issue 201
Hello! So we’re in an iron-wall lockdown for another week in New Zealand. It’s a drag. We can’t swim in the ocean or a drive a few miles from the house. Can’t complain if they manage to nip Delta in the bud within a month. With my luck, the country will re-open the day I leave. Yeah I booked a ticket home. See you lovies in LA in late September. Will be back for awhile - write me if you want to kick it. Flying into the fire, vaxxed waxed and ready.
Á la lune. I have a strong feeling we’re going to see the tokenization (securitization) of programs that look a lot like the Sundance Institute (labs, grants, fellowships). Access is what it’s all about, plus brand name recognition for that added lift to help open doors for the unproven (and their IP). I’ve gotten lost down the crypto rabbit hole multiple times, but I don’t think I’m going to crawl my way out this time around. Dove deep the last few days…
There are just too many well-heeled and sophisticated people in the space to ignore it (a lot of rich idiots too, but c’est la vie). It’s beyond found money. It’s a new revenue line at the least, and a totally new system at most. We’re sorting out ways to imbue crypto into a few projects I’m producing - token as ticket as share (DDtwtr). It can sit side-by-side with legacy distribution. These tokens should be functional, digital memorabilia is the low hanging fruit. I’m thinking of penning a full bottom-up exploration. It’d probably be pretty lucrative to build a consultancy in this space right now targeted at Hollywood and major brands. Might ride through town like a crazed Paul Revere.
Selective hindsight bias. A few of my musings from early May (issue 185) are being re-hashed now by crypto-focused financiers around co-ops. All my projects are group projects. It’s wild to me that hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people are working together to buy (pump) pictures of rocks, apes, penguins, squiggles, cats, and 8-bit punks. There are power in numbers. It might look silly, but it’s certainly worth studying and participating. Risk what you can afford to lose, discretionary fund. Pay the pied piper. It’s speculative, but here to stay.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Everything’s a scam. Flip the float.
The thin line. Being early is being wrong. It’s looking like generative art is having its big moment. I might’ve mentioned that generative would be the buzzword of 2021 (issue 168). Here’s a good primer on the space as it relates to NFTs. Some of the prices for these jpegs are absurd. I’ve been tangentially involved in the digital art market since 2017 (issue 76), and beyond the art itself, I found the gallery business attractive with its greedy 50/50 splits. There’s arbitrage to be found in incentive mis-alignment. Upstarts will emerge and it’ll be a race, fastest to the bottom.
Seek dislocation. A treasury.
As it relates to film, day-and-date distribution is now a core strategy of every studio and streamer. Some still consider it innovative. You don’t want to know how long I’ve been harping the PVOD tune, publicly since I started this newsletter in 2017 (issue 18). It’s still getting fleshed out by the industry, but it’s here to stay too (I hope). Obviously the pandemic plays a part in its traction, but if you willfully ignored the idea, then who’s the greater fool now. Persevere, monsieur Revere.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Go hard, go early - Jacinda. See you next week.
