Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web:
A difficult road for Apple’s video plans: Apple has been slowly amassing the talent and rights to try and stake a claim on the massive streaming video market. It’s early forays have been a mixed bag, from the viral sensation of Drake’s Hotline Bling music video to its lackluster spin on Carpool Karaoke. Bloomberg lays out the warring demands that could complicate Apple’s efforts to play nice with show business.
Behind the scenes at Sonos: Sonos recently unveiled its newest product after the company announced a pivot to voice controls. Billboard interviewed several people from Sonos’ team about the challenges of blending voice controls with the high standards of audio quality and pursuing positive collaborations with artists. “I see it as like cooking a meal: you can have all the right ingredients and cook them for the right amount of time, but people still tell you it doesn’t taste right,” Sound Experience lead Giles Martin said. “It really is science-meets-art.”
Take your Spotify listening to the Upside Down: For any Stranger Things fans in the RAIN readership, check out this little Spotify Easter egg. According to The Verge’s how-to, the Upside Down-ification of the player only happens on certain browsers and platforms. But it’s still a cute idea.