Patreon CPO says the company will double in size in 2022

Creator monetization startups are cropping up left and right as the tech world embraces the fast-growing creator economy. But Patreon, founded in 2013, has been around since before words like “influencer” were in our vocabulary — back when “Tik Tok” was a Kesha song, rather than the social platform that everyone is trying to emulate. […]

Interactive streaming platform Adventr raises $5M in seed funding

Founder and CEO Devo Harris got the idea for Adventr while working with the music industry’s biggest artists. “Adventr was inspired by my experience creating content for artists like Kanye West, Britney Spears and Nas,” he said. “The music videos where I introduced interactive components shot up in popularity, proving that engaging viewers was not […]

Spotify acquires podcast tech company Whooshkaa which turns radio broadcasts into on-demand audio

Spotify is continuing its investments in podcasts with today’s news that’s it’s acquired another podcast technology company, Whooshkaa, an Australia-based all-in-one platform for hosting, managing, distributing, promoting, monetizing and measuring podcasts. The deal follows Spotify’s earlier acquisitions in the podcast technology market, including last year’s deal for hosting and ad company Megaphone, and, more recently, […]

Google offers behavioral pledges on news payments in France to try to end costly antitrust litigation

In its latest move to placate European competition regulators, Google has offered a set of commitments to France’s antitrust watchdog — in the hopes of settling a costly (for it) intervention over legally mandated payments for displaying snippets of news publishers’ content. Back in July, France’s Autorité de la Concurrence slapped the tech giant with […]

Disney+ rolls out support for Apple’s SharePlay co-viewing experience over FaceTime

Disney+ is the latest streaming app to add support for Apple’s SharePlay, the iOS 15 feature that offers a co-viewing experience over FaceTime video calls on iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple TV devices. First announced during Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, SharePlay rolled out with the iOS 15.1 update, soon offering co-viewing experiences […]