tech
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Source: SOPA Images / Getty / Amazon October Prime Day
It’s Prime Day again, specifically for Amazon Prime members. Luckily, we are here to help you find some tech-related deals.
Amazon is looking out for Prime members and wants to help you get a leg up on your holiday shopping lists, specifically for the techie and gamer in your life.
Beginning on October 8 and ending on October 9, Amazon slashes prices on headphones, earbuds, gaming headphones, smart televisions, and games. So, the last two days have definitely been good days to be an Amazon Prime member, and if you’re not, it’s not too late to become one to take advantage of the deals we are about to list below.
Wireless Headphones & Earbuds
Source: Apple / Beats / Beats Solo 4 & Solo Buds
Are you looking for a new pair of wireless headphones or buds? There are plenty to choose from right now. Here are some of the best deals on Amazon.
Gaming Headsets
Source: SteelSeries / SteelSeries Arctis Nova 5 Wireless Headphones
Outside of controllers, televisions, and monitors, gamers need headsets to lock in and secure the W. Thankfully, there are some great options available on Amazon at great prices.
Video Games
Source: EA Sports / Tiburon / EA Sports Madden NFL 25
There aren’t many games getting that Prime Big Day Deal treatment, but there are some bangers worth adding to the gamer in your life or your personal collection.
Smart TVs
Source: JUNG YEON-JE / Getty
Now is a better time than ever to get a new smart television. Below are some hot deals.
Happy shopping.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Fender has expanded beyond artist-approved instruments and guitar amps to create a portable speaker that is ready to give concert-grade audio […]
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes. Prime Day has kicked off for the second time this year, with fall Prime Day deals including tech that’ll let you […]
More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have filed lawsuits against TikTok on Tuesday, alleging the popular short-form video app is harming youth mental health by designing its platform to be addictive to kids.
The lawsuits stem from a national investigation into TikTok, which was launched in March 2022 by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from many states, including California, Kentucky and New Jersey. All of the complaints were filed in state courts.
At the heart of each lawsuit is the TikTok algorithm, which powers what users see on the platform by populating the app’s main “For You” feed with content tailored to people’s interests. The lawsuits also emphasize design features that they say make children addicted to the platform, such as the ability to scroll endlessly through content, push notifications that come with built-in “buzzes” and face filters that create unattainable appearances for users.
In its filings, the District of Columbia called the algorithm “dopamine-inducing,” and said it was created to be intentionally addictive so the company could trap many young users into excessive use and keep them on its app for hours on end. TikTok does this despite knowing that these behaviors will lead to “profound psychological and physiological harms,” such as anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia and other long-lasting problems, the complaint said.
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“It is profiting off the fact that it’s addicting young people to its platform,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in an interview.
Keeping people on the platform is “how they generate massive ad revenue,” Schwalb said. “But unfortunately, that’s also how they generate adverse mental health impacts on the users.”
TikTok does not allow children under 13 to sign up for its main service and restricts some content for everyone under 18. But Washington and several other states said in their filing that children can easily bypass those restrictions, allowing them to access the service adults use despite the company’s claims that its platform is safe for children.
Their lawsuit also takes aim at other parts of the company’s business.
The district alleges TikTok is operating as an “unlicensed virtual economy” by allowing people to purchase TikTok Coins – a virtual currency within the platform – and send “Gifts” to streamers on TikTok LIVE who can cash it out for real money. TikTok takes a 50% commission on these financial transactions but hasn’t registered as a money transmitter with the U.S. Treasury Department or authorities in the district, according to the complaint.
Officials say teens are frequently exploited for sexually explicit content through TikTok’s LIVE streaming feature, which has allowed the app to operate essentially as a “virtual strip club” without any age restrictions. They say the cut the company gets from the financial transactions allows it to profit from exploitation.
Many states have filed lawsuits against TikTok and other tech companies over the past few years as a reckoning grows against prominent social media platforms and their ever-growing impact on young people’s lives. In some cases, the challenges have been coordinated in a way that resembles how states previously organized against the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.
Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued TikTok, alleging the company was sharing and selling minors’ personal information in violation of a new state law that prohibits these practices. TikTok, which disputes the allegations, is also fighting against a similar data-oriented federal lawsuit filed in August by the Department of Justice.
Several Republican-led states, such as Nebraska, Kansas, New Hampshire, Kansas, Iowa and Arkansas, have also previously sued the company, some unsuccessfully, over allegations it is harming children’s mental health, exposing them to “inappropriate” content or allowing young people to be sexually exploited on its platform. Arkansas has brought a legal challenge against YouTube, as well as Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram and is being sued by dozens of states over allegations its harming young people’s mental health. New York City and some public school districts have also brought their own lawsuits.
