A young billionaire buys Forbes, a startup offers free TVs and ChatGPT goes mobileHey, folks. You’ve made it to the end of the week — congrats, by the way — and to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering the week that was in tech. Here, in this humble little column of ours, we do our best to curate the top stories that emerged over the past five days. Hope you find it useful.
Just a few PSAs before we get on with the news. On May 24, TechCrunch Live, TC’s podcast about founder stories, will host Romi Gubes, the co-founder of Sensi.AI, in a discussion about how the company uses audio-based software to monitor patients and assist medical staff and family members with care. (Register for it here — it’s free.)
Meanwhile, TechCrunch City Spotlight will go virtual on June 7 with a focus on Atlanta, where speakers will present about building businesses in the exploding metro and startups will apply to participate in TC’s famed Battlefield 200.
Last but not least, Disrupt, TC’s flagship conference, will return September (September 19–21) in San Francisco. Expect six stages of presenters, including a new AI-focused stage, and plenty of surprises. Learn more here.
Now, without further ado, on to the news.
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Young billionaire buys Forbes: Austin Russell, the 28-year-old founder and CEO of Luminar, which develops vision-based lidar and machine perception technologies primarily for self-driving cars, told The Wall Street Journal this week that he’s buying an 82% stake in Forbes Global Media Holdings in a deal that values the company at nearly $800 million.
New Teslas on the way: Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased two new electric vehicles Tuesday at the automaker’s 2023 annual shareholder’s meeting. Tesla previously hinted at new models during its Investor Day in March, displaying a photo with the company’s entire lineup and several unveiled car outlines. One of the vehicles looked to be the size of a van, roughly, and the other similar in appearance to a sedan or hatchback. Both are expected to be more affordable vehicles that sell at far higher volumes.
Free TV, but with a catch: Telly, a hardware startup led by Pluto TV co-founder Ilya Pozin, announced Monday that it’s giving away 500,000 of its new smart TVs for free. (Yes, we said free.) There’s a catch, though. Users must watch 24/7 ads while simultaneously streaming TV shows and movies.
ChatGPT goes mobile:  This week, OpenAI announced the launch of an official iOS app that lets users access its popular AI chatbot on the go — months after the App Store was filled with dubious, unofficial services. The new ChatGPT app will be free to use and free from ads and will allow for voice input, the company says, but will initially be limited to U.S. users at launch.
Holmes headed to prison: After years of high-profile court proceedings, Elizabeth Holmes could actually be headed to prison — for real this time. The former Theranos founder and CEO was found guilty of defrauding investors last January, but has consistently delayed and appealed her sentencing to remain out of incarceration. Though the infamous biotech entrepreneur is still appealing her 11-year sentence, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges ruled that Holmes’ legal team has not raised enough of a “substantial question” to keep her out of prison.
Kustomer leaves Meta, raises money: Meta’s grand experiment in building an enterprise-ready customer service platform has come to a close. The parent of Facebook has officially spun out Kustomer, the CRM startup it acquired last year for around $1 billion. The new entity is starting life with an infusion of $60 million from backers Battery, Redpoint and boldstart, plus a major chop into its previous valuation — it’s now reportedly at $250 million.
Lock and hide: WhatsApp announced today that it’s introducing a new “Chat Lock” feature designed to give users an additional layer of security for their most intimate conversations. As the name suggests, the feature lets you “lock” a chat, which takes that thread out of the inbox and puts it behind its own folder that can only be accessed with your device password or biometric, like a fingerprint.
Humanoid robots FTW: Vancouver, British Columbia–based Sanctuary AI this week unveiled Phoenix, its stab at the humanoid robot form factor. The bipedal bot stands 5’7″ and weighs 155 pounds — not dissimilar from the humans it plans to augment (or replace, depending on who you ask). The system is capable of lifting payloads up to 55 pounds and traveling up to three miles per hour. No word on pricing — yet.
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Need listening material for the weekend? Not to worry — TechCrunch has you covered (and then some). This week on Equity, the crew covered Vice going bankrupt, Twitter’s first acquisition with Elon Musk at the helm and what the future of venture debt could look like. Found featured Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, the co-founder and CEO at Samooha, a startup creating key infrastructure needed for data collaboration. Over on Chain Reaction, Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, talked about Chainlink’s protocol that provides an oracle network to power smart contracts. The TechCrunch Podcast did a deep dive on Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch. And TechCrunch Live profiled Richard Song, one of the co-founders of Persona, which built and offers a large suite of identity verification solutions, alongside Persona investor and Index Ventures lead Mark Goldberg.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
The new rules of venture debt: The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was not the end of venture debt, but it was likely the end of companies raising debt with the same ease many were accustomed to. Rebecca writes about the state of venture debt in the wake of SVB and then First Republic Bank’s collapse and how it might change in the future.
Alibaba, in the clouds: Chinese tech giant Alibaba is shaking up its corporate structure in a series of moves that will allow large pieces of its business to raise capital and potentially even go public. That may not be a bad idea, when you consider that the conglomerate’s revenue rose a middling 2% in Q1 2023 and its profitability is trending downward (operating income declined 9%) from a year earlier.
AI in retail, maturing: As the retail sector grows increasingly reliant and focused on data and AI, it’s essential that retailers understand exactly how first-party data analysis can be crystalized into insights on customer behavior — and, in turn, a tangible competitive advantage. Hugh Cameron, head of data for Zitcha, looks at the three most important milestones along the road to predictive analysis in the retail media context.

