Twitch launches a rights-cleared music catalog for streamers, Soundtrack by Twitch

Twitch today is introducing a new tool, Soundtrack by Twitch, that will allows it creators to add licensed music within their streams. The feature, which has been in development over the past year, is meant to not only make it easier to find rights-cleared music, but also to address the ongoing issues creators face with having their archives muted.

At launch, Soundtrack by Twitch is working with a variety of label and distribution partners, but doesn’t have agreements with the majors themselves. Instead, the initial lineup of supported partners includes Soundcloud, Monstercat, Distrokid, cdbaby, Empire, Westwood Recordings, United Masters, Alpha Pup, Popgang, Text Me Records, Dim Mak, Create Music Group, Chillhop Music, Anjunabeats, Soundstripe, LabelWork, mxmtoon, future classic, Nuclear Blast, Season of Mist, Chilled Cow, Pure Noise Records, Symphonic, Blkbox, and Songtradr.

Twitch says this lineup will give creators access to a range of music, including artists like Above & Beyond, mxmtoon, Porter Robinson, RAC, SwuM, and others. In total, over a million tracks will be available for free use by creators.

Twitch declined to share details about the deal terms with partners, however.

Image Credits: Twitch

Some of Twitch’s music partners had already been catering to creators by publishing their free-to-use music as Spotify playlists, for example. Others had previous agreements with Twitch, like dance music label Anjunabeats which had cleared 350 tracks last year for use in Twitch streams. Soundcloud, meanwhile, had more recently launched its own channel on Twitch to help connect with viewers interested in discovering new music. Other details about this new upcoming Twitch integration were pre-announced by some participants.

Before today, Twitch’s audio recognition system would automatically flag any audio where users didn’t have the necessary rights to play it during the stream. Many creators mistakenly believed if they had bought the bought or paid for a streaming subscription service that would allow them to feature the music while streaming. This wasn’t true.

In reality, the only music creators were able to legally play largely fell under a few, narrow categories: music they themselves owned or music that was licensed to them. (Vocal performances captured during Twitch Sings gameplay were also permitted.)

That meant a wide variety of music-related content on Twitch simply wasn’t allowed, including radio-style listening shows, DJ sets, karaoke and lip syncing, cover songs where creators used any sort of musical accompaniment besides themselves, or even the display of lyrics.

The company has been working with Audible Magic to scan past VODs for rights violations. And when music was flagged, creators could find their VODs (video on demand) muted.

Image Credits: Twitch

Twitch in the past had tried to address music rights issues with the launch of the Twitch Music Library in 2015, but this was shut down last year without explanation.

With the launch of Soundtrack by Twitch, music will be separated into its own audio channel so creators can play the tracks without being worried about muting or receiving strikes against their channel. Creators will be able to choose music from a set of stations and playlists curated by Twitch staff, by theme or genre — like “just chilling” or “Lofi Hip Hop/Beats” or “Rap,” for example.

The launch of Soundtrack comes at a time when music has become a larger part of the Twitch experience, thanks to the live-streaming platform’s adoption by artists during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company hosted a benefit in partnership with Amazon Music, called Stream Aid, which featured a number of artists, like Diplo, Barry Gibb, Ryan Tedder, Lauv, Charlie Puth, Die Antwoord and others. It since has hosted a flood of other musicians’ live stream, leading the “Music & Performing Arts” category to surge by 387% year-over-year as of this July.

Twitch also hired Spotify’s Tracy Chan as its new head of Product & Engineering for Music, partnered with Bandsintown, and rolled out several ways for artists to fast-track their way to Twitch Affiliate status. This month, Twitch livestreams were also integrated with Amazon Music’s app.

The early version of Soundtrack by Twitch is launching today and will be compatible with OBS on PC, Twitch Studio, and Streamlabs OBS (soon), the company says.

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/30/twitch-launches-a-rights-cleared-music-catalog-for-streamers-soundtrack-by-twitch/

Europe eyeing limits on how big tech can use data and bundle apps — reports

European lawmakers are considering new rules for Internet giants that could include forcing them to share data with smaller rivals and/or put narrow limits on how they can use data in a bid to level the digital playing field.

Other ideas in the mix are a ban on dominant platforms favoring their own services or forcing users to sign up to a bundle of services, according to draft regulatory proposals leaked to the press.

The FT and Reuters both report seeing drafts of the forthcoming Digital Services Act (DSA) — which EU lawmakers are expected to introduce before the end of the year.

