Together with
Pop(corn) stars. Thanks to the record-breaking ticket sales of Taylor Swift’s upcoming movie for The Eras Tour, Hollywood may have found its secret weapon to save the box office this fall: pop stars. For two nights in late October, 875 cinemas across the world will play Britney Spears’ first feature film, Crossroads, as part of a global fan event. Depending on the success of the re-release, don’t be surprised if other artists get similar theater treatments as well.
Who doesn’t want to see From Justin to Kelly on the big screen again?
In other news… Musicians find an AI loophole, Murdoch steps aside, and Paramount teams up with sports creators.
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MUSIC
Seeing double Drake // Illustration by Kate Walker
Musicians turn to NIL rights in the battle with AI
The Future. As musicians fight back against their voices being used in AI generations, name, image, and likeness (NIL) laws may be a more foolproof pathway than copyright law… at least for now. These laws could act as a stopgap for artists who don’t want a digital copycat releasing music (i.e., most artists). However, some novel mix of NIL laws and copyright laws will likely be written to govern AI in the long run.
Singular voice
Musical acts may already have a decent tool to fight back against AI clones of their voices: NIL laws.
NIL laws already protect against the unauthorized use of a person’s likeness, which, for musicians at least, is the most important aspect to put guardrails around when it comes to AI.
Meanwhile, applying copyright law to music is tougher because a song is compiled of the efforts of many different artists (and labels own the finished recording), as opposed to, say, a screenplay, book, or painting.
And while there’s no federal NIL law, 14 states have laws on file, including industry capitals like California and New York (though protections are a little all over the place).
The NIL approach is already being embraced by the major labels, with Warner Music Group recently striking an experimental licensing partnership with YouTube that’s received the consent of artists like Yo Gotti and Ryan Tedder.
But, as The Verge points out, NIL laws still present a few wrinkles to iron out, including how the rights to “publicity” will be handled in future label contracts (likely a union issue) and how things like homage, parody, and cover songs will be handled (a legal issue).
Talk about some complicated engineering.
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MEDIA
Rupert Murdoch // Illustration by Kate Walker
Rupert Murdoch ends his reign… kind of
The Future. Influential and controversial news and media mogul Rupert Murdoch is abdicating the thrones at News Corp. and Fox Corp. His son, Lachlan, who has very similar views as his father, will now wear the crown. But it could be short-lived. When Rupert eventually passes away, his majority voting shares will be equally divided among his four oldest children, who could (and most likely will) push out Lachlan. That power vacuum could start a new ideological chapter for the organizations.
News dynasty
After decades of running News Corp. and Fox Corp. (in its many iterations), Rupert Murdoch is stepping down.
Lachlan Murdoch, who’s been CEO of Fox Corp. since it became a new entity after selling its entertainment units to Disney in 2019, will become the chair of both companies.
Rupert will be appointed the chair emeritus of both firms, meaning he’ll still have an outsized influence in the organizations.
Lachlan, the eldest boy of the Murdoch clan who’s been an on-and-off executive at the companies since 1997, will take charge of an empire mostly comprised of live television news, sports, business data and services, and the Tubi streaming service.
The question currently swirling around media circles is: “Why is Rupert stepping down now?” According to author Michael Wolff, whose new book, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty, comes out next week, one reason is to shield the 92-year-old from testifying in the upcoming Smartmatic case — a potentially very public display of his current state.
If he were still running News Corp. and Fox, that exposure could likely lead to a negative perception of his ability to run two giant, publicly-traded companies. Rupert probably doesn’t want to suffer a late-in-life Sumner Redstone news cycle.
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Train like the Terminator
He’ll be back. Every day. Coaching you. Pushing you. Because you just downloaded The Pump app.
It’s not your typical workout app. It’s Arnold Schwarzenegger’s workout app designed and developed by experts at STRV.
STRV's engineers took a highly innovative approach to creating a product beyond a simple MVP. Every design detail, from Arnold's favorite color red to font choices harmonizing with vintage content, is intentional and carefully crafted to deliver a flawless user experience.
