Mike's Industry View - Issue #163
AI / Creativity
The podcasting world is now Spotify versus everybody else — www.theverge.com Spotify made a deal with Joe Rogan to make his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, a Spotify-exclusive. The deal is reportedly worth potentially more than $100 million, and it gives Spotify a show that reaches millions of people a month.
Business/Marketing/Adv
Sick of Zoom calls? Try this Sims-style virtual world instead — www.fastcompany.com Teooh wants to use video game-like avatars for professional meetings and conferences in an effort to mimic in-person interactions.
UK turns to delivery cream teas during lockdown — www.bbc.co.uk Sweet treat deliveries see a surge in interest during lockdown, search data suggests.
Interestingness
Lego Ventures: Fortnite is the "first credible metaverse" — www.gamesindustry.biz
"We see Fortnite taking a pretty good stab at making the first credible metaverse, where people can play and watch and share and socialize together,"
Celebrities Have Nothing Left to Offer Us — gen.medium.com
"As a longtime consumer of all things celebrity, I’ve been using famous people to escape from myself for as long as I can remember. "
Wellness
'The boundaries have broken': Employers deal with the reality of workers bringing their 'whole selves' — digiday.com
The idea of “bringing your whole self to work” was pioneered by academic William Kahn, who connected it to helping people be more engaged with their jobs and their job roles.
Tech Tent: Will we ever go back to the office? — www.bbc.com
Is the pandemic permanently changing our attitudes to work - and where it happens?
Platform News
YouTube’s Chase for Streaming-TV Ad Dollars Faces Hurdles — www.wsj.com
YouTube wants advertisers to spend more to reach the consumers who are increasingly using their TV to watch videos on its platform. The effort is a bid for a piece of the massive ad budgets that go toward traditional TV as well as the fast-growing ad spending earmarked for streaming TV. Watch time in the U.S. on TV screens is up 80% year-over-year.
Snapchat Stopped Promoting Trump Account — www.nytimes.com The social media company’s decision follows Twitter’s moves to label Mr. Trump’s posts inaccurate or as inciting violence.