NEW RESOURCES

Several music heavyweights are teaming up to develop a global music rights database. “All three major labels plus the likes of Spotify, Pandora and YouTube have committed to creating a new system to ‘dramatically simplify the way that music creators and rights owners are identified and compensated’. The Open Music Initiative (OMI) has been founded by Berklee College of Music’s Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE), and has been publicly backed by Universal, Sony, Warner and many more – although Apple’s name is conspicuous by its absence.”

TWEAKS AND UPDATES

This apparently happened at the end of last month and I completely missed it. Gotta try harder next time. The Oyez archive will be moved to Cornell University. “In 1996, Jerry Goldman, then a professor at Northwestern University, assembled a few dozen recordings of Supreme Court arguments and made them available through a website originally called The Oyez Project. Today Oyez, as it is now known, has grown to become the authoritative source for all of the Supreme Court’s audio since the court first installed a recording system in 1955, as well as an extensive archive of related resources. But with Goldman retiring this month from Chicago-Kent College of Law, where Oyez is now run, the site’s future was in question.”

Facebook is is launching new suicide prevention tools. “This is something Facebook hopes to change as they have recently begun rolling out suicide-prevention tools for users. These tools will be available via a drop-down menu in which users can report posts that will then be flagged by Facebook’s global community operations, who will then monitor the post to ensure that the person isn’t suicidal.” I think Facebook has had these tools before, but the difference, if I’m remembering correctly, is that this is a more general rollout.

MailChimp is now on IFTTT. “Millions of people around the world use MailChimp to share news, tell their stories, and grow their businesses. Today, we’re excited to welcome that community to IFTTT! MailChimp (and their famous winking mascot Freddie) now has a Channel where you can set up Recipes that will run when new campaigns are sent or scheduled, you get new subscribers, new campaign reports become available, and more.”

Just like every other social media site on the planet (at least that’s what it feels like), Pinterest is getting deeper into advertising. “Starting today, advertisers will be able to advertise against Pinterest users that have visited their sites — giving retailers a powerful new tool that is available in other advertising suites that will help them follow users as they browse the internet (including on Pinterest). With visitor retargeting, advertisers can place a Pinterest conversion tag across their sites, which will help it follow users onto Pinterest and better target their ads.”

Google is going to start offering checkout WiFi in Toronto. “Toronto libraries have something new you can check out and take home: wireless internet. Google is partnering with the city to offer portable WiFi hotspots, which will be loaned out for up to six months at a time. Six library branches, all located in low-income neighbourhoods, will offer the service.”

Looks like Google Fiber might be headed to Dallas. “Here comes the next city Google Fiber has in its sights: Dallas, Texas. The Alphabet unit said so today, noting, as it has with potential markets, that it is ‘exploring’ entering the city — maybe dotting the i’s with city officials or weighing the costs or both.”

USEFUL STUFF

Quick and simple tips to get your IP address. I didn’t know you could use Siri!

AROUND THE SEARCH AND SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

Electric Daisy Carnival will be streaming on Facebook Live as well as a few other places. “From 11:30 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. ET this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the live stream will show sets from the massive event’s eight stages. It will also capture behind-the-scenes moments, interviews with artists and wedding ceremonies from the festival’s chapels.”

I was very surprised to read that Johnson Publishing has sold its magazines Ebony and Jet. I was absolutely shocked to read that Johnson Publishing’s photo archives are for sale. “A family-owned business throughout its history, Ebony has documented the African-American experience since it first hit newsstands in 1945. It has shaped culture ever since, coming into its own as it reported from the front lines of the civil rights movement during the 1960s in powerful photos and prose…. In January 2015, Johnson Publishing put its entire photo archive up for sale, hoping to raise $40 million. The historic collection spans seven decades of African-American history, chronicling everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Sammy Davis Jr.”

Twitter has apparently invested $70 million in SoundCloud. Who knew Twitter had $70 million to invest in anything? “Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, confirmed that the company’s investment in a statement to the technology news site Recode on Tuesday. He did not specify the amount, and a spokeswoman for Twitter declined to comment. But the figure was confirmed by a person who had been briefed on the deal.”

A Facebook executive is predicting that our Facebook timelines will be all video in five years. “Videos are now viewed 8 billion times daily on Facebook, up from 1 billion views a year ago, Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said at a Fortune conference in London.” She’s probably a zillionaire and I’m just some random dork with a blog, but this sounds really silly. Good morning, Internet…

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