Hosted by Maya Rudolph, “Let’s Go Crazy: The Grammy Salute To Prince” aired Tuesday night on CBS in remembrance of the fourth anniversary of the death of Prince (France, 2020). Recorded in late January, this special had performances from artists such as Earth, Wind, & Fire, Foo Fighters, Usher, John Legend, Chris Martin, etc. Prince is an artist who has influence the music industry in such vast ways and for him to be remembered in such a special way is only deserving for the effects he had on artists throughout time. Maya Rudolph commented, “‘There are words that don’t exactly cut it for me: Genius, brilliant, gifted, prolific, legendary– they’re all true. But they don’t really get right to that feeling that can only be described through his music… To me, Prince is music…To love Prince is to love music’ (France, 2020).”

This special was highly received by audiences, “…scoring 1.0 in the 18-49 demographic… it brought in an impressive 6.49 million (Brinton, 2020).” Because of this, CBS plans to rerun the performance on Saturday, April 25th at 8 pm. In a time where new and interesting performances seem a far reach during a pandemic, this special allowed audiences to watch something different and refreshing instead of constant COVID-19 updates.

Last night, on Thursday, April 25th, rapper Travis Scott held a live concert in the online Battle Royale game, Fortnite.  The announcement was made earlier in the week in order to build up the hype fore the event. Fans entered the sever and found themselves in front of a virtual stage. Soon after, Travis Scott’s giant avatar appeared and started to perform “Highest in the Room” and “Sicko Mode”. According to Epic Games, in a ten minute virtual performance, Travis Scott amounted to 12 million players participating in the event, along with 3 million people streaming the show. “The vast audience for the performance beat the previous Fortnite music event, an in-game gig by electronic dance music artist Marshmello in February 2019, which attracted more than 10 million viewers (Stuart, 2020).” As the concert came to a close, he surprised the audience with a new song called “The Scotts” featuring Kid Cudi.

This event, however, was not just a one time performance. Now named “Astronomical”, this nuanced music festival is scheduled for Friday, April 24th, at 3pm, and Saturday, April 25th, at 5am, 4pm, and 11pm. With the overall success of an online performance, this concert can open the door for many more artists to take advantage of virtual concerts to amass some of the largest audiences in history.

Following his performance on Thursday, Travis Scott tweeted, “HONESTLY TODAY WAS ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING DAYS. LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF U GUYS. AND I KNOW TIMES ARE WEIRD FOR US. BUT FOR ONE MOMENT TO BE ABLE TO HAVE THE RAGERS TO RAGE WHERE EVER YOU ARE IS AMAZING.”

Julia Boorstin in her article for CNBC covered the recent furloughing of at least 43,000 workers, mostly in the theme park division of the company.  Many estimates place the number closer to 100,000 workers which means a substantial number of the company’s employees will be without pay for an extensive amount of time.  Disney is now facing strong criticism as their contemporaries which include NBCUniversal and AT&T’s WarnerMedia have yet to furlough or even lay off any of their employees.  The article points out that more then one-third of the company’s revenue alone comes its parks and resorts.  This contrasts Disney’s competition which has a far less substantial stake in the theme park business.  NBCUniversal for example only accounts five percent of the company’s revenue as coming from its theme parks.  Despite this, the article makes evident that Disney’s market capitalization is $185 billion which puts the company in the position of appearing greedy and out of touch with the needs of their army of workers.  With their theme parks not opening potentially until next year, this move will obviously have a detrimental affect on the tens of thousands of employees who rely on the company to make ends meet. 

I found this article to be compelling for its analytical breakdown in terms of hard statistics regarding why Disney made the decision to furlough a significant portion of its workers.  Its unfortunate to say the least that the company was not able to work out some form of compensation for their dedicated employees who in their time of need are being left by the wayside. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/20/why-disney-is-furloughing-workers-and-the-other-media-giants-arent.html

In his article for The Hill, Chris Mills Rodrigo covered the recent bill introduced by GOP lawmakers which would make it mandatory for apps considered to be national security threats to place warnings in their user interface.  Specifically, apps like TikTok and FaceApp that are linked to China and Russia respectively, would be forced to warn users of the dangers of using said applications inside the United States.  Representative Jim Banks stated that “some phone apps are fun and useful, others are counterintelligence threats”.  He went on to say “Americans should know which is which before they hit the download button. Parents and consumers have a right to a warning that by downloading some apps like Russia’s FaceApp or China’s TikTok, their data may be used against the United States by an adversarial or enemy regime.”  Countries including Venezuela, Syria, Sudan, Iran, and North Korea would also be forced to include warnings on their published applications.  TikTok has responded to the bills introduction by stating “While we think the concerns about TikTok are unfounded, we understand them and are continuing to further strengthen our safeguards while increasing our dialogue with lawmakers to help explain our policies”. 

