Together with
Heart on your sleeve. Having trouble telling people how you really feel? We’ve all been there. But now, Dutch designer Anouk Wipprecht wants to change that with a dress that can literally read your mind. The ScreenDress is designed to reflect how much mental stress the wearer is feeling at any given moment. Useful or creepy? See for yourself.
In other news… Spotify’s podcast dreams stall, ABBA avatars are a hit, and the three evergreen shows that streamers can’t stop streaming.
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ENTERTAINMENT
Burning money // Illustration by Kate Walker
Spotify podcast demand is more muted than expected
The Future. Spotify’s ambition to become a podcasting giant has succeeded… but the empire is smaller than the company hoped. Despite CEO Daniel Ek’s proclamation that the division will be profitable some time next year (and solidify the company’s goal of being an all-audio platform), Spotify may need to recalibrate podcasting’s place in the entertainment ecosystem to make the business truly sustainable.
Tuning out
Spotify’s $1 billion spend to lock down A-list talent and grow its podcast library to over five million shows has scored more listenership than revenue.
Although 100 million of its 220 million subscribers listen to its podcasts (10x more than in 2019), most of Spotify’s shows aren’t profitable and have fueled $565 million in losses during the first six months of this year.
That’s led to layoffs, a cutback on programming to focus on originals and exclusives, the folding of its Parcast and Gimlet brands, and a change in deal structure (more direct revenue share than pricey buyouts like it’s doing with Trevor Noah).
And ad revenue is the golden goose (Spotify makes more from ads than subscriptions), with the company saying podcast ad revenue should grow by 30% this year thanks to the ability to target specific types of listeners instead of specific shows.
Despite podcast revenue in the US expected to hit a record $2.3 billion this year and double by 2025, that’s apparently still too small when considering the overall $200 billion digital ad market.
In other words, seemingly all the big podcast players — Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Sirius, and iHeart — have all overspent. The ones best positioned for success might be those that make most of their money from something other than podcasts.
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MUSIC
Courtesy of ABBA Voyage
ABBA avatars generate real millions
The Future. The enduring, popular, and tour-shy Swedish supergroup ABBA has one of the most successful live shows of the year — and they haven’t played a single night. ABBA Voyage is brought to life by holograms of the members in their 20s, giving fans an opportunity to see the band in their prime. And as major legacy acts sell off their catalogs and look to retirement, holographic shows could provide a business model to ensure their music and performances live on forever.
Take A Chance On (Digital) Me
ABBA Voyage has revived Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad as 28-year-olds seven times a week since May.
The show features holograms of the members — created by Industrial Light & Magic using motion capture tech, younger body doubles, and 1,000 VFX artists — playing 22 songs from their catalog.
It’s housed at ABBA Arena — a custom venue outside of London, which is outfitted with LED screens and 291 speakers and sits 3,000 people.
It’s one of the most expensive shows in music history — roughly $175 million before it even opened.
The high-priced bet is paying off. ABBA Voyage has sold 1.5 million tickets (the average ticket price is $105), raking in $150 million in sales. The production has been 99% sold out every night for the past 15 months and shows no signs of slowing down. It’s looking to expand globally to Las Vegas, New York, Singapore, and Sydney.
But producer Svana Gisla says recreating the production outside of ABBA Arena will be a monumental task. According to Bloomberg, the venue has “600 tons of equipment above the crowd and 500 moving lights mapped to 30,000 points in the arena to create the illusion of a real-life band.”
Try putting that on a tour bus.
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HEALTH & WELLNESS
Together with Tiege Hanley
Let’s hear it for the boys (and their skin)
Guys deal with zits, too. But the skin care industry hasn’t really done sh*t for them until now. Meet Tiege Hanley — a skin care routine just for men.
It’s complete with a daily face wash, exfoliating scrub, and AM/PM moisturizers (with SPF, of course). Each box includes a little card that explains exactly what to do to achieve great results.
Don’t just take our word for it. Tiege Hanley has over 7,000 five-star reviews from men around the globe. So, if you’re a man and you want to take care of your skin, take care of it with Tiege Hanley.
ENTERTAINMENT
Courtesy of ABC
The three shows that everyone won’t stop streaming
The Future. While a lot of marketing power is put into splashy streaming originals, the true workhorses of these platforms are long-running broadcast hits that find a new, passionate audience on streaming. But with the broadcast model getting squeezed by streaming, the platforms may be crushing the pipeline that keep subscribers from churning. To make up for it, streamers may need to reboot their economics and revive the old model of producing more episodes of hit shows at a much quicker rate.
Eternal hits
Since Nielsen started releasing its weekly top ten streaming rankings three years ago (157 weeks, to be exact), three shows have ruled them all.
Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, and Cocomelon have appeared for 153 weeks, 147 weeks, and 135 weeks, respectively.
For Grey’s and NCIS, the rankings not only represent their popularity but also the benefit of having multiple seasons with many episodes — they both have over 150 episodes and are constant staples on Netflix.
And when exploring the rest of Nielsen’s repeat-rankers — Criminal Minds, Gilmore Girls, Supernatural, and The Big Bang Theory — it becomes clear they all follow a similar pattern.
When it comes to streaming originals, the biggest hits, The Crown and Stranger Things, both clocked less than 38 weeks due to limited numbers of episodes.
Oh yeah, Cocomelon. While it only has 20 hours of programming, the Moonbug-produced show has proven a hit with kids since its YouTube days. The only other series that has a shot of hitting Cocomelon’s milestones is Bluey on Disney+, which only has 19 hours of programming.
In other words, when parents find a show their kids love, they’ll replay it over and over and over again.
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Highlights
The best curated daily stories from around the web
Media, Music, & Entertainment
The dispute over terms for showing Disney’s TV networks on Charter’s Spectrum cable service is a microcosm of the cable industry’s last grasp for survival in the age of streaming. Read more → variety
The dual Hollywood strikes have scrubbed $5 billion in economic impact from the California economy, according to the Milken Institute. Read more → insider
Netflix’s payout structure in Germany, Sweden, and France could provide a template for a success-based residual model — a major sticking point for striking writers and actors. Read more → deadline
Fashion & E-Commerce
Snoop Dogg’s collaboration with Australian winemaker 19 Crimes has been a tasty hit for both parties. Read more → forbes
Luxury retailers search for gold in the booming Indian market. Read more → bof
Vans is selling its Classic Slip-Ons distressed and already covered in duct tape. Read more → hypbeast
Tech, Web3, & AI
Meta may offer European users paid versions of its apps that are totally ad-free to abide by the EU’s new regulations. Read more → nyt
Crate, launched by a former Pinterest employee, hopes to take on Pinterest by analyzing users’ online histories to surface curated product and activity recommendations in their areas. Read more → theinformation
Mentra hopes to make it easier for neurodivergent job seekers to find positions that are perfect fits for them. Read more → techcrunch
Creator Economy
Anine Bing is hoping to scale from its creator economy origins to a true fashion brand by bringing in Kate Moss as its newest influencer. Read more → bof
Reverse social media evolution: TikTok is hoping to evolve from an entertainment hub to a platform that provides more features for actual socializing. Read more → axios
SuperBloom House has launched The Creative Collective to connect Hollywood writers and digital creators with brands… and it counts Gossip Girl showrunners Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage as founding members. Read more → variety
Correction: In the 8/30 newsletter, we mixed up Mythical’s $5 million creator accelerator fund with the amount Mythical invested in The Sorry Girls.
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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Melody Song. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.