TikTok, in particular, is facing other challenges at the national level. Under a federal law that took effect earlier this year, TikTok could be banned from the U.S. by mid-January if its China-based parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform by mid-January.
Both TikTok and ByteDance are challenging the law at an appeals court in Washington. A panel of three judges heard oral arguments in the case last month and are expected to issue a ruling, which could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Source: Alex Mayo / iOne
The iOne Digital team was on site at this year’s CultureCon, where they took center stage to discuss a topic sparking widespread conversation—AI (artificial intelligence). As part of the largest Black-owned media company in the United States, it was an opportunity to address this powerful new technology through the lens of diverse creatives.
The panel discussion, Unlocking Creative Storytelling with AI, spoke to a standing-room-only audience at the annual CultureCon creative homecoming in Brooklyn, New York. Panelists Markus Robinson, Victoria Fleary and Cliché Wynter-Mayo lent their perspectives on the pros and cons of AI while Allison McGevna, iOne Digital’s Senior Vice President of Content moderated the conversation.
Protecting authenticity in the age of AI
Source: Alex Mayo / iOne
The panelists agreed that, as creatives, the key is to view AI as a supportive tool that enhances the creative process, rather than relying on it to produce a final product. “The use of the tool, the knowledge behind actually knowing how to generate the right prompt, is going to weed out the people who are just there for fast output, versus actual creatives and actual artists,” said Vice President of Social, Victoria Fleary.
While AI tools offer an unprecedented range of capabilities, Fleary noted the importance of remaining authentic as creatives. “We’re not putting in these prompts in order for it to generate what we’ll then say, ‘I did this.’ It is a wonderful breeding ground for the germination of ideas,” said Fleary. “Get that direction, and then you walk down that path. Don’t let AI do it for you.”
‘We need to figure out how to safeguard ourselves as creatives.’
Source: Alex Mayo / iOne
In regards to the risks of leaning too heavily into AI, Cliché Wynter-Mayo, Director of Sponsor & Affiliate Content, shared concerns around critical thinking being diminished if “we’re running to a machine for all the answers.” She also expressed some worries around data privacy, security, and misinformation that occurs with manipulated images and video. To mitigate some of these potential harms, she proposed promoting digital literacy that better equips people to discern credible information. Additionally, she wants to see more governance policies and regular data audits to ensure compliance.
“What’s next for us? How do we protect our creative minds? For me that’s where most of my hesitation comes in,” said Wynter-Mayo. “I think we’re just moving so fast. We need to give ourselves a beat to figure things out and to safeguard ourselves as creatives.”
SVP of Product and Technology Markus Robinson is pro-AI and eager to explore opportunities to leverage its uses. However, he emphasized the importance of setting boundaries to protect intellectual property. Robinson noted that iOne Digital opts out of allowing AI language models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini to “crawl” or use content published across the iOne Digital ecosystem including publications like MadameNoire, NewsOne and HipHopWired.
“We believe our voice is unique and something that a lot of folks can’t replicate, so we’ve asked the large language models (LLMs) not to crawl our stuff,” said Robinson. “At the same time, we’re actively having conversations about licensing our content, and that’s the way it should be.”
Using AI tools to streamline work and everyday life
Source: Alex Mayo / iOne
While there’s a conversation happening around protecting creatives in the new age of AI, there are also plenty of areas in which AI has become a useful tool. From transcribing audio and video to text and facilitating note-taking, this technology has proven to be a huge timesaver in the workplace, the panelists agreed. It even has a place at home, where Wynter-Mayo uses ChatGPT to inspire dinner recipes for her family by typing prompts listing the ingredients in her fridge.
It’s clear that AI is here to stay, which is why this conversation is critically important for Black and diverse creatives, the panel emphasized. Like it or not, the iOne Digital team agreed that this emergent technology is something we all need to learn and understand, at the very least. By leveraging these tools, iOne Digital is ensuring that Black and diverse creatives are being included in the AI conversation and do not get left behind as this technology continues to evolve.
Source: Alex Mayo / iOne
Over the last decade or two, there have been dozens of difficult licensing negotiations between rightsholders and online music platforms — some of which played out in public or even resulted in content being unavailable online.
Just this week, around the time YouTube temporarily took down music by SESAC songwriters, the digital rights licensing collective Merlin informed its member labels that TikTok “walked away” from talks to renew its license agreement and planned to deal with labels individually. This letter Merlin sent to its members says TikTok’s goal is “fragmenting the Merlin membership, in order, we believe, to minimize their pay out.”
