It’s 1999 All Over Again

PRESENTED BY LAUNDRY SAUCE

Happy Thursday, Future Party. And a happy start to the World Cup to all those who celebrate (i.e., pretty much the entire world). Between the opening matches and the nail-biter NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs, sports bars across the US are likely to be at capacity this weekend. Plan accordingly!

Top Hollywood agency CAA and Integrated Media Company, the investment arm of private equity firm TPG, are pouring $250 million into a new creator-focused investment company called Compound Creative Holdings.

The Big Picture: The creator economy is a booming industry, valued at $250 billion in 2023 and projected to grow to $480 billion by next year. With creators evolving into full-fledged media brands, Compound Creative aims to get in on the ground floor with the people who could become the biggest names in media by the end of the decade.

Behind The Investment: Led by CAA veteran and investment banker Tucker Brown, Compound Creative wants to roll up some of the biggest creator-led businesses.

Closing Thoughts: Brown, who has raised money for Dude Perfect and the talent behind the MeidasTouch Network, said that “there’s a lot of capital in the market generally and a lot of interest in creator businesses, but there aren’t many educated capital platforms dedicated to investing in the category specifically.” Spotter is one company focused on investing in future YouTube revenue, while Night Labs has emerged as a leading VC firm in the space. But CAA has the reach and Rolodex to take that support to the next level.

Prediction: Given CAA and TPG’s sprawling business networks, US-based creators could gain both the funding and connections needed to expand their businesses internationally.

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A new report from Luminate found that young people are gravitating toward music released before they were born — especially tracks from the ’90s.

Why It Hits: The report shows that the nostalgia economy remains a powerful force across entertainment. Thanks to the ubiquity of streaming, anyone can access high-quality versions of songs from any era — 73% of all music streaming in the US now comes from catalog titles. Young listeners just have to discover them. The growing popularity of artists from their parents’ generation could fuel a new wave of legacy acts… and best-selling tours.

Behind The Music: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” may be a new favorite among today’s teenagers.

Encore: So, what’s really driving the resurgence of songs popularized during the heyday of MTV? Luminate points to films and TV shows featuring ’90s and 2000s bangers as needle drops, social media trends that propel songs through viral videos, and the growing popularity of analog listening formats like vinyl and CDs (that last one still amazes us).

But there’s another clear reason: elder millennials are now introducing their teenage kids to the music they grew up listening to. The best things in life are always passed down — and right now, few things are more appealing to young people than something secondhand.

The Future: Considering the massive boom in live music revenue, expect many of the biggest bands from the alternative, grunge, and nu-metal eras to dust off their guitars and hit the road.

That investor was wrong. Gamma is now worth $2B, with 50M users and more than half their growth driven by word of mouth.

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53.1% of you voted Yes, in the past in yesterday’s poll: Have you ever held multiple jobs at the same time?

“I come from a lower middle-class family, so I had to work multiple jobs through college just to be able to afford basic necessities. I’m lucky that I was able to find decent part-time work and scholarships to cover a good portion of my education, or I never would have finished my degrees.”

“In grad school, I graded papers, assisted two departments, nannied, babysat, did independent consulting for a company, and had a catering job. Never again!”

“Worked at Walmart overnight and a photo studio in the daytime. I would not do it again. Even in my twenties, it was one of the most draining and stressful things I’ve ever been through and could only keep it up for a few months before I picked one job over another.”

“I am a firm believer that if you need a 2nd job, you need a different job!”

“Being an artist is almost always a second job unless you’re a nepo baby lol.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🤝 The Directors Guild of America is the last major union yet to ink a new contract agreement with the AMPTP.

👀 Warner Music Group acquired Sureel AI, a company that develops tools for tracking how intellectual property is used by generative AI models.

🎥 AMC Theatres is postponing its livestream concert series because the summer movies are doing so well.

🔨 Meta is launching a free “workforce academy” that trains people for data-center construction… and guarantees a job upon graduation.

💰 SpaceX’s IPO is expected to turn 4,400 employees into new millionaires.

🚗 Waymo rolled out an open-source virtual crash-test dummy designed to help autonomous vehicles train for unexpected situations on the road.

👔 Kalshi plans to require some users to report who their employers are as part of an effort to crack down on insider trading.

🏈 The federal government may give the formal green light for prediction markets to offer sports betting in the US.

🤖 Visa is introducing a new system that will allow OpenAI’s agents to make transactions on a person’s behalf.