Happy Friday, Future Party folks. Ready for the weekend? We are too. And we’re making sure we’re getting some nice R&R so we can be fully energized next week for the chaos that is to be the upcoming Beyoncé Renaissance tour sale. More on that below.
In other news… Twitter revokes free API access, Beyoncé tests Ticketmaster, and brands love when that hotline bling.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
Goodbye to free Twitter API // Illustration by Kate Walker
Twitter revokes free access to its API
The Future. Twitter announced that it will stop providing free access to the Twitter API on February 9th, offering a “paid basic tier” in its stead. The move may help Twitter improve its difficult financial position but will also disrupt countless research projects and free open-access tools, potentially making the platform even more enemies.
A paywall playThe Verge covered what little is known about the upcoming “paid basic tier,” as well as the ramifications of the transition.
Twitter’s API (Applied Programming Interface) currently lets third parties access and analyze public Twitter data, which can be used to create bots and applications that connect to the platform.
On February 9th, creators of free programs, like novelty weather trackers or black-and-white image colorizers, will have to start charging fees for these services or shut down.
Scientists and students who rely on analysis of Twitter’s public data may also be forced to abandon their projects.
Twitter hasn’t announced how much the basic tier will cost but said that more details would come next week.
Twitter currently offers premium tiers of its API to developers who want access to extra information. The starting rate for the premium tier is reportedly $99/month but increases if subscribers want additional features.
MAYDAY, MAYDAYThis new policy is one of many extreme changes Elon Musk has made to increase the struggling company’s revenue streams. And there’s no question that Twitter’s financial situation is dire — the platform has failed to pay rent on office space.
But even if the paid basic tier for Twitter’s API makes the company money, moves like this one are likely to send users and investors running. Twitter needs approval like they need money, and money can’t buy them love.
MUSIC
Ticketmaster tries to avoid an encore // Illustration by Kate Walker
Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour will test Ticketmaster
The Future. Tickets for Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour go on sale over the next few days, and their rollout will be Ticketmaster’s biggest test since demand for tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras tour shut the platform down in November. Averting disaster this time around might help Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, avert the regulatory crackdown that looms in their future.
Too-popular demandAccording to The Hollywood Reporter, Ticketmaster is preparing for an onslaught of ticket requests for the Renaissance tour.
The Renaissance tour is Beyoncé’s first solo tour in over six years, so demand is expected to far outpace supply.
That’s an issue because overwhelming demand is what crashed Ticketmaster during the release of tickets for the Eras tour, when the site received three times more bot requests than it ever had before.
This time, Ticketmaster is staggering ticket sale dates by city to reduce the risk of huge spikes in site traffic at any given point in time. Still, the site expects demand to exceed available tickets and will distribute them according to a lottery process.
Tickets for the North American leg of the tour go on sale February 6th.
In the spotlightHandling this well won’t protect Live Nation from allegations of abusing their monopolistic position, and the company is likely to face federal regulation either way. But public opinion influences policy decisions, and pulling off Renaissance sales would go a long way towards convincing the public that the company can handle the market on their own, regardless of whether they should.
TOGETHER WITH MASTERWORKS
Two words: fine art
Masterworks is the award-winning (recently named “Top Startup” by Linkedin!) platform helping 600,000+ invest in works by the same world-renowned artists coveted by ultra-wealthy collectors and major museums alike (think Picasso, Basquiat, and Banksy.)
Masterworks splits these multi-million dollar works into shares, so you can invest without breaking the bank. Wow, why didn’t I think of that?
It’s a financial no-brainer — contemporary art has outpaced the stock market by a whopping 131% over the last 26 years. Also, their investors are earning serious $$$. Masterworks’ last 3 sales realized +13.9%, +35.0%, and +10.4% net returns each.
Best of all, as a trusted partner, FutureParty readers can skip their waitlist to join.*
*See important Reg A disclosures at https://www.masterworks.com/about/disclaimer.
CULTURE
You used to call brands on your landline // Unsplash
Brands love when that hotline bling
The Future. As brands seek to engage customers on a deeper level, they’re jazzing up their ads with good old-fashioned hotlines. This marketing play transcends mere nostalgia — it keeps personal information private, which is rare in the age of digital marketing (where first-party data collection is often the goal). The takeaway? Looking to the past might be a surefire way for brands to resonate with young, savvy buyers.
1-800-PROFITSAd Age highlights three recently successful ad campaigns that feature phone numbers at the bottom of their commercials.
The plant-based beverage brand Oatly launched an emotional support hotline right before Thanksgiving last year as “a way to broadcast Oatly’s values without sounding too high and mighty.”
State Farm’s “Jazz Bath” campaign, featuring a character named Jeff who plays the sax, debuted a hotline last November to promote its new CD. The ad was a ‘90s nostalgia play to attract Millennial customers, according to Clinton Inselmann, director of marketing at State Farm.
