The Mail Cart: Monday, Apr. 20th

👋 Welcome to The Mail Cart. This is Warner, founder of AvA. Connect with me here + follow our IG page for daily resources.

🎥 The Costume Designer for your favorite show joins AvA LIVE this Wednesday..

Getting back from Coachella with dust in my lungs and Baby replaying in my head, and I have one major takeaway.. and no it’s not “Weekend 2 is better than Weekend 1” (which it is):

Whether it’s Billie Eilish on stage with Bieber to relive her youth or Madonna signing “Like A Prayer” with Sabrina Carpenter, there’s a power to live music that no technology or phone screen will ever replace.

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The Costume Designer for HBO’s Industry joins AvA LIVE this Wednesday. My goal with the show is highlighting people behind the scenes in our industry, and I’m very excited to dig into Laura K. Smith’s story & role.

⭐ Coachella and Stagecoach Festivals generate over $700 million annually for the state of California

In 2025 alone Coachella brought in 250,000 across both weekends, and the events bring in 10,000 temporary jobs on top of an additional $908 million in media impact value.

⭐ Karol G spent 3x what she was paid to headline Coachella on production costs alone (per her agent at UTA)

Post-performance, her global streams jumped 15%, including a 35%+ increase in the US.

⭐ NPR just received $113 million in donations after getting their funding cut by the government (Trump) in 2025

Connie Ballmer, the wife of ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, dropped a staggering $80 million donation to lead the way. Pretty bleak when the survival of the arts hinges on the private sector because the government treats them like an afterthought.

⭐ Netflix’s Co-Founder Reed Hastings has left the company after 30 years, with 25 of those being spent as CEO and Chairman.

His plan? Focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. Big change of the guard happening here.

⭐ Val Kilmer, who passed away a year ago, is now “starring” in a film through the use of Gen AI

Both himself and his family consented to this prior to his passing. The future is here I guess..

⭐ A new live show has launched today on X to “monitor the situation”

MTS launches with backing from Morning Brew founder Austin Reiff, Axios editor Dan Primack and more. They will livestream news every day on the platform.

We’ve been saying: reality = the new luxury good in the era of AI slop.

BTW did we mention AvA LIVE streams every Wednesday on our YouTube at 12:30pm PT orrrr

Live Nation appointed Chris Marking as their new Executive Vice President of International Venue Sponsorship. To make things a little more spicy, he joined the team after working at AEG for 20 years. And that’s the tea!
CNN hired former New York Times Chief Data Scientist to lead their new AI team. This is a newly created role, and will fall under the title Head of Machine Learning and AI Science.
Nielsen named Roberto Ruiz as their new Head of Measurement Science after previously spending 20 years at Univision in Senior Research roles.
LeBron James’ partner Maverick Carter said at a Semafor event that the NBA star is eyeing a post-retirement media run built on his own production empire. Carter said today’s “distribution is everywhere,” letting James skip the old TV analyst route.
Ryan Williams joins Central Talent Booking after 20-plus years in late night, with stops at Letterman, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Late Show with James Corden, and Carpool Karaoke on Apple TV+.