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That ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Ransom Thing Was Never Going to Pay Off

Jason Tate

Brian Barrett, writing at Wired:

Although the hack offers a reminder that even the best security can be undone by the so-called “weakest link” — Netflix can’t do much if a vendor is compromised — it provides a bigger lesson in how the internet has largely shifted away from torrenting. If a show lands on The Pirate Bay and nobody watches, did it really stream?

Consider that in 2011, BitTorrent accounted for 23 percent of daily internet traffic in North America, according to network-equipment company Sandvine. By last year, that number sat at under 5 percent. “There’s always going to be the floor of people that are always going to be torrenting,” says Sandvine spokesperson Dan Deeth. That group will surely enjoy whatever Piper’s up to in season five. But the idea that so small a cohort might prompt Netflix to negotiate with hackers seems absurd.

I commented on this when New Found Glory’s new album leaked and there were a bunch of comments in the threads basically saying, “no reason to go hunt for the leak, it’ll be on Spotify soon enough anyway.” I always thought easy and convenient access to music would help curb piracy, but even I didn’t think it would have as big an impact as it has.

EPA Website Removes Climate Science Site

Globe
Jason Tate

The Washington Post:

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday evening that its website would be “undergoing changes” to better represent the new direction the agency is taking, triggering the removal of several agency websites containing detailed climate data and scientific information. […]

The staffer described the process of reviewing the site as “a work in progress, but we can’t have information which contradicts the actions we have taken in the last two months,” adding that Pruitt’s aides had “found a number of instances of that so far” while surveying the site.

Yet the website overhaul appears to include not only policy-related changes but also scrutiny of a scientific Web page that has existed for nearly two decades, and that explained what climate change is and how it worked.

Yeah, if you hide the science that’ll stop it from being true.

The ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Cast Reminisces After 25 Years

Jason Tate

It’s been 25 years since the release of Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. The cast recently got together to talk about the film during a special screening. Variety has some of the tidbits revealed:

The most iconic moment in “Reservoir Dogs” is unquestionably the scene in which Madsen’s character, Mr. Blonde, tortures a captured cop (Kirk Baltz), cutting off his ear after doing a little dance to the jaunty tune of Stealers Wheel’s “Stuck in the Middle With You.” That dance was entirely spontaneous, it turns out. “You never made me do it in rehearsal, because I was so intimidated by it,” Madsen reminded Tarantino at the panel. “I didn’t know what to do. In the script, it said, ‘Mr. Blonde maniacally dances around.’ And I kept thinking, ‘What the f–k does that mean? Like Mike Jagger, or what? What the f–k am I gonna do?’”

A Struggling ESPN Lays Off Many On-Air Personalities

Jason Tate

The New York Times:

ESPN on Wednesday began another round of layoffs, this one aimed at on-air personalities, perhaps the starkest sign yet of the financial reckoning playing out in sports broadcasting as cord-cutting proliferates. […]

The network has lost more than 10 million subscribers over the past several years. At the same time, the cost of broadcasting major sports has continued to rise. ESPN committed to a 10-year, $15.2 billion deal with the N.F.L. in 2011; a nine-year, $12 billion deal with the N.B.A.; and a $7.3 billion deal for the college football playoffs, among many others.

The Ringer:

This is what’s mind-blowing about the ESPN layoffs. It’s possible that the money the network decided it had to cut is so big that it couldn’t just prune people from fading properties like SportsCenter, or more fully abandon its plan to colonize local sports pages, which had been evident for some time. Here is ESPN cutting a digital reporter covering its biggest growth sport — one of two writers it attached to maybe the most popular sports team on the planet right now.

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Behind the Chorus to “Call Me Maybe”

Carly Rae Jepsen
Jason Tate

Carly Rae Jepsen sat down with Billboard to talk about the chorus of “Call Me Maybe” and how she feels about the song today:

The next day, Jepsen and Crowe brought the song to Josh Ramsay, the leader of pop-rock group Marianas Trench, who suggested that they turn the song’s pre-chorus into its proper chorus. “He went, ‘That pre-chorus is way hookier than the chorus that you guys have, so let’s repeat it,’” says Jepsen. From there, “Call Me Maybe” — originally more of a folk-leaning track, in the vein of Jepsen’s earlier singer-songwriter work — was re-imagined as a bubblegum pop track by Ramsay, who ended up producing the song. “He got inspired and started adding strings,” remembers Jepsen. “before we knew it, it had this whole new life.”

