Amazon In Talks On High-Fidelity Music Service
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
| Amazon In Talks On High-Fidelity Music Service | |
| Number | 822 |
| Broadcast Date | APRIL 26, 2019 |
| Episode Length | 4:21 |
| Hosts | Rich Stroffolino |
Amazon is reportedly working on a high-fidelity music service, Slack files its S-1, and iFixit removes the Galaxy Fold teardown.
Headlines
- Tim Ingham at Music Business World reports that according to industry sources, Amazon is in talks with record labels to launch a high fidelity music streaming platform, with one major label already onboard. The service will reportedly cost around $15 a month, offer a "better than CD quality" bitrate, and will launch by the end of 2019.
- The messaging platform Slack released its S-1 filing as it prepares to go public. The company reported revenue of $400.55 million and a net loss of $139.8 million for its fiscal year ending January 31, 2019. At that time the company had over 10 million daily active users, with over half of those located outside the US. Slack reported 88,000 paying customers, up 49% on the year, with customers paying over $100,000 annually for the service up 93% to 575. Slack reports that in the year, paid users spent more than 90 minutes a day engaged on the platform, and that over 1 billion messages per week are sent by users. Under risk factors, Slack listed the need to create systems to stay in compliance with data regulations like GDPR.
- Amazon.com beat expectations for profit for the first quarter of 2019 — reporting $3.6 billion net income, an all-time quarterly record. Sales increased 17% with earnings of $7.09 per diluted share. Amazon’s AWS cloud division grew revenue 41% to $7.7 billion. Amazon Studios greenlit more than 20 new and returning original series in Q1.
- Uber disclosed that it will offer 180 million shares to investors in its IPO, priced between $44 and $50 per share. This would raise up to $9 billion, and value the company between $80.5 billion and $91.5 billion. 5.4 million shares in the IPO are being reserved for purchase by eligible drivers.
- Uber drivers in seven US cities are planning a 12-hour work stoppage for May 8, the day of Uber's stock market IPO. Drivers will be trying to raise awareness for better wages, clearer policies, and better employee benefits and representation of workers. Figures suggest that Uber and Lyft drivers are paid on average $8.55 an hour in the US. The work stoppage will happen in San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Minneapolis, Philadelphia and Washington DC.
- During an earnings call, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said It is very much in everybody’s interest to maintain” the Hulu relationship. He added that Hulu is "really valuable and we’re glad we own a really large piece of it.” Apparently they want to find out just how valuable, since CNBC reports Comcast is in talks with Disney over whether to sell its 1/3 stake in Hulu.
- In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Intel CEO Bob Swan stated the company made the decision to exit the 5G smartphone modem business after Apple and Qualcomm settled their long standing patent dispute. According to Swan, the company "didn’t see a path,” to make money after the agreement.
- The New York Times reports that the New York State attorney general’s office plans to open an investigation into Facebook unauthorized collection of 1.5 million email contact lists since May 2016. Facebook has stated the collection was unintentional and that the contacts were used to improve Facebook's ad targeting, build social connections, and recommend friends. Since reported by Business Insider last week, Facebook turned off the functionality and stated it was in the process of deleting the data. The company said it is responding to questions from the attorney general's office.
- Facebook updated its Platform Policies to no longer permit apps with "minimal utility" on the platform, specifically citing personality quizzes as an example. The company will also now consider app user permissions expired if the app has not been used for more than 90 days, with access to expired permission being automatically revoked.
- iFixit removed its teardown of the Samsung Galaxy Fold from its site, which had called the device "alarmingly fragile." In a blog post, the company stated the device was provided by a trusted partner, whom Samsung contacted to remove the teardown and analysis. While under no legal obligation to do so, iFixit removed the post until it can purchase the Galaxy Fold at retail.
Links
| Preceded by: "Microsoft Market Cap Hits $1 Trillion" |
Amazon In Talks On High-Fidelity Music Service |
Followed by: "Week in Review for the Week of 4/22/2019" |