Their reports suggest there could be major restrictions on key digital infrastructure such as Apple’s iOS App Store and the Android Google Play store, as well as potentially limits on how ecommerce behemoth Amazon could use the data of merchants selling on its platform — something the Commission is already investigating.

A Commission spokesperson declined to confirm or deny anything in the two reports, saying it does not comment on leaks or comments by others.

“We remain committed to presenting the DSA still this year,” he added.

Per the Financial Times, the leaked draft states: “Gatekeepers shall not use data received from business users for advertising services for any other purpose other than advertising service.”

Its report suggests tech giants will be shocked by the scale of regulations coming down the pipe — noting 30 paragraphs of prohibitions or obligations — with the caveat that the proposal remains at an early stage, meaning big tech lobbyists still have everything to play for.

On bundling, lawmakers are eyeing rules that would mean dominant platforms must let users uninstall any pre-loaded apps — as well as looking at barring them from harming rivals by giving preferential treatment to their own services, according to the reports.

“Gatekeepers shall not pre-install exclusively their own applications nor require from any third party operating system developers or hardware manufacturers to pre-install exclusively gatekeepers’ own application,” per Reuters, quoting the draft it’s seen.

The Commission’s experience of antitrust complaints against Google seems likely to be a factor informing these elements — given a string of EU enforcements against the likes of Google Shopping and Android in recent years have generated headlines but failed to move the competitive needle nor satisfy complainants, even as fresh complaints about Google keep coming.

Google’s ‘no choice’ screen on Android isn’t working, says Ecosia — querying the EU’s approach to antitrust enforcement

Per Reuters the draft rules would also subject gatekeeper platforms to annual audits of their advertising metrics and reporting practices.

Platforms’ self-serving transparency remains a much complained about facet of how these giants currently operate — making efforts to hold them accountable over things like content take-down performance doomed to fuzzy failure.

The Commission’s public consultation on the DSA was launched in June — and closed on September 8.

In a lengthy response earlier this month, Google lobbied against ex ante rules for platform giants, urging regulators to instead modernise existing frameworks where any gaps are found rather than imposing tougher requirements on tech giants.

Should there be ex ante rules the adtech giant pushed lawmakers not to single out any particular business models — while also urging against an “overly simplistic” definition of ‘gatekeeper’ platforms.

Facebook has also been ploughing effort into lobbying commissioners ahead of the DSA proposal — seeking to frame the discussion in key risk areas for its business model, such as around privacy and data portability.

In May, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made time for a livestreamed debate run by a big tech-backed policy ‘think tank’ CERRE — appearing alongside Thierry Breton, the Commission VP for the internal market. The Facebook CEO warned about ‘Cambridge Analytica-style’ privacy risks if too much data portability is enforced, while the commissioner warned Facebook to pay its taxes or expect to be regulated.

More recently, Facebook’s head of global policy has sought to link European SMEs’ post-COVID-19 economic recovery prospects to Facebook’s continued exploitation of people’s data via its ad platform — tacitly warning EU lawmakers against closing down its privacy-hostile business model.

Such lobbying may be falling on deaf ears, though. Earlier this month Breton, told the FT the feeling among Brussels’ lawmakers is that platforms have got ‘too big to care’ — hence the conviction that new rules are needed to enforce higher standards.

Breton said then that lawmakers are considering a rating system to allow the public and stakeholders to assess companies’ behaviour in areas such as tax compliance and how quickly they take down illegal content.

He suggested a blacklist of activities could be applied to dominant platforms with a sliding scale of penalties for non-compliance — up to and including the separation of some operations, according to the FT’s report.

He also committed to not removing the current limited liability platforms have around content published on their platforms, saying: “The safe harbour of the liability exemption will stay. That’s something that’s accepted by everyone.”

In another signal of looming intent earlier this month, the Commission said it’s time to move beyond self-regulatory approaches to tackling problem content like disinformation — though it’s yet to flesh out its policy plan in that area. In June it also suggested it’s eyeing binding transparency requirements related to online hate speech, saying platforms’ own reporting is still too patchy.

How will EC plans to reboot rules for digital services impact startups?

Europe sets out plan to boost data reuse and regulate ‘high risk’ AIs

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/30/europe-eyeing-limits-on-how-big-tech-can-use-data-and-bundle-apps-reports/

IonQ claims it has built the most powerful quantum computer yet

Trapped-ion quantum computing startup IonQ today announced the launch of its latest quantum computer, which features what IonQ calls “32 perfect qubits with low gate errors.”

Using IBM’s preferred quantum benchmark, IonQ expects to hit a quantum volume of 4,000,000. That’s a massive increase over the double-digit quantum volume numbers that IBM itself recently announced and it’s a pretty extraordinary claim on IonQ’s side as this would make its system the most powerful quantum computer yet.

