MARINA: Sector Updates
Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
AMZN 0.00%↑ Hugging Face and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are working together to make it easier for people to use complex machine learning (ML) models that are freely available. These models can be incredibly helpful, but they require special knowledge and experience to set up and run. By teaming up, Hugging Face and AWS hope to make it easier for more people to take advantage of these powerful tools.
Audio, Music & Podcast
SPOT 0.00%↑ Spotify is getting rid of the heart icon that allows you to save music quickly to your library. Instead, they are combining it with the "add to playlist" option under a single plus button. According to Spotify, this change will make it easier for users to save songs and podcasts. Through user research, Spotify found that the plus button helped save time and allowed users to add to multiple playlists at once.
Spotify has updated its look and feel, but if you're used to using social media platforms, it won't feel too different. The new design is similar to a mix of TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, where you can easily scroll through short clips of new music, podcasts, and other content. Spotify is making a bigger push to include a variety of audio creators on its platform, which could help support its investments in podcasting. These changes also highlight the company's long-standing aim to become profitable, a goal it has yet to achieve after 16 years in the business.