In one way, this is an old story. Most online platforms have so much market share that it’s hard for rightsholders to negotiate good deals: There’s just one TikTok, just like there’s just one Facebook and just one YouTube. But there are thousands of labels. Since smaller labels need giant platforms more than those platforms need labels, they need to bulk up, in order to balance market share against market share. For indie labels, that means either making a distribution deal with a major or joining Merlin, which negotiates on behalf of its members. (This same idea has fueled a merger mania throughout the media business, as movie studios and book publishers merge to better deal with Netflix or Amazon.) Sometimes, though, platforms push back.
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In another way, this is an old story with a new twist. TikTok has suggested that part of the reason it wants to change its deal structure is that it’s concerned about fraud, specifically the alleged delivery of recordings and remixes by labels that do not own the rights to them or assert ownership incorrectly — a problem that sources say comes disproportionately from a few companies. This seems like a reasonable concern, and it’s one that’s widely shared, although the problem is hardly unique to Merlin. Plus, it should be possible to exclude a small number of bad actors from a new Merlin deal, and it’s hard to imagine that dealing with indies directly wouldn’t give TikTok a financial advantage.
In yet another way, this is a whole new kind of negotiation, the likes of which the music business hasn’t seen since the early days of YouTube. These days, most online platforms need to play nice, or at least sort of nice, since negotiations that turn ugly in public tend to be distracting from other public policy priorities, and because today’s negotiating counterparty could become tomorrow’s business partner.
TikTok seems less concerned with these issues: It went without a Universal Music deal for about three months early this year and then didn’t renew its NMPA-blessed deal with independent publishers. Partly, that could be because it’s already facing an existential policy issue in the form of a ban in the U.S., or at least a forced sale to prevent that. It also seems to think that music doesn’t drive as much value — which could be why it’s shutting down its nascent TikTok Music subscription service. Whether or not the company is right, its attitude toward rightsholders can be very different.
TikTok is also developing a reputation, fairly or not, for being less sentimental about the culture business than other platforms. For years, most online platforms have made the case that rightsholders are better off with the deals they’re offering, because of the exposure they offer — think YouTube or Spotify. TikTok clearly has significant promotional value, but it tends to act more aggressively. Or maybe its other reputational issues are so significant that pissing off music rightsholders just isn’t as big a deal.
That could change — TikTok’s Merlin strategy has indie labels rattled because it could splinter the rights group. If the platform’s gambit works, other companies could follow and Merlin could end up in a weaker position. The bigger indies would be fine. Others might look for leverage from the major labels’ indie distribution companies, like The Orchard (Sony Music) and Virgin (UMG), which would further undermine Merlin. This would damage the whole indie ecosystem — especially the small labels run by creative founders who don’t have the infrastructure to negotiate as smartly as Merlin.
There’s also a chance that this won’t be as easy as TikTok thinks. Going around Merlin could save it money, but if it’s so simple you wonder why no other platform has tried it. One reason is that Merlin deals cover a wide range of labels and content, some of which could be hard to get otherwise. Another is that it’s easier to do one negotiation than hundreds. Assuming, of course, that TikTok is serious about negotiating, as opposed to simply sending a letter with deal terms that it expects rigthsholders to accept.
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Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty / Kerry Washington
Spill, the Black-owned alternative to Elon Musk’s floundering platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has a big backer in Kerry Washington.
Tech Crunch reports that actress Kerry Washington is now an investor in the Black-owned social media platform Spill. The news comes as the platform celebrates its second year in existence.
Spill is the brainchild of Alphonzo Terrell, a former global head of editorial at Twitter who was laid off by the company following Musk’s reluctant acquisition of the platform, which he stupidly rebranded as X.
When Spill was created, he raised a $2 million seed extension and grew the app’s user base to around 200,000. One of those users was Emmy-Award-winning actress Kerry Washington.
Washington’s presence on Spill was very loud. She hosted Tea Parties, the platform’s name for live video conversations, and actively engaged in discussions with other users, encouraging people to vote.
Speaking with Tech Crunch, Terrell spoke about Washington’s presence on the platform.
“She’s incredibly accessible and knowledgeable, especially around these topics, and is not scared in any way, shape, or form about really engaging with people directly,” Terrell told the website. “I think it really does represent the kind of environment we want to cultivate on Spill … We’re all human here, too. Let’s connect.”
Washington, who is no stranger to making investments, added, “In a digital world where marginalized groups, especially Black, Brown, and LGBTQIA folks, rarely feel prioritized, Spill stands out. I’m proud to be part of this community as both a user and an investor.”
