Jottings of note:
Fake Wrapping
9to5Mac headlines this warning: “Avoid faking your Spotify Wrapped results if you’re in Congress.” That pearl of advice comes after N.J. Representative Josh Gottheimer was busted online for publicly releasing a fudged version of his listening preferences, Wrapped style. (If we had no pun-shame we’d say he was wrapping.) In an arguably pathetic attempt to be cooler-than-thou, he publicized a Top Songs list containing five Bruce Springsteen songs. A sloppy faux-Wrapped presentation featuring mixed fonts, irregular spacing, and poor image resolution gave the lie to Gottheimer’s gambit. Investigation ensued; a confession was acquired; an excuse offered: “This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year-old kids,” Gottheimer said.
Productive Reversion
Last week we covered Sirius XM’s annual report, in which the audio giant reversed course, announcing a re-commitment to its legacy in-car offering, and reducing its concentration on its streaming initiative. Now Fred Jacobs ruminates on that development, calling CEO Jennifer Witz “amazingly candid in her assessment of her company’s failure to make its extensive mobile streaming strategy into a winner.” Jacobs notes that reversing course is not only a technology reversal, but also “reverting to SXM’s natural audience — older adults.” For Jacobs, that aligns Sirius with broadcast radio. In the car, though, things get complicated with the rapid advance of connected cars — vehicles natively able to play internet-sourced audio of various types. Data from Jacobs Media’s Techsurvey 2024 illustrate this piece. READ
December 16, 2024
