Lady Gaga album may be first exclusivity loss for Apple

Interscope Records, which was co-founded by current Apple Music executive Jimmy Iovine in 1989, is one of the many labels owned by Universal Media Group. Apple’s rumored exclusivity loss of Lady Gaga’s new album appears to be the first ripple generated by UMG’s CEO Lucian Grainge decreeing earlier in the week that the company would no longer support exclusive music streaming on any service.

I’ll be honest with you, I’ll be glad if the exclusives stop. I want Apple to build a service that is second to none. Build an Apple app the way we know they can. Building a service on exclusives is a numbers game to boost subscriptions—as soon as the exclusive is over people will go to the service that’s the best. Apple is arguably not that service for many people right now. They need to change that quickly.

U Kentucky is suing its own student newspaper

Earlier this month, the university announced it would sue the Kernel over requests for documents involving the investigation of James Harwood, an associate professor of entomology accused of sexual assault and harassment in an investigation spanning seven months, after three years’ worth of allegations, according to the Kernel.

Respect to the student newspaper.

Spotify penalizing musicians with Apple Music exclusives

Spotify has been retaliating against musicians who introduce new material exclusively on rival Apple Music by making their songs harder to find, according to people familiar with the strategy. Artists who have given Apple exclusive access to new music have been told they won’t be able to get their tracks on featured playlists once the songs become available on Spotify, said the people, who declined to be identified discussing the steps. Those artists have also found their songs buried in the search rankings of Spotify, the world’s largest music-streaming service, the people said. Spotify said it doesn’t alter search rankings.

I hate that musicians are the ones caught in the middle of this Apple, Spotify fight, but you had to see something was going to happen. Apple is targeting Spotify, and they are fighting back.

Pad and Quill Back to Work Giveaway. $700 value!

Thanks to Pad and Quill for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.

Pad and Quill has partnered with The Loop to offer you a chance to win a $700 Back to Work giveaway. One winner will receive a Luxury Briefcase, Leather Ipad pro case, Woodline case for the Iphone, and a Classic leather band for the Apple Watch.” Sign up for your chance to win!

The security content of iOS 9.3.5

If you like to know exactly what Apple did to improve security in the latest update, you can read this update on the company’s Web site.

Apple announces Apple Music Festival musical lineup

Alicia Keys, Bastille, Britney Spears, Calvin Harris, Chance the Rapper, Elton John, Michael Bublé, OneRepublic, Robbie Williams and The 1975.

Those are the headliners for the festival. Elton John!

Important to note that in order to watch the festival, you will need to sign-up for Apple Music. That wasn’t a requirement in the past. Seems like just another way to boost subscriptions, but it’s a numbers game these days.

iOS 10’s new Bedtime feature

This is a feature I’m really looking forward to using. I haven’t slept well in many years, so it will be interesting to me to try to get on a schedule and track my patterns. Using the fitness rings and other health features in Apple Watch and iPhone have worked really good for me, so I’m confident this will help me too.

SampleTank 2 for iOS

With SampleTank for iOS, you now have the power of desktop virtual instruments — without compromise — with a massive number of over 1,900 high-quality instruments and the most advanced sound and groove workstation for the mobile platform.

IK Multimedia makes some great stuff for musicians on iOS.

Tesla unveils new Model S

Tesla Motors Inc. is adding versions of its Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle with a more powerful battery pack that the company said makes the Model S the world’s quickest production car and gives it range of 315 miles on a single charge.

Tesla said it can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour in 2.5 seconds.

New York Times reporters hacked

Hackers thought to be working for Russian intelligence have carried out a series of cyber breaches targeting reporters at the New York Times and other US news organizations, according to US officials briefed on the matter.

I wonder what they were looking for at media organizations.

Asking questions in design

Janice Gervais wrote a great article about asking the right questions of your client, and understanding why it’s important to have a clear picture.

Pinterest acquires Instapaper

For you, the Instapaper end user and customer, nothing changes. The Instapaper team will be moving from betaworks in New York City to Pinterest’s headquarters in San Francisco, and we’ll continue to make Instapaper a great place to save and read articles.

I used to be a huge Instapaper user.

The top TV ads of the Olympics

To get some insights into these questions, Google evaluated the top 12 brands totaling over 3.5 billion impressions that aired ads during the NBC broadcasts of the event.

Lyft: We’re not seeking a buyer

“Lyft is not seeking a buyer,” Zimmer told Business Insider.

“Getting approached and then having it characterized as us wanting to sell the business and failing to do so is a large mischaracterization,” he said. “If the company is approached, it doesn’t mean the company is looking.”

Lyft President John Zimmer said he was approached to sell the company and the media said they had been unsuccessful in finding a buyer. If true, that’s a pretty big mistake from the media organizations.

Failure

Ben Brooks on failing:

This advice has been taken too far and confused the word ‘mistake’ with ‘failure’. A mistake is touching the hot stove and burning your hand. A failure is setting yourself on fire and dying when you touched the stove. One of those two you learn from, the other kills you.

I thought this was a really good article. I enjoyed it.

Apple’s retail store changes

Apple held all-hands meetings with retail employees this weekend to introduce major new changes, including new and renamed positions, a new credo, and new store layouts, according to multiple retail sources.

I’m glad to see Apple retail continuing to change as the company changes. For most people the stores are the first contact with Apple and they should reflect what the company is doing.

Apple announces Apple Music Festival in London

Apple Music Festival 10 returns to London in September for 10 exhilarating nights of live music. Residents of the UK can win tickets to the gigs. Apple Music members around the world can watch the performances for free. Ticket applications will be opening soon. Follow @AppleMusic on Twitter and Snapchat for up-to-the-minute information and join the #AMF10 conversation.

These festivals are truly special. I’ve attended a number of them in London over the years and loved each one. The Roundhouse is a classic music venue and shows off the best for Apple and the bands performing.

Zakk Wylde on Ozzy, Dio, and Axl

Zakk is the reason I picked up the guitar again after a few years away from playing. He is an incredible guitarist—acoustic and electric— and having met him a number of times, he is a great person. I learned how to play almost every song he released, just so I could see how he did chord progressions and timing.

Microsoft broke millions of webcams with Windows 10 Anniversary Update

On August 2nd, Microsoft released the Anniversary Update for Windows 10 and when the bits arrived on computers around the globe, it brought with it new features and also broke webcams for millions of consumers. If your webcam has stopped functioning since the release of the Anniversary update, you are not alone but the good news is a fix is coming, hopefully in September.

September? WTF?!