You'll never guess how French teenagers spent their lockdown cash
Activist investors, drones and GTA 6.
Hello,
I’m always interested in the top songs for artists on Spotify. I was baffled to discover this week that the vast majority of the Arctic Monkeys’ most listened were from AM which whilst an excellent album is surely not on the same level as their first two. What’s also interesting is that the only song in the top five not from AM is 505 from Favourite Worst Nightmare, the last song on the album. It is in fact a “sleeper hit” with over two billion streams, peaking in popularity in 2022 thanks to TikTok.
Rod Stewart has of course also benefited from the TikTok network effect with his 1978 hit “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” having a resurgence a few years ago, although that has a mere 363 million streams, a touch behind Maggie May at 375 million. Bet you didn’t think you were going to have a load of teenagers making dance videos to your song 45-ish years later, did ya Rod?
Music is clearly not circular in the way that fashion is, I don’t think Baroque is going to be back in anytime soon, but it is great that these songs take on a life of their own. As Noel G says of Don’t Look Back In Anger “The greatest gift I ever got from it was the song itself”. Musicians often talk of how songs are just out there in the universe and it’s their job to be the conduit. Some songs would have been better left in the universe but for all the others, it’s lovely how they’re these timeless artefacts, humanity will have forever. Unless there’s a nuclear war or something.
I bet that you look good on the dancefloor,
Hugo
Chief Music Archaeologist
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
There’s a spate of cyber attacks underway in the UK 🕵️ - Marks, Co-op and Harrods have been all through the mill in the past couple of weeks thanks to DragonForce, a cybercriminal gang, not the heavy metal band. A load of customer data has been affected, it’s been considerably harder to buy a rotisserie chicken, and it’s not looking good, brev.
British soldiers being protected from their own drones 💂 - this has nothing whatsoever to do with business but is just amusing news that soldiers aren’t allowed to fly drones over their own heads even if they are in a tank. Hopefully, the enemy abides by the same health and safety regulations or there’s a serious risk of someone getting hurt.
The US is going to force Alphabet to break up Google 🧐 - they’ve had it bloody good for a really long time but it seems that might come to an end soon. The US government has asked a judge to demand they spin off their advertising business, which is accused of monopolising the market for publishing banner ads on websites as there is no real alternative to Google’s engine.
Jeff Bezos is planning to offload 25 million shares 💰 - recent filings show he is planning to sell nearly $5bn-worth of Amazon shares over the next year or so. This is not just to buy more suntan oil and creatine, he is using a lot of the money to fund Blue Origin which alongside sending rich people into space is helping with going back to the moon and stuff.
Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed until May 2026 ⏳ - the long wait for GTA 6 is already the source of much merriment on the internet but it seems they need a bit longer still to “deliver at the quality you expect and deserve”. The broader gaming industry is in the midst of a downturn and this news is another blow because many hoped the release would encourage people to buy a new console.
There’s a growing trend for 5pm restaurant bookings 🍽️ - a number of restaurants have begun offering better value early evening set menus to cater to a younger crowd who want to be on their way home earlier and can’t afford the high-end prices. OpenTable has reported a 6% rise in the number of bookings being made between 4pm - 6pm in Britain.
Microdramas are on the rise 📱- these are scripted series which are just a few minutes long and filmed to be viewed on phones. They first became a thing in China but are rapidly growing in popularity globally with TikTok being the gateway to users finding this new form of content and then potentially downloading an app called something like ‘ShortMax’.
French teenagers spent their lockdown money on manga 📕- the French government dished out hundreds of Euros per teenager to spend on cultural activities to give a much-needed boost to the sector as it struggled. The teenagers went and spent all the money on manga (Japanese-style graphic novels) which was great for bookshops. Unfortunately, this bubble has now popped and sales of these books are down 25%.
Activist investor launches a campaign against the owner of Upper Crust 📈 - Irenic Capital has decided the maths ain’t maths-ing and taken a two percent stake in SSP to try and force changes that they believe will double the share price. SSP operates 3,000 outlets in 35 countries, mostly in airports and train stations. It operates both its own brands like Upper Crust and Camden Food Co. and third-party franchises like Burger King and Maccies.
The future of AI is diverging 🤖 - the focus and attention to date has very much been on generalist applications like ChatGPT which is alright at doing a number of different things. Behind the scenes, however, several more specialised agents are being built using open source models like Meta’s Llama. Many believe it is this specialisation where the real value lies.
Quote of the week
“May the fourth be with you” - Some Jedi Fella