Billboard recently released a list of the “100 greatest choruses” of the 21st century. Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, Fun., Jimmy Eat World, and Walk the Moon all feature.

Phoenix to Release New Album in June

Phoenix
Jason Tate

Phoenix will release their new album, Ti Amo, on June 9th. The band sat down with The New York Times to talk about the album:

But the album also hints at a darkness that surrounded the group while it recorded in Paris during a turbulent time, as its hometown absorbed a swell of refugees, underwent a surge in alt-right sentiment and endured terrorist attacks. On the night of the attacks at the Bataclan, a concert hall where Phoenix had played and attended shows, the guitarist Christian Mazzalai was trapped in the studio, where the band was recording after the police shut down Paris.

Unroll.me Being Super Shady

Jason Tate

Unroll.me CEO, Jojo Hedaya, has responded to the controversy arising from revelations in The New York Times that the company does things like sell your “anonymized” receipts to third parties:

Our users are the heart of our company and service. So it was heartbreaking to see that some of our users were upset to learn about how we monetize our free service.

And while we try our best to be open about our business model, recent customer feedback tells me we weren’t explicit enough.

What a load of horse shit.

Bose Headphones May “Spy” on Listeners

Jason Tate

A lawsuit filed this week in Chicago alleges that Bose headphones “spy” on listeners. Michael Tsai has a good list of links about what this means:

I downloaded the app on android and listened to a few songs on Spotify to find out what information was being sent.

While the app is running, the app sends a HTTPS request every time the track information changes or the volume changes. When the track information changes it sends the artist, album and song name. When you change the volume it sends the new volume level.

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Indie Labels Can Now Window Their Album Releases on Spotify

Jason Tate

Spotify announced today a large group of indie record labels can put releases behind a two week paywall:

Continuing a successful nine-year partnership, the agreement is structured to reflect and promote the value of Merlin’s collective offering of its members’ repertoire, while offering improved marketing and advertising opportunities and enhanced access to data. Merlin member labels can also participate in Spotify’s recently announced flexible release policy.

Nintendo Might Be Following Up NES Classic With Mini SNES

Nintendo
Jason Tate

Ashlee Kieler, writing at Consumerist:

Nostalgia lovers who missed out on scoring one of Nintendo’s mini-Classic console systems before the company discontinued the product last week, could have another chance to walk down memory lane: The gaming company is reportedly planning to follow up on that system’s popularity with a miniature Super Nintendo version. Though, if the report is true, you’ll have to wait until the holidays.

I’d buy one. I still don’t understand why Nintendo discontinued the mini-NES though.

Prince Sold More Albums Than Any Other Artist in 2016

Prince
Jason Tate

Billboard:

In the year after Prince’s death on April 21, 2016, the Purple One’s catalog of albums and songs have sold a combined 7.7 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music, through the week ending April 13. Of that sum, 2.3 million were in traditional album sales, and 5.4 million were from digital song downloads.

The bulk of his album and songs sales occurred in the month after his death: 5.65 million were registered between April 21 and May 19, 2016.

Incredibly, for the full year of 2016, Prince sold more albums than any other artist — even Adele — with 2.23 million copies sold. (Adele sold 2.21 million albums last year.)

Spotify’s Half-Priced Student Pricing Expands Worldwide

Jason Tate

Sarah Perez, writing for TechCrunch:

The company announced today that its roughly half-priced version of its Premium service is now available to students who qualify in 33 new countries, in addition to the U.S., U.K., and Germany where student pricing is already offered.

The new countries where student pricing is now available includes: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Turkey.

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‘Captain Marvel’ Gets Two Directors

Marvel
Jason Tate

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will be directing the upcoming Captain Marvel movie:

Mississippi Grind directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck will direct Brie Larson in Captain Marvel, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Guardians of the Galaxy’s Nicole Perlman and Inside Out’s Meg LeFauve wrote the script for the Marvel Studios film, which will be produced by Kevin Feige.

They landed the job after an extensive search. Last summer, Marvel had whittled down its list of contenders to include Niki Caro, Lesli Linka Glatter and Lorene Scafaria for the highly coveted job, which will mark Marvel’s first female-centric tentpole. The studio was making the hiring of a woman a priority for the project.

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