Latest news with #DeepFocus
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
‘It does hurt': Paul Shailer's hunt for first Group 1 in Queensland Derby rocked by wide barrier
Striving for a defining Group 1 breakthrough, trainer Paul Shailer concedes he was deflated when the Racing Australia system spat out the barrier for Deep Focus in the Queensland Derby. Shailer, fresh off winning a $1m juvenile sprint with Isti Star, was convinced he had a huge chance to win his first Group 1 in the Derby (2400m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday. Deep Focus was arguably the run of the race in the Derby lead-up of the Rough Habit Plate (2000m) when surging home from the back to finish runner-up and he was as strong as an ox late. All Deep Focus needed was a half decent barrier to solidify his Derby prospects. Up popped barrier 18. It means Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michael Rodd is probably going to have to drop right back on Deep Focus when a kinder barrier would have meant he wasn't conceding nearly as much ground. 'The barrier is what it is, but ideally we would have drawn towards the inside somewhere and we would have just landed in the first half of the field or midfield getting a cosy run,' Shailer said. 'But now we are going to be a bit dictated to, where we end up, and I'm tipping it's going to be back in the field. 'Then we will probably have to get into a three-wide line, it's not ideal and it has certainly impacted our chances. 'Our whole preparation has been built around this race and we have been teaching him how to relax and stretch out and get home. 'The barrier does hurt, if we drew inside of seven I would have thought we would have been a really genuine chance of winning. 'Now, we just need things to go our way.' Putting the disappointing barrier to one side, Deep Focus has been tracking nicely towards the Derby and his Rough Habit effort was a real eye-catcher. Deep Focus is sired by Deep Field but there seems little issue with him staying the 2400m of the Derby trip and Shailer is convinced he will. 'From a Derby trial point of view, what we saw in the Rough Habit was what we wanted to see,' Shailer said. 'That race is a genuine lead-up to the Derby and there is a lot of history which suggests the Rough Habit is the race you want to come out of. 'I think he is the horse you would want coming out of that race, well, maybe until he drew barrier 18 in the Derby, anyway. 'One thing for sure is that I am very confident he will stay the trip of the Derby.' Heavy-hitters including Peter Tighe, Max Whitby and Neil Werrett are in the ownership of Deep Focus which has remained solid at $18 in the betting market since the Derby barrier draw. Shailer's stable has been in form and he enjoyed a huge moment recently when Isti Star scored in the $1m Magic Millions National 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast. Another of Shailer's two-year-olds – filly Ha'penny Hatch – will take her place in Saturday's $1m BRC Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m). 'She will run from a nice barrier and be backing up from last Saturday (finishing fourth in the Listed Bill Carter Stakes),' Shailer said. 'She has gone out to the farm for three days and she will come back to us on Thursday afternoon. 'That will just keep her mind nice and sharp. 'She is a tough filly and she had no luck in the Bill Carter.'
NDTV
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NDTV
Spotify's Secret Scheme Of Ghost Artists And Fake Playlists To Slash Royalties Revealed
Spotify has been promoting ghost artists to avoid paying royalties to real artists, a report in Futurism, citing a new book, has claimed. In an excerpt from the book, Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist, author Liz Pelly revealed that the Swedish music platform has a secretive internal programme that prioritises cheap and generic music. The programme called Perfect Fit Content (PFC) involves a network of affiliated production firms and a team of employees secretly creating "low-budget stock muzak" and placing them on Spotify's curated playlists. First piloted in 2010, PFC became Spotify's biggest profitability scheme by 2017. As per Ms Pelly, by engineering such a situation, Spotify was aiming to grow the percentage of total streams of music that is cheaper for the platform. "It also raises worrying questions for all of us who listen to music. It puts forth an image of a future in which, as streaming services push music further into the background, and normalise anonymous, low-cost playlist filler, the relationship between listener and artist might be severed completely," she wrote. By 2023, the team overseeing the PFC model were responsible for hundreds of playlists. More than 150 playlists with titles such as "Deep Focus", "Cocktail Jazz" and "Morning stretch" were populated entirely by PFC content. One of the jazz musicians told Ms Pelly that he was approached by Spotify to create an ambient track for an upfront fee of a few hundred dollars. However, he was told that he wouldn't own the master rights to the track. The musician agreed, but once the track started raking in millions of streams, he realised he may have been duped. 'Soulless music' Social media users slammed Spotify for the move, with many stating that the platform was digging its own grave with such actions. "Going to be nothing but soulless AI music in a few years. That's one easy way to never pay royalties again lol," said one user, while another added: "Once you notice these artists it's pretty easy to ID them even just from listening to the music." A third commented: "I deleted my Spotify and cancelled the subscription." This is not the first instance when Spotify has come under scrutiny for its shady activities. In February, a report in The Guardian highlighted that Spotify's Discovery Mode allowed artists to be noticed by listeners in exchange for a 30 per cent royalty reduction.
Time Out
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
A free exhibition of Bob Dylan's paintings is opening in London this week
May is turning out to be a big month for famous singers turning their attentions towards visual art. Just days after Mr Robbie Williams opened an exhibition of his 'radically honest' art at Mayfair tourist hotspot the Moco Museum, some guy called Bob Dylan is exhibiting his paintings at Bond Street's Halcyon Gallery. Opening on Friday May 9, Point Blank will feature 97 original paintings on paper, created between 2021 and 2022 and based on quick sketches that were then painted over. The isn't the first time the 84-year-old Nobel Prize-winning songwriter has swapped his guitar for some paintbrushes; Dylan has been working with the gallery for almost two decades, having staged several previous exhibitions at the space, including 2021's Deep Focus, a series of works mostly created during the 2020 lockdown. The freewheelin' musician – who was recently introduced to a new generation of fans via Oscar-nominated biopic A Complete Unknown – has also been the subject of several international exhibitions, including a major 2019 retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai. Speaking of the latest show, Halycon Gallery founder Paul Green said, 'It is nearly 18 years since Halcyon first started working with Bob Dylan and it has been an extraordinary experience to watch this cultural icon develop into such a critically revered and important visual artist so closely. This latest body of paintings feels like a more intimate connection to the artist than in any of his previous work and it is a great privilege to share them with the public for the first time.'