Tech
DistroKid, music distrib, raised at uni val Cision
Comcast Lift Labs invitees to the ‘21 cohort (Zoog is cute) TS
Flawless, speech synthesis for film/tv expands (like this space) Dead
Invisible Universe, wants to help digital characters grow into traditional ent, raised $8m (Pixar of the internet might be a stretch) Fastco
Visa bought a CryptoPunk (lots of earned media thru this) Visatwtr
Breef, brand marketplace between creatives and agencies, raised $3.5m TC
Riot Games building Direct, better network infra for gamers RGblog
Roblox acq Guilded, chat platform like Discord TC
Afterparty, decentralized fan/creator platform, launched, fmr Tornante exec Dead
Mountain Top, games studio focused on pvp shooter, raised $30m a16z
Browzwear, 3d renderings for fashion brands, raised $35m BoF
Fore VR, vr games co, raised $7m Fins
Anima is a new AR studio akin to Mschf w drops Med
Epic Game store preps for self-publishing GIB
Lit Pic, allows fans to pay for content from creators with social network, raised $1.5m GW
Webiny, serverless CMS, raised $3.5m TC
Memmo, European Cameo, raised $12m SC
EnTribe, hopes to use UGC for marketing for brands, raised $2.7m GN
ToneStone is a new music creation tool Med
Role, tabletop game and more, raised $2.75m TC
Launch House, creator economy focused house, plans $3m TC
Fractional, digital art ownership platform, raised $8m Med
Playbyte, quick games has over 25k users Med
Linktree acq Songlink, plans new music product Cision
Earbuds, social listening app, raised $3m TC
Zupee, gaming platform in India, raised $30m at $500m val Cision
Alchemy, blockchain infra, raised $80m (some angels like Zed, Katz) CD
Avalanche launches $180m defi incentives scheme Block
Pocket FM, podcast and audio app in India, raising $20m-ish Tencent TC
Antimatter Systems is a new meme-based learning co (name of prod co in film school) AM
Facebook working on building out its wallet and finance features (everyone wants to be a bank) Med
DuoLingo wants to be Sesame Street for adults, plan orig characters Fastco
Alibaba moving into NFT auctions SCMP
OpenAI codex to launch, typing code as language OAIblog
BrainQ, rehab after stroke brain device, raised $40m TC
Tesla’s AI days, plans robot WSJ
Ultrahuman, fitness tracker monitors glucose, raised $17.5m TC
Sony shut down its VR studio Polygon
Dom Hofman plans NFT fantasy game Verge
Substack to let some writers get paid in BTC (who wants my wallet info) SSblog
Peloton code hints at rowing machine 9to5goog
Cox invests in Faze Clan TF
Google employees who move or wfh might face pay cut (god forbid) Reut
Publica offering crypto book collectibles Med
YikYak is back Fastco
Tinder to make ID verification option for users Verge
Coinbase preps cash pile as it preps for regulation and attacks WSJ
Media
OnlyFans finances, Raine advising, no more skin Axios
Adobe acq FrameIO for $1.3b (surprised it took so long) Bberg
Hachette, book pub, acq Workman, another one, for $240m NYT
FB shelved its report on most popular post (lol wonder why) NYT
Spotify expands its Music + Talk format TC
HBO Max to lose about 5m subs from not doing Amzn Prime Channel Bberg
Comcast and ViacomCBS launch SkyShowtime streamer across Europe Dead
Moonbug and UMG partner on kids ent Cision
Spotify’s The Ringer and WWE plan audio network Dead
Audius, blockchain powered music streamer partners with TikTok RS
Ocean Outdoors beginning work on 3D OOH billboards Adweek
Axel Springer in talks to acq Politico WSJ
Fanatics strikes deal for MLB cards ESPN
This MLB deal kills Topps getting Spac’d CNBC
Amzn gets streaming rights to country music awards Bberg
Forbes in talks to get Spac’d in $650m deal Bberg
US Gov wants to start charging for satellite data QZ
Nextstar acq politics pub The Hill for $130m Var
Vox acq cocktail brand Punch Axios
Ballys acq Telescope for real time fan engagement solutions Cision
Mirror’s $write airdrop proposal to incentive users MXYZ
WaterBear Network is a new free streamer for eco-films EWatch
Champions League plans $7b relief fund for clubs NYT
Turtle Beach headphone rejects acq offer BN
Messi gets NFTs with Ethernity Mint
SiriusXM starts TikTok Radio for influencers TC
