Popular singer Rihanna topped the list of the richest women in the music industry. She received this status thanks to a large contract with a world leader in the production of luxury clothes LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. The corporation includes such brands as Louis Vuitton, Guerlain, Moët & Chandon, Givenchy, Chaumet and Hennessy. LVMH is headed by billionaire Bernard Arnaud, his family is in 4th place on the Forbes list. Arno’s fortune is estimated at $76 billion.
The greatest income to the singer brings luxury decorative cosmetics
Renowned singer and LVMH have been working together on Fenty Beauty luxury cosmetics brand since 2017. At the initial stage, sales of the line simultaneously covered the Internet and 1,620 stores in more than 17 countries of the world. Products also represented the largest network of cosmetics stores Sephora, which is also owned by LVMH. Within a few weeks of sales, the new cosmetic line brought the creators about $100 million. An important success factor was the promotion of the brand in an Instagram-star account, which is followed by 72 million users. In 2018, the creators of Fenty Beauty earned about $570 million.
LVMH presumably owns 50% of the company, while the singer owns 15%. The official representative of Rihanna denied this information, but he did not share the exact data.
In addition to the cosmetic brand, Rihanna is also promoting her Savage X Fenty underwear line. The singer leads this project together with a large retailer TechStyle Fashion Group. The main idea of the brand is that beauty is different, and girls should not be ashamed of their bodies.
In May of this year, a popular singer with the support of the LVMH corporation presented her own fashion house Fenty. The brand creates luxury clothing, shoes, accessories and jewelry. Rihanna believes that Bernard Arno is the best partner in business and in creativity. According to the singer, the general director of LVMH gave the actress complete freedom of action and trusted her taste.
Fenty luxury brand has become the first fashion house created by Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton in the last 30 years. The line from Rihanna promotes the principles of inclusion and offers a wide range of sizes.
In early June, an influential financial publication Forbes published a list of the richest rap artists. The wealthiest rapper in the world is a hip-hop artist Jay-Z, the husband of the famous R’n’B singer Beyoncé. In early 2000s he sang: «I’m already the G.O.A.T. — next stop is the billie». So it happened: today the musician’s capital is one billion dollars. Jay-Z became the first owner of a billion dollars in the history of hip-hop culture.
Jay-Z (Shawn Corey Carter) for the second year in a row becomes the wealthiest rapper in the world
The rapper invested in a private company Uber, music service Tidal, alcohol production company Armand de Brignac и D`Uss. The musician gains his profit from concerts and Roc Nation service, and also a partnership with the recording Studio Def Jam. The real estate of Jay-Z and his wife Beyoncé is estimated at $50 million, and the collection of art objects — $ 70 million.
The younger generation of hip-hop artists takes Jay-Z as an example of success. TV presenter and novice rapper Fab 5 Freddy believes that Jay-Z — an example of how to make the real American dream come true.
Second place — Dr. Dre, $800 million
Dr. Dre (Andre Romelle Young ) was considered the richest artist in hip-hop culture until March 2018
Five years ago, Dr. Dre. declared himself the owner of a billion dollars. However, Forbes did not confirm this information about his financial condition. In 2014, the musician sold his line of headphones Beats by Dr. Dre to Apple for three billion dollars. He owned approximately 20-25% of the company’s shares. For the deal with Apple, hip-hop artist received an advance of about $500 million. Only last summer the company paid Dr. Dre remaining fee, however, even this did not help him top the Forbes’s list.
In recent years, the artist has put his music in the background. Dr. Dre invested his money in real estate and charity. He bought a huge Villa in California for $40 million. Together with partner Jimmy Iovine, he also invested $70 million in the development of the Academy of Arts at the University of Southern California.
Third place — Diddy, $740 million
In 2017, P. Diddy (Sean John Combs) was recognized as the wealthiest hip-hop artist
Hip-hop artist Diddy earned his first money at the age of 12 by selling newspapers. He admitted this in an interview in the anniversary issue of Forbes. At that time the edition considered Diddy to be the wealthiest and most influential rap artist.
Now the musician takes the third place in the list of the richest rappers. Market fluctuations have a negative impact on his business projects. The most unprofitable were the cable business Revolt and the clothing brand Sean John.
