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Amazon has announced that Fire TV users in the U.S. can now watch tens of thousands of music videos from major and independent labels for free. No downloads, fees or subscriptions are required to watch the music videos. The ad-supported music videos will be available from artists on the Billboard Hot 100, including Taylor Swift,

According to a survey sent to creators in the Spotify for Podcasters program, the streaming giant might be doing away with the Anchor brand. Anchor, which Spotify acquired for $340 million in a deal that included the studio Gimlet, is a free podcast hosting service. In 2020, Anchor said that its service was used to

ImagenAI, a startup using AI to help professional photographers edit photos and automate post-production work, today announced that it raised $30 million in an all-equity growth investment from Summit Partners. The new capital brings Imagen’s total raised to $34 million, and co-founder and CEO Yotam Gil tells TechCrunch that it’ll be used to expand the

After Ross Chanin’s grandfather died, Chanin mourned not only him, but the fact that he’d never gotten a chance to hear more about his grandfather’s life. Over a conversation with a journalist friend, George Quraishi, it became clear to Chanin that Quraishi’s skill set — interviewing and audio editing — could be conducive to capturing

The latest hit Netflix series “Wednesday,” the “Addams Family” spin-off directed by Tim Burton, has reached a milestone that only “Stranger Things” Season 4 and “Squid Game” managed to accomplish. “Wednesday” surpassed 1.02 billion total hours viewed in just three weeks since its debut, the company announced, with over 150 million households streaming the show.

Twitter has apparently pulled its Spaces group audio feature, at least temporarily, after Elon Musk joined a group conversation that included journalists that had been banned from the platform. The latest drama comes after Twitter suspended several prominent journalists who had covered an earlier story about the Elon Jet Twitter account that was banned for

“Black Adam” is now streaming on HBO Max, giving more fans a chance to watch the DC antihero movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. “Black Adam” premiered in theaters on October 21. It centers around Teth-Adam (Johnson), a superhuman from ancient Kahndaq who used his godly powers for vengeance and was then quickly imprisoned. After

Amazon announced today that it signed a deal with Games Workshop (GAW), giving it IP rights to the “Warhammer 40,000” universe, a massively popular tabletop miniature wargame. This is the first deal of its kind for Amazon, the company claims. “Warhammer 40,000” takes place in the distant future, where humanity is threatened by aliens and

After reports circulated that “Westworld,” among other titles, would soon be pulled off HBO Max, the company sent out an announcement via email yesterday confirming the sad news. Westworld isn’t the only show to get the axe. More than a dozen shows will leave the streaming service in the coming days, including “The Nevers,” “Raised

AI-generated music is already an innovative enough concept, but Riffusion takes it to another level with a clever, weird approach that produces weird and compelling music using not audio but images of audio. Sounds strange, is strange. But if it works, it works. And it does work! Kind of. Diffusion is a machine learning technique

With nearly a third of the global music-streaming market share, Spotify needs little in the way of introduction. Some 456 million people consume music, podcasts and audiobooks through Spotify each month, 42% of which pay a monthly fee while the rest are subjected to advertisements. Indeed, ads and subscriptions have been the cornerstone of Spotify’s

“God of War” fans are in for a treat. Amazon announced today that Prime Video is getting a live-action series based on the extremely popular PlayStation game. While a premiere date has not been announced, “God of War” will be available on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories. The show will follow

While the TechCrunch crew enjoys a tweet and a post from time to time, we also enjoy reading longer-form materials. So much so that we are compiling a year-end revue of our favorite reads. This is not just a list of serious business books, or just fiction that was published this year. Instead, we have

Spotify looks to be scaling back its live audio ambitions, as the company is ending production of several of its live audio shows. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to TechCrunch that “Deux Me After Dark,” “Doughboys: Snack Pack,” “The Movie Buff” and “A Gay in the Life” are all coming to an end. The

Ticketmaster has now enraged the passionate fans of two of the world’s biggest acts: Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny. Last weekend in Mexico City, the Puerto Rican rapper performed two sold-out shows at the 85,000-seat Azteca Stadium, but more than a thousand fans who purchased tickets via Ticketmaster were turned away. Ticketmaster issued a statement

