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Apple Music versus Spotify


Apple Music has reached 100 million subscribers (including free trial users), but lags behind Spotify, which had 263 million paying subscribers as of 31 December and is solidly profitable, with a gross margin of 32% last quarter. Apple Music, on the other hand, has a 'single-digit percentage' gross margin. The US accounted for 39% of Spotify's revenues last year, a figure close to Netflix's 41%, which remains a significant benchmark. In other words, Spotify even thrives in Apple's home territory. Source : Technicisms

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The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest point in 800,000 years


according to UN research that found that 2024 was likely the hottest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels... The record temperatures led to an intensification of storms and weather disasters, with at least 151 'unprecedented' extreme weather events in 2024. "Millions of people are increasingly suffering the consequences" of climate change in the form of heat waves, floods, droughts, storms and rising seas, said Stefan Rahmstorf, head of the research department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "We can only stop the warming trend by getting off fossil fuels, and we have to do it fast," he said."Ignoring reality, denying the laws of physics and silencing scientists can only lead to damage, and ordinary people will pay the price."