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Spotify News
TechJuice
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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Major Apps Worldwide
- A major Google Cloud outage occurred on Thursday, impacting various online services and platforms globally.
- Apps affected included Spotify, Discord, Snapchat, Character.AI, Cursor, and Replit.
- User reports of service disruptions began surfacing late Thursday morning on DownDetector.
- Google Cloud started investigating the issue at 11:46 a.m. PT and initiated mitigation steps by 2:23 p.m. PT.
- Cloudflare, dependent on Google Cloud for some functions, also experienced disruptions.
- Cloudflare confirmed the impact on some customers but highlighted that core services remained operational.
- Spotify noted they were monitoring the situation through Google Cloud's status page.
- Other cloud providers like AWS and Microsoft Azure reported no outage notifications.
- The outage began around 11 a.m. PT, affecting users in the U.S. and beyond during work hours.
- Large-scale cloud outages often have ripple effects but are usually resolved within hours.
- Google anticipates full recovery soon, with many services already returning online.
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Siliconangle
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Identity and access management failure in Google Cloud causes widespread internet service disruptions
- An identity and access management failure within Google Cloud caused widespread internet service disruptions across various platforms during the incident.
- The disruption originated from a misconfiguration within Google Cloud's IAM systems leading to outages in critical cloud components such as App Engine, Firestore, Cloud SQL, BigQuery, and Memorystore.
- Cloudflare and Google Workspace apps were among the services impacted due to their reliance on Google Cloud infrastructure.
- Google Workspace users faced failures in services like Gmail, Drive, Docs, Calendar, Meet, and Chat, alongside issues with Google Home, Nest devices, and search-related services.
- Numerous companies relying on Google services including Spotify, Discord, Snap, Shopify, Replit, Anthropic, fuboTV, and UPS experienced partial downtime or degraded performance.
- The outage led to Google Cloud's status page providing updates starting from 11:46 a.m. PDT, stating that most services were fully recovered at the time of writing.
- Reports from affected users peaked around 2:30 p.m. EDT according to Downdetector, with some residual impact still seen later in the day.
- Amazon Web Services might have had minor product issues during this time, and Twitch, owned by Amazon, may have been affected by network-level interdependencies due to the outage.
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The Verge
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A massive internet outage is messing up Google Home, Spotify, and other services
- A massive internet outage on Thursday afternoon affected smart home setups connected to Google Home/Nest and streaming music on Spotify.
- Users faced errors accessing Spotify with messages like 'Audiences in Jwt are not allowed'; Google Cloud mentions issues only in the central US area.
- Reports from outage trackers and error messages hint at problems for services like Twitch, Snapchat, and Discord.
- Google Cloud acknowledged issues with 'Multiple GCP products' due to an Identity and Access Management Service problem.
- Recovery progress has been made in various locations globally except for us-central1.
- A message from Replit CEO noted Google Cloud's outage affecting Replit.
- Spotify, a Google Cloud customer, has faced outages before on its network.
- Cloudflare, which serves various online platforms, reported intermittent failures that could have global impacts.
- Cloudflare stated they are starting to see services recover amidst ongoing intermittent errors.
- Efforts to gather more information from Google and Cloudflare are underway to provide updates.
- The situation is still developing.
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The Verge
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Instagram Notes can now show the Spotify song you’re playing
- Instagram now allows users to display the Spotify song they are listening to above their profile icons.
- Instagram aims to enhance creativity for creators by helping them share their music tastes and content with confidence.
- A new feature enables automatic sharing of the current Spotify song in Instagram Notes.
- The feature updates the song title in real-time to reflect the creator's music preferences and mood.
- It will also include an 'add to Spotify' button as part of the Meta partnership announced in November.
- Instagram is developing features to help users manage nerves when posting content.
- The reels experiment, allowing creators to test videos on new audiences before sharing, is now widely available.
- About 40 percent of creators testing this feature began posting reels more frequently.
- Instagram is working on features to post directly to profiles without pushing to followers' feeds and rearrange post order on grids.
- These features were previously mentioned by Mosseri in January but availability to the public remains unknown.
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Medium
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Spotify’s Algorithmic Alchemy: How AI-Powered Playlists Built a $100 Billion Empire
- In 2014, Spotify acquired The Echo Nest, a music intelligence startup, for $100 million, leveraging AI to dominate music discovery.
- Discover Weekly, launched in 2015, is a key feature contributing to Spotify's success, proving that AI-driven features can enhance user retention.
- A framework is provided for product managers to design AI-powered recommendation systems that prioritize user experience, trust, transparency, testing, and scalability.
- Spotify's PMs engineered virality with features like Spotify Wrapped, showcasing that data-driven features can become viral when creatively packaged.
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Tech Radar
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Spotify fans just got another free in-flight upgrade, thanks to this Starlink and United Airlines collab
- Spotify and United Airlines have partnered to offer passengers access to over 450 hours of in-flight Spotify content, including curated playlists, audiobooks, and video podcasts – a first for any airline.
- Passengers can now stream Spotify content for free on over 130,000+ seatback screens on United Airlines flights.
- The partnership allows passengers to log into their own Spotify accounts on seatback screens starting from 2026 to continue listening to their favorite music and podcasts.
- The collaboration also enables travelers on Starlink-equipped aircraft to stream Spotify on personal devices between gates without interruptions, free of charge, upon logging into their MileagePlus account.
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The Verge
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Spotify brings playlists, podcasts, and audiobooks to United flights
- United Airlines partners with Spotify to offer audiobooks and video podcasts on flights.
- Passengers get free access to curated playlists, audiobooks, and podcasts like Good Hang with Amy Poehler and The Dave Chang Show.