Spill Is Offering A New Space For Black & Brown Users To Be Creative On Social Media
Since Musk took over Twitter, users, specifically Black users, have sought a new platform to express their creativity. Spill, BlueSky, and Instagram Threads were among those options.
Spill has made significant strides in keeping people engaged on the platform. One reason is that it has found success in that area thanks to launching a live multiplayer Spades game.
We hope Spill continues to make a splash in the social media space.
Last year, TikTok attempted to answer a seemingly simple question: What would TikTok be without music?
In February 2023, the company ran tests in Australia limiting the amount of licensed music some users encountered on the app. TikTok never revealed the results of those tests to the public, but some Australians who had their music libraries limited took to Twitter (now X) to complain. “wtf is up with tiktok removing like half the sounds??? like i swear ive seen SO many tiktoks where the sound has been removed,” tweeted one user.
The evidence is only anecdotal, but these tweets suggest that having limited access to licensed music did have at least some impact on the user experience in Australia.
Since its inception, the value of music has been an existential question for TikTok. This comes as no surprise; the company started out as the lipsyncing app Musical.ly, and in its current form, it is one of the most effective music discovery tools in the world. But since the modern-day TikTok launched as a general social media app — one that still features lots of music — the company has struggled to figure out how big a role music should play in their business — and how much they should have to pay for it.
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In the last year or so, TikTok has fought a prolonged battle against Universal Music Group over music licensing rates, AI, and safety concerns, leading to UMG’s three-month boycott of the platform; downsized parts of its music team; shut down the development of TikTok Music, its nascent music streaming app; and, last week, “walked away” from Merlin’s attempts to negotiate a renewed collective license for the 30,000 indie labels and distributors it represents. Instead, citing issues around fraudulent content, TikTok is only pursuing direct deals with Merlin’s member labels.
The UMG feud in particular seemed to represent a major turning point in TikTok’s perception of the value of music. The stalemate, which lasted from February to May, essentially took the small experiments done in Australia and brought them to a global stage with the world’s single largest catalog. Everyone from stars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Drake and the Weeknd, down to small artists signed to labels using UMG distributor Virgin, were removed from the platform overnight. If any event would have proved that music had negotiating power over TikTok, it would’ve been this one — but the impact was much more limited than the music biz would have hoped.
From talking to TikTok users during the UMG feud, many felt that the app experience was largely the same. Rarely, if ever, would anyone find a video on their “For You Page” with muted UMG audio. Whatever unknowable algorithm controls that feed simply adjusted to serve videos with still-available songs instead, seamlessly. The only time a user would notice the difference is if they were making a video themselves and realized they couldn’t find songs from a UMG-affiliated artist.
Plus, UMG artists big and small proved that they still wanted to make content for the app, even though doing so diminished the pressure UMG could put on TikTok to improve their compensation. Some UMG artists played their songs live instead of using the UMG-owned recording. Others would use unauthorized remixes (including sped up, slowed down and mashed up versions) of their UMG-controlled songs. Some ended up striking direct deals with the platform or finding contractual workarounds to skirt the ban, and the final nail in the coffin seemingly came when Taylor Swift’s catalog suddenly came back to TikTok on April 11 —– complete with a special campaign around her then-upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department.
When the two companies finally reached a deal three weeks later, just before UMG’s next earnings call, UMG chairman/CEO Lucian Grainge spoke triumphantly about the new TikTok deal. “This new chapter in our relationship with TikTok focuses on the value of music, the primacy of human artistry and the welfare of the creative community,” Grainge said. It’s quite possible that, with the new deal, UMG extracted many of the concessions that it wanted from TikTok.
Still, overall, the effects of the three-month standoff were pretty limited: many TikTok users didn’t notice a change, while UMG’s stream count went unaffected. The key takeaway is that artists, desperate for promotion, would still make musical content for the app for free, even if it infringed on their own unlicensed copyrights. It became a race to the bottom, like so many other things in music.
So it comes as little surprise that when Merlin’s TikTok license came up for renegotiation, TikTok played hardball —– or rather, TikTok just refused to play ball with Merlin altogether.
Instead, TikTok wants to license its 30,000 indie record label members individually — a move which Merlin sees as an attempt to “fractionalize” members to “minimize” licensing costs, according to a letter Merlin sent to its labels last week.
