Technology
These two friends created a simple tool to transfer playlists between Apple Music and Spotify, and it works great

Last yr, I had the misfortune of losing all my playlists after I moved from Apple Music to Spotify. For me, playlists are necessary. They’re snapshots of a certain period in your life; possibly your summer of 2016 had a soundtrack. But traditionally, streaming music services don’t make it easy to take your playlists with you to other platforms.
You can imagine how joyful I used to be to see that Apple Music has created latest playlist uploader through the Data Transfer Initiative (DTI), a group founded by Apple, Google, and Meta to create data transfer tools. The Digital Markets in Europe Act requires these designated “gatekeepers” to fund data transfer tools as a part of a broader solution to Big Tech’s strategy of blocking users from their platforms.
Finally! There was only one big problem. The tools don’t work with the world’s hottest music service, Spotify, which apparently didn’t catch the wave of knowledge transfer (or possibly the regulator doesn’t tell them to). The DTI tool only transfers data between Apple Music and YouTube Music, making it much less useful for most individuals.
DTI Executive Director Chris Riley can be fed up with Big Tech’s blocking policies. He’s trying to get more firms to join the negotiations and make their services more portable.
“Over the last decade, we’ve kind of blended into this world, just feeling trapped,” Riley told TechCrunch. “I don’t think enough people know that this is something they need to know.”
With DTI limitations in mind, Riley suggested I move my playlists from Apple Music to Spotify using Soundfree third-party tool. Instead of working directly with streaming services, Soundiiz builds portability tools through existing APIs and acts as a translator between services. Within minutes, I used to be able to connect my accounts, transfer my playlists, and start listening to my old Apple Music playlists on Spotify. It was amazing and easy.
Soundiiz allows you to transfer playlists between Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Tidal, Deezer, SoundCloud, and 20 other streaming services I’ve never heard of. There’s a simple user interface for connecting streaming services and choosing the playlists you would like to transfer, including ones another person has created.
The story behind Soundiiz may explain why it works so well and cheaply. It was created in 2013 by two friends from France, Thomas Magnano and Benoit Herbreteau, who loved listening to music while coding together. In the evenings, they decided to create a music search interface with input from everywhere in the web. In the method, they created a useful tool.
They never created a music search interface, however the playlist uploader became Soundiiz.
“I had to manipulate the API and test the fit between services. And while I was doing that, I was creating playlists and moving them between services, just for me internally,” Magnano told TechCrunch. “I presented this feature to a colleague of mine and we thought, ‘Oh, this is useful to me; maybe it’s useful to someone else.’”
In 2015, Soundiiz got its big break when it partnered with Tidal, the music service founded by Jay-Z. The music platform was trying to make it easier for people to leave Spotify and join Tidal with all the identical playlists, and Soundiiz helped with that. But Magnano says they made sure Tidal also let people export playlists, not only import them — something they require from every music service API they work with.
Then a lot more people began using the service, and the founders made Soundiiz their full-time job, but they kept their values. The two founders make a living from Soundiiz, but they tell TechCrunch they’re “not looking to get rich.” Magnano says Soundiiz has never sought outside investment to keep prices low, and the founders retain control over their project.
There are limitations to the free Soundiiz though – a number of the longer playlists might be shortened (limited to 200 songs). You even have to transfer playlists one after the other, and every one takes about a minute, so transferring a dozen or so playlists can take a while. Soundiiz offers a premium plan ($4.50 monthly, which you’ll cancel after transferring) to get around these limitations.
The two founders are still the one employees of Soundiiz, regardless that the corporate has grown: Soundiiz has helped hundreds of thousands of individuals move over 220 million playlists over the past 10 years. According to Magnano, they’ve never spent a dime on marketing, but he says they’ve never had to.
“If you were to Google ‘how to transfer Deezer to Spotify’ in 2012, there was no answer,” Magnano said. “So Soundiiz became the first result in Google search when we launched, and we’ve been doing great in SEO ever since.”
Magnano says Spotify likely has more to lose than to gain by creating a playlist uploader like Apple and Google, and he doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon. However, he says that every one of those streaming services are aware of what Soundiiz is doing and are okay with it — some even promote it of their FAQs. That said, it’s unlikely that any of them would promote playlist uploaders like Soundiiz greater than this.
Technology
One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.
IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.
Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.
In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”
These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.
Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.
According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.
TechCrunch event
Berkeley, California
|.
June 5
Book now
“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.
The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.
Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.
“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”
Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.
The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.
On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.
(Tagstotransate) Gemini
Technology
Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA
The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.
Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.
TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.
The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.
Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.
For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.
TechCrunch event
Berkeley, California
|.
June 5
Book now
At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.
(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation
Technology
Sarah Tavel, the first woman of the Benchmark GP, goes to the Venture partner

Eight years after joining Benchmark as the company’s first partner, Sarah Tavel announced that she was going to a more limited role at Hapeure Venture.
In his latest position as a partner Venture Tavel will proceed to invest and serve existing company boards, but may have more time to examine “AI tools on the edge” and fascinated with the direction of artificial intelligence, she wrote.
Tavel joined Benchmark in 2017 after spending a half years as a partner in Greylock and three years as a product manager at Pinterest. Before Pinterest, Tavel was an investor in Bessemer Venture Partners, where she helped Source Pinterest and Github.
Since its foundation in 1995, the benchmark intentionally maintained a small team of six or fewer general partners. Unlike most VC corporations, wherein older partners normally receive most of the management and profits fees, the benchmark acts as an equal partnership, and all partners share fees and returns equally.
During his term as a general partner of Benchmark, Tavel invested in Hipcamp on the campsite, chains of cryptocurrency intelligence startups and the Supergreaty cosmetic platform, which was purchased by Whatnot in 2023. Tavel also supported the application for sharing photos of Paparazhi, which closed two years ago, and the AI 11x sales platform, about which TechCrunch wrote.
(Tagstotransate) benchmark
-
Press Release1 year ago
U.S.-Africa Chamber of Commerce Appoints Robert Alexander of 360WiseMedia as Board Director
-
Press Release1 year ago
CEO of 360WiSE Launches Mentorship Program in Overtown Miami FL
-
Business and Finance11 months ago
The Importance of Owning Your Distribution Media Platform
-
Business and Finance1 year ago
360Wise Media and McDonald’s NY Tri-State Owner Operators Celebrate Success of “Faces of Black History” Campaign with Over 2 Million Event Visits
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Another lawsuit accuses Google of bias against Black minority employees
-
Theater1 year ago
Telling the story of the Apollo Theater
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
Henrietta Lacks’ family members reach an agreement after her cells undergo advanced medical tests
-
Ben Crump1 year ago
The families of George Floyd and Daunte Wright hold an emotional press conference in Minneapolis
-
Theater1 year ago
Applications open for the 2020-2021 Soul Producing National Black Theater residency – Black Theater Matters
-
Theater11 months ago
Cultural icon Apollo Theater sets new goals on the occasion of its 85th anniversary