music

the Honor Robot Phone dances to your music as well as takes photos of you

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Over the years I have seen innovations that passed through mobile phones in a flash. The motorized cameras They were one of them: they became popular between 2018 and 2020 and then disappeared from the market as if they had not existed. Until Honor has arrived with his Robot Phonea phone that maximizes the bet of the original motorized cameras. The brand brought its latest innovations to Barcelona, ​​although the presentation had a bitter taste. The foldable Honor V6 It will still take a few months to arrive and the robotic mobile does not even have a date. Its state is experimental, it cannot be touched. It does allow you to invoke the camera using gestures. A gimbal tied to a smartphone Vivo has been including its gimbal mechanism in the X family for years, a three-axis stabilizer that simulates the stabilization accessory. But Honor’s bet is radically different, since the Robot Phone includes a authentic gimbal. And orchestrated with AI. The idea behind the phone is to offer automated photo and video taking without us having to worry about keeping the person in focus or following them. The Robot Phone can do all that without the need for extra accessories: the rear camera deploys when commanded. Either from the phone settings or by gestures: The front camera must recognize the palm of the hand, like the photo application does to take a selfie without touching the phone. Once the detection is made, an icon appears on the screen to notify you. At that moment you have to turn your hand so that the robot camera comes out. The robotic arm is activated by coming out of its rear socket and facing the user. The process between detection and the moment the camera is active takes about ten seconds. It’s not fast, it still needs some polishing. The gimbal of the robot camera consists of three axes with motors developed by Honor itself. The brand assures that they are the smallest in the world and that it has achieved reduce its size by 70% with respect to similar engines. The result of including this motorization is a very small, versatile and, according to Honor, very robust accessory. They use the experience and materials they already use in the hinges of the V-foldings. More than a camera Instantly attention-grabbing, you don’t expect a robotic arm to come out from behind a phone. That surprise ends up leading to empathy: Honor highlights the robot’s ability to interact with the user. For example, you can follow the rhythm of music by moving your head up and down. Or emphasize the conversation when we interact with the AI. Honor proposes different use cases for the phone. It is a camera that follows the action, that avoids shaking and that can pan without moving the mobile. In addition, it is capable of becoming a co-worker thanks to AI: it can become a work co-pilot. All thanks to Honor AI already Gemini. No specifications at the moment As a proof of concept, we still don’t know much more about its technical sheet other than that it has a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 as a processor and a 200 megapixel sensor for the robotic camera. The mobile has a solid construction (probably aluminum), straight edges and a screen that will not be far from 6.7 inches. It will be a premium range with all the law. It is a risky concept and I don’t quite see its more practical side, but the curious one. For video recording I think it’s an excellent idea, also for those who want to record everything: the Robot Phone can identify the environment and react to what it sees. AI action tracking is one of its best capabilities. It is still somewhat clumsy in practice, it is difficult to interact with the camera and You can see that the software is a bit green: The robotic camera did not always appear when making the hand gesture. And you had to close the capture application to try again. Live stuff. The return of motorized cameras under the protection of AI I remember having tested many mobile phones with cameras that were hidden in the phone to ensure that the entire screen surface was usable. He OPPO N3 He was one of the first, Asus Zenfone 6 It is another of the models that brings back the most memories: it allowed you to follow people taking advantage of the movement of the camera. The Honor Robot Phone has gone much further. It is a mobile phone that is unlike any other, at least for now. It offers different solutions to all those who use the phone to record video. And embrace the great presence that AI is having in all technological devices. Because, if robots are one step away from get to our housesthe advance could well be the Robot Phone. If the cell phone one day comes to make my bed, I’ll sign it. Images | Ivan Linares In Xataka | Best Honor phones in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

How to know if the music you listen to on Spotify or Apple Music is from a real artist or made by artificial intelligence