Mint Mobile’s campaign for a pair of pants with “extra large pockets” — where customers could put all the money they’d theoretically save using Mint — included a hotline where people could leave voicemails.
Unlike Oatly and State Farm, though, Mint wanted to use some of the voicemails to generate social content, so its marketing team had to figure out a way around privacy issues.
All parts of the timelineIn an ironic twist, marketers are using the past to connect with audiences in the present and the future.
“We just want to … reinforce that we’re young and modern, just like they are, and [that] we understand what their needs are,” Dave Wasserman, senior VP of creative at The Marketing Arm (the agency behind State Farm’s campaign) tells Ad Age.
Forget retro. Maybe hotlines are timeless after all.
Future Forecast
For those of you who like to stay a step ahead, here are a few things we’re excited about right now:
High-ly creative stays & pot-tery. If your idea of a good time is chilling in a studio with funny man, bud-tender, and master sculptor Seth Rogen, this message is for you. He’s opened up his spot as an Airbnb for one-night stays on February 15th, 16th, and 17th… for only $42! Plus, as a part of Houseplant’s partnership with Airbnb, the home-sharing app will make a donation to Hilarity for Charity, a national non-profit on a mission to care for families impacted by Alzheimer's disease.
Hall of Fame. Of rock. And the noms who don’t suck. Is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame more or less relevant than the Oscars? You tell us. What we do know is that we’re damn happy to see Warren Zevon finally nominated after being snubbed for years. We’re also stoked about Missy Elliot, A Tribe Called Quest, and The White Stripes. Kate Bush has been nominated three times without getting in, but has to be a shoo-in this year, right?
Live forever mode. There isn’t a void left since the last season of Black Mirror because we're actually living it now. The founder of Sominium Space recently claimed that Chat GPT has drastically sped up the timeline for his metaverse project that allows people to store the way they talk, move, and sound until after they die — when they can come back from the dead as an online avatar to speak with their relatives. The future is now.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Adidas wants to become Gen Z’s top sportswear brand
Just as Gen Z’s spending power increases, Adidas is launching a new collection of sportswear (it's first in 50 years) targeted at the next generation and modeled by actress Jenna Ortega. The collection, simply called “Sportswear,” has been 18 months in the making and has the potential to be the brand’s biggest yet, according to company leaders. It rocks a “blokecore” aesthetic that leans on 90s soccer shirts and the style of musicians from that decade. Sportswear, which includes football jerseys, dresses, and updates on the iconic three-stripe tracksuit, launches online and in stores worldwide on February 9th.
Read More → insider
Saweetie will perform in the metaverse on Super Bowl weekend
The NFL just announced that the Saweetie Super Bowl Concert will air on February 10th exclusively on Roblox. Saweetie’s free virtual concert will take place in Warner Music Group’s Rhythm City area on the gaming platform, where the hip-hop artist will perform a “family-friendly” set as an avatar. According to the NFL, her concert, which will “promote a message of female empowerment,” will re-air every hour until the Big Game on February 12th. See you in there.
Read More → variety
Netflix will cast more EVs in its content
To kick off its new alliance with General Motors, Netflix will join the automaker’s “Everybody In” campaign that promotes mass adoption of electric vehicles. The two companies will air a new commercial during the Super Bowl that shows Will Ferrell driving through the worlds of some of Netflix’s popular shows, including Squid Game, in various GM EVs. Those same EVs will also star in select Netflix content, including Love Is Blind and Queer Eye. The goal of the alliance is to expose people to EVs organically, so GM won’t pay Netflix for its product placement. Instead, the automaker will educate Netflix showrunners about EVs so that they can integrate them seamlessly into storylines. Buckle up, everybody.
Read More → techcrunch
Will NFTs change the sports memorabilia industry for the better?
As NFTs help athletes maximize their value in the memorabilia world, some agencies have started giving clients their own digital player cards. This allows the athlete to sell the card, make a full profit, and collect 3 to 10% in royalties on any resales that may occur thereafter. Beginning this week, Young Money APAA Sports will supply each client with their own card so that they can profit off their name, image, and likeness right away. “The future is being built on blockchain, and we want to use it to revolutionize the way fans engage with athletes,” says Jesse Foreman, NFL agent for Young Money Sports and Co-Founder of Young Money APAA Kingdom. Totally.
Read More → forbes
Mark Zuckerberg makes $12 billion in a single day
When Meta’s share price surged 21% on Thursday due to the company’s cost-cutting measures, Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth grow by roughly $12 billion — bringing the value of his fortune to about $69 billion. While impressive (hey, we’d be thrilled with even a mini fraction of that), it’s a far cry from 2022, when Zuckerberg started the year with $125 billion. The slump in his wealth mirrored a decline in Meta’s share price, which lost about two-thirds of its value in 2022 after Facebook reported a fall in its daily active user numbers for the first time in the platform’s history. All’s well that ends well.
Read More → insider
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