Iceland Roundup #29: Spotify, blown trailers, heat record, falling boulders & thunder

The Reykjavík Grapevine's Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin journalist Aðalsteinn Kjartansson, and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to roundup the stories making headlines in recent weeks. On the docket this week are:

✨Three caravans/trailers were blown up by strong winds on Holtavörðuheiði, a mountain road between the north and west of Iceland. Nobody was hurt, but SARS also had to help a group of motorcyclists off the mountain road, due to heavy winds. The weather on Friday also brought a thunderstorm to the west of Iceland. A rarity.

✨Egilsstaðir, a town in east Iceland saw the the thermostat reach 29,8 celsius on Saturday. That is the highest temperature recorded in Iceland this century, though it still does not pass the all time record of just over 30 degrees, recorded - also in the east - in 1939.

✨A boulder fell on the the ring road road south of Eyjafjallajökull, in south of Iceland on Sunday. This spring, in the same area, a boulder hit a car, killing a woman who was visiting Iceland. The locals have for long complained about the safety of that stretch of road, but so far nothing has been done to amend it.

✨Third of Icelanders pay for Spotify and the platform is almost responsible for 100% of streaming in Iceland. The Chairman of STEF (Composers’ Rights Society of Iceland), Páll Ragnar Pálsson says STEF is not planning on withdrawing the the catalog of Icelandic music from the service, and points out individual artists can do that. He says that STEF is working with other composers’ rights societies abroad in order to try to put some pressure on Spotify. But because of what? There are three reasons, first, the extremely low revenues that artists get for streaming. Second, the numerous fake artists that also skim money from streaming on Spotify, and which in some cases seems to have happened with Spotify’s consent, and third, the recent move of Spotify’s CEO into weapons development and manufacturing.

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