Just days ahead of its IPO, Swedish music streaming company Spotify has published its first ever guidance document for prospective investors and anyone who just wants to understand the company's self-image. The IPO, or initial public offering, will be the first time Spotify's shares will be available for public purchase. And if you need a specific date, pen that particular milestone for 3 April 2018. For you number lovers out there however, here's how many users the company believes will join its service this year. Spotify forecasts modest user growth for the first three months of 2018's financial year (Q1 2018). It...
Spotify is reportedly testing a voice-command and search system for those who prefer talking to their devices. Just a small subset of users have received the update, the company told TechCrunch, but it has massive implications. For users, it means telling the streaming service to "Play my Daily Mix 1" or "Show Drake". The service will then oblige, by either selecting and playing said playlist, or producing the artist page for Drake. (It won't however show him playing Fornite, you'll need another app for that.) For Spotify, this lends further credence to the company's audio assistant ambitions. While the limitations of a screen...
The streaming music world's worst kept secret is finally confirmed to be true: Spotify will today launch in South Africa, the company's representatives confirmed in an email to Memeburn. The news comes after numerous taunts and hints, including a rumoured Vodacom partnership in 2014, an oh-so-revealing job posting last year, and an invitations to a media event in Johannesburg last week. South Africa will be the Swedish music streaming service's first foray into Africa, as it looks to bolster its 160-million user base. But gaining users may not be so easy. The South African streaming market is congested, with the likes of...
Former US President Barack Obama is reportedly in talks with Netflix over a show production deal which could see one of the most influential figures on social media make his production bow on streaming media. According to the New York Times exclusive, "Netflix would pay Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle, for exclusive content that would be available only on the streaming service." No one's quite sure what format these show(s) will take yet -- whether it'll be something akin to Keeping Up With The Obamas, or simply a documentary series about the Obama Administration and his Obama family during this...
It's the season of love, and for some that means flowers and chocolates and romantic declarations. For others it means avoiding the shops at all costs. If you're sitting in the latter, then you're probably planning on staying home alone Wednesday night to avoid the amorous couples flaunting their togetherness. Question love, loneliness, and life on Netflix this Valentine's Day There's no shame in staying in, and to make your night even simpler I've compiled a list of films on Netflix South Africa you may want to check out to keep your mind off Valentine's day. Here they are. Unfaithful Unfaithful is a film for those looking...
After an exhausting week filled with long days and short showers, I fell into my couch, ready to glue my eyes to any TV show mindless enough to put my brain on standby. Netflix quickly proffered its latest tribute: Queer Eye, the rebooted makeover show about a group of five gay men eager to turn other men's lives around. In it, I found much more than easy entertainment. Queer Eye is filled with love and good intentions. It's so soothing, in fact, it feels like a rejuvenating face mask for the soul -- in that it probably won't do as much it...
A lot of people like to make kooky jokes about how their country is "weird", and that "only people here like to do this slightly strange thing that isn't actually abnormal". But last year, South Africans on Netflix really tried their best. Of the shows released in 2017, the nation's viewers picked out the oddest collection of series to binge, from religious dramas to teen mockumentaries to mysterious sci-fis. Top of the list of shows South Africans binged last year was the Mexican political thriller Ingobernable. Behind it was Oprah's Greenleaf, a show about the family who own a Memphis megachurch, and in third was dick-obsessed mockumentary American Vandal. Here's...
It's that time of year between raging holidays and looming work, so if you're looking to cram in a bit of relaxation before heading back to the office, here's Netflix South Africa's first month of new content in 2018. 1 January: Lovesick New Years Day is the perfect time to hear the word "sick", no? British sitcom Lovesick rings in 2018 as Dylan, Luke, and Evie trudge their way through the world of love, lust, and STIs. In the show's third season, Evie faces her feelings for Dylan, who's in a serious relationship with Abigail, who is unsure of where she stands in the midst of all the drama....
There's something intoxicating about "bad" films -- unsubtle films, low-budget ones, empty films that sell nothing bar unexplained concepts like love at first sight or Christmas cheer. Is it because they're mindless entertainment? Because sometimes it's nice to think, even for a second, that life will sort itself out in the end? That happy endings with your one true love are possible? This is a science-based* ranking of the Christmassy rom-coms on Netflix South Africa Whatever the reason, there is no better time to be a fan of b-rate rom-coms than Christmas. It's a season in which low-budget films overflow with magic,...
Netflix has supported HDR videos for a while, as long as you've got a compatible TV, streaming device or (lately) smartphone. But PC users have been left in the lurch up until now. Fortunately, the streaming firm has decided to bring HDR videos to Windows 10 this week, albeit with a few hardware and software requirements. Hardware specs In the hardware department, you'll need a seventh generation or higher Intel Core series CPU (i3, i5, or i7 7xxx or 7Yxx). Those using the integrated GPU will also need version 4708 of the graphics drivers or better. Got a dedicated graphics card? Then you...
YouTube is readying its own music streaming service for debut in March 2018, according to a report by Bloomberg. The service, which is known within the firm as YouTube Remix, serves to hush music industry big-wigs who have been longing for a larger slice of revenue from the world's biggest video service. But Remix's existence isn't set in stone just yet. The Alphabet-owned company continues to slug it out with music companies Universal and Sony, and music video distributor Vevo for new content deals. There's also the question of how -- and if -- Remix will tie into Google's other streaming music service,...
I always tend to forget that Netflix hasn't been in the streaming game all that long. Although the company itself is 20 years old, it's only been streaming content for ten years. But even with that said, it only launched in South Africa in January 2016, along with 130 other countries across the world. So two years then. Effectively, the EMEA branch of the company is a startup. "We're still in our infancy," Maria Ferreras, Netflix's VP business development manager EMEA concurs in an interview with Memeburn at a Berlin press junket. "We're growing pretty fast, but haven't been doing this for...
There are some jobs that go unrecognised by most of us every day. Those who clean our streets is a great example. Those who reshelve shopping malls an even better one. But one you probably didn't even realise existed is what Netflix calls a "tagger". This small group of people -- between 30 to 40 globally -- are well versed in screenwriting or movie critique, watch content 40 hours a week, picking up and jotting down nuances, moods, features and traits inherent in these works. They then tag them with the corresponding metadata. At this point, you're probably wondering why the company...
It's officially the festive season, and you know what that means: avoiding family members at absolutely all costs. So why not do so with some Netflix exclusives heading to South Africa this sunny December? Here's what's hitting the platform this month. 1 December: Dark If you're looking for something to fill the gap in your heart while Stranger Things is on hiatus, why not try German series Dark? Netflix describes the 10-episode-long show as a "family saga with a supernatural twist". It tells of a small German town reeling from the disappearance of two young children, and the trailer leans heavily on the prospect of time travel. Netflix...
In celebration of the silly and unnecessary World TV Day (What does it mean? Why does it matter?), Netflix has released some interesting stats about its users' viewing habits -- and they offer a surprisingly endearing look at human psychology. The stats examine which times of day Netflix users consume different genres -- and it turns out we're a pretty cute species. Exhibit A: Netflix users start their days with comedies. "6am members are 34% more likely to watch comedy compared to the rest of the day," the company wrote in a press release. While we could attribute this to the early morning grogginess that renders...
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