Report claims Beatles music set to come to streaming services on Christmas Eve

Fans of legendary rock group might be in for a treat. According to sources who spoke with Billboard, Beatles’ discography is set to land on “most, if not all” streaming services by Dec. 24^th.  Fans might be able to hear “Hey Jude” by Thursday. There were rumours before that there will be a six-month “exclusive” for a known streaming service but that died out. However, this past January former Universal Music Group digital executive Rob Wells was said to restart discussions on the matter and papers were reportedly signed by mid-September. Major streaming services won’t comment about their involvement in the report. If their catalogue does show up in streaming services, we can only speculate what records the Fab Four will break.

Source: Billboard

Spotify might let popular artists restrict songs to paying subscribers

A new report has surfaced claiming Spotify might be bending to pressure from pure-pay competition like Apple Music. There are claims they are considering limiting access to music from select artists to paying customers only. This new “windowing” policy will supposedly restrict certain albums to Spotify users who pay for premium. At the moment, musicians need to release their music both for paying and free users of the service. Spotify has reportedly informed music executives about said plan.

The streaming service could test this out to see how it will affect subscriber numbers and new sign-ups. The Wall Street Journal reports Spotify currently has around 20 million paying customers and another 80 million users who listen using ad-supported, free method. There were supposedly plans to window Coldplay’s upcoming album Head Full of Dreams but negotiations fell through after the band wasn’t able to guarantee it won’t be available on other free platforms like YouTube.

Source: Wall Street Journal | Via: Apple Insider

Report claims Apple plans to use OLED displays for 2018 iPhones

Apple will reportedly switch to OLED displays for the company’s iPhones starting 2018. Japanese publication Nikkei reports that the tech giant has talked to its suppliers about its plans and LG Display will ramp up capacity, accordingly. LG’s the exclusive display provider for Apple’s only product with an OLED display: the Apple Watch. LG is said to be planning a new Korean factory valued up to US$4.2 billion but there is no indication if they are targeting Apple with this move.

Nikkei suggests LG might be joined by Samsung to help meet the demand. Or Apple might be forced to offer OLED and LCD iPhones, but this is thought to be unlikely as the company wants to keep screens consistent across products, even with the differently-sized iPhone 6s and 6s Plus these had same underlying technology.

Source: Nikkei | Via: Apple Insider

Google will reportedly help improve Samsung’s TouchWiz interface

Samsung’s TouchWiz UI has been a resource hog in the past. Recently though, Samsung’s given users the option to disable pre-installed apps and performance is slightly better. But there is still a lot of room for improvement. With the Galaxy line deeply linked with the Android platform, it comes as no surprise that Google wants to help streamline the experience further.

According to a report from Samsung Viet, Google hopes to make TouchWiz faster, more stable, and come with fewer bugs. If there is truth to this, this won’t be the first time Google stepped into Samsung’s territory. It was rumoured before the Samsung junked its Magazine UX for the Galaxy Tab Pro lineup because Google wasn’t happy with the interface change.

Source: Samsung Viet | Via: Cult of Android