#2 The Weekly Roundup
This email provides you with enough content for the full upcoming week
TRENDS I’M WATCHING
This section is where I’ll share favorite podcasts and youtube content which does a good job of diving into the nuances of important trends
Microsoft Continuing Dominance (Metaverse/Gaming) - $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard was approved last week. Blizzard is a global leader in game publishing, and since Microsoft already owns Xbox and Roblox, this is a logical acquisition for the portfolio.
TikTok’s Creator Fund (Creator Economy) - They say ‘let your winners ride’ in investing so it’s logical that TikTok wants to fund their top creators. They just opened the USA version of their Creativity Program to creators with at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 authentic video views in the past 30 days. https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2023/05/17/tiktok-ramping-up-the-creator-content-wars
Avatar Communications - Something I’m always watching. Check out the avatar version of Zendesk/Freshworks. Play with a demo on https://vrdays.co
Happiness - MFM episodes are hit or miss, but this one I thought was entertaining and great. “Retirement is when you stop sacrificing today for an imagined tomorrow.” NAVAL. Sam and Shawn dive into lifestyle choices and discuss how not needing to sacrifice for some future payoff is true freedom. They both define this ina. Different way. Shaan for example says happiness is when the things you do on a daily basis, the act of doing them is the reward itself.
Self-releasing musicians (creator economy) — One of the biggest stories of the past few years is the rise of self-releasing artists, who number 6.4 million in 2022, a 16.8% growth from 2021. 6,400,001 if you include me. The two biggest subsegments of the artists direct sector are nearly equal in size: 38% are aspiring for a full-time music career, while 36% are passionate about music, but not expecting to go full time (that’s me!). The latter is not the target for record labels, which are looking to support career artists. But although they may not expect to go full time, these “passionate enthusiasts” still want to continue making music and being heard. https://midiaresearch.com/blog/why-the-creator-tools-and-services-market-is-bigger-than-you-think-and-it-is-not-ai
Emotion or Logic? (Life advice) — If you read “Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck” and enjoyed it, I highly recommend Mark’s other book, “Everything is F*cked.” The book is so far is about challenging the commonly accepted assumption that people should operate with Logic > Emotion. He goes into the neurological argument of why people have proven to not be able to operate whatsoever without emotion (when that section of their brain is removed). He makes the argument Stoicism isn’t the right mode of operation every since we invented cars/phones and now have so much extra time to “think.” Therefore giving more importance to emotion, and emotional control