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At the moment, the Spotify exodus of 2025 is a trickle rather than a flood, writes the Guardian, citing the departure of five notable bands "liked in indie circles," but not "the sorts to rack up billions of listens." "Still, it feels significant if only because, well, this sort of thing wasn't really supposed to happen any more." Plenty of bands and artists refused to play ball with Spotify in its early years, when the streamer still had work to do before achieving total ubiquity. But at some point there seemed to a collective recognition that resistance was futile, that Spotify had won and those bands would have to bend to its less-than-appealing model... This artist acquiescence happened in tandem — surely not coincidentally — with a closer relationship between Spotify and the record labels that once viewed it as their destroyer. Some of the bigger labels have found a way to make a lot of money from streaming: Spotify paid out $10bn in royalties last year — though many artists would point out that only a small fraction of that reaches them after their label takes its share... So why have those five bands departed in quick succession? The trigger was the announcement that Spotify founder Daniel Ek had led a €6oom fundraising push into a German defence company specialising in AI weapons technology. That was enough to prompt Deerhoof, the veteran San Francisco oddball noise pop band, to jump. "We don't want our music killing people," was how they bluntly explained their move on Instagram. That seems to have also been the animating factor for the rest of the departed, though GY!BE, who aren't on any social media platforms, removed their music from Spotify — and indeed all other platforms aside from Bandcamp — without issuing a statement, while Hotline TNT's statement seemed to frame it as one big element in a broader ideological schism. "The company that bills itself as the steward of all recorded music has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that it does not align with the band's values in any way," the statement read. That speaks to a wider artist discontent in a company that has, even by its own standards, had a controversial couple of years. There was of course the publication of Liz Pelly's marmalade-dropper of a book Mood Machine, with its blow-by-blow explanation of why Spotify's model is so deleterious to musicians, including allegations that the streamer is filling its playlists with "ghost artists" to further push down the number of streams, and thus royalty payments, to real artists (Spotify denies this). The streamer continues to amend its model in ways that have caused frustration — demonetising artists with fewer than 1,000 streams, or by introducing a new bundling strategy resulting in lower royalty fees. Meanwhile, the company — along with other streamers — has struggled to police a steady flow of AI-generated tracks and artists on to the platform... [R]emoving yourself from such an important platform is highly risky. But if they can pull it off, the sacrifice might just be worth it. "A cooler world is possible," as Hotline TNT put it in their statement. The Guardian's culture editor adds that "I've been using Bandcamp more, even — gasp — buying albums..." "Maybe weaning ourselves off not just Spotify, but the way that Spotify has convinced us to consume music is the only answer. Then a cooler world might be possible."

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The former Made In Chelsea star, 35, nearly died while giving birth to her son and spent a month in intensive care with 'serious complications' followed by years in and out of hospital.

The influencer, 26, on her eighth trip of the year, shared sweet clips of the family reunion, while sister Zoe, 28, completed an ultra marathon back home.

Legally paying as little tax as you have to is known as 'Tax Avoidance' as opposed to 'Tax Evasion' which is a crime.

She was announced as one of the celebrities taking part in this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

The band said the strikes, which will see RMT union members on the Tube take industrial action at different times from September 5 for seven days, had made it impossible for the gigs to go ahead.

Townsend, who is black, and Ostapenko, who is from Latvia, had an intense back and forth after Townsend won in straight sets earlier this week, with Ostapenko telling the American she has 'no class' and 'no education.'

The radical plan would see fast patrol craft surrounding the dinghies packed with passengers, who would then be 'guided back to French ports, in the safest manner possible'.

Kylie Jenner's daughter Stormi brought back one of her most recognizable looks this week.

Many assumed he was an urban legend but when the age of the internet dawned it was revealed Purple Aki was real, and he had a trail of terror and even death in his wake.

Joey Essex's MisFits Boxing debut has gone viral for all the wrong reasons after the reality TV star survived a chaotic four-round scrap to beat Portuguese prankster Numeiro on points.

Starmer hailed the e-gates change as one of the key elements of his deal with Brussels in May.

Former Labour Health Minister Andrew Gwynne, who was also part of the 'Trigger Me Timbers' group chat, was sacked by No. 10 after The MoS revealed vile, racist, sexist and anti-Semitic jokes.

The official 'Emergency Alert' will be sent to all 4G and 5G-enabled phones and tablets. The devices will vibrate and emit a siren-like tone for ten seconds. Pictured: File photo

Intel amended its deal with the U.S. Department of Commerce "to remove earlier project milestones," reports Reuters, "and received about $5.7 billion in cash sooner than planned." "The move will give Intel more flexibility over the funds." The amended agreement, which revises a November 2024 funding deal, retains some guardrails that prevent the chipmaker from using the funds for dividends and buybacks, doing certain control-changing deals and from expanding in certain countries. The move makes the Wall Street Journal wonder what, beyond equity, the U.S. now gets in return, calling government's position "a stake without a strategy." The U.S. has historically shied away from putting money into private business. It can't really outguess the market on where the most promising returns lie. Yet there are exceptions. Sometimes a company or industry risks failing without public support, and that failure would hurt the whole country, not just its shareholders and employees. Intel meets both conditions. It isn't failing, but it is losing money, its core business is in decline, and it lacks the capital and customers needed to make the most advanced semiconductors. If Intel were to fail, it would take a sizable chunk of the semiconductor industrial base with it. At a time of existential competition with China, that is a national emergency... [U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick] said as a shareholder, the U.S. would help Intel "to create the most advanced chips in the world." And yet the deal doesn't provide Intel with new resources to accomplish that. Rather, to get the remaining $9 billion, Intel had to give the U.S. equity. This is more like a tax than an investment: Shareholders gave up a 10th of their ownership in return for money the company was supposed to get anyway... Some of the administration's forays into private business do reflect strategic thinking, such as the Pentagon's 15% stake in MP Materials in exchange for investment and contracts that help make the company a viable alternative to China as a supplier of rare-earth magnets for products such as automobiles, wind turbines, jet fighters and missile systems. But more often, companies recoil from government ownership... Though the U.S. stake dilutes Intel's existing shareholders, its stock has held up. There could be several reasons. It eliminates uncertainty over whether the remaining $9 billion in federal funds will be forthcoming... [B]ecause Washington has a vested interest in Intel's share price, investors believe it may prod companies such as Nvidia and Apple to buy more of its chips. But that only goes so far, the article seems to conclude, offering this quote from an analyst Bernstein investment research. "If Intel can prove they can make these leading-edge products in high volume that meets specifications at a good cost structure, they'll have customers lined up around the block. If they can't prove they can do it, what customer will put meaningful volume to them regardless of what pressure the U.S. government brings to bear?" CBS News also notes the U.S. government stake "is being criticized by conservatives and some economic policy experts alike, who worry such extensive government intervention undermines free enterprise." Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the news.

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The Game Of Thrones star, 49, recently announced that he had been forced to quit the new series of Strictly for medical reasons. There is no suggestion his exit was related to the drug use.

When Julia Austin, 36, from Los Angeles, posted a rant about it on TikTok, claiming that she felt like the child's mother should have offered to pay for her messed-up coat, it lead to a massive debate.

Kamil Majchrzak has been reunited with the young boy who was left devastated when a man snatched a souvenir cap away from him in the aftermath of the Pole's victory at the US Open.

This latest incident comes just over two years after Chester banned eight fans indefinitely for violent disorder during a play-off semi-final defeat against Brackley Town.

It isn't spoken about enough, but age-related hair changes can really affect mental well-being. The great news is if you work on it you can really get fantastic results.