Immediately, Musk threatens to intestine Twitter’s workers, Spotify has clocked 5.5 million podcasts, and Bannon may truly go to jail.
Report: Elon Musk needs to chop three-quarters of Twitter’s workers
A bombshell report from The Washington Publish yesterday revealed that Elon Musk’s pitch to Twitter traders included mass layoffs that might whittle down the corporate’s workers from 7,500 to 2,000. If the deal goes by this month, which it’s supposedly on observe for, then cuts are anticipated to influence staff who work on content material moderation and safety.
The Publish’s report notes that cuts are possible on the way in which for Twitter no matter whether or not Musk goes by with the acquisition — the corporate was already planning to put off a couple of quarter of its workers. However Musk has a specific disdain for content material moderation as an idea, and one knowledgeable instructed the Publish that customers could be at elevated threat of hacks and publicity to harmful content material that might in any other case be weeded out.
Following the article from the Publish, Bloomberg reported that Musk’s staffing proposal occurred earlier within the yr and has not been mentioned because the merger settlement was signed. Twitter common counsel Sean Edgett instructed staffers that “there have been no plans for any companywide layoffs.” Nonetheless, that doesn’t preclude the (very possible) chance that Musk would institute some model of his plan if and when he takes the helm of the corporate.
It’s unclear how such widespread cuts would have an effect on Twitter’s audio enterprise, however it will probably’t be good. Dwell audio is especially tough to reasonable, and with sources unfold so skinny, I wouldn’t be stunned if that fell down the record of priorities. Plus, Twitter’s podcast characteristic, which remains to be within the testing section, has its personal moderation challenges. The present model pulls from all of RSS to create playlists of episodes picked based mostly on a consumer’s algorithm. With out correct moderation, it’s not unreasonable to count on that customers may find yourself with offensive content material of their playlists. That, by the way in which, is that if Twitter decides to go vast with podcasts in any respect, given the present scenario. The corporate didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Then there’s the problem of how Musk’s plans for Twitter will have an effect on the audio trade from a social standpoint. It’s simply a very powerful discussion board for trade discourse. If it turns into (extra of) a cesspool of hate speech, harassment, and unmitigated offensive content material, will that proceed to be the case? I hope that doesn’t find yourself taking place, but when so, I actually wouldn’t hesitate to ditch my account.
Musk has not responded to the report, however doesn’t appear terribly involved about how such cuts would influence Twitter’s staff or customers. Opendoor founder JD Ross tweeted in the present day that “WhatsApp had 35 engineers for 450 million customers, and grew to a staff of fifty for 900 million customers. Twitter slicing to 2,000 staff from 7,500 will not be a ‘skeleton workers’.” Musk responded with a laugh-cry emoji. Looks like a boss!
Are there now 5.5 million podcasts on Spotify?
A tweet noticed by Podnews screenshotted a Spotify notification that mentioned the platform is now dwelling to five,523,475 podcasts. If that’s true, we’ll get affirmation subsequent week throughout Spotify’s third-quarter earnings.
That may be a fairly huge bounce from Spotify’s last-reported determine of 4.4 million. Plus, Spotify is more likely to tout its new audiobook library throughout subsequent week’s name. However even because it paves the way in which for extra creator content material, music remains to be dominant — specialists estimate that 100,000 new tracks are uploaded to Spotify and different music streamers every single day.
Even Pinterest is making an attempt to be TikTok
I’ve solely ever used Pinterest to plan my marriage ceremony and create a makeover temper board for my husband’s worst buddy, however the platform is admittedly leaning into short-form movies. My colleague Mia Sato reported earlier this week that Pinterest has lower offers with music firms like Warner, Merlin, and BMG to reinforce the creator expertise of Thought Pins, its 60-second video characteristic.
As platforms try to tackle TikTok, they’re leaning on music libraries to lure creators. In July, Fb introduced that it had established a brand new financial institution of licensed tunes from the likes of Publish Malone and Tove Lo. Final month, YouTube introduced it was making an attempt to maneuver past its observe of demonetizing movies that includes music, as a substitute permitting creators of each lengthy and short-form movies to share income with music rightsholders.
Steve Bannon is sentenced to 4 months in jail for defying Home subpoena
Are you able to podcast from jail?
That’s all for now. Have an ideal weekend.
