This newsletter’s mission is to help busy people make sense of a dizzying media and content landscape. Usually, that means screens: Peloton, Quibi, Netflix, TikTok, Twitch, Fortnite and Disney+ have been some of my most-covered subjects. But screens are not the only media that are fracturing our attention and our social bonds. Audio, specifically audio enabled by wireless headphones like AirPods, may end up reshaping our lives even more than screens. First, because AirPods have even more drastic consequences on the way we behave in shared public spaces than screens. And second, because some of the biggest tech and media companies are in an arms race to increase the amount of time we spend with our AirPods in our ears - an effect I AirPod Creep. Last week, Spotify made three announcements that give a glimpse into just how important non-music audio content is to the company's - and our - future. First was two new hires at Spotify:
Former CBS News President David Rhodes as a consultant to help drive an expansion into news programmingFormer Facebook executive Amy Hudson to lead a push into sports programming
Second was the announcement of a new daily podcast in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal called The Journal, ostensibly conceived to battle the enormously popular The Daily podcast from the New York Times. The Journal will come out at 4 p.m. every day, positioning itself to own the afternoons left vacant by The Daily's focus on mornings. Pushes into news point to bolstering what Spotify is already offering: Your Daily Drive, launched in June, is "a personalized playlist of music and news updates from outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, NPR and Public Radio International," wrote The Information's Jessica Toonkel. Spotify has invested $408 million over the past year to acquire podcasting companies. These moves come as Apple recently decided to ramp up investment in original, exclusive podcast programming to battle Spotify. Think of Netflix. When they wanted to increase the time you spent with their content, they invested billions in content and invented new features that make it easier and more convenient to keep watching.
The same forces are aligning to keep us with our AirPods in, and this time those forces are being harnessed by companies with the same network effects that Netflix had at their disposal. In one of the most enlightening things I read all summer, Drew Austin analyzes what our ever-increasing time spent with AirPods could mean for the way we interact with each other and our physical environments. Are you wondering why all music seems to be background music now? Have you noticed that more and more spaces seem to be wafting with pseudo-elevator music? Because always-in AirPods lead to homogenized, non-threatening aural environments, the sonic equivalents of Sweetgreen's and Equinox's pleasant but bland comfort for phone addled eyes.
Austin explains:"We will all reach a point where we all don’t just own AirPods, we rarely even think to remove them from our ears..."Once wireless earbuds attain critical mass, it would become a common expectation to always be listening, just as one is now more or less expected to never go anywhere without their phone..."A dominant aural information platform could [foster] a world where we might as well leave our headphones on because there’s nothing around us worth hearing. With everyone silently attending to their own auditory environment, the public soundscape will increasingly consist of fewer voices and more ambient filler and sonic exhaust from the devices themselves — phone conversations, buzzing devices, unmuted YouTube videos."I for one welcome our new audio overlords. Side note for those interested: Betaworks, an incubator who just ran a fascinating event on "Synthetic Media" that I loved, have announced their next theme is The Future of Audio.
The shorter stuff
Speaking of audio: Adam McKay, Adam Davidson and Julie K. Brown are launching a podcast about Jeffrey Epstein. Someone should have told them that TrueAnon is the only Epcast we need. (NYT)
And Hollywood Handbook, one of the greatest podcasts of all time, may have made Quibi's first-ever ad. A fake one. Tucked inside a Quip ad. Wrapped in a Jay Leno impression. (Apple)
Celebs are asking people to text them. Ninja and Juice WRLD just added their cell numbers to Instagram. One more and it's a trend. (IG) (IG)
Was this McKinsey's idea? Saudia Arabia is enlisting influencers in its project to improve its image. (Bloomberg)
This Jon Caramanica and Andrew Nosnitsky conversation about one my favorite artist of all time, Young Thug, could have gone on for three hours and I would have still wanted more. (NYT)
42 percent of millennials say they'd be likely to subscribe to the bundle of Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN+. (THR)
Overwatch League is using a Nielsen metric. (WSJ)
Absolutely loved this quote from David Ehrlich's Joker review: "The next Lost in Translation will be about Black Widow and Howard Stark spending a weekend together at a Sokovia hotel; the next Carol will be an achingly beautiful period drama about young Valkyrie falling in love with a blonde woman she meets in an Asgardian department store." (Indie Wire)
The King with Timothee Chalamet looks like a hit. (Variety)
This whole binge-watching comfort sitcoms as self-care thing has gone way, way too far. (WSJ)
Taylor Swift and Harry Styles both learned to play the dulcimer because of their love for all-time great album Blue by Joni Mitchell. (Twitter)
There are three shows taking place in Florida right now and I've never heard of a single one of them. (Vanity Fair)
Young Thug, Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, two of whom are easily in my top three favorite current rappers, are besieged by a sophisticated network of leakers. (Fader)
I celebrate the entire Danny McBride Multiverse and have for years. Righteous Gemstones is recommended. (The Ringer)