[SIC] 118: Would You Like to Go Hiking?

December 10, 2020

Hey all,

Year end lists on lists on lists. I've been trying not to get sucked into too many rabbit holes this week but it’s been hard; there’s so much to say and it’s just getting more frenetic. [SIC] buddy and subscriber Mike Rothman definitely feels it too - we start with his really instructive “All The Ways To Make Money In Media Without Ads” Medium post - which frames pretty much everything that follows it this week. Thanks for that, Mike. And for everyone else: if you ‘re reading this, submissions/ suggestions are always welcome.

Related, [SIC] Talks returns today with my guest Stephen Vanasco - a photographer and owner of Visual Skateboards, who’s built a major IG following, and to me represents a key vector in today’s economy: the multiplatform creator, where platform can mean digital or IRL. He’s also the first guest who I've never met or spoken to before, so it’ll be fun to talk links from this week’s newsletter as we get acquainted. We’re talking at 4p ET today on my IG Live @dietznutz, and thereafter in my grid. Come hang.

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Start Here: 

• From [SIC] subscriber and buddy Mike Rothman: "I had been compiling a list  of successful non-ad-based revenue models for media businesses and thought I'd share it for a future [SIC] edition.” All The Ways To Make Money In Media Without Ads (Medium) 

• Corollary: How Discord Built a $7 Billion Platform-Without Ads (Adweek)

• Case in Point: OnlyFans Is a Billion-Dollar Media Giant Hiding in Plain Sight. The site wants musicians, gamers and athletes to join adult models in selling subscriptions. (Bloomberg) 

2020 (Humpty) Vission: 

• What 2020 taught us about smell. (Frieze) 

• NYT’s Year in Pictures

• Reddit’s Year in Review

• And Done to Death’s 2020 Top 20. 

• Corollary: The Vulgarati return (FT) 

• Via CCI: Baidu’s buzzwords: The search giant’s list of top terms for the year 2020 includes “worker” (both blue- and white-collar), “Shanghai ladies,” (women who pretend to be rich on social media), and the phrase “would you like to go hiking” from iQiyi’s suspense hit “The Bad Kids.” (Dao Insights)

• And: a month ago, he was an unknown Tibetan farmer, but within a matter of weeks Ding Zhen has shot to internet fame in China. (Weixin.qq)

  

Stuff We Watch (Longform) 

• Via Elevator: Is the Age of the $1 Billion Blockbuster Over? (The Observer) 

• Because for the entertainment industry, an HBO Max move is causing peak upset (WaPo) 

• To wit, via Public Announcement: Christopher Nolan Rips HBO Max as"Worst Streaming Service" (hollywoodreporter)

• The streaming wars are happening now and will end fast, said Discovery's CEO David Zaslav (Protocol)

• Hard left turn (but still corollary) via The Dork Web: Can Dialectics Break Bricks, “a kung fu flick in which the martial artists spout Situationist aphorisms about conquering alienation while decadent bureaucrats ply the ironies of a stalled revolution.” 

• Blackbird Spyplane’s series of great interviews continues with HBO’s John Wilson. 

• Our buddy Sam Valenti blessed WITI with a trio of key music-related documentaries, as a feature of his archivist edition. To wit: Wild Combination: A Portrait Of Arthur Russell, Industrial Accident: The Story of Wax Trax! Records, and Style Wars, streaming on Amazon Prime. 

• Speaking of archivists, the No Coping podcast goes deep into skateboard history. (Podtail). And speaking of skateboarding: Ian MacKaye talks skateboarding with the Library of Congress (Instagram) 

Stuff We Watch (Shortform)

• Also skate: that time Daewon Song went stir crazy (Instagram) 

• Via Morning Brew: Five lessons from Dave Chappelle’s 18-minute IGTV special. (Stratechery)

• Related: how Short-Video Platforms Are Shaping Gen Z Consumer Behaviors (JingCultureCommerce)

• Which brings us to, via 1440: The top 100 TikToks of 2020 and the best YouTube videos of the year.

• TikTok beats out Facebook to become the top app worldwide by downloads in 2020 (Fast Company)

• It’s the Algo, yo: homegrown rivals have only managed to pick up 40% of the time Indians were spending on TikTok after it was banned. (Quartz)

• Meanwhile: TikTok Looks Back At Best-Performing Brand Campaigns Of 2020 (Ad Age)

• Possibly including ones with Tiger cubs, luxury cars, semiautomatic weapons and piles of cash: Welcome to Cartel TikTok (NYT) 

• Meanwhile, Gary V and Tiktok’s Blake Chandlee join the Big Technology Podcast to discuss the app’s present and future. (Spotify) 

• Corollary: Do 6-Second Ads Work? A new study says they do, at least on video sites where longer ads are skippable. (Ad Age)

• Meet Cute is a modern podcast company developing short, original, scripted rom-com episodes for young audiences. (Medium) 

Places We Go (Without Going Anywhere) 

• Complex Turned Its Fashion And Music Festival Into A Futuristic Video Game (The Verge) 

• Meanwhile, via Future Party: Louis Vuitton opened a temporary theme park in Miami (Input) 

• While Fortnite and Roblox are closer to what the theme parks of the future will look like (Digiday)

• And a number of companies are trying to build TV-style networks for gaming (Protocol) 

• So maybe can holograms save live entertainment? (Content Commerce Insider) 

Music and Musicians: 

• New platform alert! via Music Redef:  hyperpop artists are flocking to Matter because trolls are using copyright protections against them on larger streaming services. (Patreon)

• Not good:  Right now, hit songwriters are driving Ubers. The songwriters behind some of the UK's biggest hits "are driving Ubers" to make ends meet. (BBC) 

• So support them! This cool new tool from can turn any Spotify playlist into a Bandcamp shopping list, with direct links. (Hype Machine)

• Via Future Party: Rockstar Games announced that it’s opening up a club within GTA Online that will “feature real-world DJs in residence.”  (The Verge) 

• Elsewhere in diversification, via How To Spend It: musician Nick Cave goes retail with his Cave Things.

