Together with
Wake and cake. Good morning, Future Party people. Today is 4/20, and you know what that means… It's National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day! Wait, what? That’s right. And we can’t think of a better tropical treat to indulge in during, well, you know. Cough, cough. Let us know what other go-to munchies you may be celebrating the day with. We’ll be doing a snack run later this afternoon.
In other news… Reddit has an AI problem, celebrity beauty brands run dry, and social networks get niche.
Top Trends
YouTube → Insidious: The Red Door
Twitter → Tim Curry
Google → Foo Fighters
Reddit → Jack Black
Spotify → “Meeting The Master” - Greta Van Fleet
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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Penny for our thoughts // Illustration by Kate Walker
Reddit wants a piece of generative AI’s success
The Future. Reddit doesn’t want the vast trove of data from its 57 million users to be used freely by AI companies to train its systems. Instead, the company wants them to pay for that access so that it can be rewarded for the value created on the platform. With AI systems likely to bite, Reddit could be setting a precedent for a new revenue stream for community-centric websites. We wonder how some of that monetary value can trickle down to users…
ChatGPT guinea pigsReddit has a bone to pick with AI companies.
The company plans to start paywalling access to its API, specifically targeting AI companies who “download and process the social network’s vast selection of person-to-person conversations” to train its chatbots.
The move comes as Google and OpenAI have both reported that Reddit has been a key source of data.
Reddit believes that the breadth and constantly updating nature of conversations on the platform have made it vital for training large language models (LLMs).
Gated communityWhile the move follows Twitter's own restrictions on using its API, Reddit said that it would still keep its API free for developers making apps for use on Reddit and for research and academic purposes.
Up until now, Reddit has had a mutually-beneficial relationship with Google, with the tech giant “crawling” Reddit to index for Search results. That was a boon for the social platform.
But with AI systems like Bard just digesting Reddit posts to regurgitate as its own, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has said that it changes the dynamic because “generating value and not returning any of that value to our users is something we have a problem with.”
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FASHION & BEAUTY
A-list for your face // Illustration by Kate Walker
Celebrity beauty brands are about to run empty
The Future. Although celebrities and investors were drawn to the beauty industry because of the daily use of the products and high operating margins, the economy has slowed down, and tastes have changed. Now, celebrity-backed brands have fallen out of vogue in favor of makeup brands that feel legit. In a world now prioritizing authenticity (in both makeup habits and life), only the brands that feel like genuine extensions of their celebrity face may survive.
A washAccording to Bloomberg, 50 celebrities and influencers have launched some sort of beauty brand in the past three years… and the money is now running dry.
A flood of reviews on TikTok and Reddit pointed out that many celebrity-driven brands aren’t high quality and don’t feel authentic to the name involved.
A Bloomberg survey found that female shoppers don’t even care if a celebrity is involved with a brand.
Lately, the focus has transformed from makeup to skincare thanks to the rise of the “clean girl aesthetic.” Basically, people are wearing less makeup overall.
Celebrity removerTo get a sense of how damaged the celebrity-driven beauty industry is, just look at the business moves of this past January.
Kristen Bell closed her Happy Dance skincare line.
Sephora discontinued selling brands from Addison Rae and Hyram Yarbo.
Ariana Grande purchased the remaining product of her r.e.m. beauty brand when its parent company, Forma Brands, started tanking.
And while many of these celebrity-backed brands started with the intent to one day score a big payout when a larger company acquires their brand, that’s not as common as it is in, say, liquor. Since 1994, only one brand has received a deal like that in North America: Coty’s $600 million acquisition of Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics in 2019.
TOGETHER WITH THE JUICE
Like Netflix, but for marketing and sales content
You know how streaming platforms gather binge-worthy entertainment into one super convenient place?
That’s kinda how The Juice works but for marketing and sales resources. It curates all the best articles and podcasts from top B2B companies, so you don’t have to scour the internet for the knowledge you need.
Fill your feed with fresh ideas: The Juice makes it easy to deep-dive into how-tos and best practices from luminaries at HubSpot, The Quota (aka the Sales Humor team), Salesforce, Customer Camp, and more.