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Let’s give you some clues about how to detect if the music you are listening to Is it by a real artist or is it made by artificial intelligence. We are going to focus on that music that is on streaming platforms like Spotify or Apple Music. The way to detect it is not by looking for things in the music itself, but looking at the artist who created the song. Music made by artificial intelligence does not stop flood streaming servicesand they are having enough trouble stopping it. Many times it is easy to detect, it is music without soul, but one way or another, they are there taking clicks and listens, and the money that should go to real musicians. Therefore, we are going to give you a list of things you should pay attention to to detect if what you hear is from a real musician or not. It is not that if one of these points is met it is music made by AI, but that the more of these red flags it raises, the more it will be pointed in that direction. Listen carefully to the music If you are going to check if an artist is real or if they are songs made by AI, it is possibly because you are noticing something strange in the music. Here, you will be able to notice it especially depending on the musical genre you listen to. This is because elements such as excessively clean voices or lack of natural breathing can be the first indication, although in some commercial genres you will also find this due to excess production. Ultimately, the music will sound artificial, soulless. The phrases in the case of singing will sound mechanical and without any emotion, and the lyrics will also be quite bad. Pay attention to how the instruments sound musicals, because if they sound too compact, like a mush where you can’t distinguish each one of them and their clean sound, it could also be due to AI… or again, due to bad production. Biography and photo of the artist If music has left you suspicious, play then Click on the artist’s name to enter their profile within the streaming platform. The first thing that may make you suspicious is that there is no photo of the artist or the bandand instead there is some landscape or generic image. The fact that the photo of the band is not a photo of the musicians or the soloist is something that should make us suspicious. In the case of a photo of people appearing, you can check if it is made by AI, if it looks unnatural or if there is an excess of processing of the image, but normally AI artists do not usually risk this. It is also worth checking the biography of the artist or band. Look out for some suspicious signs, like the fact that it doesn’t include names of the members, where they are from, or those biographical data that usually give you a little more context about the artists. Instead, “musicians” made by AI will give ambiguous descriptions, and there will be times when in a fit of honesty they will directly say that it is music made by artificial intelligence. Discography and volume of releases The next step would be to look at your albums. If you see that their first releases have been around for many years, this would indicate that they are a normal band, because the AI ​​that generates music has only been able to resemble real music for a couple of years or three. If the releases they have are all new, it could also be because they are a new artist. Then look at the volume of the pitches. Human musicians, those of flesh and blood, can take from one to five or six years to release each new record. If you see that the artist has 2 or 5 full albums released in two monthsthen this should set off all the alarms. It’s AI. And by this we mean albums, not singles or individual songs. you should also pay attention to how the music sounds. If all the songs seem too samey you should also be suspicious, and if the track titles are too generic and simple too. Real artists are not a donut factorythey are not going to release an album every two weeks or every two months, because this requires a process of composition, recording, mastering, and creation of physical formats. Nobody is going to release 40 songs to you in a year if they don’t cheat. Find information about the artist and his concerts If your suspicions are still there, then comes the next level, that of looking for information about these artists on other pages. The first thing could be search for photos or videos of live concerts on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram. Also look for news on music websites. You can also search for concert dates, if they appear at festivals, if they are mentioned on networks. Come on, there must be proof that they are artists that someone has seen or known, because the normal thing is that the objective of musicians is to play live, not simply record albums. You can also search for his name on specialized platforms. Discogs is the largest database of albums and music releases on the Internet, it is a good place to start, in addition to Wikipedia or All Music. Also look for specialized media, such as Metal Archives for rock and heavy metal, and those for other musical genres. In the end, If it seems as if the artist does not exist because there are no photos or any reference outside of streaming platforms… possibly because they don’t exist. There will be artists who use AI In short, if everything we have told you above points in one direction, you will have already located a fake musician who is really an AI algorithm. … Read more

