Spotify is looking to make some changes
Eggs and governance.
Hello,
I’ve been thinking about how you can’t eat art this week. Or to put it another way, most of us don’t get paid to be creative. The useful stuff you spend your day doing isn’t necessarily an expression of your highest self. And that’s fine.
We inevitably feel like we should be spending our days painting watercolours or playing the bassoon as we write another email, following up or reaching out. It can be hard to reconcile the people we’re required to be to get stuff done in a complex world with the presumably limitless human beings we really are.
As is often the way, when you listen carefully the answers find you. In this case, it was a documentary called Salaryman and a Rick Rubin podcast with architect, Bjarke Ingels. The former was about corporate culture in Tokyo and the lesson from that was we are all complicit in the work lives we have. You do have a choice, whether that is packing it in and becoming a fiddle player or just saying “circle back” a bit less and getting an ostentatious haircut.
Mr Ingels describes architecture as the “art and science of creating the framework for the life we want to live”. It involves stakeholders, budgets and requirements but fundamentally it is about bringing something in your mind into existence to make the world a better place. Now that’s a framing I can get behind on a Monday morning.
Gotta Serve Somebody,
Hugo
Chief Architect/Salaryman/Bassoonist
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
A really expensive violin is up for sale 🎻 - if you’ve always been on the market for one of Stradivari’s violins from 1714 then you’re in luck. Sotheby’s is set to auction it next week and is expecting it to go for $12-18m dollars which if it sells at the top of the range would make it the most expensive musical instrument ever sold.
India media companies are taking OpenAI to court 🇮🇳 - several companies are alleging that the makers of ChatGPT have made unauthorised use of their content to train their models. India has the largest user base of ChatGPT globally making it an incredibly important market for OpenAI. They have rejected the claims, saying all the data they use is publicly available.
Eggs are being stolen in the US as prices go up 🥚 - in an eggstraordinary turn of events 100,000 eggs were stolen from a grocer in the US. Prices have skyrocketed 65% in the past year thanks to a bird flu epidemic that started in 2022. Here is that clip from Succession if that’s where your mind goes whenever eggs are mentioned.
Most businesses can’t get the skills they need in the UK 🔎 - you just can’t get the people these days it seems with nine in ten UK companies struggling to fill skill gaps in their organisations. The gaps exist in everything from hard skills like software development to soft skills such as customer service. Companies are pleading with the government not to remove the apprenticeships levy as they are often the best way to grow people’s skillsets internally, without it costing an absolute fortune.
Governance jobs are on the rise 📑 - process gets a bad rep and conjures up images of bureaucracy but when done well it really does oil the wheels of an organisation. Many are recognising this and employing individuals whose full-time job is to make sure risk is being managed in the right way. There are an estimated 40,000-50,000 individuals in the UK filling this sort of role and one would hope good use of technology means more governance doesn’t just mean more paperwork to fill out.
Someone is finally nice about the UK stock market 📈 - the CEO of Metlen Energy and Metals thinks they run the risk of “disappearing” in the US if they list on the New York Stock Exchange which isn’t really a compliment but is promising at least for the struggling London Stock Exchange that has been snubbed a lot over the past couple of years.
Tiffany releases a hovering diamond 💎 - it’s part of a collection designed by Louis Vuitton men’s creative director Pharrell Williams. The Floeting platform has taken 17 years to get right with several scientists and even a Formula One engineer involved. The LVMH-owned jewellery company has invested heavily in its brand in recent years as sales in the wider watches and jewellery division have been disappointing.
Hollywood has bounced back from the writer's strikes 🎥 - this has had a massive downstream impact on the UK with £5.6bn spent on making films and TV in the past year, which is a jump of almost a third on the previous year. Many film production companies opt to make films in the UK thanks to a dearth of skills (and more favourable employment law).
Spotify is planning to add new subscription tiers 🎧 - following a deal with Warner Music they are looking to introduce new features like higher quality audio which will quite literally be music to the ears of audiophiles who besmirch the low quality currently delivered to our ears. I wish my ears were that good.
Netflix looks to drive growth through sport 🏁 - upping prices and cracking down on password sharing can only grow revenues so much, at some point you’ve got to offer something new. They are currently considering a bid for the F1, having seen massive success with their Drive to Survive series.
Quote of the week
“You can’t make a Tomelette without breaking a few Gregs” - Tom Wambsgans