Calling all early-stage startups! Apply to join the Startup Battlefield 200 cohort at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023. All finalists get expert training, VC networking, a booth at Disrupt, and the chance to compete for $100,000 in equity-free funds. Applications close May 31. Apply today.

A young billionaire buys Forbes, a startup offers free TVs and ChatGPT goes mobile by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Bit Loser Is A Free Multiband Bitcrusher Plugin By Bunkernoise
Bunkernoise releases Bit Loser, a free (for a limited time) multiband bitcrusher plugin for Windows and macOS. Artifacts of the early digital era have their own certain character about them, much like the wow, flutter, and grit imparted by cheap cassettes. If you’re looking to capture some of that old-fashioned digital dirt, then Bit Loser [...]
View post: Bit Loser Is A Free Multiband Bitcrusher Plugin By Bunkernoise

Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie MusicLaset week’s tips and advice for independent, do-it-yourselfers covered Spotify Canvas, how to get a custom domain, how to promote music on TikTok, and more… TikTok Music Promotion 101 How. Continue reading
The post Getting It Done: The Week in D.I.Y. & Indie Music appeared first on Hypebot.

REWIND: The new music industry’s week in reviewA busy week by any definition, and the music industry was no exception, with TikTok testing an Apple Music integration YouTube about to go on trial, AI playing with music. Continue reading
The post REWIND: The new music industry’s week in review appeared first on Hypebot.

AJH Synth unveil MiniMod Keyz AJH Synth aim to recreate the vintage circuitry and sound of the early RA Moog Model D with their new modular synth.

EastWest Sound Releases Hollywood Fantasy BrassHot on the heels of Hollywood Fantasy Strings, the first installment of EastWest Sound’s latest masterpiece Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra, comes chapter two: Hollywood Fantasy Brass.Produced by sound titans Doug Rogers and Nick Phoenix, Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra includes everything you need to create fantasy film, television, and game soundtracks. It includes unique ensembles that bridge the gap between orchestral and world instruments - perfect for your next big fantasy epic or medieval tale. Recorded in the same soundstage as their award-winning blockbuster series Hollywood Orchestra, many of the instruments of Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra have been recorded in small ensembles with full stereo imaging mic placement, surround sound options, and all the features of EastWest’s revolutionary Opus software.

Hollywood Fantasy Brass puts the grandeur of some of history’s most iconic brass instruments at your fingertips, complete with a broad articulation set and true legato for maximum realism and authenticity. Instead of trumpets, you’ll find flugelhorns; rather than French horns, Wagner tubas and alpenhorns take their place. There’s even a low brass section that’s unlike anything you’ve heard before. The result is a majesty that modern day orchestras can’t quite replicate, but with the power and conviction demanded by current movies and games. Hollywood Fantasy Strings and Hollywood Fantasy Brass have both been released. The next step in the journey is Hollywood Fantasy Winds (available June 22nd for $99), followed by Hollywood Fantasy Percussion (available July 27th for $99), Hollywood Fantasy Voices (available August 31st for $99), and then finally the Hollywood Fantasy Orchestrator (partnered with Sonuscore, available October 5th for $99.) Soon you’ll have an entire collection of instruments at your fingertips perfect for creating cinematic fantasy masterpieces of any size and scale!

