Following the completion of the second year of Spotify in Pakistan, the music streaming platform has released interesting data regarding which local and international artists are most popular among people across the country.
Indian crooner Arjit Singh is the most streamed international singer in three provinces — Balochistan, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) — a statement from the platform said, while the singer that can be hailed as the unanimous king among local artists is Atif Aslam, who is the most streamed local artist throughout all four provinces.
Sindh
With Aslam being the most streamed local artist, Young Stunners, Hassan Raheem, Asim Azhar, and Abdul Hannan completed the top five local artist list. In terms of tracks, Pasoori remained the most streamed track in Karachi and Hyderabad, while it was the fifth most streamed song in Sukkur.
According to data revealed by Spotify, once again, music transcended land borders with King’s Tu Aake Dekh Le being the second most streamed song in Karachi and Hyderabad.
While Iraaday and Bikhra, two stunning chart toppers from Hannan and Rovalio followed by AP Dhillon’s Excuses completed the top 5 list for Karachi, Hyderabad had Bikhra, followed by Excuses and Kaifi Khalil’s Kahani Suno 2.0 in the top 5 tracks.
Punjab
The love for Pasoori continues to be unflinching across Pakistan. It comes as no surprise then that the track is among the top five most streamed songs in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan, and Sialkot. Other tracks that completed the leading five list in most cities of Punjab included Excuses and Insane by Dhillon, 295 by Sidhu Moosewala, and Bikhra.
In local top tracks charts, Khalil’s Kahani Suno 2.0 has been a notable addition receiving love across the province. Ranked among the top five most streamed songs in Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan and Sialkot. Other tracks that have garnered immense admiration from audiences across the province include Bikhra, Iraaday, Ghalat Fehmi by Azhar, and Gumaan by Young Stunners.
As for the most streamed local artists, Aslam at the top was followed by Young Stunners, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (NFAK), Raheem and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (RFAK).
Balochistan and KP
In both eastern provinces, songs from Pakistan’s western provinces were streamed the most. While Aslam reigned supreme as the most streamed local artist in Balochistan and KP, Hannan made his way to the second berth in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with Young Stunners, NFAK, and Azhar completing the lineup.
As for Balochistan, the list saw Azhar make an appearance at the third spot after Aslam and Young Stunners. RFAK and Hannan were the fourth and fifth most streamed local artists in the province.
Regarding top tracks, the local sensation, Eva B has made a mark for herself with Kana Yaari in Quetta, Balochistan.
Other most streamed songs in both provinces remain the same as what audiences from Punjab are listening to.
Love for K-pop
A surprising insight that Spotify’s recent data revelations showcased was an uptick in the number of people streaming K-pop. BTS in particular, are amongst the top 5 most streamed artists in Sindh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir as well as Balochistan. Cities including Islamabad, Gujranwala, Hyderabad, Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta all showcased immense love for the teen band. In Sukkur, three out of the top five most streamed songs are k-pop.
This trend underlines the diversity in the music of listeners across the country. At the same time, it demonstrates how audiences are changing perspectives especially when it comes to music consumption in Pakistan. Tracks like Yet to Come, Dreamers, the official FIFA Qatar World Cup 2022 soundtrack and Dynamite are among the leading k-pop tracks in the country.
The New York-based cybersecurity firm Wiz has discovered a cache of sensitive data from the Chinese artificial intelligence business DeepSeek that was mistakenly exposed to the public internet.
In a blog post released on Wednesday, Wiz reported that examinations of DeepSeek’s infrastructure revealed that the company had inadvertently exposed over a million lines of unencrypted data. The materials were digital software keys and chat logs that seemingly documented prompts transmitted from consumers to the company’s complimentary AI assistant.
The chief technical officer of Wiz stated that DeepSeek promptly safeguarded the data following the notice from his organisation.
“It was removed in under an hour,” stated Ami Luttwak. “However, this was exceedingly easy to locate, leading us to believe we are not the sole discoverers.”
DeepSeek did not promptly respond to a request for comment.
DeepSeek’s rapid success after the introduction of its AI helper has exhilarated China and incited concern in America. The Chinese company’s evident capacity to rival OpenAI’s skills at a significantly reduced cost has raised concerns regarding the viability of the business models and profit margins of U.S. AI behemoths like Nvidia and Microsoft.
By Monday, it surpassed the U.S. competitor ChatGPT in downloads from Apple’s App Store, prompting a worldwide decline in technology stocks.
WhatsApp has initiated testing of a bulk channel administration feature on iOS for select beta users, enabling the simultaneous selection of many channels, hence enhancing the efficiency of managing following channels.
This essential update enables users to perform bulk activities, including muting many channels simultaneously, designating them as read, and altering notifications. If the chosen channels are muted, users will now have the option to activate notifications. Users can swiftly silence unmuted channels in one action.
Additionally, this feature enables users to unfollow many channels simultaneously, thereby optimizing the process of decluttering their channel list. This change is particularly beneficial for users that oversee numerous subscriptions, as reported by WABetaInfo.
Previously, users were required to manage each channel individually, rendering tasks such as muting or designating channels as read laborious and time-consuming.
The functionality provides enhanced flexibility and control over channel subscriptions, enabling users to efficiently manage notifications. The solution streamlines laborious operations for consumers who subscribe to numerous channels, hence enhancing their entire experience.
Accessibility The bulk management feature is presently accessible exclusively to a limited number of beta testers who installed the latest WhatsApp beta for iOS using the TestFlight application. WhatsApp, owned by Meta, plans to expand the feature’s availability to a larger user base in the next weeks.
This update demonstrates WhatsApp’s dedication to enhancing user experience by offering a clear and efficient method for managing channels and notifications.
Even after two weeks, the global submarine cable AAA-1 problem that was discovered on January 2 near Qatar has not been fixed, causing sluggish internet connection in several Pakistani towns.
According to a representative for Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), the issue has affected customers’ capacity to effectively access social media applications and browse the online. Even with initiatives to fix the problem, social networking sites still lag during busy times.
Internet traffic has been redirected via alternate channels to lessen the impact, and more capacity has been set up to stabilize the service.
The PTCL representative promised that “Internet service across the country is operating normally, and there will be no issues with web browsing,” noting that social media applications’ lag is common during