SPOTIFY

The year’s most played artist on Spotify.

The holiday season brings many enduring traditions, but one that’s pretty much impossible to ignore is the (depending on how you look at it) onslaught or blessing of constant Christmas and snow tunes!

Michelle Obama will let her own voice be heard on a new podcast. The Obama’s Higher Ground and Spotify announced Thursday that the former first lady will host “The Michelle Obama Podcast” on the streaming service.

Spotify has become the latest tech company to enter the conversation around political ads, announcing Friday it will suspend them at the beginning of 2020. Unlike Twitter and Facebook, however, Spotify refrained from offering its perspective on political advertising, saying that the decision is the result of the music-streaming company not having sufficient tools to vet the ads. “At this point in time,...

Google’s new game-streaming service Stadia demonstrates the possibilities of gaming from the cloud, but experts say it’s hindered by a lack of compelling games and a somewhat convoluted pricing scheme.

Airbnb is pushing out several new safety features in the wake of a tragic incident at one of their bookings, CEO Brian Chesky announced Wednesday.

The storytelling of country music connects a wide swath of Americans from East Coast to the West Coast, from North to the South. For many country writers, their lyrics were inspired by real places and real people, adding authenticity to the melody. A scan of popular country song titles, from “Luckenbach, Texas,” ″Okie from Muskogee,” ″New San Antonio Rose,” and...

This past week, the Recording Industry Association of America released its mid-year report. It showed that 80% of the of music industry’s revenue comes from streaming, but it also showed that revenue from sales of vinyl records is on track to overtake that of compact discs by the year’s end, should current trends continue. When the compact disc was introduced...

Slack’s newly public shares aren’t slacking off. The work messaging service’s market value grew 60% after it started trading Thursday under the ticker “WORK.”

The Obamas are getting into the podcasting business, and Spotify has the exclusive rights. Spotify announced Thursday that it has signed a partnership deal with Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, to produce podcasts that will be available only on its streaming platform. The deal comes on the heels of a similar agreement between Higher Ground and Netflix...

Manuel Henriquez has resigned as CEO of Hercules Capital and TPG executive William McGlashan has been placed on indefinite leave at the private equity firm after they were accused in a scam to help their children get into top colleges. The two were among 50 people charged in what investigators said was a $25 million bribery scam. Henriquez, 55, resigned...

As iPhone sales slip, Apple has been positioning its booming digital-services business as its new profit engine. But there could be a snag in that plan. A brewing backlash against the rich commissions Apple earns from all purchases and subscriptions made via iPhone apps could undercut the app store, which generates about a third of the company’s services revenue. Late...

Ariana Grande says she is “so sorry” to anyone offended by her latest single, “7 Rings.” As rappers including Princess Nokia and Soulja Boy have come forward to accuse the pop star of stealing the song, Ariana is apologizing for a completely separate controversy involving the lyrics. It all started when the pop star shared (and then swiftly deleted) a...

Mariah Carey’s 24-year-old Christmas classic is so popular it set a new one-day streaming record on Spotify on Christmas Eve. Chart Data reported that “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” released in 1994, was played 10.8 million times on Spotify on Monday. The song bested the record set by rapper-singer XXXTentacion, who logged 10.4 million streams with “SAD!” a...

Facebook again aimed to convince its 2.3 billion users that it didn’t allow more than 150 other companies to misuse their personal data on Wednesday night after its valuation fell by more than $28 billion on the stock market, NBC News reported. “In the past day, we’ve been accused of disclosing people’s private messages to partners without their knowledge,” Ime...

It’s Wednesday, December 19th – and NBC 6 has the top stories you need to know.

Facebook denied Tuesday night that its dozens of “partners” — companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and Yahoo — were able to misuse Facebook users’ personal data, NBC News reported. The company, however, didn’t address explosive new allegations that it gave those companies far broader access to private data than it has previously acknowledged. The New York Times reported Tuesday...

Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” is the most streamed song of the 20th century, racking up more than 1.6 billion streams, NBC News reported. It’s also the most streamed classic rock song of all time, according to Universal Music Group, which represents the band’s catalog globally, outside of North America. “So the River of Rock Music has metamorphosed into streams! Very happy...