The app's workouts are scaled for beginner, intermediate, and advanced lifters, with videos demonstrating exercises and a tracker with a rest timer that makes the workouts easy to follow. Plus, the built-in community is always there to support and cheer you on.
Check out the full case study here to learn more about how STRV's mobile app development expertise brought The Pump to life.
SPORTS
The new way to watch sports
CBS plays middleman between advertisers and sports influencers
The Future. Paramount Global knows during sports games, people are watching their TVs and staring down at their phones. That’s bad news for advertisers when their intended audience is scrolling X or TikTok during the commercial break. So, Paramount is offering a way to capture those eyeballs, too. The move may pave the way for brands to broadcast commercial campaigns on two screens simultaneously… in other words, there’s no escape.
Content ref
Paramount is positioning itself between sports audiences’ first and second screens.
Paramount Advertising (Paramount Global’s ad sales and brand partnerships arm) is launching CBS Sports Creator Studio, which aims to connect digital creators with advertisers.
The plan is to facilitate the creation of custom content for social platforms that can run during sports coverage.
It also wants to provide resources to creators and advertisers to build campaigns around CBS Sports programming.
It’ll also leverage Paramount’s creator-focused businesses that it recently acquired, WhoSay and VidCon.
The studio is kicking off with three offerings: “Influence X Tentpole” (influencers get access to televised events), “Influence & CBS Sports IP” (influencers get behind-the-scenes access to sports programs), and “White Label Influence” (brands get paired with an influencer or athlete to make a campaign).
The hope: whether audiences are watching the game or looking up highlights on X, advertisers will get their eyeballs.
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Feeling horrible is, well, horrible
There’s no need to feel horrible, especially after a night of drinking. That’s because of ZBiotics: a tiny bottle that packs a huge performance punch.
Here’s how it works: when you drink, alcohol turns into acetaldehyde, which is not your friend in the morning. But, when you have a ZBiotics Pre-Alcohol Probiotic before your first adult beverage, it breaks down the acetaldehyde while you drink. And that means you can have fun without paying for it later. Booyah!
Try it with the code TFP15 for 15% off.
Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
17 world-renowned authors, including George R.R. Martin and George Saunders, have filed a class action lawsuit against OpenAI over the illegal scraping of copyrighted works, with the team seeking an injunction from using their works to train ChatGPT. Read more → variety
Do you get déjà vu? Ticketmaster is already preparing fans for headaches and disappointment when tickets for Olivia Rodrigo’s hotly anticipated tour go on sale. Read more → deadline
Studio Ghibli, Hayao Miyazaki’s animation studio, sold a controlling stake to Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV after the company couldn’t name a successor. Read more → variety
Fashion & E-Commerce
Safilo is debuting a new pair of smart glasses (which actually look good!) that are powered by Amazon’s Alexa. Read more → bof
F1 superstar Lewis Hamilton’s new racing helmet, which was designed by Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama, looks like something Daft Punk would wear (read: extremely cool). Read more → theverge
Expedia is rolling out an AI-powered travel planner called Project Explorer that can create an itinerary for destinations based on your budget and what time of year you’re going. Read more → fastcompany
Tech, Web3, & AI
The DOJ is pulling no punches, arguing in the opening statement of its antitrust case against Google that the tech giant has had an illegal monopoly on search for over a decade. Read more → forbes
Yelp is introducing an index of restaurants it’s caught being suspected of influencing (or straight up paying for) five-star reviews. Read more → engadget
OpenAI is pulling back the curtain on its text-to-image tool DALL-E 3, which allows artists to opt out of their work being used in its LLM… but only if you manually upload every single piece you want to be removed and fill out a form (a very backward understanding of consent). Read more → techcrunch
Creator Economy
YouTube is going all-in on AI, including “Dream Screen” — a feature that allows users to create “fantastic settings” for Shorts created with the generative AI text-to-image tool. Read more → tubefilter
Facebook gives up, allowing users to make finstas like they do on Instagram. Read more → theverge
Leveling up: fashion influencer Tezza has turned online fame into a hit photo-editing app and an old-school print fashion magazine. Read more → insider
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.