John Paul Titlow
Billy Penn
Philadelphia, PA, United States
Contact John Paul
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Past articles by John Paul:
Philly restaurant workers turn to GoFundMe to survive COVID closures (again)
The forced shutdowns are coming during what’s usually the busy season. → Read More
How to Protect Yourself Online Over the Holidays (and Always)
There are a few precautions you can take to make yourself less vulnerable. Created in partnership with Private Internet Access. → Read More
Record Labels Are Rebounding, But This Startup Could Shake Their Dominance
UnitedMasters offers artists a combination of distribution across digital music services and detailed analytics. → Read More
Like It Or Not, Taylor Swift Is Onto Something With Her Streaming Strategy
Fans may be annoyed that Swift’s new album is not available on streaming services right away, but Team Taylor is wise to experiment with windowing. → Read More
Insanely popular lip-syncing app Musical.ly just got acquired for $1 billion
Musical.ly, the massively popular social lip-syncing app beloved by teenagers, has a new owner. Chinese tech firm Beijing Bytedance reportedly just acquired the company for as much as $1 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal. If you’re not familiar with Musical.ly, just inquire with the nearest teenager or tween. There’s a decent chance they’re … Continue reading “Insanely popular… → Read More
Instagram Is Using AI-Human Hybrids To Shape What You See Next
The team behind Instagram’s Explore tab reveals how a special sauce of algorithms and human curation keep things hyper-personalized–while reeling us in with weird slime videos we never knew we’d love. → Read More
Bjork’s new album goes all-in on the blockchain craze
For all the buzz around blockchain and its potential to help the music business do things like revamp its business model or track songwriter attribution, there have been few real-world examples to point to. Well, Bjork is hoping to change that. The famously experimental artist is partnering with British startup Blockpool to tie her next album … Continue reading “Bjork’s new album goes all-in on… → Read More
The streaming music boom continues as Sony’s fortunes climb
For music labels, the good news keeps piling up at a rate that seemed unimaginable just a few years ago. Quarter after quarter, big labels are reporting sizable jumps in revenue after over a decade of decline. Yesterday, Sony’s recorded music division reported that its Q2 revenue jumped 21.6% over last year, to nearly $1 … Continue reading “The streaming music boom continues as Sony’s fortunes… → Read More
Facebook now lets you buy tickets right on event pages, thanks to SeatGeek
If there’s one thing that keeps me from getting rid of my Facebook account, it’s events. No matter how distracting, banal, or overly politicized the news feed can get, Facebook is still the best place to keep track of parties, concerts, film screenings, geeky meet-ups, and anything else that may be going on IRL. Well, … Continue reading “Facebook now lets you buy tickets right on event pages,… → Read More
Twitter bans some Russians from buying ads
As part of Big Internet’s collective attempt to sweep up the mess it helped create during the 2016 election, Twitter is taking a hard look at its advertising platform. Today, the company announced that it’s banning Sputnik and Russia Today (RT) from buying ads on Twitter, after it was revealed that both Russian media outlets … Continue reading “Twitter bans some Russians from buying ads” → Read More
Google combats the internet’s trust problem with more fact-checkers
The internet has a credibility problem as of late, and apparently Google is eager to throw resources at it. A new partnership with Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) aims to expand Google’s army of fact-checkers and promote many of the best practices in fact-checking commonly adopted by news organizations like the Washington Post. Google will … Continue reading “Google combats… → Read More
Hopper brings its predictive travel-booking smarts to hotels
Ever since I learned about Hopper, it’s become my go-to app for booking flights. The price predictions, color-coded map, and customized price change notifications make it dangerously addictive, especially for those on-a-whim travel choices. Now it’s about to get even more useful. Today, Hopper is adding support for booking hotels on its platform. Using machine … Continue reading “Hopper brings… → Read More
Netflix earnings preview: Will a price hike and Disney showdown hamper growth?
Netflix is set to report its latest earnings on Monday. Those quarterly headlines tend to contain positive news for the streaming video giant–about its subscriber growth, especially–but what should we expect as the company preps its letter to investors for Q3? $2.97 billion. That’s how much quarterly revenue Netflix is expected to report, according to … Continue reading “Netflix earnings… → Read More
Spotify’s New App Aims To Hook Artists On The Power Of Their Own Data
Spotify is making its listener data more accessible to hungry artists with the launch of a new analytics app. → Read More
SoundCloud competitor MixCloud just signed its first major label deal–but is a business model possible?
MixCloud just became the latest music-streaming startup to begin inking licensing deals with the major labels. The user-uploaded radio and mixtape site just signed on with Warner Music, signaling a move toward some kind of more on-demand music service. (Until now, MixCloud has operated more like an Internet radio service, which relies on statutory licensing … Continue reading “SoundCloud… → Read More
Sonos’s Secret Weapon In The Smart Speaker Wars: Becoming A Platform
As tech titans release familiar-looking smart speakers, Sonos is hoping to set itself apart by opening its sound system up to developers–and giving users more freedom. → Read More
Sonos’s first Alexa-powered smart speaker is finally here
More than a year after Sonos first announced its voice partnership with Amazon, the first Alexa-powered Sonos speaker is here. The Sonos One, as it’s called, resembles the company’s entry-level Play:1 speaker, but with redesigned controls and a six-microphone array on the top and Alexa voice control built right in. It allows users of the … Continue reading “Sonos’s first Alexa-powered smart… → Read More
Sonos brings Alexa voice control and AirPlay to its speakers
The Alexa voice control features that Sonos promised last summer are finally here. At a media event in New York this morning, the company said support for Alexa will be available in public beta through a software update starting today. The initial integration will work by pairing Sonos speakers with Alexa-enabled Amazon devices like the Echo … Continue reading “Sonos brings Alexa voice control… → Read More
SoundCloud gives artists more data while its new CEO shifts focus to creators
After a rough summer marked mostly by gloomy headlines, SoundCloud is ready to start announcing new things. Today, the Berlin-based music streamer is expanding its data analytics for artists, offering up more insights around playlist activity: Who’s adding songs to playlists on SoundCloud? How many listens are coming from those playlists? It’s a relatively minor … Continue reading “SoundCloud… → Read More
People love asking Alexa about Justin Timberlake lyrics
In the future, one of the keys to success for musicians could be writing incessantly memorable lyrics. Okay, maybe that’s a stretch, but if Amazon’s on-demand Prime Music service continues to grow as a prominent source for streaming–and if Alexa-powered speakers like the new line of Echo devices remain as popular as they are–it could become … Continue reading “People love asking Alexa about… → Read More