which artists participate, schedule and how to watch the online music contest

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Let’s explain to you when and how to watch the final of Benidorm Fest 2026the RTVE musical competition. This is the contest from which in recent years the song that would go to Eurovision has emerged, but which continues despite the fact that Spain has withdrawn from the European event. Let’s start by telling you which artists with which songs will participate in the final of the Benidorm Fest in 2026. Then, we will remind you of the date and time of the final, because the schedule is different from that of the semifinals. And we’ll finish by telling you how you can watch the show. Benidorm Fest 2026 finalists Below we leave you the list of finalists of this musical contest. In it, we will tell you first the artist and then the song with which they perform. And then, with the votes of the public and jury, the winner will emerge from among them. Tony Grox & LUCYCALYS with I WILL LOVE They raise moons with What are you going to do? KITAI with Love makes you afraid Mikel Herzog Jr. with My Half Kenneth with The eyes don’t lie María León ft. Julia Medina with Ladies and the Tramp Miranda! & dance momma with I wake up loving you MAY with touch me Rosalinda Galan with Mataora Dani J with Dancing you The Quinquis with You Don’t Love Me ASHA with Tourist Date and time of the Benidorm Fest 2025 final The final of Benidorm Fest 2026 will be today, Saturday February 14 2026. The final will begin at 22:00ten at night, in pure prime time. It is important to remember this, because the semifinals were almost an hour later. By 1 in the morning the winner will be known, since that will be when the press conference will be held. How to watch the final of Benidorm Fest 2025 The final of Benidorm Fest 2026 will be broadcast live on Spanish Television La1. This means that you will be able to watch the contest openly and for free from any television with access to DTT. You can also see it online from the RTVE Play website or mobile applicationin rtve.es/play. But if you prefer, you can also see it with the official RTVE Play app on Google Play for Android, and in the App Store for iOS. This will allow you to watch it on mobile phones, tablets and devices with Android TV or Apple TV. There are also official applications for Smart TVs from the main manufacturers. And as an alternative, you can also use applications that allow you watch DTT live online on any device, such as TiViFy, DTT Channels and other similar alternatives. In Xataka Basics | Free TV and DTT channels for your TV: guide with 26 services and apps with hundreds of channels without having to pay

Dates, time and how to watch the semifinals of the Spanish music festival online

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Let’s tell you when and how you can watch the semi-finals of Benidorm Fest 2026, the popular annual music competition. Until now, this contest was used to decide who would go to Eurovision, but even though they will not attend in 2026, the contest continues, and this week the semifinals are held. In each of these two semi-finals, after the performance of the artists, the vote of the public and the jury of experts will arrive, and with the sum of all The artists who go to the final will be decided. Each semi-final is on a different day, and we are going to explain how you can watch them. Dates and times of the Benidorm Fest semi-finals There are two semi-finals of the Benidorm Fest 2026, and they will be held on February 10 and 12. Therefore, as usual, the first will be on Tuesday and the second on Thursday of this week. Then, The final will be on Saturday February 14. Each of the programs will be held at the Palau d’Esports l’Illa in Benidorm. The two semi-finals They will start at 11:00 p.m.right after the program “The Revolt”and will last until 1:20. On both days, the contest will begin at the same time. In each of the semi-finals there will be a group of eight aspiring artists who will perform their songs for the first time. These are the participants of the first semi-final: KITAI – Love scares you María León ft. Julia Medina – Ladies and the Tramp Luna Ki – Love Bomb Greg Taro – Velita Izan Llunas – What are you going to do? Dora & Marlon Collins – Rakata Tony Grox & LUCYCALYS – T AMARÉT AMARÉ Mikel Herzog Jr. – My half Kenneth – Eyes don’t lie These are the participants of the second semi-final: ASHA – Tourist KU Minerva – I will not cry again Tightrope walker – SOBRAN GILIPO**AS Dani J – Dancing you The Quinquis – You don’t love me Atyat – Dopamine Rosalinda Galán – Mataora MAY – Touch me Miranda! & bailamamá – I wake up loving you How to watch the Benidorm Fest semi-finals The semi-finals of this new edition of the Benidorm Fest will be broadcast by Spanish Television La1. This means that you will be able to watch it for free on any television where you have this channel, whether it is DTT or streaming services with access to television channels. You will also be able to watch the semifinals through the Internet, specifically through the the RTVE Play website or mobile applicationwhich is available in rtve.es/play. There, at the time the broadcast begins, you will have the option to watch the semifinals live. Another option available is to see them from apps for smart devices. You can do this with the official RTVE Play app on Google Play for Android, and in the App Store for iOS. These applications are also available on all Android and iOS-based platforms, including devices with Android TV or Apple TVs. There are also official applications for Smart TVs from the main manufacturers. And as an alternative, you can also use applications that allow you watch DTT live online on any device, such as TiViFy, DTT Channels and other similar alternatives. In Xataka Basics | Free TV and DTT channels for your TV: guide with 26 services and apps with hundreds of channels without having to pay

