Cultura Voice

YouTube is making a major change to artist channels on its platform – in a move which probably spells good news for labels, but perhaps less happy news for Vevo. The Google/Alphabet video giant has today announced that it is expanding the power of its Official Artist Channels. As each individual artist permits this move in the coming weeks, their myriad official and semi-official channels – including their Vevo channel – will effectively be consolidated into a single, YouTube-endorsed artist destination on the platform. Crucially, this means that an artist’s subscribers across the affected properties – including their Vevo presence – will automatically become subscribers of these new, verified YouTube channels. (A new musical note icon will denote these ‘official’, or verified, artist channels.) What that means in practical terms: When a fan types an artist name into YouTube search, they will be served the Official Artist Channel over any user-run (or, indeed...

CENTAUR (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Director Aktan Arym Kubat Music composed by Andre MATTHIAS Digital & Physical Distribution Label Plaza Mayor Company Ltd The Orchard Cinema release GERMANY – 28 December 2017 FRANCE – 31 January 2018 JAPAN – 17 March 2018   CENTAUR (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Music by Andre MATTHIAS 1.      Centaur 4:36 2.      Kambar Ata 3:07 3.      No Regrets 1:40 4.      The Dark of Night 2:31 5.      Lost Wings 3:00 6.      Alone 3:22 7.      Old Movie 1:32 8.      Expelled 3:50 9.      Free 6:29 10. Suite 11:58 Aktan Arym Kubat's beautiful film “Centaur“ provided me with the opportunity to write my most heartfelt and personal score to date. When I first saw the film, I was daunted because it ...

China’s popular video streaming service, iQiyi, has filed confidentially for US IPO according to IFR. Sources familiar with the plans said the company is looking to raise $1 billion by the end of Q1 or early Q2 of 2018. iQiyi has not commented on their plans for IPO. Rumors of iQiyi’s IPO have been circulating since the end of last year. In September, Bloomberg reported that iQiyi was taking its IPO to the US, which could value the video streaming service at over $8 billion. And in October 2017, IFR also reported that iQiyi had picked three banks—Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs—to help manage the deal. iQiyi is a Netflix-like video streaming service currently controlled by search giant Baidu, who became the firm’s largest shareholder in 2012. In 2013, Baidu acquired PPS—another popular video streaming platform in China—for $370 million, merging the two video streaming services. After the merger, iQiyi began to expand into areas such as s...

THE LOOMING STORM (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) Music composed by 丁可 Dingke Director Dong Yue Digital & Physical Distribution Label Plaza Mayor Company Ltd The Orchard    The Looming Storm Music Composed by Ding Ke A security guard plays de tective with dire results in Dong Yue’s atmospheric psychological film noir. The Looming Storm , the first feature by cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Dong Yue, conveys above all a sense of dashed hopes. Men in dark-gray mackintoshes under an endless downpour typify this Chinese film noir, whose glum atmosphere echoes a disintegrating social situation. The poorest sectors of society falter as the country modernizes and shrugs off its old and unproductive elements. China’s competition entry in this year’s Tokyo Film Festival is a think piece, thinly disguised as a murder mystery. Though far too long at nearly two hours, its stylish look lends it a certain fascination while the story heralds a new ...