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Today is a special day.
No not because it’s 80+ degrees again in L.A., and not because Halloween is 2 days away, because apparently it’s now celebrated 2 weekends in a row.
One year ago today, I quit my full-time corporate gig and went all in on AvA. I was burnt out, hated my boss, unfulfilled, and tired of “working for the weekend.”
There have been tough times and great times, but I haven’t regretted it once. If there’s even a small part of you itching to build something of your own, do it. The biggest risk in life is taking no risk at all.
A sincere thank you to everyone who’s ever read this newsletter, liked a meme, came to an event, or hit our job board.
Even if you showed up to a panel, saw your ex & had a terrible time, went to work hungover the next day and unsubscribed from this email (you’re probably not seeing this anyways).. I appreciate you. We’re just getting started.
👋 Connect with me here to vent or to say hi
📅 Also save the date: Nov 13. More soon.
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1) The biggest Sphere residency? They were born in 1939.
‘The Wizard of Oz’ surpassed 1 million tickets sold at The Sphere, cementing it as the most visited residency at the venue so far.
U2 previously held the record for most tickets sold at 660,000, and still hold the top spot for revenue with $240 million compared to Oz’s current standing of $130 million.
2) Amazon is laying off 14,000 employees due to “the advance of AI.” That number will rise to as many as 30,000 total people with more sure to come.
This mass exodus includes virtually every single department, ranging from senior executives, MGM Studios, gaming, and more.
Below is what the company shared in a public memo about the situation.
Such a sad situation and my heart goes out to everyone affect by the layoffs recently.
“The world is changing quickly. This generation of AI is the most transformative technology we’ve seen since the Internet… We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business.”
3) Mr. Beast is deploying an army of “clippers” to increase his traffic because apparently 448M subs isn’t enough.
The landscape of advertising has shifted towards short form content. Mores eyeballs = more $$.
MrBeast has decided the $473 million his company made in ‘24 wasn’t enough, and has hired 1,000 “clippers,” no not the team, who cut his videos into short clips for social media to drive traffic back to YouTube.
Clipping, the AI slop shop startup behind it, pays editors $50 per 100K views and charges clients a subscription fee. Founded by 23-year-old Anthony Fujiwara, it’s pulled in $7.7M this year from YouTubers, record labels, and podcasters.
The final product for Mr. Beast means more control over ‘clip farmers,’ additional incentives to anyone he works with to make high quality content, and most importantly, more traffic.
MrBeast also recently launched Vyro “ultimate clipping platform” which will grant him even more end-to-end control over the process + he is able to launch a new business on top of his content.
My take: the value of community and human connection is becoming exponentially greater as the “social” in social media essentially evaporates.
Credit: Graphite
4) ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN are now accepting registrations of ‘partially AI-generated’ music.
Their joint policy on the matter states that they are allowing musical work that “combines elements of AI-generated musical content with elements of human authorship.”
However, music that is created entirely with AI tools will not be eligible for registration. Let’s keep it that way plz.
5) YouTube TV pens deal with Bloomberg Media for a 2-channel content integration.
The first one will host a live 24-hour news channel, whereas the other will contain original series and documentaries from the media company.
CNN also dropped their new subscription service 3 years after the collapse of CNN+.
Sounds like they just invented uhhh cable?
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Our new job board features 120+ early career roles in Entertainment, including:
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💼 Executive Assistant (New York Magazine) - Vox Media - Apply Here
💼 Digital Operations Associate - Warner Bros. Discovery - Apply Here
💼 Music Merch Vendor Manager - Amazon Music - Apply Here
💼 Music Content Investment Lead - TikTok - Apply Here
💼 Social Media Manager (Volleyball) - Overtime - Apply Here
💼 PR Coordinator - Detroit Pistons - Apply Here
💼 Production Software Development Manager - Paramount - Apply Here
💼 Creative Video Producer - Michigan Athletics - Apply Here
💼 Revue Studios Assistant - Wasserman - Apply Here
🎒 Streaming Intern - Concord - Apply Here
👋 See you back here on Friday
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This newsletter is written by Warner Bailey and edited by Riley Furey and Dominik Sansevere.
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