<p>DSTLRY, a venture-backed digital comic books marketplace, on Tuesday added a pair of features designed to bring customization to the platform. The first feature, dubbed Commissioned Digital Remarques, allows creators to add personalized sketches and signatures to digital comics. The second, Unlimited Digital Covers, expands platform-wide access to alternative comic book covers. Commissioned Digital Remarques [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Researchers from TikTok owner ByteDance have demoed a new AI system, OmniHuman-1, that can generate perhaps the most realistic deepfake videos to date. Deepfaking AI is a commodity. There&#8217;s no shortage of apps that can insert someone into a photo, or make a person appear to say something they didn&#8217;t actually say. But most deepfakes [&hellip;]</p>

<p>On Tuesday morning, Spotify announced its fourth-quarter earnings, marking its first full year of profitability since its inception 17 years ago. The operating income for the quarter reached a record €477 million ($509.48 million) and amounted to €1.4 billion ($1.495 billion) for the 2024 fiscal year. Spotify also reported an addition of 35 million monthly [&hellip;]</p>

<p>While the U.S. and Canada duke it out over tariffs between the two countries, a tech company based out of Toronto is announcing a major round of funding led by a homegrown VC. StackAdapt, a programmatic advertising startup, says that it has raised $235 million in equity funding, with Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) — the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>It&#8217;s never been easier to create and publish art than it is now, and if you believe the companies building tech around AI, the production process is going to get even more efficient. That&#8217;s especially the case with video production, with companies of all sizes using large language models to build tools that let you [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Adobe’s chief strategy officer Scott Belsky announced this week that he will be joining A24, the independent movie studio behind &#8220;Civil War,&#8221; “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and many more titles. Belsky first joined Adobe in 2012 through the acquisition of Behance, leaving briefly in 2016 to become a VC at Benchmark but eventually returning [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The lights dimmed as five actors took their places around a table on a makeshift stage in a New York City art gallery turned theater for the night. Wine and water flowed through the intimate space as the house — packed with media — sat to witness the premiere of “Doomers,” Matthew Gasda’s latest play [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Amazon is the latest company to announce a price hike for its music streaming subscriptions. The company revealed this week that the price of an Amazon Music Unlimited Individual plan for Prime members is going from $9.99 per month to $10.99. As for subscribers without a Prime membership, the price of their subscription is going [&hellip;]</p>

<p>After MoviePass&#8217;s historic implosion, subscribers to the &#8220;Netflix for movie theaters&#8221; were already cautious around the company&#8217;s 2023 relaunch. These moviegoers may grow even more skeptical after MoviePass sent out an email blast on Wednesday, which surveyed customers about their interest in web3. &#8220;Artificial Intelligence and&nbsp;Blockchain technologies are transforming the business landscape at an unprecedented [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Netflix announced on Wednesday that it&#8217;s giving iOS users a new feature that allows them to download an entire season of their favorite TV show with one tap. The feature first became available to Android users.  The Season Download button is available in the Netflix app, located next to the Share button on a show&#8217;s [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Indie bookstore backer Bookshop.org launched an e-book platform on Tuesday, making it easier for readers to buy e-books without padding Jeff Bezos&#8217; pockets. For years, Amazon&#8217;s chokehold and sway in the publishing industry have been so strong that authors and booksellers have accused the company of operating a monopoly. Amazon is dominant in the sale [&hellip;]</p>

<p>While the adoption of IP (intellectual property) blockchain and tokenization of assets is still in its early stages, more creatives in the entertainment industry are embracing what is called “tokenized storytelling.&#8221; This approach enables fans to participate in story development, contributing elements &#8212; such as characters and plot &#8212; that can be tokenized and owned [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Audio streaming company Spotify said Tuesday that it paid $10 billion to the music industry last year. The company added that it has given nearly $60 billion in industry payouts since its inception. This is another effort from Spotify to dispel reports that the company doesn&#8217;t reward artists properly for their work. The key point [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Quartz, the international business news outlet, has been quietly aggregating reporting from other outlets, including TechCrunch, in order to publish AI-generated articles under the byline “Quartz Intelligence Newsroom.”&nbsp;&nbsp; Quartz started publishing simple AI-generated earnings reports months ago, but beginning last week, the outlet moved on to short articles. One of the 18 AI-generated articles published [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Perplexity AI has submitted a revised proposal to merge with TikTok in an arrangement that would give the U.S. government up to 50% ownership of the new entity. The Associated Press first reported on the new proposal. A source with knowledge of the bid confirmed to TechCrunch that the AP’s reporting is accurate. The AI [&hellip;]</p>

<p>The Trump administration is negotiating a deal that would see Oracle take over TikTok alongside new U.S. investors, according to a report by NPR. Lawmakers passed a bill last year forcing Chinese parent company ByteDance to either sell TikTok or see it banned in the U.S. The app briefly went dark before the law took [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Legendary musician Paul McCartney is warning against proposed changes to U.K. copyright law that would allow tech companies to freely train their models on online content unless the copyright holders actively opt out. In excerpts of an interview with the BBC, McCartney said the government needs to do more to protect musicians and other artists. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In 2015, the blogging site Tumblr launched a GIF discovery feature called Tumblr TV as an experimental product. Now, with the U.S. TikTok ban leaving the fate of the short-form video app uncertain, Tumblr has decided it&#8217;s finally time to launch Tumblr TV, which has since evolved to support video, to all its users as [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Streaming service Plex has long since grown beyond its original focus of being a home for personal media to offer a more comprehensive solution for discovering, streaming, and sharing content across services, including Plex&#8217;s own ad-supported free TV and movies. More recently, the company added social networking features, which it&#8217;s today expanding with its rollout [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Spotify is expanding its streaming service to now include educational courses in addition to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. The company on Tuesday referenced one of its newer features called courses, which allow users to learn about topics in areas like business, tech, lifestyle, music, and more. The feature is initially being piloted in the U.K., [&hellip;]</p>