• Via Music Redef: A Brief But In-Depth History Of Legendary NYC Club Giant Step (Okayplayer) 

Arts and Artists: 

• The 2nd Garage Triennial Asks Whether There’s An Aesthetic of Corruption (Frieze) 

• In parallel, 65% of British creatives report having work stolen. (It’s Nice That) 

• While Arab Art Collectives Are Using the Internet to Cross Borders (Frieze)

• The artists giving home decor a new fantasy spin (How To Spend It) 

• [SIC] fave interiors painter Hilary Pecis made a paint by numbers kit. (Instagram)

• Elsewhere in interiors, via Ronojoy Dam:  Sadly, since nobody goes out, Red Bull Arts NY closed (Instagram) 

• Via Future Party: Snap worked with LA-based artist Lauren Halsey on a short film shot entirely using Snap’s Spectacles 3.

Brands and Products

• Morning Consult’s Fastest Growing Brands of 2020

• RIP Ikea Catalogue (It’s Nice That) 

• Meanwhile: 20 brands are sending out a joint holiday catalog this season (Retail Dive)

• Via Future Party: For DTC companies that want to get as close to their customers as possible, parterning with retail is proving to be the best strategy

• Via Protocol: Square makes clothes now. The new apparel line is called "Cash by Cash App.”

• Via Lean Luxe: The Big Favorite––a new t-shirt and underwear brand designed to be worn, sent back to the brand, and recycled into new garments

• Content Commerce Insider’s interview with Steven Ekstract is a quick primer on one future of shopping. Key Quote: “e-commerce works best when consumers are entertained while they shop, so content has really driven commerce”

• To that point: CCI says every marketer can learn from KFC, who are focused on entertaining their consumers, including its sexy Christmas movie. (The Cut)

• And via Beats and Bites: Pepsi Will Sponsor a Buzzy New Music Competition With Fat Joe on Triller (Variety)

• Elsewhere via CCI: BMW’s “High-Performance Horse” (高 能 的 一 匹), an animated video on Bilibili uses a Monty Python-esque collage style to take viewers through history from horses to cars. (Bilibili)

Publishers and Media

• More than half of media jobs lost this year are in news (Axios).

• So: how journalists learned to stop worrying and love the audience (Nieman Lab) 

• Related: on The Decoder pod: Substack CEO Chris Best on building a new model for journalism.  

• Other pods: All of Vogue’s Future of Fashion podcasts in one place, including the new one with Gabriela Hearst, on sustainability and joining Chloe

• Playboy spoke with Nick Kroll about everything from activism to animation and with Patia Borja and her meme empire about curating the best in Black culture magic. 

• While MTV Entertainment Group Commits $250M to Develop More BIPOC- and Women-Owned Production Companies (Hollywood Reporter)

Agency Agency: 

• Toughest task for agencies in lockdown? Nurturing young creative talent. (The Drum) 

• Related: Havas International" & "Rupture & Associés" formed a strategic partnership to better connect brands with artists & culture

Fashion And Wearbles

• A collab I feel like was invented to get my attention:  Aime Leon Dore x Drake's

• And another: Bephies Beauty Supply has a Rum (Instagram)  

• S/o 18East: The new brands bringing handcraft to streetwear (Financial Times) 

Thinking Big Thoughts: 

• Chinese researchers claim to have achieved quantum supremacy (FT) 

• Related: This guy asked GPT-3 for the question to “42” (the meaning of life). Its reply was interesting. (Medium)

• Via Future Perfect:  Peter Singer’s 2009 book "The Life You Can Save," about targeted philanthropy, has new edition — available free as an audiobook or ebook. 

• The Case for 'Universal Property' An idea pioneered by Alaska could inoculate society against extreme inequality (Scientific American)

• Via 1440: overview of the technology here that’s set to revolutionize the battery industry for electric cars (and presumably everything else. (Vimeo)

Odds and Ends: 

• Crypto Startup School from a16z.

• How Scientists Tracked Down a Mass Killer (of Salmon) (NYT) 

• ‘_____is fun’ is a new experiential media title that cannot be purchased, only gifted or shared. (Business of Fashion) 

• It’s Nice That’s gift guide requires some digging, but it’s got great deep cuts for the aesthetically-attuned. 

• While photo legend Joel Meyerowitz has a print sale going. (Instagram) 

• Speaking of visual stocking stuffers: County Comm’s hand signal cards. 

• Finally: further evidence that [SIC] homie Chris Black is both wrong and right about everything, per usual. His gift guide for Cultural Fan Fiction. 

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