Pandora is streaming Adele's 25 and her label can't stop it

Adele's 25 is the biggest album in the world right now, and it's made it there all without a single stream on Spotify. In fact, it might have made it there because there hasn't been a single stream on Spotify: Adele and her label made the decision not to stream 25anywhere online, encouraging people to actually buy the album or its songs outright. But despite the ban, some services have songs from 25 up streaming.

BASICALLY, PANDORA CAN PLAY WHATEVER IT FEELS LIKE

Pandora confirmed to Entertainment Weekly that every track from Adele'e new album is available through its radio service. That's not going to be a particularly great way of listening to 25 — because Pandora is a radio service, it means you can't choose what to listen to and will have to wait for a station to play the new songs — but it does mean that Adele's album is streaming in some form. You just have to be really, really patient to hear it all.

25 isn't on Pandora because Adele specifically wanted it there. It's on Pandora because Adele and her label don't have a say. Spotify, Apple Music, and other music streaming services that let you choose exactly which songs you want to hear all operate through direct deals with record labels. Those deals give artists and labels the ability to withhold specific songs and albums when they choose to, which is why you see major names like Adele and Taylor Swift withholding albums to boost physical sales or for use as a bargaining chip. Pandora, on the other hand, doesn't have a deal with labels. It relies on a law governing "non-interactive" streaming services — basically, anything akin to a traditional radio broadcast — which allows it to stream any song with a US copyright so long as it pays a federally established fee. Labels don't have a say in this type of licensing; so Adele's new album, like Taylor Swift's 1989 last year, still ends up streaming on Pandora.

"This is a unique situation to the US market," says Benny Tarantini, who handles PR for Adele. "As it turns out, Pandora is licensed through government statute in the US, and as a result record companies cannot withhold from webmaster radio services." That means other online radio services should be streaming songs from 25 as well. iHeartMedia, for instance, confirmed to The Verge that tracks from 25 are available on iHeartRadio.

Of course, Adele and her label are likely a lot less concerned about Pandora streams than Spotify streams. Pandora is just a radio station, so it's likely seen a bit more as a promotional tool than as something that will cannibalize album sales: You won't be able to play 25 straight through on Pandora. You won't even be able to open up Pandora and start playing "Hello." You just have to hope your Adele station picks the track you're looking for. That means Adele fans who find out about her new album through Pandora are still going to need to buy 25 if they really want to play it. Pandora and other streaming services may be at any advantage over Spotify here, but they're still not giving you a free stream of 25.

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Instagram Put On Internet 'Blacklist' In North Korea

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Warnings are appearing on Instagram accounts in North Korea that say access to the popular photo-sharing app is being denied and that the site is blacklisted for harmful content.

Opening the app with mobile devices on the North Korean carrier Koryolink has resulted in a notification in English saying: "Warning! You can't connect to this website because it's in blacklist site." A similar notice in Korean says the site contains harmful content, though that is not mentioned in the English version.
Such warnings have also appeared when websites that link to Instagram are accessed through desktops or laptops using LAN cables on the North Korean Internet provider. The warnings have been appearing on and off for at least five days.
The Internet and any kind of social media remain off-limits to virtually all North Koreans, but North Korea decided in 2013 to allow foreigners in the country to use 3G on their mobile phones, which generally require a local SIM card to get onto the Koryolink mobile carrier network.
That opened the door for them to surf the Internet and post to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. More recently, even live-streaming video had been posted using the new Twitter app Periscope.
Photos from North Korea on Instagram posted by foreigners — though regular users are very few in number — provide a rare window on daily life in North Korea. But they have also posed a quandary for North Korean officials who are highly concerned about the flow of information and images in and out of the country.
Tech support staff at Koryolink said they were not aware of any changes in policy regarding Instagram. There has been no notice from the government or from the mobile phone service to its customers that Instagram has been blacklisted. Instagram officials had no comment when contacted by The Associated Press. Instagram is owned by Facebook, which is functioning normally in Pyongyang.
It was still possible to use the app, despite the warnings, on some mobile devices. But attempts on others to post photos or view user galleries through the standard Koryolink connection have been virtually impossible, suggesting that some access was indeed being obstructed.
It was unclear where the blockage was originating, how widespread it was, whether it was a hack of some sort or if it had any connection to a fire on June 11 at a luxury hotel often used by tourists and foreign visitors in Pyongyang. Photos of the fire leaked out of the country and were carried widely by media around the world. But the fire has not yet been reported by the North's state-run media.
Besides Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites were also functioning normally. Other websites were viewable as usual even on mobile phones on which Instagram was not functioning.
It is estimated that more than 2 million North Koreans now use mobile phones, but with few exceptions they are not allowed to access the Internet, meaning the mobile service is available primarily to foreign visitors, residents and businesspeople in the country.
Andrea Lee, CEO of Uri Tours, which organizes tours to North Korea, said she was not aware of a policy shift toward blocking Instagram.
"We have been using Instagram to post photos from our (North Korea) tours since Koryolink, the local provider, announced that 3G SIM cards would be available to foreigners for purchase," she said. "While I'm unaware of this recent shift in policy toward blocking Instagram, I hope this will be a temporary policy as it's been a great tool for our company to show prospective travelers what our tours are like and to get people motivated in traveling there."
She added that the SIM cards are priced more for the long-term frequent traveler, and usually tourists who are in the country for just a few days opt not to purchase them. "But those who do possess the SIM card have near open access to the web, including social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google and many other sites that have historically been blocked in places like China."
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Instagram 'sorry' after Andres Iniesta username mix-up

Instagram has apologised to a man after his username was taken over by a footballer with the same name.