If any HBO Max subscribers planned on having a “Westworld” marathon, this might be your last chance to watch your favorite android hosts run amok in the ol’ Wild West. The sci-fi series could soon be pulled off the streaming service, Deadline reported yesterday. Last month, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed that “Westworld” was officially canceled,

Image-generating AI models like DALL-E 2 and Stable Diffusion can — and do — replicate aspects of images from their training data, researchers show in a new study, raising concerns as these services enter wide commercial use. Co-authored by scientists at the University of Maryland and New York University, the research identifies cases where image-generating

Alongside of the relaunch of Twitter Blue, Twitter’s controversial subscription service, Twitter has begun rolling out a new offering called Blue for Business that adds a gold checkmark to company accounts. On a support page, Twitter says Blue for Business, which is currently in testing, is intended to designate that a given Twitter account is

Nominations for the 2023 Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning, with HBO, HBO Max and Netflix tied for the lead in the TV category, getting 14 noms each. Major contenders include HBO’s “The White Lotus,” “House of the Dragon” and “Hacks,” as well as Netflix’s “Wednesday,” “Ozark” and “The Crown.” While the two streaming

Twitter is officially bringing back the Twitter Blue subscription Monday, starting in five countries before rapidly expanding to others, according to Esther Crawford, director of product management at Twitter. Web sign-ups will cost $8 per month and iOS sign ups will cost $11 per month for “access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark,” per

Fire TV is now available on the Echo Show 15. In September, Amazon announced it was soon bringing its Fire TV experience to its larger, 15.6-inch wall-mounted Echo, offering consumers a way to access a combination smart speaker, smart home hub and TV-like device at a relatively affordable price point — it’s currently selling for

On Thursday, Disney+ launched its first-ever ad-supported plan, “Disney+ Basic,” in the U.S. at $7.99 per month, which is the same price as the previous ad-free plan before Disney raised the price to $10.99/month. However, Roku users wanting to switch to the new plan are out of luck — at least for now. According to Disney

Komi, a personalized website page builder tool for influencers and celebrities to create and customize a landing page to promote their projects, today closed a $5 million seed round led by Contour Venture Partners. Launched in October 2021, Komi is designed to provide content creators, musicians, athletes, celebrities and other creative talent and personalities alike

Cameo today launched Cameo Kids, its new video messaging service that features personalized videos from popular animated characters like Thomas the Tank Engine, JJ, Cody, Cece and Nina from “CoComelon,” Blippi from “Blippi Wonders,” True from Netflix’s “True and the Rainbow Kingdom,” as well as an animated Santa Claus. Today’s launch is notable as it

The day has arrived. Today, Disney+ launched its ad-supported tier, “Disney+ Basic,” at $7.99/month. The plan is currently only available in the U.S. and will become available in other countries sometime next year. Image Credits: Disney+ “Today’s launch marks a milestone moment for Disney+ and puts consumer choice at the forefront. With these new ad-supported

Uolo, an Indian edtech platform that works with private K-12 schools to offer online learning programs to middle and low-income families, has raised $22.5 million in a funding round led by UAE-headquartered VC fund Winter Capital. The vast majority of edtech startups operate in a business-to-consumer model and spend on ads to reach the parents

Winamp version 5.9.1 is here, rejoice! The venerable — nay, aged — but reliable media player has been receiving sporadic updates over the last couple decades, but little truly new functionality has appeared (and that’s just fine by us users). But this new version brings an unexpected and thankfully optional feature: NFT playback. No, this

I like the internet. There, I said it. I spend my entire day writing about the internet, and then in my leisure time, I read books about how the internet shapes our lives. I might have a work-life balance problem, but I can’t help it. I mean, music journalists still listen to music, right? Chefs

Ready for a holiday sing-along? Apple today announced it’s launching a new Apple Music feature that will turn tens of millions of its top songs into karaoke tracks of sorts, enabled by a tap of a button. With Apple Sing, as the new addition is called, users will be able to tap on a slider

Today, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon announced that HBO Max is back on Prime Video Channels in the United States after it left as an Amazon offering in 2021. Prime subscribers can sign up for HBO Max for $14.99 per month via the Prime Video app or at amazon.com/channels/hbomax. The channel can be canceled at any