PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS | | | | | PRESENTED BY SHORTFORM | | | Happy Wednesday, Future Party. If you want your funeral to feel more like a party, the Eternal Playlist Urn from Spotify and Liquid Death might be exactly your vibe. This isn't a joke — the two brands have collaborated on a Bluetooth speaker that's shaped like an urn, because nothing says "farewell" like a perfectly curated playlist for your mourners. Apparently, it's not really designed to hold ashes, but if you spot one on someone's shelf, it's probably best not to open it… you know, just in case. |
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| | | | | | Did Tech Ruin The Electronic Music Scene? |  | Dancing off // Image by Kait Cunniff with DALL-E |
| The rise of smartphones, social-media-curated moments, and big-budget spectacles has diminished what electronic music was once truly about: dancing. | The Big Drop: There's no denying that electronic music is wildly popular — it's a $12.9 billion industry with over 500 million fans across socials as of 2024, powered by chart-toppers like David Guetta and Calvin Harris and massive festivals like Tomorrowland and EDC. But there's a lingering concern that the genre has become so mainstream its momentum may have peaked… creating space for a new genre to redefine dance culture. | Behind The Change: Bloomberg reports that electronic music producers, execs, and diehard fans are all asking, "Why is everyone just standing around?" | Electronic music used to be all about the night — long sets, crowds losing themselves on the dance floor, and artists responding to the vibe in real time. Now, clubbing "increasingly resembles concerts." Phones are out, cameras up, and crowds are watching instead of moving. To get the perfect shot, people stopped dancing. That shift is changing the music itself — artists are making shorter songs filled with hooks and drops built for radio play and viral moments on social media. A survey of 15,000 DJs found that "61% believe a social media following now matters more than musical skill." It's also transforming live shows — venues are booking more DJs per night for shorter sets, prioritizing big names, and leaning on expensive production (screens, lights, etc.). That's driving ticket prices up and attendance down.
| Last Call: The economics no longer add up. While electronic music has fueled a boom in giant clubs, many can't justify the escalating costs... and midsize venues are being squeezed the hardest. In Berlin, the electronic capital of the world, half of its 250 clubs are reportedly at risk of closure. | Looks like the party may be winding down. | The Future: A new crop of clubs is going phone-free in an effort to revive old-school dance culture. The next wave of cool venues may be the ones with no social-media footprint at all. |
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| | | | | Together with Shortform | | Become A Nonfiction Expert With Shortform | | It can sometimes be impossible to find the time to dive fully into great nonfiction books… so Shortform wants to pull out the nuggets, insights, and connective tissue that make you feel like you read them from cover to cover. | Used by top authors like James Clear and Robert Greene, Shortform doesn't summarize books — it analyzes them. That gives you the power to take in more information faster. | For the price of one book per month, you get: | A 1-pager of the entire book, chapter-by-chapter breakdowns, and exercises to make the information stick. Smart insights, commentary, and analysis from a team of expert writers and editors. Connections to other ideas, counterpoints, and arguments from other authors, and updates from recent works. PDF and audio versions of books so you can learn where you want, when you want.
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| | | | | Amazon Lets Everyone Get Vertical |  | Keeping score |
| Amazon Web Services announced a new service, AWS Elemental Inference, that allows clients to turn live and on-demand video into vertical videos ready for social media in real time. | The Big Picture: Vertical video is the format of virality. By making it easier for traditional broadcasters, cable outlets, and even streamers with livestreaming content to turn live moments into snackable content within minutes, a tighter dialogue may emerge between live programming and social media. | Behind The Feature: Amazon is collapsing the window between the small screen (your TV) and the smallest screen (your smartphone). | AWS Elemental Inference uses AI to automatically transform live moments filmed traditionally (horizontally) into vertical video with just a 6–10 second delay. The models "analyze each frame to identify subjects, track movement across scenes, and intelligently determine the right vertical placement," according to AWS Media Services product head Regina Rossi. That ensures that the resulting videos "keep athletes centered during plays, speakers in frame during interviews, and key action visible regardless of aspect ratio."
| Final Render: All that automation enables networks, studios, and streamers to post clips to social platforms in near real time — supercharging conversation, fueling discovery, and ensuring they capitalize on cool moments. In a digital economy where engagement is capital, that's huge. | NBCUniversal and Fox Sports have already signed on to use the tool. With 90% of Fox Sports' digital content reportedly consumed vertically, this could be a game-changer. | Prediction: Expect viral videos of live content to start appearing later in the very same broadcasts. Trippy. |
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| | | | | | | How comfortable are you dancing in public? | | 40.9% of you voted Never in yesterday's poll: How often do you listen to electronic music? | "The only time I listen to electronic music is in a store." | "It's everywhere in Miami, so it's inescapable; however, it still doesn't compare to bands. Bring back rock bands!" | "I was a raver in the '90s and aughts and still make it out to the occasional techno night to shake off the cobwebs." | "It started with me back in the late '90s with the Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, and trance." | "I'm an original HOUSE Head — HOUSE gave birth to electronic music. HOUSE is spiritual, and dancing gives you life!" | Let's keep the conversation going. Join Poll Of The Day, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers', check out cool insights, and have some fun. It's data with personality. |
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| PARTNERSHIPS | COMMUNITY | PODCAST | FRIENDS | Today's email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar. |
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