Spotify’s Daniel Ek Talks Covid-19, Universal Deal, Launching in Russia and Moving Ahead

CONVERTING a classic car into an electric vehicle is a growing trend that can also vastly increase its value, according to a study.

A mum has been accused of staging a leak in her own home and drawing mould on the wall with a pen in an attempt to be re-housed.

Storm Huntley admitted she is suffering from bad morning sickness as she posted on social media about her plight.

Premiering in the Special Gala section of this year’s Berlinale, the latest film from Italian director Dario Argento is surprising in more ways than one. Rather than copy the style of the giallo films from the 1970s and 1980s that made him famous (“The Bird with the Crystal Plumage,” “Deep Red,” and “Suspiria,” to cite just a few), his “Dark Glasses” finds ingenious ways to retain the core of the giallo while adapting to our current times.

Good evening and welcome to Thursday’s news briefing.

Loose Women descended into chaos with a tense opening debate regarding Prince Andrew’s settlement of a civil case brought by Virginia Giuffre.

Earlier today, it was announced that Noah Hawley is set to do a fifth season of “Fargo.” In fact, that is going to be the next series that he works on. So, what does that mean for his in-development “Alien” series? Well, according to FX, it’s still coming and is going to be pretty great.

A television producer charged with killing her sister pleaded no contest today to voluntary manslaughter.

FX boss John Landgraf famously said in 2015 that there is “simply too much television” and predicted that the industry would soon hit peak TV.

Leading into Wednesday primetime, the lowest-rated evening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing was the very first night of competition pre-Opening Ceremony. However, Wednesday marked new lows for NBC Olympics coverage.

Grab your “Driver’s License,” we’re going on a road trip.Olivia Rodrigo, the breakout star of Disney+’s “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” is returning to the streaming platform on March 25 with “OLIVIA RODRIGO: driving home 2 u (a SOUR film),” a high-concept concert film built around her blockbuster 2021 album “SOUR.”According to the official release, the new movie “takes audiences on a familiar road trip from Salt Lake City, where she began writing her triple-platinum Geffen Records debut album “SOUR,” to Los Angeles. Along the way, Rodrigo recounts the memories of writing and creating her record-breaking debut album and shares her feelings as a young woman navigating a specific time in her life.

Each week, we here at Official Charts compile the best and most exciting releases of New Music Friday, to give you a chance to hear the future hits on the Official Singles and Albums Chart. Let's dive in!

Kim Kardashian has unfollowed Kanye West on Instagram.

Kanye West just won’t let up on his attacks against Pete Davidson. To troll his ex-wife‘s new beau, Ye, 44, took to Instagram on Feb. 17 and resurfaced a 2018 clip from Saturday Night Live of Pete, 28, mocking the rapper about his mental health struggles. Before posting the clip, Kanye shared a screenshot of Pete wearing a red “Make Kanye 2006 Again” hat on SNL, and wrote, “HI SKETE YOU GOT ANYMORE MENTAL HEALTH JOKES FOR ME?”

Sofía Jirau is making her historic debut!

Amazon Prime Video on March 25, follows the three-time Grammy award winner on the hunt for the best twerkers in town.“Girls that look like me don’t get representation,” Lizzo, 33, says in the trailer.

a hair too far.Social media socialite Cathair Curran, better known as Kegs thanks to his 111,000 TikTok followers and 225 million viral video views, is giving up sex, smoking, swimming and more after undergoing a new, cutting-edge hair transplant procedure in an attempt to regrow his diminishing mane. “For the first 30 days [after the transplant], you’re not allowed to drink alcohol, smoke, exercise, go in the pool or sea — or have sex,” Kegs, 24, explained to Kennedy News and Media. He underwent the restoration procedure with Now Hair Time in Turkey on Feb. 6.Kegs — from Loughmacrory, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland — began experiencing the loss of his locks at age 19. As a kid, he was bullied for having a “really big forehead.”The internet influencer initially tried covering up the perceived imperfection with his hair, which he ultimately overpacked with products that, in turn, promoted permanent damage. And over the last five years, he’s implemented a number of unmaintainable hair recovery and replacements systems in an attempt to conceal his early onset baldness. “I’ve done three things in the past — the spray paint, a hair system then the hair transplant,” said Kegs.Wearing spray-on hair, however, made him feel “really self-conscious,” especially on rainy days or during waterside outings. “You have to use products to make sure it’s covering everywhere and you’d get really self-conscious if it was raining,” he said of the faux-hair substance, which might have washed off of his head if it got wet.

