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👋 Happy Summer Friday. Hope you don’t read this and are on the beach. JK it’s Entertainment. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here or follow my personal IG for thirst traps of my dogs.
Two things I’m breaking down today: Worst case in the Letterboxd sale + are talent agencies really designed to represent creators building media brands?
📰 Let’s catch you up on Emmy Nominations, multiple $2 billion buyouts, drops in representation, and more. Plus are agencies built for the speed of creators?
💼 Looking for open Entertainment jobs? Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter.
Plus Our Job Board now has 220+ early career Entertainment roles as well.
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⭐ Will Netflix give Letterboxd 5 stars?
Netflix, Sony, Paramount, TPG and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian are reportedly circling Letterboxd, which is exploring a sale at a valuation of roughly $250 million. The movie social platform now has more than 30 million members, proving that ranking Shrek 2 above The Godfather may finally be a viable business model.
The obvious concern: a studio buying the platform where movie fans publicly roast studios. Nothing says “independent film criticism” like random technical difficulties for your one-star review on Netflix’s latest $200 million rom com action flick. JK they wouldn’t do that… right?
⭐ Emmy nominations have officially dropped and here are some headlines you may have missed:
HBO Max was the streamer with the most nominations (122), and Apple TV posted their best ever showing (89)
‘The Pitt’ was the most nominated project (25)
‘Hacks’ secured the most comedy nominations ever for a single year (24).
‘Widow’s Bay’ captured the most award nods for a new series (19). How the F is this thing a comedy. I was screaming like a little child.
Nominations were more widespread than usual too, including Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour documentary, the host of ‘Love Island,’ and ‘Subway Takes’ (shoutout to Kareem and Adam)
⭐ Diversity dropped across nominations with a 39% decline in representation of performers of color for leading & supporting roles.
⭐ LGBTQ characters in film also dropped in representation for the 3rd year in a row (per GLAAD)
🏊 Deeper Dive: Of the 225 films released last year, 46 contained LGBTQ characters (20.4%), 2024: 59 (23.6%), which is a third straight year the number decreased from the record counted in 2023 @ 28.5%.
⭐ DistroKid (the largest independent music distributor) just got bought out for $2 billion by the private equity firm CVC Capital Partners
The indie distribution platform used by roughly 4 million artists and responsible for an estimated 40% of the world’s new music has a new parent. Leadership will stay in place, while longtime investor Insight Partners keeps a minority stake. The big question now: Can private equity “unlock value” without turning the cheapest way to release music into Ticketmaster for SoundCloud rappers?
🧠 Today’s Number: 1 million. DistroKid distributes 1M+ new tracks every month
📜 Meta putting the Doom in Doomscroll
The EU preliminarily found Meta’s infinite scroll, autoplay and hyper-personalized recommendations in violation of its Digital Services Act, arguing the features are basically slot machines for your thumb, especially for kids. Meta can still fight the ruling, but if it sticks, the company may have to redesign Instagram and Facebook or cough up roughly 6% of each platform's global revenue or $12 billion. Turns out “just one more scroll” could get very expensive.
Does the current agency model work for creators? I’m not convinced yet...
Creators are moving like startups, and representation is trying to catch up. For years, talent representation felt like a "one size fits all" blueprint. The rapid rise of creators, who function in very different ways, is making the role of people like Brent Weinstein vital to the future growth & relevance of talent agencies.
He spent 20 years at UTA helping build and lead the agency’s Digital Talent, Podcasting, Ventures, and Live Events businesses. Now he’s at CAA helping lead them into the next era. He joined AvA LIVE on Wednesday.
My favorite line from the convo:
“When you combine ambition and innovation with everything the creator brings, then layer in operational talent, the sky’s the limit.”
A few takeaways:
🧠 Creators are no longer marketing vehicles. He's seeing real franchises built across YouTube, Netflix, live, consumer products, books, and beyond with names like Dhar Mann and Trisha Paytas.
🧠 Being "independent" makes creators uniquely entrepreneurial. They build, test, launch, pivot, and expand without waiting for anyone to say yes.
🧠 Priority matters. Before signing talent his biggest question is: how badly do they actually want success, and are they willing to make it a real priority?
🧠 Creators now need “permission to play.” Passion matters, but the audience has to believe you authentically belong in that space. AKA not every celebrity needs a tequila brand (my words not his).
I still think the creator economy has an infrastructure problem that many are trying to figure out (quickly), but I'm impressed by what Brent is doing so far at CAA.
Full convo below:
Every week we drop our favorite podcast & book recs.
Today we have Jason Momoa on JOLLY to break down his new role in Supergirl, eat some awesome noodles, and show off his all electric Rolls-Royce?
This is a great watch or listen for anyone who wants to hear Jason Momoa talk about the creative process as a labor of love and what it was like to play a character from his own childhood reading comics.
Another amazing conversation facilitated by the team at Central Talent Booking.
Suno poached a pair of former YouTube and Atlantic Records execs. Grace James signs on as the AI company’s new VP & Head of Artist Marketing, and Christian Bowne becomes their Head of Music Business Development.
ESPN is losing one of their top Streaming executives after 27 years of service. John Lasker helped shape their entire digital business, and he personally decided to leave. Some tea there maybe?
Amazon MGM Studios promoted Kara Smith to be the Head of their Drama Division. There will be 3 current execs leaving their TV department as part of a recent restructure as well.
Our new job board features 220+ early career roles in Entertainment, including:
💼 Event Planner - Netflix - Apply Here
💼 Television Scripted Assistant - CAA - Apply Here
💼 Social Content Producer - Fallen - Apply Here
💼 Theatrical Distribution - Amazon MGM - Apply Here
💼 Marketing - Miami Heat - Apply Here
💼 Content Creator - Glossier - Apply Here
💼 Audiobooks - Spotify - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - WME - Apply Here
💼 Marketing - BMG - Apply Here
💼 Global Partnerships - Professional Bull Riders - Apply Here
💼 Release Coordinator - Universal Music - Apply Here
💼 Executive Assistant - Disney - Apply Here
💼 Assistant (Miami) - BMI - Apply Here
💼 Film Publicity Coordinator - Amazon MGM - Apply Here
💼 Client Services - NBCUniversal - Apply Here
💼 Writer/Producer - Sony Pictures - Apply Here
💼 Production Services - Paramount Skydance - Apply Here
💼 Promotions - Universal Music - Apply Here
🎒 Publishing Intern - Live Nation - Apply Here
🎒 Film & TV Sync Intern - Sony Pictures - Apply Here
👋 See you back here on Monday
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The Mail Cart is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.
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