-
The false premise that’s killing independent music
In an opinion piece for Music Business Worldwide, Daniel J. Carucci, a physician-turned-entrepreneur and founder of fan-patronage platform Tipify, argues the music industry is built on a “false hypothesis”: that fans must receive something tangible in return for financially supporting an artist. He contends this assumption is a leftover of the pre-digital era, when buying…
-
EA’s Saudi takeover will be “a real waste” if it turns the publishers into a “sequel-and-mega-franchise machine”, Helldivers 2 studio boss says
EA’s $55 billion leveraged buyout by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, Silver Lake and Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners has officially completed after receiving European Commission approval, taking the publisher private. Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani, whose studio makes Helldivers 2, has warned that the deal risks being “a real waste” of EA’s diverse catalogue if the…
-
A PC cooling company shows Sony and Nintendo how it’s done, as it pledges to pass US tariff refunds onto customers
PC cooling manufacturer Arctic has pledged to pass on tariff refunds it received from the US government by cutting prices across its entire product range, drawing a sharp contrast with gaming giants Nintendo and Sony. The move comes after the US Supreme Court struck down former President Trump’s 2025 import tariffs as unconstitutional, prompting affected…
-
Disney Earnings Buoyed By ‘Toy Story 5’, Theme Parks, Streaming Profit; Books $100M Tariff Refund
Disney reported a strong fiscal third quarter, with chief executive Josh D’Amaro citing gains across film, theme parks and streaming in his first full quarter at the helm. Total operating income rose 21% to $5.6 billion, beating Wall Street expectations, driven largely by Toy Story 5’s box office success, higher theme park attendance, and streaming…
-
Transfer ‘shark’ De Zerbi hopes to drag Spurs up from depths
Roberto de Zerbi has said he wants to build Tottenham back into a top side after guiding them to Premier League survival at the end of a torrid 2025-26 season. The Italian took charge with Spurs facing relegation, describing a broken dressing room after his first game, a defeat at Sunderland, but he kept the…
-
‘They’re selling the safety of the traveling public’: TSA workers decry Trump privatization push
The union representing US Transportation Security Administration workers has raised alarms over a Trump administration plan to expand the privatisation of airport security checkpoints, warning it puts profit ahead of passenger safety. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is exploring legal options to challenge the “TSA Gold+” programme, which would hand control of screening…
-
Why is Anthropic destroying books? | Kathryn James
Court documents from the Bartz v Anthropic PBC case have revealed that the AI company ran a secret initiative, internally codenamed “Project Panama,” to destructively scan millions of physical books to build training data for its Claude language model. Rather than negotiate copyright permissions with authors and publishers, Anthropic apparently found it simpler to buy…
-
Gene-Edited Puppies Will Melt Your Heart—but Won’t Trigger Your Allergies
A biotech company called Kindred Companion Sciences has used Crispr gene editing to create two beagle puppies, Bailey and Alfie, that lack the protein responsible for triggering most dog allergies. The breakthrough, detailed in a paper published on Wednesday in The Crispr Journal, was led by founder Matt Walker, who was inspired to pursue the…
-
Disney+ and Hulu profits surge as Disney reshuffles merchandising unit
Disney’s June quarter results showed strengthened streaming profitability alongside a significant restructuring of the company’s operations announced by chief executive Josh D’Amaro. Disney+ and Hulu generated $5.53 billion in revenue, an 11% year-on-year rise, while operating income in the entertainment streaming segment more than doubled to $712 million, up from $329 million a year earlier.…
-
Count Binface and the serious political message behind the UK’s ‘joke’ candidates
Nigel Farage’s decision to resign his Clacton seat and trigger a by-election, amid scrutiny of his personal finances, has drawn no candidates from any other major party, leaving Count Binface, a costumed “intergalactic space warrior,” as his most prominent challenger among a record 34 contenders. Reform UK MP Danny Kruger dismissed the situation in the…