DJ mixes are mostly absent from "premium" streaming services. That's mostly due to the fact that properly sorting out royalties for all the samples is a nightmare. You can find them on platforms like SoundCloud (unless they get taken down), but these songs can have literally hundreds of rights holders between the DJ, original artist, labels and even a festival or venue. To remedy the problem, and to massively expand the amount of DJ-mixed content on the platform, Apple worked with both major and independent labels on a system that identifies and directly pays rights holders on a mix. What's more, the company leveraged Shazam technology to do it for Apple Music. 

Apple explains that its new tool will let the streaming service ID and compensate individual creators in a DJ mix, even artists who recorded any sampled tunes. It's also the first major streaming service to do so. In collaboration with DJs themselves alongside festivals, clubs, promoters, curators and independent labels, the company says it's working with all parties involved to ensure fair compensation. Apple says this will give DJ mixes a longer shelf life when it comes to revenue since individual tracks, collections, compilations and even full festival sets will be available to stream like studio albums on Apple Music. 

There are thousands of DJ mixes on Apple Music already, and the service says it's adding more all the time. The company has already commissioned mixes for Black Music Month and Pride in addition to housing content from Tomorrowland's 2020 and 2021 digital festivals. Thanks to this new system, there's about to be a lot more to choose from. 

Starting this Friday, !K7's DJ-Kicks archive will be available for streaming. The label explains that 14 of those editions haven't been "in the market" for more than 15 years. Previously unavailable for streaming, Tomorrowland performances from Alesso, Charlotte de Witte, David Guetta, Diplo, Major Lazer, Martin Garrix, The Chainsmokers, Tiësto and more will be easily accessible. Mixmag is opening up its vault as well, and livestream platform Cercle will have a dedicated hub on Apple Music where listeners can stream archived mixes and live performances. And yes, much of this will be available for lossless streaming and you'll be able to listen offline too. 

This isn't the first time Apple has dabbled in managing royalties for DJ mixes. In 2016, the company began working with Dubset to bring previously unlicensed content to Apple Music. Dubset used a Gracenote database of clips to identify and assign rights. The system even allowed original artists to prohibit their songs from being used in mixes and to limit how much of a track could be repurposed. Dubset was purchased by Pex in 2020, where the system is used to scan social media audio and video content for unlicensed material. Apple's new Shazam-based setup, on the other hand, compares all parts of a mix to Apple Music's library of 75 million songs.

As you can imagine, all of the new content will be easy to find. Apple says DJs will have artist pages, if they don't already for any original music. And while the focus is on DJ mixes for now, the company says this system can be applied widely, for things like assigning royalties for hip-hop remixes and more. 

It's been about a year since Sony first said that God of War Ragnarök was officially on its way, and today we're finally getting our first look at the game. As expected, it look like God of War, with the familiar dual-weapon wielding that Kratos excelled at in the 2018 game. His son, Atreus, looks like he's grown up in the last few years, and he's challenging his dear old dad's decisions as well as proving to be a more capable fighter.

As for the game's story, it looks to be setting up a conflict with the Norse pantheon of gods — just as Kratos destroyed all of the Greek gods in the first trilogy of games, he might be on that path again here. But he's definitely fighting it, while Atreus sounds like the one who is more convinced that full-on war is necessary here. As noted in an extensive blog post about the new game, a lot of the conflict seems to come from Atreus trying to understand what his now-dead mother wanted for him, after it was revealed he was part-giant at the end of the first game.

As for the enemies, Freya, an ally-turned-foe, will be a main antagonist, as will Thor. We only saw brief teases of each character, but both characters have lost family to Kratos and Atreus, and they seem about as thirsty for revenge as Kratos used to be when he was a Greek god. Particularly intriguing is the news that veteran actor Richard Schiff (The West Wing) will play Odin, king of the Norse gods.

Unsurprisingly, the game looks fantastic, with a variety of new environments and enemies as well as more ways to use Kratos' Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos. But the familiar boat returns, as does the disembodied head Mimir, so get ready for more story time and cutting remarks about Kratos' perpetually grumpy mood.