Genius Sports, sports betting, acq Spirable, creative content agency BW
United Masters giving more musicians advances RS
ESE Entertainment acq Digital Motorsport, racing sim GN
Tracking the evolution of global tv viewing Nielsen
Entertainment
Macro and Beats form film pitch comp for HBCU students Dead
Westbrook first look NatGeo unscripted Wrap
Magic Screen is new interactive theatre tech (cool) THR
Lauren Hissrich inks overall w Netflix Var
Derek Tsang to direct Three Body Prob for Nflx, Weiss/Benioff THR
Hollywood doesn’t bank on China as much THR
Sterling Brown, Randall Park action comedy for Amzn like 48 Hours THR
Picturestart and Lionsgate tv team on adaption of ya graphic novel Squad THR
Disney+ order Nautilus based on Verne’s 20,000 Leagues and other shows Var
Utopia nabs NA rights to Gaspar’s Vortex Var
Hulu US rights to The Unusual Suspects Var
Jimmy Yang, Jon Chu to tackle Great Chinese Art Heist for Warners THR
1091 acq doc Pharm Bro Var
Steven Prinz signs first look with Amzn Var
DC Comics partners with Webtoon Var
Spire Animation expands Var
Bob Greenblatt producing deal w/ Lionsgate TV THR
AMC opens writers rooms on three series, Lives of Mayfair Witches Var
Showtime orders sex trafficking pilot Coercion Var
Inside the showrunner apprenticeship program Var
A24 hires a CFO Var
Big film actor salaries Var and TV actor salaries Var
Measuring the future of film performance IW
Collaborative
Eli Stonberg on interactive livestreams (pst use Hovercast!!) Shots
Philip Glass on AI and art Aud
Alex Heath on FB and the metaverse Verge
Clay Robbins on the utility of DAOs Mirror
Selema Masekela on action sports needing to get more diverse Inertia
NewZoo gamer and generations report PDF
Annapurna Interactive 12 Minutes game trailer (McAvoy, Dafoe) YT
Chris Dixon on blockchains as app stores CDtwtr
Vitalik on moving beyond coin governance VBblog
Teaching a machine to unlearn Wired
Bill Ackman on his SPAC and lawsuit (mm a Calibri guy) PDF
Ariana Simpson on a16z moving into crypto and games TC
Foundation trailer YT
A-Rod profile Forbes
Stewarding AI ethics MIT
Sirsu building a decentralized gaming community Mirror
John Green on who owns Nerdfighteria (maybe make it a DAO) YT
Joshua Gelb and virtual theatre in the pandemic NYT
Sian Heder (Coda) and Laverne Cox Interview
Digital media turned us into dopamine addicts Guardian
Cat Wu on early exercise for employees and stock options CWss
Discovery’s JB Perrette on globalization thru localization (u heard it here first) Var
Extortion scams going down on Goodreads for positive reviews Time
The Spine Collector, stealing books before they’re in print (better be my book scout) Vulture
White paper on the ethics and governance of AI PDF
Lamelo Ball profile GQ
Using deepfakes in business settings (wtf) Wired
Speech synthesis used in the new Val doc Wshpo
Invisibility cloak for mosquitos using Crispr (cool) NYT
Michael Moore joins Substack NYT
Live events being cancelled or going partial hybrid Axios
Profile on Dhar Mann and the wholesome meme industry NYT
CEOs in America tend to make 350x more than average salary worker Guardian
Games as on-ramps for fashion house to get into NFTs Vogue
Breaking down the psychology of time during Covid SciEnt
Adam Sandler as basketball legend MelMag
Might want to consider buying holiday gifts already (hear that mom??) Axios
Imagining what an alien message might look like SuperC
First Round angel cohort Med
Bryce small sat report H1’21 PDF
A look at the buy now pay later biz Markup
Jamie Goldstein on offering startups to buy common instead of preferred stock Med
The fight for the metaverse WSJ
Kalay compromised web cams and baby feeds hacked Wired
Computer vision and x-rays paper PDF
Jacob Ollier and closed captioning for films (only when necessary) Paste
Google Slides as a live music venue Adage
Racial covenants and real estate history NYT
Robot umpires NewYorker
White paper on enhancing expressive audio quality in TTS PDF
Tailoring content strategies based on ethnicity Nielsen
Interactive NFT Hicet
Tequila distillery making brands for celebs LAT
A few Nflx engineers insider trading SEC