An alliance between Ford and Geely sounds like melodic music for Almussafes. The reality is much more complex

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Ford is looking for a Chinese car. Reason: here. This is the sign that could hang on the door of the Ford factory in Almussafes (Valencia). The American company is looking for partners in China to produce electric cars and Geely seems to be one of the best positioned brands. Nor is it the first that has raised rumors about possible collaborations with the American brand, which, in addition, is already linked to Volkswagen or Renault. But what does Almussafes have to do with all this? Ford and Geely. The last brand with which Ford has been related in recent days has been with Geely. According to Reuters, Ford and Geely, Chinese group that owns Volvo, Polestar or Smart, among othersare holding talks to produce cars in Europe in one of the spaces that the company has on our continent. In addition, collaboration is being studied for the development of shared technologies such as autonomous driving. In Reuters They point to two sources who were aware of this information and the company has not denied that this is happening. “We have conversations with many companies about many things. Some are fruitful and others are not,” the Americans assure the news agency. For its part, Geely has not commented. Ford moves. It is not the first time that the company has been related to a Chinese company. On this occasion, it is said that negotiations have been underway for months and that Ford would have sent workers to the Asian country to advance a hypothetical agreement. Coincidence or not, Jim Farley has been traveling in China recently and He has been complimenting Chinese manufacturers for a long time. One of those companies that he has complimented and with which it has also been related It’s Xiaomi. Farley himself took a Xiaomi SU7 to the United States and has not failed to point out all the good things this product does. The collaboration agreement, it seems evident, would be for Europe since Chinese cars have an almost impossible future in the United States as a consequence of the Government’s own veto. Why Geely? The conversations with Geely seem to have much more substance than the possible collaborations with Xiaomi. The automobile conglomerate has brands that are not unknown to the European public (Volvo, Lotus, Smart…) whose electric cars do not have to break that barrier of entry into the European collective imagination as a “Chinese car.” However, Geely has a problem: they pay a lot of tariffs. As many as 37.6% after The European Union will withdraw in 2024 to try to protect an industry that was threatened by cheaper electric cars. Since then, the impact of the Chinese car has been limited to the lowest priced units. And it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change whether the negotiations between the European Union and China They still don’t get ahead. Collaborating with Ford and using the company’s facilities would allow Geely to produce electric cars without going through the checkout. And although labor costs are higher than the Chinese, they would not have to build new facilities because they would take advantage of those that the company has already built. Almussafes? In the information of Reuters It is assured that “Ford’s plant in Valencia would probably be the factory involved in these talks, said a person familiar with the matter.” However, some details must be taken into account. The factory is running right now at half throttlewith a Ford Kuga that is facing its last days on the market and that is not going to be renewed. The promise is to produce a multi-energy vehicle small size until 2028 when an electric car should arrive. To do this, the plant would need a deep reconversion that Ford is reluctant to carry out because North Americans are obtaining very low sales with their electric cars. A solution, therefore, would be to reach an agreement with Geely so that the Chinese company would take advantage of these facilities by making the appropriate conversions. The only doubt is that, right now, the plan is to produce a small model with a combustion engine. Electrifying space can put in check this multi-energy car that Ford should start producing soon. For now, the newspaper Levant reports that the brand will send a Ford delegation in the coming days to speak with those responsible for the factory. Ford’s mess with the electric car. Little by little, Ford has been falling into a small hole with the electric car which has a complicated solution. The brand has decided that its future lies in two clearly differentiated family lines: one made by themselveswith the Ford seal as quality and names clearly differentiated from the rest of the range (Mustang or Bronco) and lower cost cars manufactured by third parties. Europe is heading towards a future where the electric car seems the only solution. Until now, Ford’s investments have fallen on deaf ears and that is why it has reached a agreement with Volkswagen which has borne fruit electric Ford Explorer and the Ford Capri. And it has also signed an agreement with Renault so that the French can produce them in France. a sort of Renault 5 and Renault 4 with the blue oval. Ford promises that the cars will have their own American essence. At the same time, Ford focuses its own models on high-priced combustion or electric vehicles, such as the Mustang Mach-E. This allows them to achieve higher profit margins and bring combustion models to Europe in dribs and drabs whose high price justifies the increase in the final volume of emissions to be presented to regulators. What are the exits? At the moment, the first information points to different exits in the event that the negotiations between Ford and Geely come to fruition. First, it must be taken into account that what Geely may be most interested in is a car factory capable of producing electric vehicles as quickly as possible. Ford has a … Read more

