Entertainment Episodes

Streaming news and rumors, including the latest from companies like Netflix and Spotify.
Oct. 29, 2019

Tue. 10/29 - Playstation Vue Goes To The Deadpool

Earnings from Alphabet and Shopify, hacking the Olympics, the Rise of the Rest rides again, Amazon is making grocery delivery free and letting you pay your electric bill via Alexa, and don’t update your HomePod, or you might…
Sept. 6, 2019

Fri. 09/06 - Sonos Goes Portable and Apple Music Goes To The Web

Apple might have just given us the final reason to delete iTunes, Sonos has its first portable speaker, the Attorney’s General are targeting Facebook as well, it’s duplicating Google services all the way down, and, of course…
Aug. 20, 2019

Tue. 08/20 - Is Apple TV+ DOA?

Twitter suspends a bunch of China-linked accounts, is Apple TV+ dead on arrival? 23 towns in Texas are hit with ransomware, and why isn’t Alexa in your car? Sponsors: DataTribe.com/challenge PixelUnion.net BRD's Longread Abo…
Aug. 17, 2019

(Bonus) Is The Netflix Algo Broken? With Julia Alexander @loudmouthjulia

On a recent weekend longreads segment, I recommended a piece by The Verge’s Julia Alexander asking whether Netflix’s recommendation algorithms were broken, or maybe borked. We’re going to talk a bit about that today, but sin…
Aug. 7, 2019

Wed. 08/07 - The Disney+ Bundle Is Nuts

We have a launch date for Disney+ and we also have confirmation of a wicked compelling bundle, FedEx officially breaks up with Amazon, Amazon trades accusations with CVS and Walgreens, iOS API changes make life difficult for…
July 18, 2019

Thurs. 07/18 - Netflix's Numbers Visit the Upside Down

Netflix's growth disappoints, but Stranger Things have happened. The Democratic National Committee tells candidates to avoid the photo-aging simulator FaceApp. Don't expect driverless cars any time soon, despite the hype. Ca…
June 5, 2019

Wed. 06/05 - YouTube Takes Action-ish

YouTube actually DOES make some changes, Peloton is going public, could Prime open Amazon up to anticompetitive scrutiny, more on that Sign in with Apple controversy, and why your local police department might want to buy yo…
May 19, 2019

The Streaming Wars With Eric Jackson

Eric Jackson is an investor at EMJ Capital Ltd. He’s deep in the media space, he’s deep in the streaming wars, as I think I say in this episode, he’s shaped a ton of my thinking about the streaming wars. So… where are we? Wh…
Guest: Eric Jackson
April 12, 2019

Fri. 04/12 - Uber's IPO and Disney+ Deets

Uber’s IPO filing is officially upon us and there was much rejoicing… or, at least, plenty of takes; Disney outlined its streaming video plans and in doing so it both put Apple to shame and fired a warning shot at Netflix, a…
March 28, 2019

Thu. 03/28 - Spotify Tests Subscriptions For Two

Facebook is charged with violations of the Fair Housing Act, the UK gives Huawei a pass but drags them at the same time, Spotify lets you share your account with your better half, and let’s take two on that Google podcast tr…
March 25, 2019

Mon. 03/25 - Apple Goes Hollywood!

The Apple event broken down piece by piece, YouTube wants out of the streaming video wars, Nintendo is working on two new Switch devices, is consolidation finally coming to the digital media space, and why you should know th…
March 13, 2019

Wed. 03/13 - Spotify Anti-Trust's Apple

Spotify files a pretty timely anti-trust complaint against Apple, Microsoft tries to get a jump on Google’s steaming video game announcement, is Google scaling back its hardware ambitions, what is Discord and why is it going…
Feb. 10, 2019

The Economics of Spotify With Victor Luckerson of @ringer

Remember this longread piece? Is Spotify’s Model Wiping Out Music’s Middle Class? It's stuck with me because, a) I didn't quite understand how the math worked out and b) I thought it was an interesting take on the ARTIST sid…
Jan. 26, 2019

(Bonus) The State of Digital Media With Rafat Ali @rafat

Given all the news of layoffs in the digital media space this week, I knew I couldn't sit on this interview with Rafat Ali any longer. Currently the founder and CEO of digital media company Skift—but also, if you weren’t awa…
Guest: Rafat Ali
Jan. 15, 2019

Tue. 01/15 - Netflix Raises Prices

Netflix raises prices, maybe the Apple battery replacement WAS a big deal after all, cops can’t force you to unlock your phone with your face, and Amazon is driving its retail competitors into the arms of Microsoft. Sponsors…