Musicians are coming up with new ways to leverage streaming music technology. Eternify, for example, is a website that enables users to play songs from Spotify’s catalog in 30-second loops, an approach that can slowly build up the pay-per-stream revenue for a given artist. “Last year, indie funk band Vulfpeck launched an album named Sleepify that consisted entirely of silent tracks,” notes The Verge. “They encouraged fans to stream the album on repeat while they slept, promising they’d use the streaming revenue to fund a free tour.” Ohm & Sport, the band that created Eternify, estimates that each 30-second stream will generate $0.005 for the artist.

Apple Music, the highly-anticipated $10 per month streaming music service, is launching this month with a free three-month trial for music fans. Last week, Apple’s Robert Kondrk said that the company was planning to pay 71.5 percent of subscription revenue to all music owners. However, Kondrk also noted that Apple would not be paying owners during the three-month trial period. Following criticism by Taylor Swift and others, Apple changed its plans. Apple’s Eddy Cue quickly explained via Twitter that Apple would make sure that artists are paid. Continue reading Apple Music to Pay Royalties During New Service Trial Period

As part of its social media push for the upcoming series “Scream,” based on the popular horror film franchise, MTV has created an interactive online game. In a unique promotional campaign, “Choose Your Own Murder” invites participants to enter their own horror movie scenario and try to escape a killer. Users are given options as the story unfolds and brief time limits to quickly make decisions that steer the action. Once murdered, users then have the option of playing the game again or sharing via social media. The series is slated to debut June 30. Continue reading MTV Launches Interactive Online Game to Promote ‘Scream’

In the wake of E3, Sony has announced that its new PS4 will be thinner, lighter and pack more storage than its predecessor. The new PlayStation 4 1TB Ultimate Player Edition, coming to North America next month, will weigh 10 percent lighter than the current PS4 and use 8 percent less power. The new console will come in black or white with a hard drive bay cover in a matte finish, which Sony suggests provides “a more casual look.” Earlier this month, Microsoft confirmed that its latest Xbox One would feature 1TB of storage and an upcoming wireless controller. Continue reading Sony Announces 1TB PlayStation Will Be Thinner and Lighter

Parrot is introducing five new smartphone-controlled MiniDrone toys, ranging from $99 to $189, targeting consumers who cannot afford the larger, more expensive UAVs such as Parrot’s AR and Bebop Drones. Based on the Rolling Spider quadcopter and the two-wheeled Jumping Sumo, which have sold 600,000 units combined since last year’s launches, the new models will initially be made available in the U.S. and France this September. The new models include drones that skim across water, fly at night guided by LED lights, feature live streaming cameras and more. Continue reading Parrot Plans to Launch Five New MiniDrone Toys in September

According to IDC, 72.1 million wearable devices will be shipped this year. The global forecast represents an increase of 173.3 percent over 2014. Shipments are expected to experience a 42.6 percent compound annual growth rate the next several years, reaching 155.7 million units in 2019. The demand for sub-$100 wearables from vendors such as Fitbit and Xiaomi that do not require third party apps has been particularly strong. “We expect smart wearables, those capable of running third party apps, to take the lead in 2016,” said analyst Jitesh Ubrani. Continue reading IDC Projects Wearables Market to Grow 173 Percent This Year

LG’s new Minibeam Nano projector weighs just over half a pound (270 grams) and can wirelessly connect to a smartphone or tablet through Miracast and Wi-Fi Direct to screen pictures, videos and documents up to 100 inches on a flat surface. According to LG’s press release, the Minibeam Nano is the company’s “smallest, lightest, and most affordable projector to date.” While portability is the major selling point, the resolution is only 854 x 480. However, the projector’s LED lamp, designed to last 30,000 hours, offers 100 ANSI lumens of brightness. The device also includes USB and HDMI ports. Model PV150G will be available later this month in North America and other markets. Pricing has yet to be announced.