The (well-funded) company has never used this metric before. Through a spokesperson, IonQ also noted that it doesn’t necessarily think quantum volume is the best metric, but since the rest of the industry is using it, it decided to release this number. The company argues that its ability to achieve 99.9% fidelity between qubits has allowed it to achieve this breakthrough.

“In a single generation of hardware, we went from 11 to 32 qubits, and more importantly, improved the fidelity required to use all 32 qubits,” said IonQ CEO and president Peter Chapman. “Depending on the application, customers will need somewhere between 80 and 150 very high fidelity qubits and logic gates to see quantum advantage. Our goal is to double or more the number of qubits each year. With two new generations of hardware already in the works, companies not working with quantum now are at risk of falling behind.”

Image Credits: Kai Hudek, IonQ

It’s worth noting that IonQ’s trapped-ion approach is quite different from IBM’s (or D-Wave’s for that matter) which uses a very different technique. That makes it hard to compare raw qubit counts between different vendors. The quantum volume metric is meant to make it easier to compare these systems, however.

“The new system we’re deploying today is able to do things no other quantum computer has been able to achieve, and even more importantly, we know how to continue making these systems much more powerful moving forward,” said IonQ Co-Founder & Chief Scientist Chris Monroe. “With our new IonQ system, we expect to be able to encode multiple qubits to tolerate errors, the holy grail for scaling quantum computers in the long haul.”

IonQ raises additional funding for its quantum computing platform

Using new error correction techniques, IonQ believes that it will only need 13 qubits to create a “near-perfect” logical qubit.

For now, IonQ’s new system will be available as a private beta and it’ll be interesting to see if its early users will back up the company’s claims (unsurprisingly, given the magnitude of IonQ’s claims, there’s a bit of skepticism within the quantum computing community). Later, the company will make it available through partners like Amazon with its Braket service and the Microsoft Azure Quantum Cloud.

Image Credits: Kai Hudek, IonQ

Quantum startup CEO suggests we are only five years away from a quantum desktop computer

from Amazon – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/01/ionq-claims-it-has-built-the-most-powerful-quantum-computer-yet/

Microsoft enhances customer data platform as pandemic drives need for personalization

When Microsoft introduced its customer data platform last February the focus was on simply connecting silos of data to help customers get the data into the system, but as the pandemic has taken hold this year, customers need deeper insight into their customers and Microsoft has made some enhancements to the platform today.

James Phillips, president of Microsoft business applications says the goal of the platform is about understanding customers at a deeper level. “From that depth of understanding our customers can engage their customers through the entirety of the customer lifecycle,” Phillips told TechCrunch.

That could involve a variety of activities such personalizing offers, speaking to them in a way that they know their customers want to be spoken to, offering them new products and services that better meet their needs or supporting them better, he said.

He adds that COVID-19 has changed customer priorities and forced them to make adjustments to the way they do business and how they interact with customers. “As everything’s gone digital, the need to deeply understand your customer and to increase the efficacy of those engagements has really been heightened through this pandemic,” he said.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 update is focused on harnessing data

The company is announcing several new components to the customer data platform product to help customers build that understanding. The first is called Customer Engagement, which as the name implies takes all that data they’ve pushed to the CDP to help understand that customer better and deliver more meaningful interactions. That goes into preview today.

“Engagement Insights is about directly funneling web, mobile and connected product data back into Customer Insights to help continue to enrich that understanding of the customer in order to better serve them,” he said.

The next piece is about putting AI to work on all that data to allow marketers to make more educated predictions about the customers based on what they know about them. This takes advantage of Azure Synapse Analytics and provides a set of pre-built AI templates to help customers with elements like predicting customer churn, automating product recommendations and estimating customer lifetime value.

In addition, the company is offering a data governance product to help protect that data and it’s integrating with Microsoft Customer Voice, the company’s survey tool to give customers the ability to fill in the blanks in the data by asking the customers when all of the data doesn’t provide an answer.

Phillips says all of these capabilities are about helping customers to be more agile, so that as the world shifts, as it has so dramatically this year, businesses can be in a better position to react to those changes more quickly and meet the changing customer requirements.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft clearly isn’t alone in this type of offering, as every big company that sells marketing tools from Adobe to Salesforce to SAP is offering similar products for similar reasons.

