Not even Taylor Swift can fight the devaluation of recorded music, but she makes it up in physical experiences; Disney isn’t much different, but it looks much worse given the company’s old business model.
Meta Blocks News in Canada, LK-99, YouTube and TV Advertisers
Meta is blocking news in Canada after another law requiring Aggregators to pay for links; it’s still an upsetting idea. Then, a brief primer on LK-99, the potential superconducting material.
Streaming Residuals and Spotify, Llama 2 Open-Sourced, Llama’s License
Streaming residuals might end up looking like Spotify. Then, Meta makes Llama 2 open source — mostly.
Hollywood on Strike
The Hollywood strike is setting talent against studios, but the problem is that both are jointly threatened by the reality of the Internet and zero distribution costs.
Microsoft-Activision Updates; Reader Follow-Up; Free Speech, the Government, and Scale
An update on Microsoft-Activision, and then a response to a reader upset at my take, weaved in with commentary about free speech in the context of last week’s ruling about social media moderation.
Friction Follow-Up, Databricks Acquires MosaicML
More on the trade-offs (and benefits) of Amazon’s scale, and initial reactions to Databricks’ acquisition of MosaicML.
Amazon, Friction, and the FTC
The FTC’s Amazon complaint raises some fair points in isolation, but misses the bigger picture, both in terms of Amazon specifically and the Internet generally.
Podcast Grifting; Aggregator Lessons; Ostroff, Simmons, and Harry
Bill Simmons calls Harry and Meghan grifters; he seems to have a case, but the larger issue is why Spotify mistakenly thought they would be valuable in the first place.
EU Fines Meta, Big Tech Exposure, The Degradation of Scalability
The E.U. fines Meta for data transfers, an issue that affects companies of all sizes. This may be rectified by an agreement, but tech scalability is still diminishing.
An Interview with Ben Thompson at the MoffettNathanson Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference
An interview with me about my background, Aggregation Theory, AI, streaming, and more.