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MUSIC

Spotify shuts down ads as virus strikes

Swedish online music streaming service Spotify has switched off its adverts after users of its ad-supported version reported being hit by a virus attack.

Spotify shuts down ads as virus strikes

Spotify confirmed on its Twitter feed that it has received a number of reports of malware being installed on users’ computers after they were infected by an as yet unidentified advertisement.

“We’ve turned off all 3rd party display ads that could have caused it until we find the exact one,” the company wrote.

Spotify said on Friday afternoon that it was still investigating what may have caused the security breach.

“We take this very seriously and will take every step possible to ensure it doesn’t occur again,” it said.

In brighter news for the popular music service, Spotify has begun recruiting employees in the United States three months after it penned its first American distribution deal with recording industry giant Sony Music Entertainment.

On its website, the company said it was seeking a US regional controller, as well as a graphic designer, an interaction designer and a software engineer for New York-based jobs.

Spotify is working to get its services up and running in the United States as soon as possible.

European users can choose between a free streaming service that carries ads, an unlimited ad-free version that costs 49 kronor per month ($8), and a 99-kronor mobile-phone ready premium version that allows users to listen to music in offline mode.

As it continues to expand, the company is currently advertising a total of 29 positions on its site, with jobs also available in Stockholm, London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Oslo, and Barcelona.

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CULTURE

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday’s death

Fans of the late Johnny Hallyday, "the French Elvis Presley", will be able to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his death with two songs never released before.

New songs mark sixth anniversary of French star Johnny Hallyday's death

Hallyday, blessed with a powerful husky voice and seemingly boundless energy, died in December 2017, aged 74, of lung cancer after a long music and acting career.

After an estimated 110 million records sold during his lifetime – making him one of the world’s best-selling singers -Hallyday’s success has continued unabated beyond his death.

Almost half of his current listeners on Spotify are under the age of 35, according to the streaming service, and a posthumous greatest hits collection of “France’s favourite rock’n’roller”, whose real name was Jean-Philippe Leo
Smet, sold more than half a million copies.

The two new songs, Un cri (A cry) and Grave-moi le coeur (Engrave my heart), are featured on two albums published by different labels which also contain already-known hits in remastered or symphonic versions.

Un cri was written in 2017 by guitarist and producer Maxim Nucci – better known as Yodelice – who worked with Hallyday during the singer’s final years.

At the time Hallyday had just learned that his cancer had returned, and he “felt the need to make music outside the framework of an album,” Yodelice told reporters this week.

Hallyday recorded a demo version of the song, accompanied only by an acoustic blues guitar, but never brought it to full production.

Sensing the fans’ unbroken love for Hallyday, Yodelice decided to finish the job.

He separated the voice track from the guitar which he felt was too tame, and arranged a rockier, full-band accompaniment.

“It felt like I was playing with my buddy,” he said.

The second song, Grave-moi le coeur, is to be published in December under the artistic responsibility of another of the singer’s close collaborators, the arranger Yvan Cassar.

Hallyday recorded the song – a French version of Elvis’s Love Me Tender – with a view to performing it at a 1996 show in Las Vegas.

But in the end he did not play it live, opting instead for the original English-language version, and did not include it in any album.

“This may sound crazy, but the song was on a rehearsal tape that had never been digitalised,” Cassar told AFP.

The new songs are unlikely to be the last of new Hallyday tunes to delight fans, a source with knowledge of his work said. “There’s still a huge mass of recordings out there spanning his whole career,” the source said.

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