Everything is a Lie

Plus Bandsintown, Spotify, Coachella Absurdity and other stuff

Hi everyone — there’s no deep dive this week, so instead please enjoy (or despise) this lightweight edition of Heavy Mental.

Everything is a Lie

Credit: NFL

Alicia Keys performed during the Super Bowl halftime show, and her voice cracked. If you’re like me, the most surprising thing was discovering someone actually sang live!

But in today’s filtered fakery, that moment of reality needed to be erased in the official performance recording. A guy on Xwitter pointed out the manipulation:

I never believe the viewership numbers from the Super Bowl, but let’s pretend 126 million people actually watched. They all heard her voice crack. We know her voice cracked. Why change history for something so insignificant?

It’s kind of like Sara, Dan, and Jason who have to punch in samples so we can pretend Lars actually used both bass pedals and Kirk didn’t flub… everything… on the official recordings. Even though you know it’s not true.

And yes, KISS recorded the greatest live album ever in the studio, but it was created in the studio. There’s a difference, damn it!

Bandsintown events are finally on Spotify

Credit: Bandsintown

In a former life, I worked on this integration, but it never came to fruition for a number of reasons. I’m glad to see things have been worked out, and Bandsintown events will now appear within Spotify, including on artist pages, in its 'Live Events' feed, and on the 'Now Playing' screen. 

Spotify launched the live events feed in 2022, replacing its previous Concerts Hub. At launch, the listings came from ticketing firms, including Ticketmaster, AXS, Dice, Eventbrite, and See Tickets. Adding Bandsintown data should mean many more concerts by smaller, independent artists are also listed and surfaced within Spotify. 

Coachella Hits Reverse on Carpool Policy

When Coachella announced tickets were on sale, they also announced their “eco-conscious” new parking rules:

To access day parking, it’s now mandatory for vehicles to have a minimum of four occupants, including the driver. Further, every individual must possess a valid festival wristband and the corresponding parking decal upon arrival. Ensuring compliance with these requirements promises festivalgoers that they won’t be turned away.

Any vehicles with fewer than four occupants will be redirected offsite.

Because you, lowly fan who actually has to buy tickets, need to do your part to fight climate change, while your favorite artists fly private to Coachella.

But then the fans saw the lineup, and tickets didn’t move. Ticket sales are so poor that Coachella dropped the carpool requirement (fuck yeah, carbon footprint!).

Now, aligning with Millenial and Gen Z’s love of slactivism, the carpool thing is merely a suggestion:

Not only can you roll in solo in a gas guzzler, you can even get cool guy parking up front!

I love it when big brainless corps panic.

Mantle: A New Collectables Platform

Currently live in beta, Mantel is both a social media platform and an original content hub for collectibles of every kind. Considering the industry is supposed to balloon past $1 trillion by 2033, Mantel could transform into a key player for connecting amateur collectors with willing investors. 

I figured it was relevant to discuss because it’s not difficult to see a lot of music memorabilia making its way there.

• Collectors can build community with one another, talk with experts, and even watch or listen to content around their favorite collectibles. 

• The initial focus is on sports cards, trading cards, and memorabilia, but it will soon expand into comics, cars, watches, and everything else. 

• Reddit’s co-founder launched the company and has already raised funding from investors like Steve Aoki’s Aoki Labs and Gary Vaynerchuck’s VaynerFund and has named Evan Parker, the former GM of The Athletic, as CEO. 

As the era of broad social media evolves into an ecosystem of niche communities, it seems inevitable that one focused on collectibles (or alternative assets for the investing crowd) would be created. In the US alone, 72% of millennials and 76% of Gen Zers consider themselves collectors.

Ideas

THE NEWS DESK

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Eminem will co-produce the Stans documentary, which borrows its title from the term used to describe the super-fans that the rapper popularized in his song of the same name. No word if it devluges why he insists on dying his beard a weird unnatural shade of brown. Read More → variety

• Rod Stewart sold his publishing catalog and recorded music, as well as his name and likeness rights, to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group for nearly $100 million. Read More → wsj

• The Wrap has released an infographic showing the most popular romantic comedy films by state. Read More → thewrap

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Jeff Bezos sold off almost 12 million shares in the company he founded, worth over $2 billion Read More → qz

• Taylor Swift’s girl-next-door aesthetic is 100% strategic, directly mirroring her fans’ lives to downplay her wealth and persistent private-jet usage. 
  Read More → insider

• Gen Z plot twist: the younger generation favors reading physical books over digital ones and spends more time in libraries than in

• noisy coffee shops. 
  Read More → theguardian

Tech, Web3, & AI

• OpenAI is working on a new product focused on task automation, inching us one step closer to agent-driven experiences and away from user experiences - particularly for chores that bore us.
  Read More → theinformation

• Former Salesforce co-CEO Brett Taylor has unveiled his AI startup, Sierra, which unleashes AI agents that can perform complex user tasks.
  Read More → techcrunch

• A Federal Reserve Bank of New York report shows millennials grew their wealth by 80% between 2019 and 2023. Read More → insider

• Score is a new dating app for people prioritizing their partner’s credit score over key emotional attributes. Read More → techcrunch

Creator Economy

• Gen Z and Baby Boomers have more in common as marketing audiences than you might think, study finds. Read More → adage

• Insider gathered data on the salaries that platforms like Discord and Patreon pay to top creators. Read More → insider

• President Biden’s reelection campaign leans on meme culture for its TikTok presence. Sigh. Read more → TechCrunch