The Mail Cart: Wednesday, September 23rd

🧑‍💻 I started a company called loyd. More below.

📝 Today we cover YouTube’s major product changes, Sony Music’s major stand with responsible AI use, Rufus Du Sol breaking longstanding records in music, the asterisk about indie films in the Paramount x WBD merger, and Apple Music’s new hawt venue.

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For the last decade, I’ve been talking about how entertainment can do better. I use this newsletter to do that a lot. Now I’m building what I wish existed my entire career..

Some stats from a poll we did of over 2k of you:

- 80% say the "pay your dues" culture was never a fair bargain
- Two-thirds report burnout
- 72% say they aren't paid fairly
- Assistants and junior execs lose 20+ hours a week to admin

We are building loyd to do our part.

You get into entertainment to discover talent, work with ambitious people, make art, and build a career of passion. Then you spend your day putting out fires and updating the same information in five different places. I did it at multiple jobs.

I built AvA, host our live show, and write this newsletter, because I believed the people powering the entertainment industry behind the scenes (YOU) deserve greater access and opportunity. loyd is the next chapter of that mission.

My co-founder Vince started in the UTA mailroom. I started in WME’s. Our other co-founder Ryan built technology at places like Robinhood, Hebbia and Warner Music Group. We’ve experienced these problems from different sides, and we’re building the platform we wish we’d had.

Big tech wants to replace you. We want to empower you. I love this industry and will keep building for its future.

I’ll be sharing a lot more soon, but thank you to everyone who reads this newsletter. It means a lot.

Credit: Hollywood Reporter

Full Article Here <3

YouTube’s major product event, Made On YouTube, was 2 hours ago. Some major things they announced:

Creators will be able to A/B test part of their videos
Creators can customize thumbnails for different audiences
They can also now organize shorts into serialized shows
Plus real-time dubbing!! The future is here and I’m not sure how I feel about it.

No one knows this space more than Hannah Doyle who writes for The Publish Press, the creator-economy newsletter by Colin and Samir. She is joining me on AvA LIVE at 12:30pm PT today to break it down.

PLUS

Odesza’s agent, Josh Richards and his biz partner who just sold a show to Fox, Comms & PR Manager at the NFL who pivoted from Condé Nast and Amanda Hirsch!!

AvA LIVE Lineup Booked In Partnership With:

🎶 Sony Music becomes the first major label to join the AI content coalition ARIAM

❝

“Sony Music Group has an unwavering commitment to protecting music, and we wholeheartedly share ARIAM’s view that a healthy licensing environment, where responsible AI companies proactively partner with rightsholders, is the only foundation for getting this right.”

— Kevin Kelleher, Sony Music COO

📈 Rufus Du Sol becomes the first electronic artist to ever gross over $100 million for a single tour at $158 million and 1.7 million tickets sold

❌ Don’t expect many indie films after the Paramount and WBD merger…

While the company has agreed to release 30 films per year with $1.5 billion to be spent over the next 5 years, that budget only includes $5 million annually allocated to indie films.

🍎 Apple debuted the Apple Music Hall venue in London which is “designed to connect artists and fans through intimate performances unlike anywhere else”

The world has many “Spotify Sessions” and “Tiny Desk” concerts. This is a major move for Apple.