It’s officially May, which means that it’s officially sunny season. If you’re in the mood for amazing music and vibes, this one’s for you. Enter to win two 4-day tickets to the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival plus $1,000 cash for travel and gear up for an epic weekend with Post Malone, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and so many more incredible artists ☀️🎶. Let’s go!

In other news… FKA Twigs introduces her deepfake, Instagram spreads the virality, and Yelp gets a little help from AI.

We hope you enjoy this and all upcoming issues, but we have one request: please share your feedback. If you have any thoughts at all about our new look, format, and direction, please reply to this email. It’ll go straight to us. Do not hold back.

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• YouTube – “euphoria” - Kendrick Lamar

• X (Twitter) – Drake

• Google – The Veil

• Reddit – Chris Hemsworth

• TikTok – “Tell Ur Girlfriend” - Lay Bankz

• Spotify – “Talk is Cheap” - Dr. Dog

.ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.

FKA Twigs creates a deepfake to do publicity for her

The Future. Musician, dancer, and actor FKA Twigs announced that she’s rolling out a deepfake of herself to handle her online presence, giving her more time to focus on what she actually wants to do — make music. If fans enjoy engaging with Twigs’ chatbot, expect deepfakes to soon be running nearly every celebrity’s social media profiles.

Twigs 2.0
FKA Twigs is launching a deepfake of herself that will do all the work she doesn’t want to do.

• Dubbed “AI Twigs,” the chatbot was trained on the artist’s personality, voice, and tone, while also being able to speak several languages.

• Twigs said that it will “extend my reach and handle my online social media interactions,” while she focuses “on my art from the comfort and solace of my studio” (very similar to Meta’s pitch for its celebrity-focused chatbot feature).

The revelation was made during a testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property yesterday, where Twigs spoke in support of legislation, saying, “These and similar emerging technologies are highly valuable tools both artistically and commercially when under the control of the artist.”

By making her own deepfake that she controls — something that the company Metaphysic is trying to scale for all public figures — Twigs seems to be trying to prove the power and utility of the technology.

75.6% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Would you ever shop for groceries (or any mundane thing) in the metaverse?

“Too weird.”

“Sure! It’s just an online store wrapped in a game.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT TIEGE HANLEY.

It’s May 1st – give your skin some love

It’s not National Skincare Day or anything. Sorry to disappoint.

But it’s a great time to start taking care of your skin, and with Tiege Hanley, it’s easier than working on your beach bod.

Tiege Hanley is an easy-to-use skincare system created with men — and those who identify as men — in mind.

It comes with everything you need for that dewy, manly glow:

• A daily face wash

• An exfoliating scrub

• AM moisturizer with SPF 20

• PM moisturizer

• Detailed instructions

Plus, they’re offering TFP readers an exclusive 30% off your first box, which also comes with a free gift.

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• The 2024 Tony Award nominations were announced yesterday, led by Alicia Keys’ musical Hell’s Kitchen and the rock group-focused Stereophonic with 13 nominations each. [Read More]

• The Slamdance Film Festival is moving to Los Angeles from Park City, Utah, next year after a 30-year run as a Sundance counter-programmer. [Read More]

• Amazon announced that its ad revenue jumped nearly 24% to nearly $12 billion, thanks to adding commercials to Prime Video. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• LVMH is exploring a sale of Marc Jacobs after being approached by several interested buyers. [Read More]

• Nike settled a trademark infringement lawsuit with BAPE, which forces the Japanese streetwear brand to discontinue or tweak some of its shoe designs. [Read More]

• Bella Hadid is launching a skincare-fragrance brand called Orebella that’s meant to be better for people with sensitive skin. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• Several top regional daily newspapers, including New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, and South Florida Sun Sentinel filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement. [Read More]

• Yelp announced that it’ll roll out AI-generated video summaries of restaurants, which will stitch together ​​photos, videos, and text reviews that users have uploaded. [Read More]

• Bumble is letting men initiate for the first time in the dating app’s 10-year history. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• TikTok announced that Shop reached 500,000 sellers in the US in less than a year of being in operation. [Read More]

• Newsletter platform beehiiv, which services over 20,000 newsletters, raised a $33 million Series B led by New Enterprise Associates. [Read More]

• Creator economy startup funding has rebounded, with Flip, Dude Perfect, and Duetti scoring some of the biggest deals of the year so far. [Read More]

.SOCIAL MEDIA.

Instagram shares love for true originals

The Future. After getting hit with many complaints, Instagram’s algorithmic ranking system is changing to surface more content from smaller, original creators instead of mostly big influencers or popular aggregation profiles. While the change is only applicable to Reels for now, expect a wider rollout across Instagram in the near future… which could totally flip the influencer ecosystem.

The new “For You”
Instagram is changing its algorithm to give creators a higher chance of going viral on Reels.

• The change will push more original content in recommendations than reposted content.

• Reposted content will now have a removable label that links back to the original creator and will also get replaced from recommendations in favor of the original if the algorithm finds it.

• Content from aggregators — like fuckjerry and shitheadsteve — will now not show up in recommendations at all.

Under the new system, Reels will recommend content to a small audience that may like it. The most popular posts with that group will expand to a wider audience… and so on and so forth. The point, according to TechCrunch, is that the changes will “give all creators an equal chance of finding audiences.” In other words, your follower count matters even less now.

The change to recommendations feels like Instagram trying to craft its own version of TikTok’s popular “For You” page… setting the stage for Reels to take the spotlight if TikTok is banned in the US.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT CLICKFUNNELS.

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• Listen: Puck chats with Tubi CEO Anjali Sud about the booming popularity of FAST platforms, where young audiences are now watching movies and TV shows.

• Read: Fast Company profiles 87North founders David Leitch and Kelly McCormick on redefining action movies and how this weekend’s The Fall Guy is the ultimate ode to Hollywood stunt people.

• Watch: Complex sits down with Aaron Cooper, the mastermind at Nike behind some of the most important basketball sneakers that the brand has released.

Hollywood is for escapism.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today we get into the potential super-merger between Paramount and Sony, how Gen Z might just be the "tool belt generation", and new legislation in Colorado that's preventing tech companies from selling your brain data.