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Shroom for more? ICYMI, Oregon’s psychedelics-as-medicine program went official this January, making it the first US state to legalize the adult use of psilocybin. And this week, the state finally issued its first business license to begin manufacturing psilocybin products. Vive la psychedelic renaissance.
In other news… TikTok is ruining concerts, Alibaba gets chopped up, and Twitter is tipping the scales for VIPs.
Top Trends
YouTube → Elemental
Twitter → Deadpool 3
Google → Tyler, the Creator
Reddit → Snoop Dogg
TikTok → “Twin Me” - Get Mi
Spotify → “Eucalyptus” - The National
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MUSIC
Everyone wants to be a TikTok star // Illustration by Kate Walker
TikTok may be a concert buzzkill
The Future. Concerts are routinely getting disrupted by people trying to go viral on TikTok. The phenomenon is exhausting for artists and annoying to fans who actually came to listen to them. The interruptions show the dark side of reducing artists and songs down to a buzzy clip… and may lead some musicians to actively avoid the short-form circus, even if it hurts their reach.
Muting artistsSome fans may be going to concerts just to go viral.
Fans are showing up with large signs that they keep up the whole time or screaming to get an artist’s attention, to ask to come up on stage, or to play an odd cover.
While disruption has always been part of the concert experience, more are now doing it to craft a viral TikTok moment.
So, the disruption is purely performative for 15 seconds of fame… and artists are noticing that they’re just fodder for TikTok. After multiple screaming interruptions at shows, Maggie Rogers had to go on TikTok to tell people to cool it.
ClippedAdditionally, some artists may be noticing that TikTok has created some other weird habits at concerts.
At Steve Lacey concerts, people sing along to “Bad Habit”... but only the parts they recognize from TikTok snippets.
People are showing up to I Prevail concerts, but only staying for the opener, Pierce the Veil, who blew up on TikTok last year.
It’s just further proof that the closest thing we may have to a mainstream culture is whatever is hot on TikTok… at least until it gets banned.
TECH
Government snip? // Illustration by Kate Walker
Alibaba gets chopped up
The Future. Alibaba is being split into six separate companies that will focus on specific sectors of the Alibaba empire… or what’s left of it. While positioned as an efficiency-play, many observers note that the split is more of a stripping-for-parts of the tech behemoth that Jack Ma once presided over. It may be a warning to other Chinese power players that, in China, there is such a thing as too big to succeed.
Power playAlibaba is splitting into six independently run companies.
The new businesses will cover cloud computing, logistics, Chinese e-commerce, global e-commerce, digital mapping and food delivery, and media and entertainment.
Each company will have its own CEO reporting to a board of directors, and will also be able to raise its own money and IPO on its own.
Current Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang will run a holding company that oversees each (with its Chinese commerce business remaining a wholly owned unit under it). Zhang says that the company split will help make the massive organization more nimble and efficient.
Sorry, MaThe company split is an odd but inevitable outcome for the tech giant that, back in 2020, was worth over $800 billion and preparing for potentially the biggest IPO in history. The company’s largesse was because of its centralization — the “Alibaba Economy.”
But that was also the year co-founder and former CEO Jack Ma criticized Beijing, which rubbed Communist Party leaders the wrong way. Alibaba, and the entirety of the Chinese tech sector, was punished… and the industry hasn’t recovered since.
Heck, Ma just returned to China after being in quasi-exile.
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Coders please stand up
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TECH
VIPs are all you can see // Illustration by David Vendrell
Twitter gives 35 VIPs a higher reach
The Future. Twitter is reportedly secretly boosting the visibility of 35 VIP users (including Elon Musk), letting them bypass the platform’s rules so that their tweets are seen by basically everybody. Considering that Musk’s battle against legacy blue checks is allegedly about democratizing Twitter, the existence of the VIPs may just prove that was never the case… in case you needed more convincing.
Top flight tweetersTwitter’s tipping the scales.
Twitter is boosting the profiles of users such as LeBron James, MrBeast, Ben Shapiro, President Joe Biden, Trump acolyte catturd2, and, of course, Elon Musk.
The internal documents unearthed by Platformer detailed how tweets by these users are monitored and boosted to “automatically be more visible than others.”
Their tweets also “bypass a Twitter algorithm which prevents too many posts from a particular user from being viewed.”
This comes on the heels of Platformer, ever the Twitter watchdog, finding that Musk requested (back in December) that Twitter’s code be edited to boost his posts… which then became “make my posts more visible than anyone else’s” after President Biden’s Super Bowl tweet had more engagement than Musk’s.
That’s what $44 billion gets you.
TOGETHER WITH THE BOOKIE
Bet like a pro
How many NCAA brackets are still alive? We’re betting yours isn’t (see what we did there?)
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Apple’s buy now, pay later service is ready for your wallet
Apple Pay Later, Apple’s foray into the “buy now, pay later” business that has been dominated by companies like Affirm and Klarna, is rolling out to randomly selected users before a wider public debut. The program allows users with iOS 16.4 or later to pay for items in four equal payments over six weeks, with no interest or late fees. Users will be able to apply for loans between $50-$1,000 right in the Wallet app.
Read more → techcrunch
Disney ditches the metaverse
So long, “next generation storytelling.” As part of Bob Iger’s planned 7,000-person layoff, former CEO Bob Chapek’s metaverse division is getting totally deleted. The division, run by Disney parks vet Mike White and touted to be the next great leap for Disney’s “phygital” storytelling, had about 50 employees. With metaverse hype cooling, it was only a matter of time.
Read more → thr
Lockheed Martin shoots for the Moon
The Moon market is suddenly a hot one, and Lockheed Martin wants in on the action. The aerospace company is launching a lunar-infrastructure division, with the mission of providing communications for Moon missions. Dubbed the Crescent Space Services LLC, the division’s first product is a lunar satellite network that would allow astronauts to communicate with Earth and even provide GPS. Call it cosmic 5G.
Read more → wsj
Even tippings getting a raise
If you’re feeling generous tipping 18% in 2023, you may be being a bit stingy. With cost of living adjustments and inflation, the price is going up. Bloomberg reports that cleaners and waiters expect at least 20%, while hair stylists and barbers expect at least 25%. Really, 30% is the new generous. Budget accordingly.
Read more → bloomberg
Vow resurrected the woolly mammoth as a meatball
An Australian cultivated food company called Vow is pulling a Jurassic Park and resurrecting the woolly mammoth. But you won’t be able to pet them… only eat them… in the form of a meatball. The company pulled it off by mixing the DNA of mammoths (a protein called myoglobin that gives meat its color and taste) with that of an African elephant. No word yet on when you can throw these on top of some spaghetti.
Read more → techcrunch
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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.Edited by Melody Song. Publishing by Nick Comney.