Sony unfortunately didn't have a release date to share; a year ago, the company said God of War Ragnarök would arrive in 2021, but the blog post said "see you next year" at its end.

We did learn in a post-show interview that Eric Williams, a longtime Santa Monica Studio veteran will be directing God of War Ragnarök, rather than Cory Barlog, who helmed the 2018 title. Williams has worked on every God of War title so far, so he seems a logical choice for the job. Williams mentioned that each game has historically had a different director, with Barlog the only one doing two installments. "You're really exhausted at the end of finishing one of these things," Barlog said, "so you've gotta con someone else into doing it, like him." 

Gearbox is finally ready to set a firm release date for Tiny Tina's Wonderlands — and offer a peek at gameplay in the process. The studio has revealed that its Borderlands fantasy spin-off will launch on PS5 (and presumably other platforms) on March 25th, 2022. The gameplay appears to have some very familiar elements, although not all of them are from Gearbox's sci-fi shooter.

Yes, to some extent it looks like Borderlands with crossbows — Tiny Tina even throws in guns just because. But there are also some tributes to role-playing game tropes, including silly top-down navigation, parties... and, of course, lots of loot. It looks promising, even if it's not a radical reinvention of the Gearbox formula.

Spotify has long had plenty of tricks up its sleeve when it comes to providing recommendations, and its latest one is about making your playlists even more banging. The Enhance feature offers personalized suggestions of tracks to add to your playlists.

Premium users in some markets will soon see an Enhance button at the top of each playlist. If you turn on the feature, Spotify will add suggested songs to the list, one after every two tracks and up to 30 in total. If you like the recommendation, just tap the plus button to keep it on your playlist permanently. The feature is designed to add suggestions that match songs you already have on the playlist.

Spotify is rolling out Enhance on iOS and Android in 40 countries over the coming month, including the US, UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and much of Europe. It plans to expand the feature, which will evolve over time, to other countries later.

The company has added other playlist features in recent months, including Blend, a playlist that brings together songs from your listening history and a friend's. Also relatively new is the curated Notable Releases playlist, which includes new tracks from prominent producers and songwriters.

You no longer have to settle for watching tiny, random clips of the next Matrix movie. Warner Bros. has finally shared the first trailer for The Matrix Resurrections, the long-anticipated fourth movie in the sci-fi action series. As you'd expect, the preview marks the return of Keanu Reeves as Neo, who initially appears unaware of who he really is — he's even taking blue pills and visiting a therapist (Neil Patrick Harris). As you'd expect, though, he begins to question reality and finds the truth underneath, including a reunion with Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss).

You'll also see Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a Morpheus-like figure, and Jessica Henwick (Game of Thrones) enticing Neo to rediscover the Matrix. The title will also see Jada Pinkett Smith and Lambert Wilson reprise their respective roles as Niobe and the Merovingian, while Jonathan Groff (Hamilton), Christina Ricci and Daniel Bernhardt are also poised to make appearances.

The movie premieres theatrically on December 22nd. It will also be available to stream on HBO Max for a month if you subscribe to the ad-free tier — the last movie to have that option before Warner Bros. switches back to a theater-first strategy in 2022.

Other than some developer tests, Twitter has only ever offered you one way to react to tweets: the classic heart "Like" emoji and prior to 2015, the "Favorite" star button. Now, the social media network might be finally expanding that range as it's testing a new feature called "Reactions" with additional emoji over the coming days. 

In Turkey only for a limited time, the company is testing four new emojis on top of the heart icon: 😂, 🤔, 👏 and 😢, aka "tears of joy," "thinking face," "clapping hands" and "crying face." Back in 2015, Twitter tested a wider variety including the the "100," "heart eyes" and other emoji. However, this time it wanted to "find emoji that are universally recognizable and represent what people want to express about Tweets," the company said.