- Content available on over 130,000 in-flight entertainment screens without needing a Spotify account.
- Future plans include the ability for passengers to sign into their Spotify accounts on the entertainment screens via personal devices by 2026.
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Pymnts
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US House Bill Seeks to Open Apple and Google App Stores
- A U.S. House bill called the App Store Freedom Act aims to address Apple and Google's control over the mobile app ecosystem by curbing anticompetitive practices.
- Introduced by Rep. Kat Cammack, the bill targets companies with app stores and operating systems having over 100 million U.S. users, requiring them to allow third-party apps as default, enable sideloading, and provide equal access to developers.
- The bill prohibits app store operators from mandating in-app payment systems, ensuring pricing parity, or retaliating against developers who use alternative distribution methods. It is supported by the Coalition for App Fairness.
- Enforced by the FTC, the bill addresses regulatory scrutiny faced by Apple and aligns with previous efforts to restrict dominant app store platforms. Violations will be treated as unfair practices under consumer protection laws.
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Tech Radar
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Spotify admits it made mistakes with your Wrapped 2024 – here's what could change this year
- Spotify recently admitted to making mistakes with Spotify Wrapped 2024 due to inaccurate streaming data and lack of creativity.
- During its Open House event, Spotify acknowledged the negative feedback received for Wrapped 2024 and mentioned plans to improve this year's music recap.
- Users reported inaccuracies in their listening data for Wrapped 2024, showing artists they hadn't streamed, leading to the highest amount of negative feedback.
- Spotify is already working on making Spotify Wrapped 2025 the best yet, with potential changes in how the streaming data is presented and hints at new features or innovations.
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Idownloadblog
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Scrobbit is an automatic Last.fm scrobbler for any music streaming app on your jailbroken device
- Scrobbit is a new jailbreak tweak that allows users to scrobble songs played in various music streaming apps, integrating them with Last.fm's Scrobbles feature.
- Users can select music streaming apps on their device to have their playback integrated into Last.fm feature and set the percentage of song to be played before it gets scrobbled.
- Scrobbit adds a preference pane in the Settings app for users to configure the tweak, including enabling/disabling Scrobbit, logging in with Last.fm account, and viewing statistics.
- The tweak supports apps like Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, and more, and can be purchased for $1.49 from the Havoc repository for jailbroken iOS devices.
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Guardian
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AI, bot farms and innocent indie victims: how music streaming became a hotbed of fraud and fakery
- The music industry is facing a battle against fraud on streaming services, with AI-generated tracks being used to manipulate royalties.
- Platforms like Spotify and Apple Music are flooded with fake songs, leading to millions of dollars being skimmed off annually.
- Barriers to entry for fraudsters in the music industry are low, with many using bots or click farms to inflate streams.
- Detection systems are being used to combat manipulation, but innocent artists often find their music taken offline unjustly.
- Fraud detection company Fuga assigns severity scores to spot non-human listening patterns and combat manipulation.
- Record industry trade bodies are targeting services that offer artificially inflated streams, with accusations even involving major record companies.
- Many artists have faced takedowns due to suspicious stream spikes, leading to inconvenience and financial losses.
- Deezer claims to have implemented fraud detection systems and manually reviews suspicious activity before taking down tracks.
- Appeals processes for takedowns are often difficult, leaving smaller acts feeling powerless in the face of streaming platforms.
- The battle against streaming manipulation is focusing on containment, with the rise of more subtle methods to fly under detection.
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Androidauthority
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Spotify DJ has changed the way I find and listen to music
- Spotify has been experimenting with AI in its features since 2023, starting with its personalized DJ.
- Initially, the DJ feature was criticized for its lack of real customization, but it improved in 2024 with the introduction of AI playlists.
- The user has been regularly using Spotify's AI features, utilizing the DJ for daily activities and creating customized playlists of newer music.
- Although not everyone is impressed by Spotify's AI, the user finds that carefully constructed prompts result in decent playlists.
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Tech Radar
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Spotify is now much better for podcast fans – here are the 3 really useful new features you should try today
- Spotify is introducing new features for its podcast library to enhance user experience.
- The new features include a Following feed, podcast recommendations on the Home feed, and an 'In this episode' section for additional content links.
- The Following feed groups all podcasts users follow into one place, making it easier to stay updated on new episodes.
- Spotify's new podcast features aim to improve podcast discovery and engagement, offering creators new ways to reach wider audiences globally.
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Androidauthority
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Spotify wants to be more like YouTube, and users aren’t happy
- Spotify has added video podcast recommendations to the Home screen below shortcuts, with features like comment threads and links to more content, similar to YouTube.
- Users are expressing discontent as they feel these new video-focused features are straying too far from the core music streaming experience that Spotify is known for.
- The update by Spotify emphasizes its shift towards podcasts and video content, deviating from its original focus solely on music streaming.
- Spotify claims that user engagement with the new video podcast recommendations has been positive, indicating increased exploration and discovery of podcasts among users.
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The Verge
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Spotify is adding a Following feed for podcasts
- Spotify is introducing new podcast-focused features in its mobile app to make it easier for users to keep track of podcasts and discover new ones.
- The new 'Following' feed will provide a dedicated place to catch the latest releases from podcasts users follow, all in one easy-to-access feed within the main Podcast feed on Home.
- Spotify will offer podcast recommendations in the Home feed below shortcuts, making it easier to explore new shows and episodes with notes explaining why certain podcasts are recommended.
- Creators on Spotify will have access to features such as linking to content discussed in their shows on the platform, threaded replies, and emoji reactions to comments, with these updates rolling out in the coming weeks.
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