The best apps to download free music on your mobile

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Let’s tell you the best free applications to download music on your mobile phone, so you can listen to it whenever you want and wherever you want. These are apps at no cost, which use their own sources for music or download it from videos uploaded to the Internet. It is something similar to our list of apps and websites to listen to free music on any device, although many apps work like programs for listen to music from YouTube as if it were Spotifybut downloading the audio files of the videos. Here we will not include the websites to download free music which we have already told you about. NewPipe It is a YouTube client for Android, an open source application which allows you to view content without giving access to questionable permissions or enduring excessive advertising. This makes the experience faster and uses much less battery. The app also allows download the videos or audios of videos, such as music, on your device. In addition to YouTube, it also supports PeerTube, SoundCloud or Bandcamp. Of course, you have to download its APK from the web, since it is not on Google Play. Audiomack This is an application designed to listen to music of various musical styles, focusing on independent artists or less known. It is a free application, but you need to pay to have access to all the functions. The free version allows you to download songs individual, but if you want to download everything including albums you will have to pay. It is available for Android and iPhone. YMusic Another Android application that follows in the footsteps of NewPipe. It is a browser that allows you to access YouTube by reducing data consumption, unlocking functions such as background listening. Its peculiarity is that focuses on the musical section above the rest of the content on the platform. Basically what you do is unlock YouTube Music, being able to create playlists and with a mode to discover music. Then, you can download the videos in full or only in audio with different sound qualities. Fildo Fildo is a music and podcast player. It does not host its own content, but rather allows you choose from several fonts to find it there. It is not based on YouTube, but on other lesser-known third-party services, and can also add other search engines. You also have the option to download the music to your mobile to listen whenever you want. My Mixtapez This is an application for Android and iOS that is specialized in mixtapes or rap and hip-hop mixes. It is a very elaborate application, with information on all the artists in it and social functions. In addition, it will also allow you download music to your device to listen to it whenever you want. It’s a premium feature, but can be activated for an individual song by viewing an ad. Jamendo This is a platform focused on independent and royalty-free musicwith which you can download thousands of free songs. You won’t find the latest from your favorite international artists, but you might find a semi-unknown artist that will blow your mind. The app allows you to explore communities for all musical genres, from pop or rock to classical, electronic or simply ambient or emotional music. There are also playlists and many other options. It has applications for Android and iOS. AR Download Music An application with which to search, listen and download music, with an advanced player with equalizer. The music is for non-commercial use, with a wide variety of tracks at your disposal. It is exclusive for Androidand you can even choose the folder where to download it. TREBEL A free application that allows you to download songs to listen to them offline on your device, even with its free plan. It has a pretty decent catalog, although you can find applications and sometimes waiting times. Additionally, the availability of many songs may depend on where you live. evermusic And we end with a different application, which is used to download music that you have in sources such as cloud storage. Come on, you connect to the sites where you have uploaded the music and you can download it directly to your iPhone. Because yes, it is exclusive for iPhone. In Xataka Basics | 14 apps and services to discover new music on Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming services

