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.
Karachi is the starting point for the two-day international conference on sustainable agriculture.
The conference, organised by exhibitor TV, ripple concept, and the Pakistan Media Development Foundation, is backed by the Green Pakistan Initiative, which has recently achieved significant strides.
Enhancing agricultural productivity with contemporary technology is the goal of this event, which is in line with the Special Investment Facilitation Council’s emphasis on agriculture.
Experts will talk about sustainable techniques and organic farming, and there will be a plenary discussion on the land information and management system.
The event will include exhibits that highlight contemporary methods and technology, giving professionals and stakeholders a place to network.
Sindh and Balochistan’s agriculture departments will display their accomplishments in provincial pavilions. The Bank of Punjab, National Bank of Pakistan, and Saudi-Pak Investment Company are among the sponsors who will help make the event possible.
A reward of up to $1 million has been offered by the multinational computer giant Apple to anyone who breaches its Private Cloud Compute, which will integrate artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.
The corporation recently posted a blog post titled “Security research on Private Cloud Compute,” in which it offered a reward to anyone who could find cloud service vulnerabilities that could endanger the service.
The news coincided with Apple’s planned release of iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence on iPhones the following week.
For the first time, the update will also bring AI capabilities to the iPhone, such improvements to Siri, the speech assistant.
The tech giant will use its own silicon servers to power the Private Cloud computation, which it describes as “the most advanced security architecture ever deployed for cloud AI compute at scale.”
“We made resources to facilitate this inspection, such as the PCC Virtual Research Environment, available to third-party auditors and a few security researchers in advance in the weeks following our announcement of Apple Intelligence and PCC,” Apple stated in the blog.
The business has extended an invitation to researchers, security experts, and anybody else who wants to pinpoint the platform’s weaknesses.
In addition to giving $1 million for identifying significant vulnerabilities through “remote attack on request data,” the corporation is rewarding anyone who can gain access to sensitive information or user request data outside the boundaries of trust with $250,000.
Apple went on to say, “We will consider any security issue that has a significant impact to PCC for an Apple Security Bounty reward, even if it doesn’t match a published category, because we care deeply about any compromise to user privacy or security.”
It would “consider each report based on the quality of the information provided, the evidence of what can be exploited, and the impact to users,” according to Apple.
Visit the Apple Security Prize page to submit your research and learn more about the project, which is open to anybody interested in participating and winning the prize.
According to reports, WhatsApp is developing two intriguing new features that would improve the user experience. Several reports indicate that one of these enhancements is aimed at enhancing the way users organize their sticker collections.
Details reveal that users will soon be able to quickly arrange their stickers by adding them to their favorites or selecting many stickers at once for deletion, which will move them to the top for easy access.
Users will also be able to make their own personalized sticker packs within WhatsApp thanks to this future functionality. Users have more control over their collections and can add or delete stickers as necessary to maintain a unique and customized look. Additionally, group conversations and contacts can be used to share these personalized sticker packs.
Additionally, it has been rumored that WhatsApp is developing a new function that would enable users to exchange music via status updates. When users post a picture or a video to their status, a music button will be added to the drawing editor.
Even while these capabilities are still in the early stages of development, they should be included in upcoming updates, giving WhatsApp users more imaginative options.