 I found this article to be particularly interesting as it demonstrated the growing concern among lawmakers in the United States about apps developed by nations considered to be adversarial to the interests of this country.  As apps such as TikTok have exploded in popularity over the past year, calls for regulation of some kind have increased substantially as the reality of American data being used by rival nations increases in likelihood.

 https://thehill.com/policy/technology/493887-gop-rep-introduces-bill-to-put-warnings-on-tiktok-faceapp

In an article for BBC, streaming giant Netflix recently announced to shareholders that the company saw a massive boost in subscriptions as a result of the COVID-19 lockdown currently affecting nearly every stretch of the globe.  The company stated that they brought in sixteen million new subscriptions in the first three months of 2020, an impressive number by all estimates.  Last year during the same period the streaming service saw roughly half of the number of new subscriptions they are seeing now.  Not only that, but the company has seen their stock price gain thirty percent in value in this year alone.  Obviously with people stuck inside constantly the demand for in home entertainment has gone up considerably as a result.  Netflix also has the benefit of a strong list of content and trendy shows like Tiger King which have surely helped to bolster intertest in the platform.  Interestingly, the article stated that the highest growth for the company in this quarter was seen in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 

This article was interesting in that it highlighted an example of a company that is flourishing as a result of the pandemic currently uplifting nearly every aspect of normalcy around the globe.  However, the article did point out that with production on hold for nearly every studio, it remains to be seen if the delay in new content will have a negative effect on the streaming services momentum once the lockdowns are eventually lifted.  It will also be interesting to see how the other major players in the streaming wars fare as a result of the pandemic. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52376022

This month, Instagram added a new feature making it easier to small business to sell services through the app, including gift cards or food orders, through their company site.

In complement to this feature, Instagram added a sticker for users to add to their stories to encourage follower support of local small businesses.

Facebook also launched gift cards for small business, in support of these businesses as well as their own interest, as a large number of their customers are small businesses. 140 million businesses across the Facebook apps and 8 million of them are advertisers.

Small businesses generate a large portion of Facebook and Instagram’s revenue, so their promotion is not 100% from the goodness of their hearts. The businesses provide revenue as well as priceless content and entertainment for Instagram and Facebook’s consumers. Instagram COO Justin Osofsky says, We want to do our part in helping them stay open, keep in touch with customers, and be informed on how to navigate this crisis.”

Article Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/15/instagram-gift-cards-food-orders-for-small-businesses-announced.html

AT&T President John Stankey predicts that the coronavirus will alter consumer behavior permanently, beyond media companies like AT&T. He released a statement that he believes that coming out of this pandemic, we will not return to our previous notion of “normal”. He said, “We are going to return to a different economic environment, we are going to return to different business models.”

As for his own industry, Stankey stressed that connectivity is vital during this pandemic. Connectivity has allowed for the maintenance of some normalcy. He said that in a time of much uncertainty, “people are resonating with an opportunity to spend their time looking for great stories and emotional attention and distraction during some very difficult circumstances.” He did concede that there will be changes in digital and streaming industries as well.

He does not see a return to retail space and major movie theater screenings for many consumers. He predicts that there will have to be new innovations to present stories and entertainment to consumers without the help of the big screen.

While some industries will see a more drastic adaptation than others, it is inevitable that industries will have to adapt in a new economic and consumer landscape.

Article Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/01/atts-stankey-consumer-behavior-will-be-changed-from-coronavirus.html

According to an article by CNN, Netflix gained 16 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2020. Stay at home ordinances have led millions to stay at home, binging popular original docu-series like Tiger King and Love is Blind.  

Netflix now has a total of 183 million subscribers globally. A spokesperson for Netflix said the platform plans to grow by an additional 7.5 million subscribers by the second quarter. The streaming giant’s first-quarter profit in 2020 more than doubled to $709 million from $344 million in the year-end quarter. This suggests that its revenue has increased by 28%, making it an astonishing $5.7 billion. Still, Netflix’s share price remained mostly unchanged in hours after trading. 

Netflix has made clear to its employees that this growth is not unique to their specific platform. Many of Netflix’s competitors have reported higher viewing and increased membership growth. This growth, however, could potentially cause issues in the future. Higher-ups at Netflix are under the realistic impression that viewing and membership growth will likely decline as social distancing efforts decrease over time. 

The company also got candid about potential disruptions to its business amid the pandemic, specifically in the realm of content production. Almost all filming has been temporarily halted worldwide, with the exception of a few countries like Korea and Iceland. Netflix, like other major content producers, has faced significant uncertainty as production and filming has been temporarily paused. With that being said, all scheduled releases for the second quarter will be released as planned. Luckily for Netflix, the company has access to a broad pipeline of content, many of which was either complete or in post-production in time for global travel and social restrictions. Still, amid all this uncertainty, Netflix remains optimistic about its future.