issue 223
Hello! I’m going to be a bit truant this week, sorry in advance. I just reunited with my wife who got back stateside yesterday from NZ — a huge piece of me was missing the last 5 months. I feel whole again. My testiness might finally subside, though probably not completely :)
Le Droit Moral. There’s a thought I haven’t been able to shake since about 2017, which was when I first learned about ‘the blockchain.’ Someone will create a Dapp (decentralized app) that’s a DRM (data rights management) database for copyrights. I said as much three years ago in issue 70. Call it chain of title.
I think this public ledger could then point to the name, image, likeness (NIL) uses for artists and athletes, and ideally all the individual pieces of media that compose a film. An added layer would show which company has the rights to a certain film and tv show, and where to discover them. The holy grail would give the ability to transact directly on-chain to watch the film, though the tech isn’t there yet (at all). Oh, and the tech should be invisible, unspoken — unobtrusive. Trojan horse the guilds.
Films would not be lost to the ash heap of history, which is why Scorsese made The Film Foundation. All this is much easier said than done, but it’s needed. And it’ll continue to haunt me until it’s done.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading. Always give credit. See you next week.
Tech
Refract, game studio w full body wearables, raised $8.5m TC
Frost Giant, real time strat game, raised $25m IGN
Koji, link in bio storefronts for creators, raised $20m Info
TR Lab, NFT gallery by trad gallerists, raised $4.2m Med
Pimlock, AI to anonymize video, raised $7.5m TC
Stepn, virtual goods for games, raised $5m Med
Wirestock, platform for creators sell their media (like Unsplash), raised $2.3m Fins
Lit Protocol, subscribe-able NFTs, raised $2.2m (similar to Unlock) VB
Lemonade Media, happy podcast network, raised $8m LMblog
StageZero, game style rewards for training computer vision, raised $1.8m VB
Soona, virtual photo shoot platform for ecomm, raised $35m TC
Fathom, AI notetaker for Zooms, raised $3.7m TC
Alta, vr metaverse studio, raised $12m TC
NLX, AI for voice customer support, raised $5m VB
SyndicateDAO makes it easy to launch web3 investment clubs (will prob make one this yr, reply if interested) SDAO
4Front, esports hospitality experiences, raised ~$15m FOS
OpenSea admits many NFTs are scammy (they also sh!t the bed last wk) Vice
Fancraze launching ICC Cricket NFTs TC
PartyDAO acq NFTs with friends PDtwtr
SuperDAO, makes it easy to spin up DAOs, raised $10.5m SDAOtwtr
Aver, sports betting on Sol, raised $7.5m ST
Substack to integrate video soon SS
PortalOne, games with variety shows, raised $60m TC
Rss3, indexing content in web3, raised $6m Med
MintGate, tokenized memberships, raised $1.7m Med
Sandbox earmarks $50m for metaverse projects Decrypt
Orange DAO, dao like YC w YC alums TC
Fever, virtual event discovery, raised $227m TEU
Zora, NFT marketplace v3 update (v impressive) Zora
Project Galaxy, digital credentials in web3, raised $10m CT
BreederDAO, generative NFTs, raised $10m TC
Stonks, live platform for demo days, raised $10m Med
Lil Yachty sues Opulous for using NIL to raise VC for prospective NFTs RS
Prologue, holdco of Product Hunt and Hyper accelerator, raised $23m Stwtr
Pinata discount for Avax users Med
Graph, web3 protocol focused on data, raised $50m Tiger Block
Tech’s golden kitty awards PH
Media
Sony buying Bungie in $3.6b deal (nice one AD) CNBC
NYT to acq Wordle for low seven figs Var
DNEG to get SPAC’d, enterprise value 11x ‘23 estimates BW
YT plans NFTs and live shopping Prot
Mattel wins back Disney toy license from Hasbro Var
Jellysmack launches $500m to acq YT creator libraries (will follow closely) Cision
Bob Dylan selling catalogue to Sony for $200m NYT
Heartland is a $175m SPAC aimed at sports Cis
Google sued by states over location tracking dark patterns Adage
Peacock 9m paid subs Var
Tencent might take streamer Doyou private Reut
Entain earmarks $100m for UK entertainment innovation Cision
Disney+ to launch in 42 countries next yr THR
Snap renews content deals with legacy cos like Disney, Viacom Var
Bill Simmons putting pods on YT as vids (he has Spot deal) Ringer
YT Shorts got 5T views Adweek
Tencent embeds Unreal Engine into QQ SCMP
Google invests $1b into India telco Airtel TC
ESL and Faceit, games cos, merge in $1.1b deal BN
