Techmeme
April 17, 2021, 12:25 AM

Top News

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
In a letter to artists, Apple says it pays a penny per stream, roughly double Spotify, which pays an average of about one-third to half a penny per stream  —  Streaming services open up about artist payouts, seeking to win credibility and subscribers  —  Apple Music told artists it pays …
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Looking at payment per stream metrics for music streaming services can be misleading when considering artist pay, as many factors determine streaming royalties  —  Early Friday, Apple Music sent a carefully worded letter to artists, music labels and publishers that briefly explained …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Firefox and major Chromium browsers like Edge, Opera, Brave, and Vivaldi are not joining FLoC, Google's proposed ad technology to replace third-party cookies  —  Brave, Vivaldi, Edge, and Mozilla are all out  —  Google is going it alone with its proposed advertising technology to replace third-party cookies.
Cristiano Lima / Politico:
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Sources: Amazon is planning a furniture service that would require drivers to assemble items and take them back on the spot if the customer isn't satisfied  —  - Service expansion to appliances could target Home Depot, Lowes  — Online furniture sales grew 41% in pandemic to $36.1 billion
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started out as a joke in 2013, now has a market cap of $40B+ after growing nearly 400%+ in the past seven days  —  - Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency based on the “Doge” meme, which rose to popularity in late 2013.  It started out as a joke.
The Information:
Source: Dapper Labs, maker of NFT-focused NBA Top Shot, is raising a new round at a $7.5B+ valuation, just a few weeks after raising $305M at a $2.6B valuation  —  The rush of enthusiasm for blockchain-based collectives is driving an extraordinary surge of investor interest in Dapper Labs …
Alex Heath / The Information:
Sources: group messaging app IRL is in talks to raise $50M+ at a $1B valuation; the company was last valued at $100M in September  —  Group messaging app IRL is in talks to raise more than $50 million at a $1 billion valuation, 10 times the level of its last round, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Associated Press:
Microsoft removes Positive Technologies from a list of vendors it gives early access to vulnerability info; IBM also lists Positive as a security partner  —  The Treasury Department on Thursday slapped six Russian technology companies with sanctions for supporting Kremlin intelligence agencies engaged in …
NBC News:
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Squarespace files for a direct listing on NYSE, says it had revenues of $621.1M in 2020, up 28% YoY, net income of $30.6M, and operating cash flow of $150M  —  Today Squarespace, a well-known software-and-hosting provider for SMB websites, released its S-1 filing.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Interview with Initialized Capital's Garry Tan on the firm's seed investment in Coinbase, Ohanian's departure, building a presence on social media, and more  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  In March 2012, Garry Tan received an email from the founder of a new startup called Bitbank, Brian Armstrong.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Ireland-based digital rights group begins “mass action” to sue Facebook over 2019 breach, citing the right to monetary compensation set out in the GDPR  —  Facebook is to be sued in Europe over the major leak of user data that dates back to 2019 but which only came to light recently …
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Outschool, a marketplace for online after-school classes, raises $75M Series C led by Coatue and Tiger Global at a $1.3B valuation, up from $320M in Sep. 2020  —  The after-school class marketplace brings on Coatue and Tiger Global as investors  —  Outschool, a marketplace providing small-group …
Ece Toksabay / Reuters:
Turkey's central bank bans the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets to pay for goods and services directly or indirectly  —  Bitcoin tumbled more than 4% on Friday after Turkey's central bank banned the use of cryptocurrencies and crypto assets for purchases citing possible “irreparable” damage and transaction risks.

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Earlier Picks

Naaman Zhou / The Guardian:
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Reuters:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Wall Street Journal:
Diane Bartz / Reuters: