Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
'Big internet platforms' send traffic to newspapers, which is worth money to them, but now they must also pay the newspaper companies for those links, or to use the snippets and extracts that the newspapers give them (yes, all those extracts are controlled by newspapers).
Benedict Evans • Paying for news — Benedict Evans
In July 2014 Taylor Swift wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled, For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story:There are many (many) people who predict the downfall of music sales and the irrelevancy of the album as an economic entity. I am not one of them. In my opinion, the value of an album is, and will continue to be, b... See more
Stratechery • Non-Fungible Taylor Swift – Stratechery by Ben Thompson
The “playing field” was being leveled, which meant that any company could compete against any other no…
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Kyle Chayka • Filterworld
Universal Music Group: The Gatekeepers of Music
joincolossus.comThat’s why I loved her decision to pull out of Spotify. Taylor Swift is not some sort of Luddite futilely standing against the forces of modernity; rather, she is a highly differentiated content creator capturing the immense value she is creating instead of ceding it to an aggregator that treats every piece of content the same.
Ben Thompson • Differentiation and Value Capture in the Internet Age
“There Has to Be a Line”: Substack’s Founders Dive Headfirst Into the Culture Wars
Joe Pompeovanityfair.com
This asset is so unusual in Hollywood that it actually became controversial when Hart began to leverage it. Negotiations between the actor’s representatives and Sony Pictures Studios that leaked during the infamous Sony hacking scandal showed Hart’s ability to command higher paydays from the studio in exchange for his willingness to promote on his
... See moreRyan Holiday • Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts
Hipgnosis Songs Fund bought a 50 percent stake in the funk star Rick James’s catalog, which includes his irresistibly catchy 1981 hit “Super Freak.” To monetize its prize, Hipgnosis found a lightly modernized update of the “Super Freak” track, had Nicki Minaj assemble a songwriting crew and voilà: In 2022, Ms. Minaj’s “Super Freaky Girl,” essential... See more