F1 might host race in Vegas SBJ
Meta partners w Overtime Elite for immersive basketball SP
Comcast ramps up Peacock spend Reut
eOne sues animators behind Wolfoo YT channel Peppa Pig Var
Wynn looking to sell online sports betting biz for $3b NYP
Neil Young pulls library on Spotify over Joe Rogan (hmm) bberg
Spotify adds notices of possible misinfo based on above bberg
Comcast AMC renew carriage deal THR
Real Madrid signs $11b 25 year deal w Legends SP
Meghan and Harry should prob satisfy their $30m Spotify deal Sun
Comics coming to Substack
Bronco sale could lead to $3b write off, Allen&co handling Sportico
Playfy sports creating agency division Sport
State Farm eschews commercial spend on Super Bowl, focused on TikTok Adweek
Entertainment
Kahlil Joseph to direct Blcknws for A24 / Participant Dead
Legendary sells $760m stake to Apollo Var
Lionsgate now kicking tires on STX Var
Sundance award winners IW
Lulu Wang, Dani Melia launch prod co Local Time, first look Amzn Var
Soo Hugh launches Asia Pac writer incubator w UCP called Thousand Miles THR
Saoirse to star in The Outrun film from Nora Fingsheidt Var
Cumberbatch, Laura Dern in sci-film Morning from Justin Kurzel THR
Tribeca and Gold House API fellows Trib
CNN, Point North back Sundance Docs thru American Stories Fund Var
Danny Glovery, Joselyn Barnes co expands into more formats like installations Var
Nflx scholarship for young creative Africans AO
Bafta launches emerging creatives fund dead
Dick Wolf launches intl format tv division THR
Moore, Qually to star in The Substance for Uni, body horror Dead
Rawson Marshall Thuber to tackle Dungeons & Dragons for eOne Dead
Simon Fuller unveils TikTok music group Var
Ye never signed a release for Yeen-yuhs IW
Focus acq WW rights to Brian & Charles Var
Mubi takes US and other territories to Free Chol Sol Lee Var
Searchlight US rights to Good Luck to You Leo Grande for $7.5m Var
Apple acq WW to Cha Cha Real Smooth for $15m Var
Showtime Docs acq Ramin’s 2nd Chance Var
Nflx, Higher Ground WW to doc Descendent Var
HBO Max and Warner Bros acq Am I Ok Var
SPC takes NA and other rights to Living Var
RLJ takes US rights to Dual Var
Chris Evans, Rock team on Amzn holiday movie Red One Var
Dead Day comic straight to series Peacock Dead
Paramount+ sets Grease prequel cast Var
DJ2 to adapt game It Takes Two from Hazelight Var
Heat 2 going to be a book MMtwtr
Collaborative
2022 US Artist fellows USA
Amanda Silberling on “creator funds” being bad TC
Parallel, NFT card game, Echelon whitepaper PDF
Afro-futurism, developing nations and space tech Baffler
A look back at Mirror’s 2021 Mir
Synthetic voices and audiobooks (pretty sure I’ve written about this) Wired
Complex deck on the future of experiences (thx BJ) PDF
The past and future of anesthesia Neolife
Reid Hoffman on the vices and virtues of web3 Greylock
A look at stable coins CBI
Joy Buolamwini on stopping AI facial recog Atlantic
Jenkins the Valet writer room roadmap Med
Inside the world of slot machine gambling on Twitch Input
Interview with Wordle creator Josh Wardle of Mschf TC
Yair Rosenberg on your bubble and Twtr not being ‘the culture’ Atlantic
Interview w/ defi gigabrain Guillermo Angeris CryptoStan
MIT open doc lab fellows MIt
Ethics and ownership of anon identities with AI VB
TikTok helped trad book sales Forbes
Simon Revoire on web3 databases SDLR
Trae Stephens on heretics Med
Influencers cloning their pets (new income line unlocked) Input
Ackman’s letter to investors $1b of Nflx stock PDF
Wunderman’s ‘22 predictions and trends WTdeck
Science fiction and our philosophy interview 5B
A look at Amazon’s ad spend Insider
Substack on society having a trust problem SS
David Friendly on producers and loss of megadeals Puck
Circus performers thrive on TikTok (TikTok is just a circus) Input
Game studios turning play into work with crypto Wired
Sophie Thatcher and Juliette Lewis Interview
Mschf purposefully illegal drop for C&Ds HS
IMF pleads w El Salvador to walk back on BTC IMF
Face of UGC and nano-influencers AW
Opensea on proof of alignment OSmed
School board bans Haus from being taught in TN (hmm) BBC
Where we’re at with the metaverse (I muted that word) VB
Tech trends to anticipate this year CBI
Andrew Lipstein on making Last Resort Interview
Using NLP for linguistics and crosswords PDF
Justin Davis on analog games newsletter JDss
Apple’s prospective metaverse SA
Rihanna’s Savage x Fenty raises growth round Forbes
Tiktok the new Soundcloud Viberate