music streaming has changed and there is no longer an obvious winner

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Long gone are the times when Spotify was practically the only option to listen to music on your mobile. Today the panorama is much more interesting: Apple Music and YouTube Music They have gained weight, they have made a real place for themselves in the daily lives of many users and they have turned a decision that was previously automatic into a question that is much more complicated than it seems. If you are paying to listen to music, which one do you choose? At Xataka we want to help you solve it. Instead of asking you to try each service on your own, we have done it ourselves. Specifically, our colleague has done it Ana Boria in a new installment of ‘Versus’the video format where we have already brought products and platforms face to face with very different approaches, such as AirPods Max vs. Sony WH1000XM6 or the iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. Three services and a decision that is no longer obvious Ana starts from a very recognizable situation: she has been using Spotify for years, but lately she has been wondering if the time has come to change. With that doubt as a starting point, the video starts with the essentials, the catalog. “Both Spotify and Apple Music tend to stand out for their huge library of official songs from record labels,” he explains. And from there he highlights the fact that makes YouTube Music start to play with a differential advantage. The comparison also stops at an area where not everything is so obvious: sound quality. Before getting into technicalities, Ana makes clear an important idea to ground the debate: “There are technical differences that are not always noticeable if you use them with cheap headphones or common speakers, but that can be appreciated if you have good equipment and also have very fine hearing.” With that context, review the strengths and weaknesses of Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music in this section. Beyond what they offer on paper, it also matters how each service is experienced in daily use. And there the application makes a difference. Not everyone is looking for the same thing: some prefer a clean and minimalist interface, while others value having more options, more controls and more customization possibilities. The video goes into this point in depth and, in addition, addresses something especially useful if you come from another platform: the tools to import playlistsjust the scenario that Ana is exploring. In the final section, our colleague focuses on one of the factors that most determine the choice: subscription plans and price. It explains it very clearly and with tables to compare at a glance what each service offers and what concessions each modality implies. “In the case of Spotify, as we all know, we have a free version, with many ad cuts, low audio quality…”, he remembers, before laying out the advantages and disadvantages of each proposal. If you want to know all the details of the test, in addition to the winner of this ‘Versus’ with the new star rating system that we have just released, we invite you to see the full video on the Xataka YouTube channel. And, as always, you can leave us your opinion both there and in the comments of this article. Images | Xataka In Xataka | Apple Creator Studio is not just a subscription. It’s Apple looking to conquer the little tiktoker who uses CapCut and Canva

Spotify has suffered the largest music theft in history. One that confirms that most of their catalog is never heard