Twitter

Twitter narrowed it down to those additional four after conducting surveys and researching what the most common words and emoji are in Tweets. It found that the most popular one is the laughing emoji, and that people want to express reactions centered around "funny," "support/cheer," "agreement" and "awesome." It also identified "entertained" and "curious" as the top emotions people feel when reading tweets.

Its surveys also revealed that "frustration" and "anger" were common emotions experienced by users. While some people wanted to express disagreement with Tweets, the company decided not to incorporate that. Rather, it's trying to see if the new, more positive emoji will drive "healthy public conversations." It's also likely related to the high levels of polarization and toxicity on the site, something that Twitter has been keen to reduce over the past several years.

More specifically, Twitter said that reactions will help people better show how they feel in conversations "while also giving those Tweeting a better understanding of how their Tweets are received." The new reactions will be available in Turkey only for a limited time on Twitter for iOS, Android and the web over the coming days. However, it added that "based on this test, we may expand the availability of the Reactions experiment to other regions."

The following contains spoilers for episode five of 'What If...?' (and a tiny spoiler for 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings').

The fifth episode of Marvel’s alternate universe anthology program on Disney+ is a star-studded affair, bringing back Chadwick Boseman, Sebastian Stan and Mark Ruffalo to voice their characters surviving in a world overtaken by the undead. (No Tom Holland, though.) This adventure’s point of divergence takes place during the events of Ant-Man and the Wasp, leading up to the events of Infinity War. It’s the biggest What If...? yet, in both cast and concept, and it also sheds a light on some characters still waiting for their day in the spotlight.

Janet Van Dyne contracts the zombie plague in the Quantum Realm and, when rescued, ends up spreading it to her husband and Scott Lang and things escalate from there. Even the Avengers end up infected, leaving the task of saving the world to characters who weren’t officially part of the team, like Wasp, Winter Soldier and Spider-Man. They’re joined by supporting characters like Sharon Carter, Okoye, Kurt and Happy Hogan. Bruce Banner is there too, but without the help of the Hulk. Just like in Infinity War, he refuses to emerge, leaving Bruce mostly defenseless.

Marvel Studios

The episode also gives us a darker take on the Vision and Scarlet Witch, one that has a lot more meaning if you’ve watched all of WandaVision. There’s also a nod to The Falcon and Winter Soldier, when zombie Sam Wilson gets cut in half. Bucky finds himself unfeeling about the whole thing, likely because this version of the characters haven’t had time to bond the way their live-action counterparts have.

Without Captain America and Iron Man to take the reins, the role of leader falls to, well, no one, really, with this motley group of heroes and side-characters operating as a collective. It seems to work for the team for the most part, though they ignore Peter Parker’s advice not to split up with disastrous results.

Marvel Studios

In fact, Peter is the star of the show here, despite his actor being unavailable to voice him. Just as he was in Infinity War, the kid is a solid team player who more than pulls his weight in combat. But this is also the first time we get to see other heroes interact with him on a more personal level. He isn’t just Tony Stark’s mascot here, instead the team ends up looking to him for moral support, the way they might have once admired Steve Rogers. It’s a nice glimpse of what Peter can be free of Iron Man’s shadow, a thread that will be more fully explored in this December’s No Way Home.

Marvel Studios

In the teaser for the upcoming Eternals film, one of the characters, Sprite, asks who will lead the Avengers now. Though the answer is unlikely to come out of that particular movie, this most recent What If…? suggests a few intriguing possibilities. While Peter forms the heart of the team here, a lot of the thinking falls to Bruce Banner. He’s a character that’s gone underused in the MCU thus far, thanks to Universal holding the film rights. A lot of his development has had to happen off-screen, but starting with 2018’s Thor: Ragnarok and continuing with the upcoming She-Hulk show, he’s gently getting nudged to the forefront of the Avengers. With Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow dead and Thor off in space, he’s the natural choice to take the reins as one of two OG team members left (and if you’ve seen Shang-Chi, it seems he may already have).

