Music Industry Scandals to Space Travel Triumphs: A Snapshot of Modern Society's Triumphs and Trials
Brief:
🔶 Joyner Lucas and Karen Civil Clash Over Alleged $60k Theft
🔶 Ex-Wife Steals Frozen Brains of Cryogenically Preserved Hopefuls
🔶 Epic Games vs. Apple: A Legal Showdown with Far-Reaching Implications
🔶 Vinyl Meltdown: Three-Alarm Fire at Record Manufacturing Company
🔶 Music Industry Titans Invest in Blockchain Startup Audius
🔶 Startup Genius Sells for $80 Million, Leaving Behind a Legacy of Job Cuts
🔶 LiveXLive rebrands as LiveOne and spins out pay-per-view business as PPVOne
🔶 Industry Thrives with Uplifting Tunes and Record Sales Amidst Pandemic
🔶 China's Historic Three-Month Space Mission Ends with Safe Return of Astronauts
🔶 ProtonMail's Privacy Vow Broken: Activists' Arrests Raise Digital Privacy Concerns
Joyner Lucas and Karen Civil Clash Over Alleged $60k Theft, While Clubhouse Revelations Expose Deception and Disloyalty in the Industry
In the world of hip-hop, accusations of theft and deception are nothing new, but the latest clash between rapper Joyner Lucas and marketing expert Karen Civil has brought new levels of drama to the scene. Lucas took to Twitter to accuse Civil of stealing $60,000 from him, money he claims he paid her to help promote his career. But he's not the only rapper to make such accusations: back in 2016, Cam'ron accused Civil of stealing $60,000 from one of his affiliates. The drama unfolded further on the Clubhouse app, where Civil admitted to paying a hacker $20,000 to take down Jason Lee's popular celebrity news site Hollywood Unlocked. As the accusations and revelations continue to fly, it's clear that the hip-hop world is still grappling with issues of trust and transparency.
Music Industry Titans Invest in Blockchain Startup Audius, Disrupting Traditional Models
In a world where the traditional music industry has been disrupted by digital technology, decentralized music streaming service Audius has attracted $5 million in funding from some of the biggest names in the music world, including Katy Perry, Nas, The Chainsmokers, Jason Derulo, and Pusha T. With six million monthly active users, Audius has built a community of independent artists uploading their music to its decentralized platform, exploring NFTs and co-launching a fund for artists with two other blockchain firms. What makes this news particularly interesting is that these established music industry artists are investing in blockchain technology, a sector that saw considerable hype in 2016 and 2017, before a subsequent backlash. However, in 2021, a mixture of old and new startups is exploring how blockchain technology can work for artists and the music industry alike, with Audius carving out a long-term role for itself, backed by its artist and industry investors.
Startup Darling Genius Sells for $80 Million, Leaving Behind a Legacy of Innovation and Job Cuts
In the fast-paced world of technology startups, few names are as recognizable as Genius Media Group Inc., a music-annotating platform that made waves for its astronomical funding from venture capitalists. Now, after years of soaring highs and occasional setbacks, the company has announced it will sell its assets to MediaLab.Ai Inc. for $80 million. While the move will result in job cuts for some members of the content and production teams, MediaLab.Ai Inc. has made it clear that it is committed to investing heavily in the community platform, with a particular focus on emerging artists. For many, this marks the end of an era for a startup darling that captivated audiences with its innovative approach to music annotation and analysis.
LiveXLive rebrands as LiveOne and spins out pay-per-view business as PPVOne
LiveXLive Media, a global platform for livestream and on-demand audio, video, and podcast/vodcast content, has announced a rebranding of the company and its business units to reflect the company's evolution, accelerated growth and vision for the future as 'ONE' brand. The company will change its name to LiveOne, Inc. and rebrand its individual subsidiaries and businesses, including Slacker as 'SlackerOne' and React Presents as 'ReactOne'. The company's pay-per-view business is also expected to be spun out as a separate public company and branded as 'PPVOne'. LiveXLive aims to be a leading end-to-end talent-first platform, creating, producing, monetizing, marketing, and distributing premium audio and video content across all genres and distribution outlets.
