Presented by | | | | Tuesday time, FutureParty people. Do you remember that ransomware attack that shut down MGM Resorts in Las Vegas last year? Turns out, it may have been perpetrated by a 17-year-old in England. While hacking group ALPHV/BlackCat took responsibility for the hack, a joint investigation by the FBI and the UK's National Crime Agency found that the person pushing the button was the unidentified teenager. After last week's CrowdStrike bug, our technological networks don't seem to be as foolproof as you would hope. | In other news… Harvard's celebrity-brand class is a hit, Jack White goes viral by staying offline, and Eminem breaks Taylor Swift's Billboard stranglehold. | Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe |
| | |
| | | | .EDUCATION. |  | Red carpet class // Illustration by Kate Walker |
| Harvard professor turns celebrities into entrepreneurs | The Future. Professor Anita Elberse has become a celebrity at Harvard Business School by teaching a special class that breaks down the success of celebrity brands, athletic organizations, and artist-driven industries. It's even attracted several of the big names she would write about to join the class. Coupled with courses on the impact of Taylor Swift, the next wave of college majors may focus on the economics and strategies of creating stars. | The brand plan
One of the hottest celebrity hangouts just happens to be a business class at Harvard. | Professor Elberse teaches The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports (aka #BEMS) — an annual four-day, $12,000 program. In its 10th year running, the class has had huge names vying for one of the 80 seats available, including actor Channing Tatum, rapper LL Cool J, supermodel Karlie Kloss, comedian Roy Wood, Jr., and former NBA star Dwyane Wade. It's also become a must-attend course for Hollywood and Madison Avenue execs for a 30,000-foot understanding of how to run a hit-driven business.
| The class is famous for its in-depth case studies of various celebrity-run businesses, of which she just does about three or four a year — announcing them on social media like an album or streetwear drop. Organizations even pitch her to do ones on them. | Some recent case studies include how Beyoncé launches new music, how David Beckham juggles his brands, and MrBeast's growing creator empire… all in line with Elberse's personal rubric of always being culturally relevant. | |
| | |
| | | | Did you go to business school? | | 66.2% of you voted No in yesterday's poll: Did the Microsoft outage strike your business? | "We're Mountain Time so I think we were just lucky!" | "Most of the office workers were affected but some WFH people were able to access some systems." | "I run LINUX!! :)" |
| | |
| | | .A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT SURF. | Need a future-forward dishwasher? | The truth is, current dishwashers just aren't cutting it. | Meet Surf Dishwasher, a newly developed dishwasher with special modules for the things you actually use, like plates, bowls, cups, and silverware. And what's even cooler is that it gets the job done faster with reduced water consumption.
Surf was created by two genius buddies — a rocket propulsion engineer and a computer engineer/designer who helped build Siri at Apple. In other words, don't walk — run — to get one of these in your kitchen. | Here's how you can become one of the first Surf Dishwasher owners: | Make a dishwasher pledge on their Kickstarter page. |
| | |
| | | | Media, Music, & Entertainment | Eminem's The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) is the first album to unseat Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department at the top of the Billboard 200 for the first time since April. [Read More] Universal's Twisters soared to a way-above-expectations $81 million at the domestic box office, thanks to major demand in the heartland states and moviegoers giving 4DX screenings a shot. [Read More] French media giant Vivendi may list entertainment company Canal+ on the London Stock Exchange as part of a new plan to split into three separate businesses. [Read More]
| Fashion & E-Commerce | Kobe Bryant's locker, which he used while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, is going for auction at Sotheby's and may fetch up to $1.5 million. [Read More] Peter Hawkings has departed as creative director of Tom Ford a year after the brand was acquired by Zegna and Estée Lauder. [Read More] Temu has opened the ability for European sellers to start hosting their products on the platform as part of the company's push to compete with Amazon. [Read More]
| Tech, Web3, & AI | Cohere, the enterprise-focused AI startup, has raised a whopping $500 million from investors, including Cisco, AMD, and Fujitsu. [Read More] Elon Musk says that Tesla will start using humanoid robots within the company next year before commercializing them in 2026. [Read More] EV startup Rivian opened its first dedicated Charging Outpost just outside of Yosemite National Park in Groveland, CA, offering free coffee, a trail-mix mixing station, and a recycling center. [Read More]
| Creator Economy | Reddit has signed content deals with the NFL, NBA, MLB, and other sports leagues to bring sports content to the platform. [Read More] President Biden's decision to announce that he's dropping his bid for re-election on X has renewed discussion about the platform being the de-facto internet town square. [Read More] YouTube Shorts is gaining on TikTok as a music-discovery-and-sharing platform, according to a new Luminate report. [Read More]
|
| | |
| | | .MUSIC. |  | Jack White // Illustration by Kate Walker |
| Jack White physically leaks a new album | The Future. Rock star Jack White (of The White Stripes and more) is making his newest solo album go viral without even releasing it online, opting instead to give it away for free from his record stores. Considering the buzz that's already building and how popular vinyls have become again, the new era of stealth album launches may be about eventizing them IRL. | Record search
On Friday, employees at White's Third Man Records in Detroit, Nashville, and London started silently slipping a vinyl titled NO NAME into customers' bags when they purchased something. | Turns out, it was an unmarked new White album — his first since 2022's double whammy of Entering Heaven Alive and Fear of the Dawn. Reps for White and Third Man have stayed mum on the record and have refused to do any promotion for it other than an Instagram post and a few Insta Stories. But that hasn't stopped word from getting out — people reportedly flocked to the three stores to score one, copies went on eBay for up to $1,000, and the album has been ripped and shared on YouTube (per White's okay).
| How could such a stunt be pulled off so discreetly? White owns his own record-pressing plant, allowing everything to be done in-house. | Very cool. | |
| | |
| | | .A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT CHEWY. | What does your pet need right now? | Think tasty treats, toys, supplies, and so much more. | For a limited time only, get a $20 eGift card on Chewy.com for orders over $49. | Use the code: WELCOME. | |
| | |
| | | | Listen: The Culture Desk discusses the building movie stardom of Twisters' Glen Powell… and the whole state of being a movie star in Hollywood. Read: WSJ explores how Electronic Arts used AI to create avatars of college football players for its new game, EA Sports College Football 25, after licensing likeness rights from players. Watch: Bloomberg delves into how China is remaking its economy in the wake of a cratering property market and stunted growth.
|
| | |
| | | |  | Bojan Tunguz @tunguz |  |
| |
|  | | | 2:00 PM • Jul 22, 2024 | | | | | | 70K Likes 5.4K Retweets | 88 Replies |
|
| All roads lead to a pat on the back. |
| | |
| | | LATEST PODCAST EPISODE | Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Andrew Kenward, the President and COO of Almost Friday Media. Andrew was an agent at WME in the digital media department at WME before being brought into the Almost Friday universe in 2021. We chat with him about his career, his goals for the brand moving forward, and what it's like working in media today. | | |
| | |
| | | | Share TheFutureParty | Your friends will thank you, trust us. Btw. We're always offering new rewards. Look out for limited reward drops for sharing the newsletter. | You currently have 0 referrals, only 1 away from receiving your Curated Trend Reports. | | | Or copy and paste this link to others: https://news.futureparty.com/subscribe?ref=XIy5SJPyLS | |
|
| | |
| Like what you see? Subscribe Now or Partner With Us | Keep the editorial team going! Buy the team a coffee! ☕️ | Today's email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar. |
|