However, the rapper Diddy owns a successful business as well. For example, the production of luxury vodka Ciroc. Products give the musician a lot of money, as the volume of sales has increased in recent years. According to Forbes, Diddy will soon replace Jay-Z and become a billionaire.
Fourth place — Kanye West, $240 million
In the promotion of the collection of sneakers Yeezy, actively involved the wife of the rapper – Kim Kardashian
The famous performer and husband of epotage Kim Kardashian Kanye West ranks fourth in the list of wealthy colleagues. Recently, the musician can be spotted at private Sunday services on the South coast. West also held an Easter service at the largest Coachella festival.
In 2016, the musician told about his debt of $53 million. Then he suggested the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to invest one billion dollars in his projects. In 2019, Kanye West still entered the top five wealthy artists in hip-hop culture, but thanks to another source of investment. Kanye West has a partnership with the sports brand Adidas for more than one year. Prior to this brand, the artist had a contract with Nike. This collaboration with Adidas brings huge income to the rapper, his line of sneakers Yeezy is gaining more and more popularity. According to Forbes, if Yeezy sales do not stop growing, Kanye West will become a billionaire thanks to the business.
Fifth place — Drake, $150 million
Hip hop artist Drake produces strong alcohol, which brings him huge profits
Concludes the list of the richest hip-hop artists 32-year-old canadian rapper Drake. But he is already catching up with his colleagues: over the past year, his musician’s capital has doubled. Drake has invested in real estate and in its own brand of whiskey Virginia Black. The rapper cooperates with the XS Nightclub in Las Vegas, which also brings the rapper a large fee.
In 2013, the musician admitted that earning more money is one of his main goals. And he sticks to the plan: since that time, the average price tag for one concert of the artist has grown from $500,000 to more than two million dollars.
Russia’s three major business newspapers supported the decision of the Moscow Nikulinsky District Court. It placed journalist Ivan Golunov under house arrest. Earlier, the Investigative Committee of Russia demanded that Gounov be placed in a detention facility. Journalists called to check the actions of the investigation and provide the results of the check to the mass media.
Ivan Golunov in court
Historical editions of newspapers were sold in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Interfax reports. Residents of cities also reported this on social networks. The owners of newsstands claim that such a rush around the publications Vedomosti, Kommersant and RBC has never happened before. New editions of newspapers are available on Aeroflot’s aircraft, as well as in Starbucks, Coffeemania, and Maccafe coffee shops.
В очереди к очередному киоску поинтересовалась, журналисты ли:- Студент Бауманки- Преподаватель английского – ИнженерСпасибо
Medusa’s special correspondent Ivan Golunov was detained on June 6. He is suspected of drug trafficking on a large scale. Golunov does not recognize the guilt. He is convinced that the persecution is related to his professional activities. We are talking about the investigation of the funeral business – the material on corruption. The journalistic community stands with him.
Ivan Golunov denies participation in the sale of narcotic drugs. As proof, he offered the investigators to take the nail cuts, but he was refused. Journalists considered such a response illegal and arranged a rally of support. The next day, the examination was still appointed – tests did not reveal any drug traces.
Single pickets near the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Pickets in support of the journalist do not stop. The special correspondent of Novaya Gazeta and the municipal deputy Ilya Azar said that the actions at Petrovka in Moscow would continue until the release of Ivan Golunov. The journalist was one of the first to speak out in support of a colleague on June 7 and went to a single picket.
Hundreds of people gather at Petrovka to support the journalist
Actions of solidarity are also held in other regions of Russia, for the first time the journalistic community has united on such a scale.
In May 2019, active Instagram users noticed significant changes in the statistics of their pages. The number of views instagram-stories became much greater. In addition, public pages of famous bloggers and celebrities began to “follow” them. This is a new way to PR accounts – masslooking.
я в шоке както резко растет статистика на моей инсте и просмотры сторис ето так странно… с чего ето? вроде как обычно все выкладыю
At first, users of the platform did not understand why they had such an increased activity. Some users thought they aroused the interest of public pages.
An average of 200 expected views account for 600-700 visits
Profiles of famous people caused even more questions. The bloggers Sasha Kat, Ruslan Sokolovsky and Lissa Aveme became unexpected spectators.T-Killah was the most prominent one, he looked through the stories of almost all Instagram users. Obviously, none of these people were subscribed to the browsed accounts. Bots appeared in the list of views of stories that usually have more than a hundred views.
