Need to Know – The latest US media & marketing news: Apple's Swift u-turn, Inside/Out TV spend & Tinder plots video
Morning all, here’s a glimpse at all the media and marketing news you should know today.
1. Apple has failed to shake off criticism from Taylor Swift over its music streaming service. Business Insider reports that Swift dubbed a three-month royalty-free trial period of Apple Music "shocking [and] disappointing”, pressuring the company to eventually announce that it will pay artists during the start-up window.
2. Disney invested a solid $24m advertising its new animated Pixar flick ‘Inside/Out’ on national TV, according to MediaPost. For its money, the company received a minimum of 4,638 national TV airings.
3. Twitter has taken steps to enable top brands and influencers on the site to share curated collections of content. The Guardian reports that Amanda Palmer, Ariana Grande, Demi Lovato, Cody Simpson, William Shatner, Reese Witherspoon and Michelle Phan are among those posting products and other content on site.
4. Tinder is gearing up to launch a video dating feature enabling users to show a little more of themselves on-site. Don’t expect it any time soon however, co-founder Sean Radd told The Drum “It’s complicated, but we’re figuring out the right way to do it for users.”
5. Amazon has announced it will start paying some of its authors by the number of pages read by consumers. The Atlantic noted the change which Amazon said would “rewards authors for their valuable work”.
6. Instagram has been blocked in North Korea with those trying to access the site being warned it is blacklisted, notes Business Insider. The warning states that the Facebook-owned image sharing site features "harmful content".
7 Snapchat founder Evan Spiegel released a straight to the point infomercial taking brands through the benefits of advertising on the phot-messaging app. TechCrunch reports that the slot stated that Snapchat is the only firm (among rivals Facebook and YouTube) which is capable of delivering full screen ads between content on mobile.
8. Samsung has released a video of a HGV it has dubbed ‘The Safety Truck’ which displays real-time footage of the road ahead to enable motorists to overtake the vehicle. The campaign could help reduce accidents in the nation which has long swathes of single lane roads, making overtaking a considerable hazard.
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