Weekly Roundup – May 6th, 2025
Roundup Links
Spotify Playlists Are Getting Worse Thanks in Part to Employee Layoffs
"One of the features that set Spotify apart from its intensifying competition over the years was the platform's man-meets-machine approach to music curation, especially its personalized, algorithmically curated playlists. Discover Weekly promised to introduce listeners to new music that they might like, Daily Mix turned their tastes into themed playlists, and Release Radar highlighted freshly released tracks. For years, these features seemed to elicit near-universal praise online and gave Spotify a competitive advantage just in time to fend off competition from giants like Apple and Amazon. The music discovery features are likely one reason it's been able to lead the global music subscription market. A recent EMARKETER report found that Americans spend over nine times as much time on Spotify as the next closest competitor. Lately, though, those same features have inspired frustration."
Our Take: Like we saw with our State of Media 2025 report's section on Radio audiences, consumers notice when AI has replaced a person. When you replace a creative mind with a machine, the results are typically not more creative. While there are many times and places for AI use, when you need that human creative spark, consumers know when you're phoning it into a computer.
Streaming Is Now Just As Crowded With Ads As Old-School TV
"An early promise of streaming platforms was that users would be able to watch series and movies without the commercials that break up programming on broadcast or cable networks. That’s no longer the case."
Our Take: The 'on-demand' experience of major streaming platforms is curiously starting to resemble 'channel-surfing' on the linear cable of yesteryear... In fact, cord cutting rates are actively declining, with consumers taking note of this shift.
Trump says he'd give TikTok another extension
"Driving the news: "Perhaps I shouldn't say this, but I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said.
Trump said he'd like to see a deal, but he'd be willing to give the Chinese-owned app a reprieve despite not having made a deal with the social media platform's owner, ByteDance.
Trump said he has a "little sweet spot" for the app, claiming he won young people by 36 points. He's made that statement in the past, though, as CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, Vice President Kamala Harris beat Trump 54% to 43% among voters ages 18-24, per exit polls published by CNN.
Trump's TikTok flip-flop ahead of last year's election was a sign that he recognized the appeal the app has for young people."
Our Take: TikTok is too big to be banned in the US. And too many young people are, by most medical criteria, addicted to this short-form video-sharing platform. Advertising on TikTok gets you direct access to the bulk of the 18-34 demo. It also was an effective marketing tool for the Trump campaign, who won 'bigly' among young people. Kamala's 'BRAT Summer' also had a notable moment in the sun on the platform (albeit with a different result in the general election).
Grand Theft Auto 6's Delay Just Affected The Entire Video Game Industry
"What’s clear is that there is a hell of a lot riding on Grand Theft Auto 6. Many different head honchos of the video game industry, from studio heads to chief analysts, believe that this generation-defining game will be the one to break the industry’s growth stagnation. It’s hard to deny the global feverish demand and anticipation for a game that has effectively been in the works for over a decade. There are impossibly high expectations on the teams at Rockstar Games to deliver something that not only single-handedly restores the video game industry back to its pre-pandemic growth, but also presents an entirely new kind of video game experience that will become the new benchmark for developers and publishers moving forward. Rockstar only has one shot to get this right – what’s six more months after 13 years?"
Our Take: Something tells me that this game won't live up to expectations and possibly not be very good - which could be ruinous to the entire video game console industry. The 'good news' of this article is dressing up the fact that an industry with flagging console sales keeps seeing the release of its golden egg repeatedly pushed back. I hope I'm wrong.
US to demand Google break up its online advertising business
"The US Department of Justice said it will seek to force Google parent Alphabet to sell key parts of its
digital advertising business, which was found to constitute an illegal monopoly."
Our Take: Of course Google’s a monopoly. That’s like being surprised a casino makes money on blackjack. We all kept using it, knowing full well the house always wins—because the house had better fonts, faster results, and a doodle for every holiday. We didn’t get tricked; we got comfortable.
