Led Zeppelin Arrives on TikTok – TikTok announced today that the music of Led Zeppelin is now available to its community. The band has also launched their own official TikTok account (@ledzeppelin) that will feature Led Zeppelin artwork and graphics, classic live performances, and other video content.
TikTok users can now create videos soundtracked to any song from Led Zeppelin’s full discography, encompassing over 100 total songs across their landmark studio and live albums, including some of their most legendary tracks such as “Whole Lotta Love,” “Stairway To Heaven,” “Immigrant Song,” “Rock And Roll,” “Black Dog,” “Ramble On,” and “Kashmir.”
The classic rock band joins the Beatles. The Fab Four signed up for TikTok earlier this month.
HBO Renews Drama Series ‘Succession’ For A Fourth Season – HBO has renewed the Emmy winning drama series ‘Succession’ for a fourth season, it was announced today by Francesca Orsi, Executive Vice President, HBO Programming.
Created by Jesse Armstrong, ‘Succession’ kicked off its nine-episode third season October 17, with new episodes debuting Sunday nights at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT. New episodes air on HBO and are available to stream on HBO Max. The season three premiere of the drama series drew over 1.4 million viewers across all platforms, marking a series high and the best premiere night of any HBO Original series since the launch of HBO Max.
Two stocks linked to Donald Trump dropped shortly after the ex-president detailed plans for one of the companies, and the other firm said it would sell additional shares to raise capital – The big pullbacks in the prices of the SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp., and Phunware — which follows similar drops for both names Monday — came after the companies saw massive gains in their stock values last week.
DWAC’s share price skidded nearly 30% Tuesday to close at $59.07 apiece. And tiny advertising software start-up Phunware tanked almost 40% to $4.35.
DWAC, which is a special purpose acquisition company, last week said it would merge with Trump’s planned new social media company the Trump Media & Technology Group, with the resultant firm’s shares being publicly traded.
That set off a frenzy of buying in DWAC shares over two days last week, which left the stock price more than 800% higher.
Phunware, which is not connected to DWAC’s merger, also saw a major gain in share price, likely because of the firm’s involvement in Trump’s failed 2020 reelection campaign. [CNBC]
Google’s parent, Alphabet, releases Q3 2021 results – Revenues increased 41% to $65.1 billion in the quarter compared to a year prior. Net income for the quarter totaled $18.9 billion.
‘Halloween’ and the Problem With Its Sequels – It’s impossible to overstate the impact of John Carpenter’s 1978 “Halloween,” a film now treated as a sacred text among horror aficionados — and for good reason. The thriller was innovative, quite literally from the first frame: it opens with a lengthy sequence in which we see a brutal murder through the killer’s eyes.
Rather than reveling in guts and gore, the original film’s emphasis is on suspense, terror and mood. Carpenter’s elegant direction makes inventive use of negative space and darkness (particularly when moving Michael’s ghostly white mask in and out of the cinematographer Dean Cundey’s inky night spaces), and of foregrounds and backgrounds, which frequently reveal the killer’s presence to the viewer before he is seen by his potential victims. [New York Times]
Senators Turn Child-Safety Spotlight on TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube – A Senate panel broadened its inquiry into social media’s impact on children and teenagers, questioning representatives of TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as lawmakers build a case for new legislation to protect young people online.
The Senate Commerce Committee panel focused much of its attention Tuesday on TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned short-video app, and whether its algorithms steer young users to harmful content.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), cited Wall Street Journal reporting that she said showed “TikTok’s algorithm can push young users into content glorifying eating disorders, drugs, violence.”
“Have you stopped that?” Ms. Klobuchar asked Michael Beckerman, a vice president and head of public policy in the Americas for TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd.
Mr. Beckerman said the Journal article didn’t show “an authentic experience that an actual user would have,” adding that the company has “made a number of improvements to the way that people have control of the algorithm and have age-appropriate content on TikTok.” [The Wall Street Journal]
Dune is getting a sequel – Legendary Pictures announced “This is only the beginning…” on Twitter today while announcing “Dune Part Two”.
“Dune” made $40.1 million at the domestic box office last weekend. That was across 4,125 locations with a location average of $9,721. Furthermore, that was good enough for the top spot at the box office. “Halloween Kills” was number two, bringing in $14.5 million on the weekend.
The sci-fi epic was a hit with audiences as well. It scored an “A-” with moviegoers surveyed by CinemaScore.