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Anna’s Archive was already known by literature lovers, who turned to this repository to be able to access books of all kinds without having to pay for them. Now they want to achieve the same thing with music, and they have taken a colossal and disturbing step: stealing practically the entire Spotify catalog. What is Anna’s Archive. Anna’s Archive project appeared on the scene in late 2022, shortly after legal pressure managed to knock down the Z-Library platformone of the largest websites for downloading free books. The platform works as a metasearch engine that allows you to find books and then download them. Anna’s Archive does not host these files—which, according to the project, exempts it from legal responsibility—and links to different anonymous download providers, which is where users can obtain them. Until now the platform focused on books, but that has changed. The biggest music theft in history. In a post published on his blog official this weekend, those responsible for Anna’s Archive indicated that they have made “a backup copy” of Spotify that includes both metadata and music files. Not only that: it is indicated that they are distributing all this information through torrent files, and the total download takes up 300 TB of data “grouped by popularity.” 86 million songs. They call it the first music “preservation archive” in history and it has 86 million music files. Although that figure is only 37% of the songs in Spotify’s entire catalog, according to Anna’s Archive they account for 99.6% of listening on Spotify. And here there are two important things: on the one hand, music as such. And on the other hand, the metadata that surrounds that music, and that offers very interesting information about Spotify’s music catalog. The top 10,000 popularity. Thus, at Anna’s Archive they wanted to organize that archive based on “popularity”, a metric that they use in Spotify to order the songs that are listened to the most and how recent those plays are. Those responsible for Anna’s Archive have compiled a gigantic list with the 10,000 most popular songs according to this metric. Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny and Billie Eilish occupy the top three positions, for example. This graph reveals how song popularity demonstrates the long tail phenomenon. Only 62 songs exceed 90 points. Three out of four songs are not heard. By grouping songs by popularity, the metadata reveals and confirms the traditional long tail phenomenon. More than 70% of the songs in the Spotify catalog are barely listened to (less than 1,000 plays), and there are so many that are popular or that they had to cut the gigantic file (it would have been 700 TB) to end that representation of 99.6% of songs that have minimal popularity on Spotify. That does not mean that they are better or worse, be careful: it just means that they have been heard more or less on the platform. We all hear (more or less) the same thing. Most listens come to songs with popularity between 50 and 80, and here comes an expected figure: of the 86 million songs, only 210,000 exceed 50 popularity (0.1%). Or what is the same: almost everyone basically listens to a very small set of songs compared to the size of the catalog. How much is each song listened to? Those responsible for Anna’s Archive claim that it is possible to estimate the total number of views per song thanks to popularity. They gave the example of the first three: ‘Die with a smile’ (Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars), 3,075 million views ‘Birds of a feather’ (Billie Eilish): 3,137 million views ‘DtMF’ (Bad Bunny): 1,124 million views Between the three of them they accumulate as many listens as the songs that are between number 20 and number 100 million have. Once again, the long tail in action. Analysis everywhere. These metadata are very useful, and Anna’s Archive has produced a unique report in which they reveal conclusions based on the data collected. Thus, you can confirm how the most common length of songs is around 3:30 minutes, how there are numerous duplicates per song (licenses, versions, etc.), which ones are the most popular genres between artists or how most of the songs on Spotify are singles, and not part of an album. These metadata are a true treasure for market researchers. Downloading (for now) only in large torrents. At Anna’s Archive they have not published almost any of the torrents so far, but they have already indicated how they will offer those 300 TB. First, the metadata in a 200 GB file, which is already being shared by about 200 people. Then the music in various batches organized by popularity. Finally, some additional metadata and content like album art designs. Time will tell if those 86 million songs end up being available on some type of platform that links them to download individually. At Anna’s Archive that does not seem to be the intention, at least for now, and at the moment the metasearch engine focuses strictly on books. What Spotify says. As they point out in TorrentFreakthose responsible for Spotify have launched an investigation, and as a result have “identified and deactivated the accounts of malicious users who were participating in illegal scraping activities.” They have also implemented new measures to prevent these types of attacks and “are monitoring suspicious behavior.” Image | Sumeet B In Xataka | The chaos of streaming is causing a phenomenon that we thought was in recession: downloads are increasing

The real deal about festivals isn’t the music, it’s that you can’t bring your own food in. But that’s over

