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Wednesday Jan.26, 2022
🎤 Joe Rogan’s Spoti-fiasco
Spotify planting pods in its “Gated Garden” [Kjell Linder via Getty Images]
Hey Snackers,
RIP to the No. 2 pencil’s greatest foe: The SAT is officially going completely digital starting in 2024. Future high schoolers will never know the anxiety induced by oval bubbles.
Stocks slumped after Fed Chair Jerome Powell suggested that he plans to hike rates in March. Both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 fell, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed nearly flat despite a boost from Microsoft — whose shares jumped 3% after reporting strong cloud sales.
JRE
Joe Rogan’s Spotify pod sparks backlash from doctors and Neil Young, as moderation takes center stage
“The Joe Rogan Experience”... just got more complicated. JRE is the world's largest podcast, with an estimated 11M listeners per episode. In 2020, Spotify signed a deal to make the pod Spotify-exclusive for a reported $100M. Now, a viral December episode is drawing fresh criticism:
- The guest: Rogan interviewed Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist who worked on early mRNA research. Malone is now a Covid vaccine critic, and was Twitter-banned for posting misinfo.
- The episode: Malone promoted baseless conspiracy theories — from claiming hospitals have financial incentives to diagnose deaths as Covid-related to saying that getting vaxxed is riskier for people who've had Covid.
- The backlash: 270 medical experts signed a letter asking Spotify to curb misinfo on its platform, citing the Malone episode. On Monday, singer Neil Young demanded that Spotify remove all his music — or remove JRE.
I’m a pod-star, not a doctor... Rogan has said he is not anti-vax, and that he encourages "many" people to get vaccinated, but this isn't the first time he's been criticized for Covid misinfo. Spotify has removed thousands of episodes containing Covid misinfo in the past. It has also reportedly removed 42 JRE episodes, including ones featuring far-right activists — but none related to vaccines. As its pod business booms, critics want clearer moderation policies.
- $1B+: How much Spotify has splurged on pod-related purchases. Including: The Ringer and Parcast — plus, exclusives like “Call Her Daddy.” Targeted pod ads make up a growing share of Spotify’s $2.5B quarterly revenue.
- #1: In October, Spotify overtook Apple as the US's biggest pod platform, largely thanks to its "gated garden" strategy.
With great publishing power comes great responsibility… The calls to action were broader than JRE — they were directed at Spotify’s moderation policies (or lack thereof). Unlike many large platforms, Spotify doesn't appear to have a defined misinformation policy, or at least one that’s consistently enforced. Yet moderation will likely become a growing issue for Spotify as its business grows — just as it is for other social and streaming giants.
Pills
Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus wants to make prescription drugs more affordable and transparent
From “Shark Tank” to the aspirin aisle… Celeb investor Mark Cuban launched an online pharmacy designed to lower prices of 100 generic drugs. The Cost Plus Drug Co. aims to simplify healthcare’s complex biz model by cutting out intermediaries and selling drugs for wholesale prices — plus a fixed 15% markup.
- Drug prices are often shockingly high because of complex negotiations between drugmakers, pharmacies, and health insurers.
- CP buys drugs wholesale and breaks down their costs on its website. Think: ingredients = $12, manufacturing = $3, profit = $2.10. Thirty pills of a life-saving drug could cost $2.5K at CVS — but $17 at CP.
- CP doesn’t accept insurance, but it could be a huge help for the 31M Americans without insurance.
Rattling big pill bottles… Nearly 80% of US prescriptions are managed by CVS, Cigna, and UnitedHealth. Critics say pharmacy heavyweights use complex clauses to drive up prices, and regulators are investigating the industry. Several companies are trying to fix healthcare’s pricing problem:
Price matters, but so does transparency… That’s why companies are pursuing more transparent alternatives to traditional pharma. Cost Plus can’t fully replace pharmacy behemoths (it only sells generic drugs) and its prices may not be lower than competitors’. But CP is building a Texas factory to make its own meds. And if it steals sales from juggernauts like CVS, it could help push the whole industry to become more transparent.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Cream: Unilever, which makes everything from Dove soap to Ben & Jerry’s, said it would split into five divisions (like: beauty, ice cream) to boost sales and cut costs — and slash 1.5K jobs.
- Green: To reach global net-zero emissions by 2050, the world will have to spend $9.5T annually on low-carbon infrastructure, according to McKinsey — that’s $3.5T more than what’s currently spent.
- Rev: GM said it would invest $7B in Michigan factories to pump out EVs like electric pickups and hire 4K new workers in the Great Lakes State.
- Chipped: Nvidia shares fell nearly 5% after Bloomberg reported the chip maker could ditch its $40B purchase of British chip designer Arm over antitrust pressure. Nvidia could lose its $1.25B deposit.
- Cloudy: Microsoft stock slipped nearly 5% despite reporting a 20% jump in sales and profits, beating expectations. Investors were bummed that cloud-computing sales slowed.
Wednesday
- Fed monetary policy meeting
- Earnings expected from: Tesla, Abbott Labs, Intel, AT&T, Boeing, Anthem, and Levi Strauss
Authors of this Snacks own shares of: GM, Pfizer, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, CVS, Nvidia, Spotify, and Tesla
ID: 2008065
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