Marvel Studios

Ultimately, like all What If…? episodes this installment doesn’t actually matter to the grander MCU, though its open-ended nature raises the possibility of a sequel — and given how many Marvel Zombies comics are out there, it’s almost guaranteed we’ll see this reality on Disney+ again. But for fans who don’t care for this week’s horror elements the story is still a valuable tease for how a post-blip, second generation Avengers roster could function.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is both a prequel and a spinoff, depicting the adventures of the original USS Enterprise before James Kirk assumed command. It features the return of Anson Mount as Captain Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Spock, all reprising their roles from Discovery. The cast will be filled out by new actors playing other characters from the original series, with Celia Rose Gooding as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel and Babs Olusanmokun as Doctor M'Benga.

Unlike Discovery, however, Strange New Worlds is intended to be more episodic, with standalone installments similar to TOS and TNG. New characters joining the cast include Christina Chong as La’an Noonien-Singh and Melissa Navia as Lieutenant Erica Ortegas. No premiere date has been given yet, but it's likely to debut after Prodigy, Discovery and Picard finish their upcoming seasons. 

You can watch the Star Trek Day event live on YouTube, while you'll need a subscription to Paramount+ to watch Strange New Worlds when it drops next year.

Netflix promised a big movie every week in 2021, and it's clearly determined to end the year with its most ostentatious movie yet. The streaming service has posted a teaser trailer for Don't Look Up, a satire where "star-studded cast" is an understatement. The movie stars Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as a grad student and professor who try desperately to warn the public of a life-ending comet in an era where 24-hour news and social media lead to gnat-like attention spans. Those two are just the start of the headliners, though — seemingly everyone involved is a big name.

Meryl Streep is the President and counts Jonah Hill as her son, while Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry host a relentlessly optimistic morning show. The flick also features Ron Perlman, Mark Rylance, Dune's Timothée Chalamet and even two pop stars (Ariana Grande and Kid Cudi), among others. The Big Short's Adam McKay directed and wrote the title.

Don't Look Up reaches Netflix on December 24th, but it's arriving in "select" theaters on December 10th. The company is clearly hoping for more Oscars glory given that timing. Not that Netflix will need critical praise. The film-a-week strategy has revolved around enticing viewers with star power, even in "dead" months like January — any statuettes from late-2021 releases are just a bonus.

After 15 years, Twitter is getting dedicated features for groups. The company is now starting to test Communities, “a more intimate space for conversations” on the platform.

Communities, which the company first teased back in February, are sort of like Twitter’s version of a subreddit or a public-facing group on Facebook. Communities are dedicated to specific topics, and members can post tweets to a dedicated group timeline. Each community has its own moderators who set rules for the group, and users must be invited by an existing member or moderator to participate.

The feature is meant to address what’s been a long-running issue for the platform: that it can be incredibly difficult for new users to wade through the noise and find the corner of Twitter that speaks to their interests. The company has tried to address this with Topics, which injects tweets into your timeline based on your interests, but Communities takes the idea a step further.

Twitter

Twitter notes that some of its first Communities will focus on popular topics like skincare, astrology, sneakers and dogs, but that over time it expects the groups to reflect the more “niche discussions” that happen on the platform. For now, Twitter is starting with just a handful of Communities, though moderators and members are able to invite anyone to join. The company says it plans to open up the feature for more users to create Communities in the “coming months.”

Notably, Twitter seems to be trying to avoid some of the issues that have plagued Facebook’s Groups. All Communities are publicly accessible and viewable by anyone on the platform —there’s no such thing as a private or “secret” Community — though only members can participate in the discussion directly. Like Reddit and Facebook, Twitter will also rely on admins and moderators to steer the day-to-day conversations and keep members in check. The company is also working on new reporting and detection features to weed out “potentially problematic” groups that may spring up.

Though the company is calling the feature a test, Twitter seems to be quite serious about its potential. Communities is getting its own tab in the center of Twitter’s app, between explore and notifications, which suggests the company plans for Communities to be a prominent feature of its platform for the long term.