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Chris Bevington, Spotify Executive, Dies in Stockholm Attack

Jason Tate

Billboard:

Chris Bevington, an executive at music streaming service Spotify was killed in the Stockholm truck attack Friday (April 7), the company’s co-founder/CEO Daniel Ek confirmed on Facebook.

“It is with shock and a heavy heart that I can confirm that Chris Bevington from our Spotify team lost his life in Friday’s senseless attack on Stockholm,” Ek wrote on Facebook Sunday. “Whilst this terrible news is sinking in, our primary focus is on supporting the family and loved ones of Chris in any way we possibly can.”

A Man Was Dragged Off A United Plane After The Airline Overbooked The Flight

BuzzFeed
Jason Tate

Alicia Melville-Smith, writing for BuzzFeed:

Bridges said passengers were allowed to board the flight but were later told four people would need to give up their seats for four United employees who were needed in Louisville on Monday.

She said no passengers volunteered, so a manager came aboard and said passengers would be randomly selected and asked to leave.

When asked to leave, the man in the video became “very upset” and said he was a doctor who had patients to see the next day, Bridges said. A manager then told him security would be called if he refused to leave the plane. Three security guards then removed him from his seat while other passengers yelled in disgust.

Holy shit. The videos and pictures are horrific.

Spotify Considers Directly Listing Shares on Public Exchange

Jason Tate

The Wall Street Journal:

The Swedish company, last valued at $8.5 billion, is seriously considering not holding a public sale of shares. Instead it is exploring simply listing its shares on an exchange in what is known as a direct listing, according to people familiar with the matter. It wouldn’t raise money—the hallmark of an IPO—or use underwriters to sell the stock.

And:

There are risks to this approach, whose consideration by Spotify was earlier reported by Mergermarket. With market forces determining the share price from the outset, the company’s public debut could be more volatile and unpredictable. Also missing would be the large blocks of stock underwriters typically allocate to investors they believe will hold the shares for the long term and promote trading stability.

An Alternate History of Third Eye Blind

Third Eye Blind
Jason Tate

Rob Harvilla, writing on The Ringer, with an alternate history of Third Eye Blind:

Two decades! You’re (probably) old! But Third Eye Blind holds up. The full anniversary treatment is in order, complete with a victory-lap tour. But the punch line is that the album got so huge, and the band’s eventual split was so irreparable, that there are two bands now, and two tours.

Salazar and founding guitarist-songwriter Kevin Cadogan — who left the band in roughly 2006 and 2000, respectively, after vicious and prolonged battles with Jenkins over the holy rock-band triumvirate of money, power, and credit — are on the other one. The one not officially traveling under the Third Eye Blind banner.

Post Visual Development in Rogue One

Rouge One - Star Wars
Jason Tate

Alexander Gustaveson, writing on ILM, about the digital work done on Rogue One:

Much of the work in Post Visual Development is pure design. We design digital environments and sets, we alter designs from pre-production, we create ships, weapons, and creatures.

Designing digital environments after plate photography allows flexibility in storytelling. For example: the Citadel sequence. The modular design and concentric circles allowed Gareth visual cheats: a character can jump huge distances geographically as needed for the plot, but the audience is not lost visually because the symmetry of the design.

Fascinating read.

Walt Mossberg to Retire in June

The Verge
Jason Tate

Walt Mossberg, one of the great tech writers, will be retiring in June.

Over my career, I’ve reinvented myself numerous times. I covered the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA. I wrote about labor wars, trade wars, and real wars. I chronicled a nuclear plant meltdown and the defeat of communism. I co-founded a couple of media businesses.

And, in the best professional decision of my life, I converted myself into a tech columnist in 1991. As a result, I got to bear witness to a historic parade of exciting, revolutionary innovation — from slow, clumsy, ancient PCs to sleek, speedy smartphones; from CompuServe and early AOL to the mobile web, apps, and social media. My column has run weekly in a variety of places over the years, most recently on The Verge and Recode under the Vox Media umbrella, where I’ve been quite happy and have added a podcast of which I’m proud.

How We Turned 1,000 Fans Into 100,000 by Actually Giving a Shit…

The Maine
Jason Tate

The Maine, writing on Medium:

Another invaluable thing we’ve learned along the way is to never underestimate our fans. At times, I’ve wondered if people are going to understand the message we are trying to convey with a song or a video or even something as simple as a tweet. Time after time, I have learned that this community we have created will be there for us through thick and thin. If you go back in time and listen to our first record all the way up to where we are now, it is no secret that we stretched ourselves in every direction.

Tom DeLonge on Why UFO Research Just Might Save Mankind

Tom DeLonge
Jason Tate

Rolling Stone:

But since DeLonge parted ways with Blink-182 in 2015, his interest in extraterrestrials has become more than a hobby. “The more I got into it, the more I realized it was all real,” he tells Rolling Stone. “Then I was like, ‘OK, what am I going to do about it?'” So he started spreading the word. He began creating a multi-part, multi-platform rollout of an entirely new philosophy, one based on the theory that aliens have been visiting Earth for most of our species’ existence – and the only way for us to have a prosperous future on the planet is if we take that into account, and soon.

That sure is a headline.

Apple Debuts Clips Video App

Apps
Jason Tate

Apple has released their new Clips video app. MacStories has a nice rundown of the features:

Overall, Clips is well-polished, packed with tools, and it does well what it’s designed for. The recent onslaught of ephemeral, short-form video content on services like Snapchat and Instagram was clearly a strong influence on Clips’ creation. And while I haven’t gotten into the ‘Stories’ craze myself, I’m still expecting to be a somewhat-regular Clips user. Whereas I find something like Instagram Stories intimidating because I don’t like the pressure of shooting and immediately sharing something. Clips allows those who want to move that fast to do so, while people like me can take their time – I can record something, save it to the Photos app, maybe share it with my wife or a friend, and if I end up really liking it, I can later share to social media.