The 2015 Creative Storage Conference will take place June 30th at the DoubleTree Hotel in Culver City, California. The one-day conference — organized by the Entertainment Storage Alliance and Coughlin Associates — brings together digital storage providers, equipment and software manufacturers and M&E professionals to explore the latest developments in digital storage. ETC’s Erik Weaver will be one of the keynote speakers. In his presentation, “Exabyte & Beyond: Preparing Yourself for the Upcoming ‘Network-Based’ Revolution,” Erik will discuss the strategies and technologies surrounding the shift from file- to network-based life cycles. The full conference agenda and registration page are both available online.

Research firms Rentrak and ListenFirst Media are collaborating on a new data set designed to help advertisers identify TV shows that generate consistent viewing and high social engagement. While these programs may not always have the highest ratings, they may have some of the most impassioned fans and may be a better target for advertisers. The research combines Rentrak’s viewership data from set-top boxes with ListenFirst’s data collected from blogs, social media platforms and other sources. The companies presented the research at an Advertising Research Foundation event in New York. Continue reading Rentrak and ListenFirst Want to Measure TV Show Stickiness

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a proposal introduced by Chairman Tom Wheeler to explore ways to subsidize broadband Internet connectivity for poor Americans. The plan would help “pave the way for sweeping changes to a $1.7 billion phone subsidy program… known as Lifeline and initiated in 1985 under President Reagan,” reports The New York Times. Opposition to expanding the program is largely based on concern that the expansion would possibly generate more fraud. To address these concerns, the FCC is introducing new record-keeping requirements for service providers this summer, and has “adopted stricter measures to ensure eligible households claim only one subsidy of $9.25 a month,” explains NYT.

Hulu has officially changed the name of its paid tier as part of a branding update meant to help streamline its service. The $8 per month subscription tier is now simply called Hulu, rather than Hulu Plus. The company will still offer a free tier under the same name. Hulu hopes the change will help it compete with streaming leader Netflix. “While the change in name comes with no other changes to the platform, it comes at a time when things are looking up for the service,” Digital Trends points out. “Paid subscriptions are up 50 percent over last year, according to CEO Mike Hopkins, and video streams in the first three months of 2015 were already up 77 percent.”

Getty Images announced that its premium 360-degree imagery — from the Cannes Film Festival to the FIFA World Cup — would be made available for the Oculus VR platform. “The 360° View by Getty Images collection will offer a deeply engaging virtual reality experience of enchanting creative stills, alongside some of the world’s biggest moments in news, sports and entertainment,” notes the press release. The collection is currently available in the Oculus 360 Photos app on the Oculus Store, and will offer streaming content for the Oculus Rift when it launches Q1 2016. It can already be experienced with the Gear VR Innovator Edition for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy S6.

IBM has designed a new website for the Wimbledon tennis tournament, which begins in London on June 29. The site will feature Slamtracker, a predictive analytics dashboard that provides real-time stats and game play analysis such as the speed of serves and number of winning shots. “Slamtracker also mines data from past Grand Slam tournaments to give competitors’ historical head-to-head match-ups, as well as determining what each player must do well to win the match based on their previous clashes,” reports The Wall Street Journal. “IBM’s data analysis tools will pinpoint historical records in near real-time to Wimbledon staff, who will then post the content on social networks.”

Intel has purchased Vancouver-based Recon Instruments with plans to integrate it into its New Devices Group. Recon is known for its high-tech eyewear designed for sports enthusiasts. Recon’s Jet glasses, for example, feature a video camera and the ability to project inside the lens info such as the distance and time of a run or bicycle ride. “Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, who took the job in May 2013, has vowed not to miss opportunities in wearable technology the way Intel fell behind in chips for smartphones,” reports The Wall Street Journal. Recon will continue selling its products from within Intel. “We’ll be able to bring our technology and innovation to completely new markets and use cases where activity-specific information, delivered instantly, can change the game,” wrote Recon CEO Dan Eisenhardt.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that a series of executive changes would take place at the company, including the departures of former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, and senior level execs Kiril Tatarinov, Eric Rudder and Mark Penn. Meanwhile, Windows head Terry Myerson will take on added responsibility. As part of the company’s shift from devices and services to productivity and cloud computing, Nadella has appointed a team to oversee the restructuring of Microsoft’s three engineering groups — Windows and Devices, Cloud and Enterprise, and Applications and Services. Continue reading Microsoft CEO Announces Departures, Corporate Restructuring