Странностей пост. Который раз замечаю, что просмотры моих сторис в инстаграме возросли порядка в 2 раза (все ещё оставаясь при этом просмотрами обычного человека с лайф аккаунтом).И все чаще я замечаю, что мои сторис просматривают известные блогеры, это вообще как так получается? pic.twitter.com/pLEkH28dpi
— Солнечный Котёнок :з (@Shuichi_Mnyam) May 26, 2019
Masslooking – a new way of promotion
In 2018, on the reddit.com forum, a user wondered why his Instagram stories are viewed by random accounts if he does not use tags. Answer: this is due to the fact that the story was highlighted in the “interesting”, these are algorithms of recommendations. However, this phenomenon is called “masslooking” – it was a question of this instrument back in 2017. Probably, SMM-specialists mastered the algorithm only now and are ready to provide services.
Using the algorithm, profiles of public people and brands can view up to 80 thousand insta-stories per day. The average price for a single story view is 0.01 kopecks. The function is carried out through third-party services to work with Instagram.
The account promotion tool works in the same way as “massfollowing” (mass subscription) and “masscommenting” (mass mailing of comments). The main goal of the algorithm is to attract a new audience. Developers are counting on user interest in accounts with a large number of subscribers. After the transition to the profile is expected subscription user. Many users also publish new stories with marks of the stars who visited their account.
Specialists in SMM are well aware of the new promotion tool. SMM managers consider such an algorithm effective. The fact is that the vast majority of users follow the views, often expecting to see interesting profiles. Companies are praised by masslooking and consider the scheme a unique PR strategy.
Experienced Instagram users immediately understood the algorithm, but were not happy with it. They were divided into two camps: some condemned the scheme of advancement for its uselessness, others for obsession. The algorithm is effective for stars – many users noticed the artist T-Killah, but they laughed at the profiles of unpopular bloggers. Obsessive advertising of these accounts littered browsing lists with hundreds of bots.
Инстаграм накручивает просмотры сторис, чтобы мне было лень листать и смотреть, палят ли мои бывшие мою страницу.
— Не самый приятный Кирилл (@Vkoobey) May 30, 2019
Заметила, что просмотры сторис в инстаче люто подлетели, решила проверить, чего там за ажиотаж, кто смотрит. Оказалось, очередной гений SMM-мысли: теперь там полно спамеров, которые типа глядят твои сторис.
Неужто эффективно? Неужто кто-то переходит на профили?
It is impossible to completely get rid of unnecessary accounts – the stories will be viewed by new spam bots. However, there are two ways to avoid twisted views:
Close the profile by changing the privacy settings (many users did this);
Publish stories only for “best friends”, in the list of which you can add all your subscribers.
Once again Snapchat literally blew up social networks with its new filter, which allows you to «change» sex. The girls looked at themselves as a guy, and the guys looked at themselves as a girl. Some users have even created Tinder pages for their alter ego to prank friends.
Elon Musk and his «female» version from Snapchat
It is not the first time when Snapchat developers demonstrate to the public interesting things. Take even insta-stories, the format that has been created by Snapchat team. Also masks and photos in dialogs, which disappear after 24 hours. All of that Instagram borrowed from the creators of Snapchat. Although, in a way it was not invented by them either. Some time ago, Snapchat redeemed the Looksery app, which was developed in Ukraine. The team of the same app actually made most of those «masks».
Today Snapchat really sets the bar, but it is not the only app that allows you to experiment with your appearance. There are plenty of them, and they all perform different functions – from changing the sex and age to transformation into the anime.
Meitu — transformation into the anime
Chinese app Meitu was launched way back in 2008, but it became popular only in January 2017. The mask of this photo editor increases eyes, blushes cheeks and changes facial proportions. That is how you become an anime character. The main advantage is that the app processes images in real time, so you can try on the effects before taking a photo or a video.
Basic editor filters are free – but there are also special filters that require a paid subscription. For free you can try on Bunny ears and pretend to be sick: a face blushes, cheeks grow and virtual snot starts pouring.