SAP continues to build out customer experience business with Emarsys acquisition

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/01/microsoft-enhances-customer-data-platform-as-pandemic-drives-need-for-personalization/

Microsoft adds the $549 Laptop Go to its growing Surface lineup

Microsoft just added a couple of key additions to its ever-growing lineup of Surface devices. There are a bunch of new accessories and an update to the Surface Pro X, which you can read about here. The biggest news of the morning, however, is the arrival of the Surface Laptop Go — an affordable take on the company’s well-received Surface Laptop.

The device borrows the naming convention from the Surface Go, a lightweight and cheap entry point into the line. At $549, the Laptop Go is $50 more than that tablet, but is still an extremely affordable take on the category — and if its predecessor is any precedent, you should be getting a pretty decent bang for your buck here.

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is great, once you upgrade Windows 10 S

The specs aren’t exactly exciting. The device ships with either 4 or 8GB of RAM, paired with an 10th gen quad-core Intel i4 processor and 64, 128 or 256GB of storage. Most customers are going to want to pump things up from those base-level specs for all but the most basic applications, which is obviously going to start driving that price up a bit.

Image Credits: Microsoft

The display is an inch and half larger that than the Surface Go 2 at 12 inches and smaller either the 13.5 or 15-inch you get on the standard Laptop. The screen generally is a pretty sizable downgrade from the Laptop, at 1536 x 1024 (148 PPI) to the flagship’s 2256 x 1504 (201 PPI). That’s to be expected, of course, for a product that runs around half the price.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 review

Microsoft is quick to point out the inclusion of a full-size keyboard with 1.3mm of key travel. That’s no doubt designed to contrast it with tablet keyboard cases that are a kind of direct competitor here, not to mention all of the issues Apple has run into with its own laptop keyboards in recent years.

Image Credits: Microsoft

The device weighs 2.45 pounds — making it the lightest Surface Laptop thus far. The ports are, unsurprisingly, fairly limited. There’s a USB-A, USB-C and, of course, that proprietary Surface port the company just can’t quit, on account of all of the existing accessories. The on-board battery can be fast charged and should get about 13 hours of life, per MS’s numbers.

It goes up for pre-order today alongside the new Pro X and will start shipping October 13. Microsoft is also bringing Surface devices to a number of new European countries, including, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/01/microsoft-adds-the-549-laptop-go-to-its-growing-surface-lineup/

Microsoft updates its Arm-based Surface Pro X tablet with a faster CPU

Microsoft today announced the second generation of its Arm-based Surface Pro X tablet. The first generation of the Pro X launched last October and since then, Microsoft worked with Qualcomm to design the second generation of the SQ2 processor that powers it. The SQ2 doesn’t fully replace the first-generation SQ1 chip, though. Instead, Microsoft is only using it for the top-end SKUs of the Pro X.

Except for the new processor, we’re still pretty much talking about the same Pro X here that launched last year, with built-in LTE connectivity, two USB-C ports and a 13-inch touchscreen.

Image Credits: Microsoft

Microsoft is also introducing a new color in the form of a new platinum finish, in addition to the existing matte black finish. It’s also launching three new colors for the Pro X keyboards: Ice Blue, Poppy Red and Platinum.

There are some other key updates here, though. Thanks to some software improvements, the Surface Pro X now promises up to 15 hours of battery life.

Image Credits:

But more importantly, Microsoft notes that more software partners are now optimizing their Windows apps for the Arm architecture (Microsoft still spells it ARM in its materials, but Arm PR will surely reach out to them and correct them). When it launched the first iteration, Microsoft saw its fair share of negative reviews because support for third-party drivers was lacking and with that, some apps also failed, while others were simply running slow because they had to rely on emulation – unless their developers released Arm-compatible versions.

Earlier this week, the company already noted that its Edge browser on Arm was getting an update to make it less battery hungry. In addition, Microsoft also noted that it would increase support for running x64 apps with a new x64 emulation rolling out to Windows Insiders in November. Visual Studio, too, has been updated and optimized for Windows 10 on Arm.

from Microsoft – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2020/10/01/microsoft-updates-its-arm-based-surface-pro-x-tablet-with-a-faster-cpu/

“Well, that’s a dumb idea”

As dumb as selling shoes, an item that comes in 100s of sizes, over the internet.

As dumb as expecting people to find a date or a spouse online.

As dumb as building an encyclopedia that anyone can edit.

You get the idea. Electric cars with 100-mile range, vegan hamburgers, milk made from oats, free college courses…

The next breakthrough is almost certainly going to be something really dumb. Or perhaps merely obvious and unoriginal.

       

from Seth Godin's Blog on marketing, tribes and respect https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/636188560/0/sethsblog~Well-thats-a-dumb-idea/