who see a Showcase banner are six times more likely to listen, and that users will be able to develop multiple campaigns for the same release.“Artists and their teams want even more flexibility when it comes to surfacing the right music to the right fans at the right time,” read the blog post. “Whether that’s reaching new listeners with a trending song, engaging super listeners with an anniversary album, or targeting previously active listeners with a reminder of your tour.”Showcase also allows artists to separate their audience into different categories and cater their campaigns to reach each type of listener accordingly.

Spotify has denied claims that users can repeatedly listen to their own uploaded 30-second song in order to receive monthly royalty payments.As BBC News reports, finance analysts at JP Morgan had previously claimed that subscribers to the streaming service could make $1,200 (£960) a month by listening to their track on repeat for 24 hours a day.The apparent trick suggested that Spotify’s royalty payment structure could be manipulated. However, the music platform’s CEO Daniel Ek has now said this is not how the app’s royalties function.The theory was first reported in the Financial Times.

Spotify to launder money, according to a Swedish newspaper.The publication, Svenska Dagbladet, reported that gang members convert money received from drug deals, robberies, fraud, and assassination missions into Bitcoin, which they then use to acquire fake streams for artists with gang associations. They then collect the money paid out to those streams at a later date.One source Svenska Dagbladet spoke to said that Spotify is “very good for recruiting purposes,” since gang members can use popular artists, particularly in Sweden’s gangster rap scene, as a front for their activities.

A newspaper investigation in Sweden has revealed that criminal gangs are using fake Spotify streams to launder money. The Svenska Dagbladet report (via The Guardian) claims that gang members take the money they make through criminal activity, including drug deals and contract killings, convert it into Bitcoin, and then pay for false Spotify streams of songs published by artists with ties to the gangs.

Taylor Swift has made history by becoming the first female artist to hit 100million monthly listeners on Spotify.The singer, who has released a series of new and re-released albums in the last three years, still sits behind The Weeknd, who has the most monthly listeners on the streaming service with more than 110million.Announcing Swift’s new milestone, Spotify wrote on social media: “Queen behavior.