Meitu — the app for fans of Japanese culture
FaceApp — aging, fake smile and sex change
The developers of FaceApp one of the first resorted to the use of neural networks in creating photo editors. The app is widely known for the opportunity to try on a believable smile, change the sex and look at yourself in old age. In 2017, the social network was full of collages of four photos, which appeared even on television.
Today FaceApp yields to new masks from Snapchat. New filters process images in real time and make men look like women, and women look like men way more realistic. However, FaceApp can still surprise those who just discovered it, because it alters the appearance quite plausibly. We must not forget that the developers of Snapchat obviously got inspired by this app. Because several years ago, the developers of FaceApp introduced such filters as «sex change» and «aging».
FaceApp — neural network that makes you grow old
InkHunter — the virtual try-on of tattoos
InkHunter does not change the appearance, this application’s function is practical. It is recommended to use it before going to the tattoo parlor. With InkHunter you can try on a tattoo: the desired image will be applied to the specified area of the skin. In order to do this, you only need to draw a special sign on your hand or foot — three stripes in the form of a smiley. So the neural network recognizes it.
The app uses augmented reality technology, so the quality of the displayed tattoo is not high enough. The «tattoo» cannot be properly scaled, expanded or zoomed in to really see how the image would look on the skin. Probably the fact is that after the success of the app in 2016, it is no longer being developed.
Photos with a label for the app and pictures with examples of tattoos (a dinosaur is real)
FaceTune — the simplified version of Photoshop
And finally, the most important hit in the insta-photography industry — FaceTune. It was developed by the Israeli team Lightricks. This platform has replaced Photoshop for many users. In the photo editor, you can do face tuning, whiten teeth or remove bags under the eyes. In addition, it looks quite natural.
Even the free version of FaceTune amazes with its list of features. For instance, you can «narrow» the shape of the face and highlight the cheekbones, or paint it in any color. The app does not apply filters or «masks», but it provides tools: you need to apply the desired effects with a brush and try not to overdo it.
FaceTune is the favorite app of all insta bloggers
The app simplified the work on improving the appearance so much that the media started discussions. On the one hand, FaceTune is suitable for those who cannot use Photoshop, on the other — it makes it too easy to hide flaws, which makes natural beauty a rarity.
The story of the Jewish girl Eva Heyman, who died in the Auschwitz camp in 1944, was brought to live in Instagram. The creators of the project showed what would be the life of Eva if she posted on her social media everything she had been going through.
«The Nazis conquered us»
The eva.stories project recreates the events which Eva wrote about in her diary. It consists of 70 short videos that reflect the life of a Jewish family during the war years. Everything is depicted in insta-stories format, in the profile, the authors of the project posted only a poster and a trailer. The role of Eva Heyman is played by British actress Mia Quiney.
War first comes to Eva’s family when her cousin gets deported to Poland. After some time, the accomplices of the Nazis come to the pharmacy of the Eva’s grandfather and confiscate it in favor of the government. The decisive moment for Eva Heyman’s fate is the day when she sees the incoming Nazi army. From now on, she promises subscribers to broadcast everything that happens. The girl shows the details of life with a yellow star on her chest. In the ghetto.
Eva Heyman is a Holocaust victim whose story served as a reminder of the tragedy
The project was sponsored by the Israeli businessman Mati Kochavi and his daughter Maya. It was launched on May 2nd, Holocaust Memorial Day. Before filming the story of Heyman, Mati and Maya Kochavi looked through about 30 diaries written by the victims of those events. But Eva’s diary stood out for its modernity and simpleness.
The Yellow star – a symbol of Nazi antisemitism, all Jews were obliged to sew it on prominent places of clothing
Before launching the eva.stories the authors widely announced the project both on street billboards and in social media. The initiative was supported by Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel. The account was also noted by different celebrities in their profiles, including the actress Gal Gadot («Wonder Woman») and the stand-up comedian Sarah Silverman. As a result, the account had around 200.000 followers before it was even launched. Now Eva’s profile has about 1.7 million subscribers.
The billboard advertising the Eva.stories Instagram account
The initiator and producer of the project Mati Kochavi believes that the world is beginning to forget about the terrible events of the Holocaust. That is why he created the project and invested about $5 million in it. Neither the government nor any organizations financed the creation of Eva’s profile.
