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Wale Says 'Today...I Got Time' With An Inspired Batch Of Freestyles
Landmark Festival DC 2015
Photo Credit: Vickey Ford of SneakShot for Okayplayer

Beats 'n Bytes: Here's 5 Things You Need To Know in Hip-Hop + Tech

Lenny Kravitz, Grace Jones, Lauryn Hill, Lion Babe, Thundercat, SZA & More Rock The Afropunk Festival 2015 in Brooklyn, NY. Photo provided by Nue Agency.

Coachella weekend one. Festival season has officially started and what a glorious weekend it was.

DJ Khaled literally blew the lid off the Sahara Tent. Gucci Mane had a glorious set bringing out Puff Daddy, Migos and more. And Kendrick Lamar closed the whole show out with a huge performance. I was on hand to see all of that. Lucky me, right? The parties were scattered throughout Palms Springs and Indio and they were jumping till all hours. What a weekend. Hot damn. The only thing missing was Beyoncé. Lady Gaga wasn’t able to fill her shoes. But have no fear, she’s already confirmed for next year so that guarantees that it will be another classic.

Happy Monday!

The news doesn’t stop and there is a lot to discuss. Here are five things you need to know about in hip-hop and tech this week!

Apple Music User Growth: Survey Says

Rights holders now confirm that Apple Music's paid subscribers are at about What’s more, the service enjoyed some 40.7m unique users in March, leading all U.S. streaming services.

Vote for Wale & 1800 Tequila's "Back to The Block! for a Webby"

Up for "Best Branded Editorial Experience" — Wale and 1800 teamed up with Billboard for Billboard + 1800 Tequila brought Wale back home to Washington D.C. for an exclusive free concert and to explore the DMV's hip-hop history. The story is up for the Webby's "Best Branded Editorial Experience" award.

Instagram Stories Is Finally Bigger Than Snapchat After Copying Many of Its Features

After months of relentlessly copying Snap Inc.’s features for its own version of vertical video, Instagram says it now has 200 million people using the Stories feature on a daily basis.

You can now live stream to YouTube from your phone if you have at least 1,000 subscribers

Back in February, YouTube gave people the ability to live stream directly to their channel from their phones… with one catch: it was only open to folks with 10,000 subscribers or more.

The Next “Serial” Might Be A Podcast From Tinder Or Spotify

Why are companies like eBay and Slack putting their ad dollars into branded content podcasts? Thank Serial, America.

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Jesse Kirshbaum has been in the trenches of the music business, specializing in securing talent for concerts, tours and endorsement deals for his various clients and brand partners internationally. He founded Nue Agency (a creative agency, recently named to Inc Mag’s 500 list as the 3rd fastest growing Media Company in America) to sit at the center of culture, brands and technology. He is the host of Hot 97’s new web series Hot In Tech, an authority in Music Tech culture, news and events. Jesse is also the executive producer for both the hit digital series #CRWN and The Annual FlashFWD Awards, which honors premiere stars in Music Tech. @JesseKay on Twitter & Instagram.