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The sentence of Valencia Court against Madrid Salvaje It’s not just about snacks. It is an assault won by consumers in a larger war: that of maintaining cultural experiences without every moment being designed for the purchase and sale of services. A ray of hope in the battle between “leisure as a business” as opposed to “leisure as a social right” that defines our era in an increasingly clear way. The battle for free entertainment. The judgmentwhich comes after the lawsuit from FACUA-Consumers in Action, is the first judicial resolution in Spain which establishes the abusive nature of these prohibitions at music festivals. But its importance transcends the anecdotal, since what is at stake is not only the right to bring a sandwich to a concert, but something more structural: the battle to maintain cultural spaces that are not completely immersed in transactional dynamics. A chronology of victories. A series of rulings can be traced that serve as a preamble to this latest judicial decision and that have paved the way to reach this point. For example, in 2001the María Cristina multiplexes in Toledo lost a lawsuit that certified that prohibiting entry with external products was an “irrational restriction on the consumer’s ability to choose.” There was already talk of “tied sales”: indirectly imposing services that the client had not requested. In 2022 another milestone arrived: the law was enacted that requires all hospitality establishments to offer free tap water. Although the official justification was environmental (reducing single-use packaging), it also served as a basis for this issue of forced consumption. Since then, the fines have increased: Yelmo Cines, for example, was fined 30,001 euros by the Basque Consumer Institute for prohibiting food from abroad. Spanish legal doctrine already makes it clear: if the main activity is showing films or scheduling concerts, hospitality is accessory. Beyond the sandwich. What happens at festivals is a symptom of a deeper mutation: leisure is being colonized by logic that transforms the cultural experience into a financial asset. It is understood if we look at the case of Live Nation, owners of Ticketmaster. In 2024, US Attorney General Merrick Garland defined like this the business model: “Live Nation uses illegal anti-competitive conduct to exert monopolistic control over the live events industry at the expense of fans, artists, small promoters and venue operators.” That is: you control the 70% of the ticketing market in the United States60% of concert promotion, and exclusive contracts with 75% of the large venues (the numbers are comparable in other countries of the world). In this way, each business segment feeds and reinforces the others. Ticket revenue is used to tie artists into exclusive promotional contracts, allowing for long-term ticketing exclusives, with more commission income… and perpetuating itself ad infinitum. By controlling the entire distribution and business chain you earn more money. Parallel trends. This transformation of leisure does not come from nowhere. It is intertwined with a couple of trends that redefine current leisure. On the one hand, the shrinkflation cultural (untranslatable, but here it goes: shrinking inflation), reduce the size of the product while maintaining or even increasing the price. General admission prices to American festivals they rose 55% between 2014 and 2024. And it’s not just that it costs more: it’s that you receive less. What was once included (being able to bring your own food, access to free drinking water, reasonable personal space) is now sold as a “privilege” or outright prohibited. Furthermore, in 2006, Spirit Airlines introduced the “unbundling” model: a cheap ticket that only includes one seat. Luggage, seat selection and priority boarding became extras that, as in 2024 had generated billions of dollars in baggage and seat selection fees. In other words: the unbundling did not reduce the cost of flying, but rather fragmented the final price into multiple hidden charges. Because ultra-low-cost airlines operate with very tight margins in base notes, recovering profitability through peaks that represent up to 47% of income. Festivals follow the same recipe: tickets that barely cover fixed expenses, while the real margins come from drinks and food. And since now live performances are essential for the survival of the music industryit makes sense that all efforts are focused on making it profitable. A crucial moment. After decades of unstoppable advance in the commodification of every aspect of entertainment (from cinema to sports stadiums, passing through theme parks), this judicial ruling indicates that perhaps the pendulum is beginning to swing in the opposite direction, at least in certain details. Consumers may not have completely lost the battle for “leisure as leisure” to the relentless “leisure as business” model that has been theorized for decades (Joseph Pine and James Gilmore spoke in 1998 of“the experience economy” and, even further back, the German sociologists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer once defined visionary “colonization of free time) Extirpating leisure from capitalism. In 1944, the political economist Karl Polanyi published ‘The Great Transformation’where he argued that land, work and money are essential elements of life that They should never have become commodities. When the market attempts to subordinate “the very substance of society to the laws of the market,” society reacts spontaneously to protect itself from its own disintegration. So this judicial resolution is about being able to enter the next MadCool with a sandwich, but also about something more. Header | James Jeremy Beckers in Unsplash

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Update: Spotify has been pronounced to consider this fall resolved. Spotify has stopped working for a large part of its users this afternoon. The platform of streaming has confirmed that it is investigating the problem, although without giving details about the cause at the moment. The figures. Downdetector, the service that monitors platform falls, has registered more than 30,000 reports in a matter of minutes. It is one of the highest figures ever recorded for this type of incident. A look at… 27 SPOTIFY TRICKS – Control all your MUSIC like no one else! The common symptom. Users cannot upload music or podcasts. Those who already had content playing can continue listening to it, but when pausing or changing songs they lose access. The official communication. Spotify Status account on X has published a brief message: “We are aware of some issues and are reviewing them.” Spotify Cares account only redirects users to standard help articleswithout offering extra information. Featured image | @felirbe In Xataka | The best applications and programs to listen to YouTube music on your mobile or PC as if it were your own Spotify

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