#TheView co-hosts and guest co-host @drlaurenawright discuss the messaging and question how schools should handle masking. pic.twitter.com/KvMPfu9fi0Behar’s comments come a day after CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday that her agency would “soon put guidance in place” on mask-wearing that will be based on science and data.

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A new start. Kelly Clarkson has filed to legally change her name to Kelly Brianne amid her divorce from Brandon Blackstock.

Melania Trump is releasing a new collection of NFTs. The office of the former first lady announced on Thursday that the POTUS TRUMP NFT Collection will launch on Presidents’ Day, Feb.

LUXURY Japanese marque Lexus has revealed enticing pictures and video footage of its next-generation all-electric sports car.

A woman has been injured after her car smashed into a tree on a Lanarkshire road.

Scots were left stunned yesterday as bizarre clouds formed over parts of the country in the midst of Storm Dudley.

Police have opened an investigation after a 29-year-old man was found dead at a property in Glasgow.

Miss Cleo, the popular television psychic whose commercials became iconic during the 1990s, is set to be the focus of an upcoming documentary.The documentary, produced by the nonfiction entertainment studio XTR and production company Majority, will explore the life and career of the alleged Jamaican shaman who rose to national prominence with the phrase “Call me now!” According to Deadline, Miss Cleo’s Psychic Reader’s Network raked in over $1 billion until the Federal Trade Commission brought charges against her in 2002, ultimately ending her career.Award-winning filmmaker Senain Khesghi, best known for her work on films such as Project Kashmir and The Diplomat, will direct the documentary about the late Miss Cleo (born Youree Dell Harris), who died in 2016 at the age of 53 after a bout with cancer.“Youree Harris may have been an accomplice or perhaps a victim in the Psychic Reader’s Network fraud, but she also had talent and personality, which for women doesn’t always translate into access or wealth,” Kheshgi said in a statement. “Her story is an example of how brown and Black women have historically been marginalized and exotified in society and popular culture.

Jamie Lang Keshet International has boarded Darrel Bristow-Bovey and Anton Visser’s South African series “Paradys,” selected as a finalist for next month’s Series Mania Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. Keshet international joins Quizzical Pictures as a production partner and will handle global distribution of the finished series.Described as a “tense, character-driven murder mystery,” the series is based on Orania, a real city in South Africa where, 25 years after apartheid, segregation still holds strong.

Zack Sharf Francis Ford Coppola went viral in 2019 after he was quoted calling Marvel movies “despicable” while supporting Martin Scorsese’s critical beliefs about comic book films hurting the film industry. Coppola later clarified that he wasn’t talking about Marvel movies specifically, saying it’s “despicable” how the film industry now values commerce over art.

K.J. Yossman Former GB News anchor Andrew Neil has filed a defamation lawsuit against U.S. businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri in London’s High Court.The suit, officially filed on Wednesday, is believed to stem from a Twitter conflict between the two in Dec.

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek discussed streaming and sustainability in a recent interview with Music Ally published on Thursday. Ek denied criticisms that Spotify pays insufficient royalties to artists, and insisted that the role of the musician had changed in today's "future landscape." Ek claimed that a "narrative fallacy" had been created and caused music fans to believe that Spotify doesn't pay musicians enough for streams of their music.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorThe three major music companies — Sony, Universal and Warner Music — have asked employees to work from home as much as possible for the rest of 2020 due to concerns over COVID-19.While the offices will be open for employees who must be there for business reasons, according to internal memos obtained by Rolling Stone (which first reported the news) and Variety, the companies, which are the largest recorded-music and music-publishing businesses in the world, have asked the staff who can do so to work from home. Reps for the companies either declined or did not respond to Variety‘s requests for comment.The news is not surprising, due to the enormous spread of coronavirus across the U.S.

Daniel Ek noted during an investors call that sales improved significantly by June.Spotify said its second-quarter operating loss amounted to €167 million ($196 million), compared with €3 million ($3.5 million) a year ago and €17 million ($20 million) at the end of March. The company allowed that this metric was much higher than expected due to social costs like payroll taxes tied to salaries and benefits, plus a higher tax bill in its home government of Sweden related to stock-based compensation for employees there.The firm's net loss also ballooned to €356 million ($418 million), compared to €76 million ($89 million) in the year-ago period.

Jill Goldsmith Co-Business EditorSpotify saw monthly active users jump 29% to 299 million last quarter with boosts in paid and premium subscribers but earnings were squeezed by costs associated with the streaming music giant’s stock price gains.Premium subscribers rose 27% from a year earlier. Paid subscribers, 138 million, beat Wall Street estimates for the three months ended in June.