Peter Kafka, writing at Recode:
Spotify, which has been trying to branch out of the streaming music business, is getting ready to make its first big move into podcasting: It plans to pay more than $200 million to buy Gimlet Media, the startup behind popular shows like Reply All.
Mia Galuppo, writing at The Hollywood Reporter:
Musician and actor Johnny Flynn will play David Bowie in the upcoming feature Stardust.
Jena Malone and Marc Maron will also star in the movie that tracks the rise of the superstar, starting with his first visit to America in 1971 — a trip that inspired the invention of his iconic alter ego, Ziggy Stardust.
The network has handed out a pilot order for Heart of Life, a project inspired by Mayer’s song of the same name.
Heart of Life follows two sets of adult siblings from wildly different worlds who discover they are related and must reassess everything they thought they knew about their shared father. As they explore the mystery of their separate childhoods, they’ll experience the difficulty in overcoming the sins of the past, and learn the joys of reuniting with long-lost family.
AirBuddy brings the same AirPods experience you have on iOS to the Mac. With AirBuddy, you can open up your AirPods case next to your Mac and see the status right away, just like it is on your iPhone or iPad. A simple click and you’re connected and playing your Mac’s audio to AirPods.
Google+ will officially be shut down on April 2nd, 2019:
On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content, just make sure to do so before April. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.
Robinson Meyer, writing at The Atlantic:
Meteorologists have never gotten a shiny magazine cover or a brooding Aaron Sorkin film, and the weather-research hub of Norman, Oklahoma, is rarely mentioned in the same breath as Palo Alto. But over the past few decades, scientists have gotten significantly—even staggeringly—better at predicting the weather.
How much better? “A modern five-day forecast is as accurate as a one-day forecast was in 1980,” says a new paper, published last week in the journal Science. “Useful forecasts now reach nine to 10 days into the future.”
The Batman is scheduled for 2021:
Warner Bros. is dating their next rendition of Batman for June 25, 2021. This is the one that Matt Reeves has been attached to as writer and director. Ben Affleck, we hear, will not be donning the Dark Knight’s tights after playing the Caped Crusader in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League and that’s because this movie will focus on a younger Bruce Wayne.
Joshua Bote, writing at NPR:
As was the case with They Shall Not Grow Old, which found Jackson reviving a trove of archival World War I footage, the Lord of the Rings filmmaker is mining 55 hours of unreleased footage of the band, using restoration techniques to render it in modern quality. The footage was originally intended for Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s 1970 documentary Let it Be.
This thread on Twitter of pop-punk bands described with John Mulaney quotes is pretty great.
Mark Hoppus talked with Kerrang about the upcoming Blink-182 album:
“After playing in this band for 27 years, I want to push it and do different things and take blink to places where we haven’t been before,” he tells Kerrang!. “We’re really trying to do that on the new record. We want to do with our band what we did in 2003 with Untitled, where we take our foundations and go off in completely weird directions.”
Hawthorne Heights are once again offering handwritten Valentine’s Day cards.
Iron & Wine has announced a deluxe reissue of Our Endless Numbered Days.
Out of Service have announced a new album:
Out of Service is making a second full-length album and we need your help! Get the new album before anyone else and grab some awesome perks while you are at it.
Future has the number one album in the country this week:
Future Hndrxx Presents: The WIZRD debuts atop the tally with 126,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Jan. 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 15,000 were in album sales. The album was released on Jan. 18 via Freebandz/Epic Records.
Warner Bros. announced Friday that Nolan’s next film will open in Imax on July 17, 2020.
The project is described as an event film, but nothing else is known about Nolan’s latest venture. The writer-director has a propensity for secrecy, writing his scripts away from any prying eyes. Furthermore, he is of such a stature that he can attract the actors he wants, package his project with thespians and then present it to a studio with what amounts to a simple yes or no question: Are you in or are you out?