Although, there are some critics on the way. Disputes in the comments under the publications in Eva’s profile do not cease. Users think that the profile is not serious enough. Critics of the project reckon that it is inappropriate to use Emoji, stickers and hashtags when it comes to the Holocaust. Many also criticize the implausibility of Eva’s modern story. For instance, how did the girl manage to charge the phone if there was no electricity in the ghetto?
According to Maya Kochavi, their team was expecting this kind of reaction as well. However, Kochavi family is convinced that they chose the best way to address the situation: the problem of antisemitism does not lose its relevance. Instagram platform was chosen for a reason: it was important to bring the issue to the younger generation.
The HBO television company has launched the final season of the top-rated series “Game of Thrones”. Usually the next season had to wait no more than 12 months. However, this time it took two years to shoot the eighth season. It was risky, but the creators calculated everything exactly: interest in the series only increased.
The eighth season came out on April 14 and has already set two absolute records. In the USA, the premiere of the new season was watched by 17.4 million viewers. And they did not forget to write about it: on Twitter, the first series became the most mentioned, about 5 million tweets were dedicated to the “Games”.
Shot from the series.
“Game of Thrones” is a historical series with elements of fantasy and exciting drama. The legendary saga tells about the struggle for power over the fictional continent of Västerås. This place resembles Western Europe in the Middle Ages. Three dynasties encroach upon the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms: Starkey, Targaryen, and Lannister. However, they are prevented by the risen dead under the leadership of the King of Night. Only by combining all the forces, people will be able to overcome the absolute evil. Or will not be able to overcome – this is what we will see in the final season.
The storyline of the series is very saturated, but this is not the reason for the success of the saga. On the one hand, this is a mix of cruelty, intrigue and explicit scenes. But on the other hand, the main trump card of the “Game of Thrones” remains its dramaturgy. In the “Game of Thrones” more than 1000 heroes, and there is not a single central or strictly positive. Empathy and interest are heroes, despite the immoral acts. We also never know who will be killed this time – the authors have removed more than half of the cast in seven seasons. In Australia there is a cemetery where the graves of the fallen heroes are located.
“Come and pay homage to the Grave of Thrones,” wrote the Foxtel team in the Instagram account, the company that created the cemetery.
“The reason for the popularity of the “Game of Thrones”, in my opinion, is that it collects all genres in some post-modern way: history, political intrigue, fantasy, and also collects all the archetypes that are significant for modern society,” says Pavel Rodkin.
The global phenomenon of the “Game of Thrones” has a multi-million dollar fandom and is well received in wide circles. Critics also appreciate it: in 2015, an Emmy series won in 12 out of 24 nominations. And this is not all the titles of this saga. “Game of Thrones” was the most watched TV series channel HBO and the most expensive project on modern television (last season cost more than $ 100 million). Finally, this is the most popular pirated content. This record is even listed in the Guinness Book of Records.
Apple has presented its own virtual credit card – Apple Card. When paying by credit card, the company instantly returns 2% of the total purchase amount. It is easy to order a card: just spent a few minutes in the Apple Wallet app. To use the service you need only the iPhone.
At the presentation, the card was given not so much time as the rest of Apple’s new products, but presented in sufficient details. The company showed its physical carrier – a titanium card without a number, a term and a CVV code. All necessary data will be stored on the phone without which it is impossible to use the card.
You can see the history of recent transactions easily in an application that enables you to keep statistics. At the presentation, the user-friendly interface caused delight and loud applause from the audience. The fact that the Apple card has interested users is also confirmed by media statistics. The chief editor of The Verge, Nilay Patel, said that the article about the Apple Card was the most viewed material about apple products. The Russian Internet publication TJ declared exactly the same.
Apple Card application design
In Russia, such a rush around Apple’s card was viewed with irony. The fact is that Russian users have been familiar with cashback and high-quality online applications. These services have been provided by «Sberbank» , «Tinkoff Bank» and «Rocketbank» for many years.
Apple Card это инновационный продукт для США, но русскому человеку на это смотреть чуть неловко. Они форсят чат и красивые графики трат за месяц. У нас это есть давно и красиво. pic.twitter.com/lNNfw7PGdF
And this is really the case when the States are in no hurry to keep up with progress. In Russia the flowering of IT technologies in the banking sector began in the 2010s. One of the first innovative banks was «Tinkoff» in 2011, and later – «Rocketbank» in 2013. Therefore, the presence of mobile banking and the return of interest on purchases of a Russian user is no longer surprising.