The whole idea of Merlin — which says it represents 15% of music repertoire globally — is for these small, individual labels to be able to band together and negotiate deal terms with digital partners that are at least in the same neighborhood as their bigger major label brethren. Antitrust laws prevent Merlin from telling its members what to do, meaning TikTok is technically free to negotiate individually and bypass their coalition. Even if Merlin could pull such a move to band together its membership against TikTok, it’s hard to imagine a boycott of indie music going any better than UMG’s.
Optically, it’s one thing for TikTok to stand up to the biggest music company in the world and argue that UMG had put their own greed above the interests of their artists and songwriters” in an attempt to lower the rates it had to pay the label. It’s another entirely for the app, which has over a billion users, to lowball the little guys.
Overshadowing all of this, of course, is the fact that TikTok’s corporate parent Bytedance is in a court battle with the U.S. government that, if it loses, could mean it would be forced to sell its U.S. business. In preparation, TikTok is likely cutting costs wherever it can. Given how tough it is for the music industry to walk away from TikTok, it’s unfortunately one of the easiest places to start.
So what is the value of music to TikTok? It’s been a moving target throughout the company’s history. In light of recent events, however, I’ll let you be the judge.
This story was published as part of Billboard’s new music technology newsletter ‘Machine Learnings.’ Sign up for ‘Machine Learnings,’ and Billboard’s other newsletters, here.
All products and services featured are independently chosen by editors. However, Billboard may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.
End 2024 with a bang, thanks to Samsung‘s newest flagship tablet for the year. Enter the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10, the tech company’s best and brightest tablet.
Starting at $999.99, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 tablet models are available for pre-order at Samsung, Best Buy and Amazon with release on Thursday, Oct. 3.
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For 2024, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 tablet comes with two varieties: S10+ and S10 Ultra with storage sizes between 256GB and 1TB — depending on which model you pick.
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In addition, there are a few interesting deals, if you pre-order now through samsung.com. You can get 50% off a Samsung Book Cover Keyboard Slim to go with the tablet, or you can get up to $800 with eligible trade-in. The South Korean tech company is even offering three times more Samsung Rewards points with pre-order. Learn more about Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 deals and offers here.
In the meantime, scroll down to learn more about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 and how to reserve and pre-order yours, below:
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Samsung Galaxy Tab S10+
Release date: Oct. 3
$999.99 and up
12.4-inch Display
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Pre-order
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra
Release date: Oct. 3
$1,199.99 and up
14.6-inch Display
Both models of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 even comes with the Samsung S-Pen stylus and comes in seven colors, including Moonstone Gray and Platinum Silver.
Meanwhile, each model runs the latest Android 14 and comes with Samsung Galaxy AI features, such as Circle to Search with Google advanced image search, Live Translate real-time call and text translations, AI Photo Editing to tweak and edit photos to look their best and much more.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 tablets are available for pre-order now at Samsung, Best Buy and Amazon with release on Thursday, Oct. 3. Prices start at $999.99.
Want more? For more product recommendations, check out our roundups of the best Xbox deals, studio headphones and Nintendo Switch accessories.
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Source: Serato / Serato
Serato Scratch Live shifted DJ culture, and probably saved millions of dollars in future chiropractor bills. To celebrate its 25 anniversary, Serato just released a special limited-edition reissue of its original Serato Scratch Live Control Vinyl.
Source: Serato / Serato
The OG Digital Vinyl System (DVS) helped the art of the DJ become digital yet maintain its analog roots of manipulating vinyl physically. Think DJ’s like Jazzy Jeff being able to scratch and mix their digital files instead of lugging around heavy crates of records. Instead, all you needed was a pair of control vinyls and a hard drive full of music (and software and hardware but that’s another story).
Originally released in 2004, 20 years later only 1,500 units are available for sale for $49 USD. That gets you the “Serato Scratch Live Control Vinyl – 25th Anniversary Edition” package that includes a pair od 12” 140g control vinyls tucked into a commemorative jacket. The reissue arrives in five colors (black, transparent red, transparent blue, orange, and gray marble). However, you won’t see what color you get until you unwrap your purchase.
“At Serato’s core is a passion for music and technology, and we’ve built our foundation on the ongoing commitment to creating best-in-class products for DJs and music producers,” said Nick Maclaren, Serato’s Chief Strategy Officer, and a DJ himself, in a statement. “When Serato Scratch Live was first introduced, it reinvented what was in the realm of possibilities for DJs at the time. As we celebrate 25 years of empowering artists through Serato’s advanced technology, we’re excited for our community to experience the magic of this innovation once again with the reissue of the Serato Scratch Live Control Vinyl.”
Find out where to get the Serato Scratch Live Control Vinyl – 25th Anniversary Edition set right here.