Music's Resilience: Industry Thrives with Uplifting Tunes and Record Sales Amidst Pandemic
Music consumption has continued to grow despite the COVID-19 pandemic, with overall consumption up 13.5% year-over-year during the first six months of 2021, and vinyl sales soaring by 108.2%. The growth in music streaming continued to heat up in territories such as Japan, Poland, and Turkey, which posted the highest growth in audio streaming year-over-year during the first two quarters. Consumers are relying on musical optimism to get them through the aftermath of a stressful year, with 55% of music-listening survey respondents in an April study citing "uplifting/happy music" as the number one most important thing the music industry can offer during the COVID-19 outbreak. The article also marks the 30th anniversary of the SoundScan system, which was the precursor to the present system used to measure music sales, changing the way music sales were measured and how artists were promoted, discovered and playlisted.
Vinyl Meltdown: Three-Alarm Fire at Record Manufacturing Company Sparks Chemical Concerns and Business Evacuations in Banning
A three-alarm building fire in Banning has caused the evacuation of nearby businesses and blocked access to Highway 243. The fire at Apollo Masters Corp., a company that produces a lacquer formula for making master discs used to make vinyl records, began on Thursday morning and produced a black plume of smoke visible in the Coachella Valley. Firefighters have contained the fire and are investigating the cause, while authorities have cordoned off a 3,000-foot radius and evacuated businesses across the street. Concerns have been raised about the possible impact of harmful chemicals used at the facility on the environment, with Riverside County Environmental Health officials set to investigate. Meanwhile, Banning residents have expressed their shock and concern over the disaster.
China's Historic Three-Month Space Mission Ends with Safe Return of Astronauts
China's Shenzhou 12 mission, the country's first crewed mission to its new space station, has successfully ended after 90 days in space. The three-person crew landed safely in the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia, having stayed aboard the Tianhe module of China's Earth-orbiting space station for three times longer than any previous Chinese crewed spaceflight. During their time in orbit, the crew carried out a variety of scientific experiments, performed two spacewalks, and took some amazing photos of Earth. China is expected to send the robotic Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft towards Tianhe in the coming days, and the next crewed mission, Shenzhou 13, is scheduled to launch in mid-October. Assembly of the Tiangong space station is expected to be completed next year.
ProtonMail's Privacy Vow Broken: Anti-Gentrification Activists' Arrests Raise Concerns on the Limits of Digital Privacy
ProtonMail, a Switzerland-based email service provider known for its end-to-end encryption and privacy, has faced criticism for sharing the IP address of anti-gentrification activists with law enforcement authorities in France. Despite its claims of not keeping IP logs, the company said it received a "legally binding order from the Swiss Federal Department of Justice" and was obligated to comply, leading to the activists' arrests. While ProtonMail must comply with Swiss law, it will also be forced to hand over relevant data when individuals use the service for activities deemed illegal in the country. The incident has sparked debate about the balance between privacy and law enforcement, highlighting the legal limitations of privacy-focused services.
Epic Games vs. Apple: A Legal Showdown with Far-Reaching Implications for the Mobile App Industry
In a closely watched legal battle between two tech giants, Epic Games has emerged victorious on one count while Apple has prevailed on all others. The United States District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Epic Games on its claim that Apple violated California's Unfair Competition Law, while also awarding damages to Apple on its counterclaim for breach of contract. The decision has far-reaching implications for the mobile app industry, particularly with regards to the controversial practice of in-app purchases and the fees charged by app store owners like Apple. The ruling is a significant blow to Epic Games' efforts to circumvent Apple's App Store fees and sets an important precedent for the power dynamics between app developers and app store owners.
Love on Ice: Scorned Ex-Wife Steals Frozen Brains of Cryogenically Preserved Hopefuls
Valeria Udalova, a scorned ex-wife, raided her ex-husband's cryogenics lab in Russia and stole the frozen brains and bodies of people who had paid thousands of pounds in the hope of being brought back to life. Udalova, along with a team from her company, drained liquid nitrogen from the dewar flasks containing the frozen bodies and brains before loading them onto trucks. The remains, some of which were from the UK and the US, were intercepted by the police. Both the ex-husband and ex-wife are claiming to be the rightful owners of the remains, and there are fears that they may have been damaged in the raid.