“CEOs on social media who are using it right" by Sprout Social
"Sales Fails: 'I'm gonna keep calling you every single day,'" by The Quota
"The Quick and Dirty Checklist for Better Web Copy" by Simple Strat
And on top of modern career content at your fingertips, you can also see what your peers are learning, so you never fall behind.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media? // Illustration by Kate Walker
Social media is not about being social anymore
The Future. The days are over when mainstream apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram were designed to connect people with family and friends and share daily updates. So, users are finding community on apps geared toward specific interests. But like BeReal, many may experience a sharp drop in engagement if they’re built around gimmicks instead of connection.
Social-lessThe mainstream apps are now more designed to amplify brand ads, sponsored posts, and influencer content.
That turn toward professionalism has either turned off the casual user or prodded them into becoming social media professionals themselves.
These changes have led to what NYT describes as the end of the online platform — “an all-in-one, public-facing site where people spent most of their time.”
Niche networksSo, the social part of social media is migrating to smaller platforms.
There are places like LinkedIn for business, Letterboxd for film enthusiasts, Discord for gamers, and Nextdoor for neighbors.
But there are broader platforms like Mastodon, Reddit, and Nostr (which Jack Dorsey now posts on) that act as “a gateway to smaller communities.”
With the explosion of so many disconnected social networks, someone will eventually make an app that acts as a portal to all your communities. Gobo, which was developed at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, hopes to be that when it releases next month.
TOGETHER WITH MOOD
It’s 4/20
And we’re celebrating. So, we don’t have much to say other than that you should celebrate too — with some Mood.
Mood’s high-grade THC flower, gummies, hash, pre-rolls, and vapes are from small, organic farms, and they’ll get you high. Not CBD-high — high-high. (Don’t worry! Everything’s 100% federally legal with the 2018 Farm Bill legal.)
Join Mood’s 20,000 super happy customers with the coupon code FIRST20 at checkout to get 20% off.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Fake Drake disappears after UMG hit
After blowing up on social media last week with millions of listens, the song “Heart on My Sleeve” (an AI generation featuring deepfaked voices of Drake and The Weeknd) was scrubbed due to a complaint from Universal Music Group. The label said that "the training of generative AI using our artists' music [represented] both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law." Expect these types of takedowns to become a daily routine.
Read more → axios
Netflix ditches DVDs
It’s the end of an era: Netflix is ending its original DVD-by-mail business. The last discs will be shipped out on September 29 and must be returned by October 27, closing out the 25 years of red envelopes. Does this mean I finally need to turn in the copy of James Gray’s Two Lovers that we’ve had since 2015?
Read more → deadline
Hello Sunshine gets into music
After a successful rollout of the music-focused Amazon series Daisy Jones & the Six (great show, btw) and Apple competition series My Kind of Country, Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine is officially launching a music division. The company has hired Alex Flores, a veteran of BMI and BMG, as its EVP of music. It’s unclear if Hello Sunshine will be acting as a label, producing music, or acting as a talent manager… but we’ll keep our ear to the ground.
Read more → thr
Meta wants the kids to enter Horizon Worlds
All the teenagers are now invited to Meta’s VR metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds. The move comes amid a call from children’s rights activists not to open up Horizon quite yet, but Meta insists that robust protections are in place. Plus, Meta is desperate to boost engagement on the platform… but will kids care?
Read more → theinformation
Taylor Swift knew there was something fishy about FTX
Shaq, Tom Brady, Larry David, and several others may be in hot water over promoting the fraudulent FTX, but lawyer Adam Moskowitz says there was one celebrity who was offered a lucrative deal, then declined after some digging: Taylor Swift. Swift was offered $100 million by the failed exchange to sponsor her Eras tour, but it all fell apart when the artist asked for proof that the company’s token wasn’t an unregistered security. T Swift came prepared.
Read more → insider
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Today's email was brought to you by David Vendrell.Editing by Nick Comney. Publishing by Sara Kitnick.