Andres Iniesta said his account on the photo-sharing network had been deactivated unexpectedly.

His friends later noticed a footballer, also called Andres Iniesta, had starting posting pictures using the username.

Instagram said it had made a "mistake" and returned the account to the non-footballing Mr Iniesta.

'Stolen'

Footballer Andres Iniesta is the captain of FC Barcelona and plays for Spain's national team. He has more than five million followers on Instagram.

His namesake, who describes himself as "a father who likes to take pictures of his kids, yummy food and interesting buildings", has close to 800 followers.

Mr Iniesta said his account (@ainiesta) had been deactivated while he had been on holiday and it had later been used by the more famous sportsman.

He said Instagram had ignored his messages, so he had posted a blog about his dilemma.

"It's clear that my account has been 'stolen'," he wrote.

"I haven't done anything wrong and have lost not only my pictures, but being able to share important moments with my friends and family."

A representative for FC Barcelona's Andres Iniesta told the other Mr Iniesta that the footballer had had nothing to do with the incident.

The footballer now uses the account @andresiniesta8.

Instagram said: "We made a mistake here and restored the account as soon as we learned about it.

"Our apologies go out to Mr Iniesta for the trouble we caused him."

Mr Iniesta is not the first person to raise a dispute over a "stolen" username.

In June, video blogger Matthew Lush hit out at cosmetics brand Lush after he lost control of a YouTube address he had been using since 2005.

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Wide and Tall: Instagram Now Allows Landscape and Portrait Photos

For years, Instagram users have been expressing themselves with all manner of filters, effects and hashtags — but there's always been one nagging limitation: Every photo and video had to be square. That's no longer the case as of Thursday, the photo-sharing service announced in a blog post. Now photos can be shared in landscape and portrait formats, allowing for improved... well, landscapes and portraits.

It turns out that nearly one in five photos or videos people post aren't in the square format," read the post announcing the change. "We know that it hasn't been easy to share this type of content on Instagram: friends get cut out of group shots, the subject of your video feels cramped and you can't capture the Golden Gate Bridge from end to end."

From now on, when selecting a picture to work on in the app, you'll have the option to tap a format button to switch between aspect ratios. The photo will still appear in your profile grid as a square, but when it's viewed individually it will show its true form.

In addition, filters for photos and videos are now the same, and the intensity can be adjusted when applying one to video. The update goes out Thursday to both iOS and Android versions of the app.

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Paris Jackson Fires Back at Instagram Haters, Says Her Dad 'Was Ripped to Shreds': 'I Will Not Let That Happen to Me'

Paris Jackson is asking fans to ease up with the pressure on Instagram.

The 17-year-old daughter of late music icon, Michael Jackson, took to Instagram this week to criticize the "f**king ridiculous" expectations that she be more responsive on her social media accounts.

"I am expected to literally sit on my ass all day replying to comments people leave me (positive and negative)?" she wrote. "I have AA meetings to go to. Family obligations. PERSONAL obligations."

"I appreciate the love and support, but the expectations are f**king ridiculous," Paris added, before addressing the struggles her father -- who died in 2009 -- faced with his fame. "The expectations for my DAD were f**king ridiculous. He didn't owe you anything, yet he was ripped to shreds DAILY. I will not let that happen to me."

WATCH: Paris Jackson Sparks Marriage Rumors by Using Boyfriend's Last Name on Instagram

The actress also addressed her attempted suicide in 2013, writing, "People have been ramming me since the second I unchecked the privacy button. I'm just not taking sh*t anymore...like when I was 14 and deleting every single comment by hand because people were fighting too much and sending to so much hate to the point where I was suicidal? It's always been like this."

Despite all that Paris has had to endure since her father's death, she's grown up to be a remarkable young person.

Last April, Paris began dating 18-year-old soccer player, Chester Castellaw, and the couple made their red carpet debut in May.

WATCH: Paris Jackson Is Rocking a Dramatically New Look and We're Loving It!

"No one's perfect, but he's a good boy, so I approve of him," TJ Jackson, Paris' co-guardian and son of Tito Jackson, told ET of Chester in Aug. 2015. "He treats her well. She's happy."

http://bcove.me/kvdm4pbh

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