The Mail Cart: Wednesday, August 12th

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📝 Spotify takes their biggest stance against AI music yet. The former executive chairman of WME invested in Alex Cooper’s Unwell $500M round. Suno and BMG have teamed up for a new label backed generative AI model, Lakers get sold (again) and more.

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The Muppets seem to be everywhere this summer from the World Cup to hanging out with Sabrina Carpenter. And maybe even me today on AvA LIVE…

Every day I’m one minor inconvenience away from going full Miss Piggy. The Muppet Show is for your Emmy consideration. Streaming now on Disney+

The series was produced by Point Grey, 20th Television, Disney Kids & Family and The Muppets Studio.

FUN FACT: Matt Vogel is the first performer to receive an Emmy nomination for playing Kermit.

Nominated in 6 categories including:

Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded)
Outstanding Production Design For A Variety Special
Outstanding Picture Editing For Variety Programming
Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance (Matt Vogel as Kermit the Frog)
Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Variety Series Or Special
Outstanding Writing For A Variety Special

AvA LIVE Lineup Booked In Partnership With:

📹 Today on AvA LIVE we have another star-studded lineup including…

🎙️ Connor Hines - Creator and Executive Producer of ‘Love Story,’ who just signed a first look deal with Netflix and brought them his new project with A24

🎙️ Bran Flakezz - Content Creator + The Business of Bran Flakezz

🎙️ Oren John - The Internet’s Creative Director & my favorite YouTube page

🎙️ Aaron Folbe - Manager at Underground who reps Curry Barker & many more

🎙️ Serena Kamlani - Staff Writer who will take us inside the Writers Room

⭐ Spotify is debuting AI persona labels next month on artist accounts that seem ‘inhuman’ and they will be excluded from algorithmic recommendations

❝

“True artist-fan connection can only be built on a foundation of trust and authenticity. In music, that means listeners need to be able to trust that the artist behind the music is who they say they are. That’s more essential than ever in the age of generative AI.”

— Spotify

⭐ The former executive chairman of WME has invested an undisclosed amount into Alex Cooper’s Unwell, valuing the company at $500 million.

Patrick Whitesell is the first outside investment Cooper & her husband have taken on, which comes on the heels of a bunch of unwell-ness at the company.

$500M is obviously an enormous number, but there are a lot of details under the hood that need to surface before you can really evaluate the deal. A $500M valuation does not mean they raised $500M. How much cash actually went into the company? How much did the duo dilute? Was any of it secondary, meaning money directly into their pockets? Once you raise a round at that type of valuation, you’re expected to build bigger and bigger.

Not a fair comp and in no way meant to be a dig on Unwell, but using this as education for anyone thinking about fundraising out there: At its peak, Vice had well over $1B of institutional capital behind it, with Disney, A+E, TCV, TPG and Fox among the marquee names. In 2017 they hit a peak valuation of $5.7 billion. Fast forward to 2023, and they sold out of bankruptcy for $350 million (decline of 94%). The buyers were already major Vice creditors, so they essentially exchanged debt Vice owed them for ownership of the company.

There are also many, many success stories of media brand exits (maybe AvA one day). I’ve turned down all investments to this point, but it’s exciting to see the market react to cohort-focused media brands.

⭐ Suno has struck a deal with the music rights conglomerate BMG to help form new generative models powered by licensed work

This feels like an L for artists, but everything is nuanced and you can learn more about that deal here.

⭐ Disney+ signs on for the exclusive rights to Formula E Racing across 144 territories

If you’re wondering how this differs from Formula 1 Racing, Formula E is exclusively done with electric cars (I did not know this either btw)

⭐ First Artists Management has formally rebranded as the Fam Agency

There is a 99% chance their owner heard a young person say ‘fam’ and pushed really hard to make this happen. On a serious note, Fam focuses on music supervisors and composers, including those who have worked on projects like ‘The Studio,’ and now ‘The Pitt’ with some new agent additions.

⭐ Jonas Brothers are headlining the NFL Halftime Show at Melbourne Game

⭐ Josh Kushner and former Disney CEO Bob Iger are buying the Lakers for a record $12.5 billion, under a year after Mark Walter paid $10 billion for the franchise

This is Josh’s second sports investment, they are betting IRL/live (sports) are the future in a saturated AI content world. Very similar bet to Ari Emanuel’s Mari..