Pricing & AvailabilityHollywood Fantasy Brass is available for individual purchase for a special introductory price of $99, or you can get it as part of a Hollywood Fantasy Orchestra bundle, or with EastWest’s popular ComposerCloud+ subscription service, which gives you access to this and all collections in their massive catalog.For new subscribers, EastWest is offering a 1 month ComposerCloud+ Free Trial: soundsonline.com/composercloud

Tether, KriptonMarket to support USDT transactions at Argentina’s Central MarketThe Central Market supplies over 12 million people per month in Argentina. The move will allow companies to accept and pay bills with USDT.

This episode is just an excuse to talk about Zelda and other TC newsWe don’t spend a lot of time taking a deep-dive into the consumer experience of gaming. But one of the biggest stories in tech this week is the much-anticipated release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for the Nintendo Switch. So I’m joined by Taylor Hatmaker to have a mostly spoiler-free conversation about what Link is getting up to.

Articles from the episode:

Hardware startup Telly launches a free smart TV entirely supported by ads
Telly, the ‘free’ smart TV with ads, has privacy policy red flags
After a 29-year run, Vice files for bankruptcy
Elon Musk appoints new Twitter CEO, NBCU’s Linda Yaccarino

This episode is just an excuse to talk about Zelda and other TC news by Darrell Etherington originally published on TechCrunch

Triple Spiral Audio Xcess for All - Cinematic Pulses for Pigments 4 The Xcess for All range is a series of smaller sized themed soundsets with 25 presets and a very affordable price. These are all new presets and not available in previous released soundsets.... Read More

Triple Spiral Audio Xcess for All - Dream Keys for Omnisphere 2 The Xcess for All range is a series of smaller sized themed soundsets with 25 presets and a very affordable price. These are all new presets and not available in previous released soundsets.... Read More

From Ed Sheeran’s second ‘Let’s Get It On’ lawsuit victory to the 3 majors’ joint $2.9m per hour… it’s MBW’s Weekly Round-UpThe biggest music biz headlines from the past week, all in one place
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‘Our ambition is to sign acts with the best talent and break them on a global scale.’Jamie Spinks, Head of A&R at Columbia in the UK, on how A&R is evolving, and more...
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Joe Bonamassa Touts Blues Roots on “I Want To Shout About It”Having just earned a remarkable 26th  No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart for his sprawling and extensive live concert film and album Tales Of Time, the blues rock icon Joe Bonamassa (MC's June Cover Star) is back with a brand-new single from his highly anticipated new studio album, due out later this year on his J&R Adventures label. Joe shows off his blues roots with a captivating rendition of “I Want To Shout About It” originally performed by Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters. Bonamassa’s joyful version features solos from Reese Wynans on organ and Paulie Cerra on sax, as well as some killer adlibs from vocalists Dannielle DeAndrea and Charles Jones as the track winds to a close. Bonamassa called upon his close friend, bandmate and co-producer Josh Smith to produce this track. Smith recalls, “Shout About It is a song originally by the great Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters with Darrel Nullisch on vocals. It's a tough/high song to sing and Joe really pushed himself and nailed it. It's a real rave up, a party song. Joe has been playing it live lately and the crowds are really digging it!”

Bonamassa has been performing “I Want To Shout About It” live on his current tour and is receiving an enthusiastic response from his audiences. His summer is packed with live shows in the US and Europe beginning with the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, WA on Friday, May 26th and ending May with Kenny Wayne Shepherd at the Backroads Blues Festival in Bend, OR and Seattle, WA. After 3 weeks of performing on Europe Festivals in July, Joe will be back in the states for a US summer run and to make his debut appearance at Hollywood Bowl on Wednesday, August 9th, with an exclusive, one-night-only concert experience alongside an orchestra, which will be recorded for his next live concert film. Then the hardest working bluesman in show business begins his US Fall Tour on October 23rd at The Cannon Center in Memphis, TN, which will take him from coast-to-coast to end at the guitar shaped Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, FL. For more information and to purchase tickets, click HERE.

What should I post? The Musician’s Social Media Pyramid can helpWhat should I post on social media and how often should I post are two of the most frequent questions that Hypebot readers and my students at Berklee ask. So. Continue reading
The post What should I post? The Musician’s Social Media Pyramid can help appeared first on Hypebot.

.HipHop: An exclusive domain for the Hip Hop communityHip Hop artists, managers, musicians, and more can now create a unique and readily identifiable online presence with the internet (dot) HipHop domain. Indie Spotlight via A2iM If you’re into. Continue reading
The post .HipHop: An exclusive domain for the Hip Hop community appeared first on Hypebot.