Universal Orlando details the new Incredible Hulk roller coaster at Universal Studios featuring a new score put together by Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump:
From there, you’ll step into an entirely new ride vehicle. The changes start with its sleek, modern new look. Once on board, you’ll discover a brand new, in-seat audio system that booms an original ride score created by Patrick Stump, front man for the internationally-renowned rock band Fall Out Boy.
Chris Carrabba has confirmed that he’s currently writing new songs for Dashboard Confessional.
But beyond that, the details are vague. “I don’t have any idea of a release date or a worry about one for that matter,” he says. “But I’m really excited to be doing it because I don’t think it’s ever felt this much like the beginning again.”
Instagram has finally updated their icon to go along with a new layout. The icon’s not my favorite (I think it would look better reversed), but the new layout is well conceived.
Today we’re introducing a new look. You’ll see an updated icon and app design for Instagram. Inspired by the previous app icon, the new one represents a simpler camera and the rainbow lives on in gradient form. We’ve made improvements to how the Instagram app looks on the inside as well. The simpler design puts more focus on your photos and videos without changing how you navigate the app.
Budweiser are renaming their “beer” America for the summer.
The campaign is Budweiser’s plea for attention — and it’s working. (You’re reading this article, after all.) But the fact that it’s needed at all shows how much American beer-drinking habits have altered in the past few decades. Tastes have changed several times, and each change has pushed Budweiser further down on America’s list.
This feels straight out of a Futurama plot.
The band Yacht faked having their sex tape stolen to try and build hype for their new video. There’s a sentence I never thought I’d be typing.
Here’s Anna Merlan, writing for Jezebel:
That wasn’t quite right, of course, because there was no actual sex tape: when I tried to download it, I just got an error message, and so did lots of other people. The only folks claiming to have seen it, as we noted in an update yesterday, were Yacht’s famous friends. (I’m going to stop capitalizing their band name now because it’s tiresome and because I find them tiresome).
But most folks probably didn’t try to download it at all, because Yacht said the video was leaked without their consent. Most people are not craven and/or horny enough to watch a video whose participants are begging you not to view it. Most people don’t suck. Most people aren’t Yacht.
The thing about revenge porn—the real kind, not the desperate fake kind cooked up to attract extra attention to your mediocre art band—is that it ruins lives.
Riot Fest have announced they will return to Denver (September 2-4) and Chicago (September 16-18) this year. But not Toronto.
With recent local changes in Riot Fest’s partnership in Toronto, the planning process and resources required in staging a fest in Ontario was no longer compatible because of the available timeline. While Riot Fest has fallen in love with Toronto and the province of Ontario because of all of the great music fans who have welcomed and supported us in these last few years, Riot Fest 2016 will only take place in Denver and Chicago. We have every hope that we’ll be back in Toronto in the near future, and, in the meantime, we’ll begin announcing the lineups for Denver (Sept. 2-4) and Chicago (Sept. 16-18) shortly.
Drake, surprising no one, has the number one album in the country this week. Beyoncé moved to number two, Prince was at three.
As expected, Drake’s Views album debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with an explosive first week. The set earned 1.04 million equivalent album units in the week ending May 5 in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. Traditional album sales comprised 852,000 copies of that sum (a slight upgrade from the 851,000 that was previously reported).
Federico Viticci, writing for MacStories, with a fantastic look at the crossroads facing podcasting:
If you’re a Leading Content Professional and you think that’s what you want, more power (and money) to you. I understand and respect what you’re doing. But the great thing about the free and decentralized web is that the aforementioned web platforms are optional and they’re alternatives to an existing open field where independent makers can do whatever they want. I can own my content, offer my RSS feed to anyone, and resist the temptation of slowing down my website with 10 different JavaScript plugins to monitor what my users do. No one is forcing me to agree to the terms of a platform. My readers are free to link to my articles, copy them, print them, subscribe to my feeds, and view them in any browser or feed reader they like.
A highly recommended read.
Congratulations to Gabe Saporta and Erin Fetherston on the birth of their baby boy — in March of this year.
I’m thrilled to report that I gave birth to a healthy, beautiful baby boy at the beginning of March this year. Many were unaware of this fact because my husband and I made a conscious decision to keep the pregnancy private for a few reasons. To us, pregnancy felt like a naturally concealed process. You know your baby is growing inside you, but you can’t really see exactly what’s happening. We took that as a cue from the universe to respect the mystery and secrecy innate in pregnancy, and for that reason I chose to be very private during this time of my life. While this was mostly for the sake of the baby, it also suited me just fine as I found myself feeling incredibly vulnerable, shy, and self-conscious during my pregnancy.
Kevin Rutherford, writing for Billboard, points out that Blink-182 just had their highest alternative song debut ever with “Bored to Death.”
All three chart positions mark the highest debuts on each tally in the band’s two-decade career. On Alternative Songs (the only chart of the three that predates Blink-182’s first album, Cheshire Cat, in 1995), the No. 18 opening of “Bored” bests the band’s previous top entrances of No. 25 logged by “First Date” in 2002 and “Up All Night” in 2011. (Those songs went on to peak at Nos. 6 and 3, respectively.)
Andrew Whitehurst, writing for The Guardian:
The anti-CGI backlash, which is really a reaction against poorly conceived CGI, rather than the form itself, stems from such overuse and misapplication. No one complains about the mountain of well-planned and well-executed CGI, because no one’s attention was drawn to the fact that it was CGI in the first place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the studios’ publicists are now frequently keen to emphasise how much of a film was shot “for real”, and play down the use of CGI on a production. A cursory glance through the credits of the film will tell you how true those claims are.
I saw this question posed in our forums and found a really good answer from the mastering engineer Scott Hull:
It’s a simple question with a complex answer. Many websites publish charts explaining how much music fits on one side of a vinyl record. The main purpose of those guidelines is to make it easy for the cutting engineer to do his job. But do you want to have an average record or an extraordinary one? Ah, I thought so. You need to read on.
Mark Gurman, writing for 9to5Mac, on how Apple Music’s Connect is expected to be “demoted” in iOS 10:
In the iOS 10 Apple Music redesign, the Connect feature will follow Ping’s lead and will be demoted. Apple Music Connect currently exists as its own tab across the Apple Music interface, but multiple sources say that the feature will lose its tab and become integrated into the “For You” recommendations page. Connect will still exist within applicable artist pages as it does today, but its demotion from the set of Apple Music tabs indicates that the feature has not lived up to Apple’s expectations from last year. Along with the demotion, Connect is unlikely to see notable new features this year.
Peter Kafka, writing for Recode, on how streaming music has now become Warner Music’s biggest business:
The company announced that money from services like Spotify and Apple Music was the single biggest source of recorded music revenue in the first quarter of the year, surpassing both physical sales and sales of digital downloads. That’s the first time any of the big music labels has hit that inflection point.
Warner’s streaming music revenue increased $72 million for the quarter — more than half of which came from sales outside the U.S. — while downloads declined by $17 million and physical revenue dropped by $6 million. Warner’s recorded music sales increased by 10 percent overall, and the company’s total revenue also increased 10 percent.
Apple Music have announced a new student membership option that discounts the service by 50%.
That means in the U.S., where an individual membership to Apple Music costs $9.99 per month, the student membership will be $4.99 per month instead.
The option isn’t just arriving in the U.S., though. Students in other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, will also be able to take advantage of the new membership option.