Russia is one of the leaders among countries that use Apple Pay
According to experts, the Apple Card will not immediately become the market leader. However, it is expected that the card will push for changes stagnant US banking sphere.
The first and the only president of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced his resignation. Over 28 years of his reign many sites were blocked in the country. Among them are «Medusa», Ozon, «Pikabu», Reddit, Giphy.
Nursultan Nazarbayev in the office of IT-company Chocofamily
Terrorism, extremism, propaganda of suicide and violence – this are reasons why the authorities banned sites. The history of blocking sites began in the mid-2000s. Opposition editions which criticized the government were immediately blocked. However, the problem could easily be solved with a VPN.
In July 2009, the law was passed in Kazakhstan, according to which all Internet resources are equal to the media. After that, courts could prohibit any sites if they contained information inconvenient to the authorities.
In the following years, the largest social networks and instant messengers were disconnected periodically in the country. Among them were YouTube and Facebook. In June 2016, there was a terrorist attack in the city of Aktobe. Then the Internet and mobile communications stopped working at the same time. A panic arose in the city: Aktobe residents could not contact their relatives to find out about their condition.
Information about the permanent blocking of YouTube on the ping-admin site
Popular Russian Internet resources also came under the distribution. The first banned platform in Kazakhstan was LiveJournal. In 2011, the site was accused of propaganda of terrorism and religious extremism. In 2014, due to the material about local separatists, the online edition «Medusa» which was just launched, was also blocked.
2017 was the most memorable year in the history of the kaznet. Then Pikabu, Ozon. Book24 and Labirint were blocked. Resources posted books which were banned in Kazakhstan. Among them are the «Strike of the Russian Gods», «Islamic Akida», «Al-Fawaid».
In the same year about nine thousand sites were banned. Resources, according to the authorities, engaged in the propaganda of terrorism, extremism, violence and suicide. There is no official list of blocked sites in Kazakhstan, but the Kazbt project is existing. On this platform, you can check whether the site is available in the country.
According to the report from Deadline, the company decided to reemploy Gunn several months ago. Alan Horn, the Walt Disney Studios president, was meeting with James and Marvel representatives in order to discuss the project. Gunn publicly apologized for his controversial statements in Twitter. Consequently, Horn let him to film the third part of «Guardians of the Galaxy».
Shootings were to start in the beginning of 2019. However, when the director was fired, the project got frozen
It all started in July 2018. At that time James Gunn was accused of his offensive tweets that he had been publishing from 2008 to 2011. The director joked about AIDS, violence and pedophilia. Gunn wrote that he was laughing at sick people, because laugh is the greatest remedy. In addition, he said that he did not mind violence and cannibalism when someone is really hungry. Then, Disney announced that James’s views were contrary to the values of the studio. That is how tha company broke all ties with the director.
Some of Gunn’s offensive tweets
But how did it occur that the last tweet of that kind he had written in 2011, and got caught only in 2018? It’s pretty simple: Gunn’s account was full of not only jokes, but also criticism. Through Twitter, he judged Ben Shapiro, an editor of a conservative political website Breitbart. It got noticed by The Daily Caller website, where its representatives did not like Gunn’s comments. They decided to dig deeper and read the director’s old tweets. There the dirt got revealed.
James Gunn accepted his suspension with understanding and admitted his mistakes. First of all, the director had deleted all tweets with offensive jokes. And then, he blocked his account, however, it got reactivated soon. Gunn confessed that he had been trying to maintain the image of provocator through his statements. He also declared that had changed since then.
«Guardians of the Galaxy» decided to support the director as well. Gunn’s fans signed the petition, which called for permission for the director to return to work on the film.
Signatures of the cast in the open letter in the director’s defence
It all ended where it had started: the director confirmed the news of his return in Twitter. He will film the third part of the blockbuster after the shooting of «Suicide Squad 2». It was impossible to find a replacement for him, despite all the attempts. The third part of «Guardians of the Galaxy» will be filmed by the same director who had shot the first two — James Gunn.
James Gunn with the cast of «Guardians of the Galaxy»