And we’re back at it, FutureParty people. This past weekend, the world mourned Kabosu — the Shiba Inu who went viral in 2010 for giving a curious look (you know the one), became the face of many memes, and became the face of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin. According to owner Atsuko Sato, a teacher in Japan, he passed at a very happy 18 years old. Much rest, very peace, Kabosu.

In other news… college athletes will get paid by their schools, Meta and Google want Hollywood content, and Anora wins the Palme d’Or.

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 – Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F

• X (Twitter) – My Adventures With Superman

• Google – French Open

• Reddit – Furiosa

• TikTok –  “Where’d All the Time Go?” - Dr. Dog

• Spotify – “The Craving” - Twenty One Pilots

.SPORTS.

College athletes could become university employees

The Future. If a California judge approves the settlement in House vs. NCAA, college athletes would have more or less completed their transition into full-fledged employees for the schools they play for, clinching the first-ever revenue-sharing agreement between the two. The approval could majorly prepare collegiate athletes for the economic pressures of pro sports… but it could also put unprecedented pressure and attention on high school athletics.

Salaried scores
Are college sports for amateurs or professionals? The answer is about to get even murkier.

• All Division I athletes (dating back to 2016) can now collect on the $2.8 billion settlement for a portion of the revenue they generated from their name, image, and likeness prior to the rule change three years ago.

• All D1 athletes moving forward will be able to share 22% of the revenue generated from their NIL (major leagues share roughly 50%), which comes out to about $20 million from each school.

• But there isn’t a set amount that future players will be paid — it’ll be up to the discretion of each school to divvy out payments based on what sports they really want to invest in (most revenue is generated from football and basketball).

The NCAA believes that $2.8 billion is a lesser evil than the nearly $4 billion it might have had to pay if the case had gone to trial. But it’s still only a temporary fix.

Universities are now calling on Congress — which has mostly stayed out of this debate — to pass legislation that excludes the NCAA from antitrust rules, determines that players are not employees, and gives the league more wiggle room to oversee financial agreements between players and schools.

Maybe now’s a good time to go back to school.

53% of you voted No in Friday’s poll: Have you been to a concert in 2024?

“Too expensive and terrible parking.”

“I have no desire to be in such large crowds.”

“I go to shows 2 to 3 times per week. I generally stick with smaller, independent venues to avoid the high ticket prices and fees found at Live Nation and Ticketmaster-associated events.”

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT BRANDED BILLS.

Just throw on a hat

A good hat can turn any reg fit into one that truly slaps. You know what that means? It’s a great time to put your logo on a hat.

There’s no doubt in our minds that you’re going to want to make it a Branded Bills hat. They make quality merch people actually want to wear.

Don’t just take it from us; see what a happy client has to say about their Branded Bills hats:

“They're wearing them to bowling alleys, sporting events, etc.” Rebecca Ferguson, Empire CAT

If you want peeps wearing your company hat while rocking their bowling moves, hit up Branded Bills.

Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Sean Baker’s comedic thriller Anora, starring Mikey Madison (Scream V, Better Things), won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival — the first time an American film has won the top prize since 2011’s The Tree of Life. [Read More]

• Sony rolled out a three-year plan to create more synergies across its film, TV, gaming, and music divisions. [Read More]

• VR music platform Soundscape is collabing with deadmau5 on an exclusive virtual concert that, after its live show, can be streamed whenever. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Gaming and lifestyle brand 100 Thieves is debuting a capsule collection created with adidas that includes apparel, accessories, and a limited-edition sneaker. [Read More]

• A new study found that rideshare drivers in California are, on average, making below minimum wage — roughly $5.97 per hour without tips and $7.63 per hour with tips. [Read More]

• Art collective Drought teamed up with music-sharing platform Napster on a collection that calls back to your middle school days of giving your family computer a virus so you could download songs. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• The SEC approved the listing of an ETF tied to ether, the token of the Ethereum blockchain, paving the way for listings on the Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange. [Read More]

• Uh oh: Google’s new AI Overviews are full of erroneous information and advice, including that running with scissors is great for cardio and putting a bit of glue on pizza will help cheese stick when baking. [Read More]

• Elon Musk announced that he’s building the largest AI-focused supercomputer in the world — 4x bigger than those built by Meta — to train the next version of xAI’s Grok chatbot. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• YouTube is rolling out yellow dollar-sign timestamps on demonetized videos to show creators exactly what parts of a video are against content guidelines. [Read More]

• Twitch streamer Kai Cenat said he’s organizing a “creator Hunger Games” that will feature 50 creators using drones and combat suits. [Read More]

• Creator Girl On Couch (real name: Megan Boni) jokingly released a 19-second snippet of her self-described “song of the summer” about “looking for a man in finance” …which has been remixed into a viral hit. [Read More]

.ENTERTAINMENT.

Alphabet and Meta want to pay to play with Hollywood

The Future. Google parent company Alphabet and Meta have discussed with Hollywood studios about licensing content to train its upcoming video-generating AI software… and studios have at least entertained those talks. Those developments — coupled with the Scarlett Johansson/OpenAI drama and the fact these systems may already be trained on Hollywood content — might spur more talent to protect their likeness by copyrighting their own deepfakes.

Hallucinating in Tinseltown
AI firms really want a piece of Hollywood stardom.

• Alphabet and Meta are offering studios and streamers tens of millions of dollars for licensing rights to their films and shows to train their AI. OpenAI has also made similar offers.

• But Hollywood is reluctant to play ball — Disney and Netflix don’t want to (but they want to partner in other ways), while cash-strapped Warner Bros. Discovery is open to licensing a limited number of titles.

• Studios fear that licensing content to AI companies will anger the creative community and create major headaches around payments and ownership (not to mention cannibalizing its own industry).

What studios would love to partner on are ways to use AI to reduce the cost of production and post-production or better target audiences on streaming services. For example, a test of Sora impressed Tyler Perry so much that he alleges it was the reason he postponed an $800 million expansion of his studio in Atlanta.

Time will tell if any other studios are willing to play with fire.

.A WORD FROM OUR FRIENDS AT RYSE.

Less than 3 weeks left to invest in this smart home startup

The ball-park isn’t the only place to look for home runs. Best Buy has a proven record of placing early bets on home-tech products that go on to dominate the market.

• Ring - acquired by Amazon for $1.2B

• Nest - acquired by Google for $3.2B

Early investors in these companies are sitting on some serious returns - but for the rest of us, there's still a chance to get in on the action with RYSE.

History tends to repeat itself, and RYSE's launch in +100 Best Buys points towards their company being the next home run.

Their Smart Shade tech is poised to dominate an industry growing at 50% annually, and there's still time to invest in their $1.50/share public offering.

The window to invest is closing - learn more here.

• Read: WSJ delves into what went down between Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI before the rollout of the Sky chatbot, which sounded eerily similar to the actress.

• Listen: Decoder with Nilay Patel sits down with 404 Media’s Joseph Cox to recount how the FBI created a smartphone called “Anom” that could track criminal rings around the world.

• Watch: Vox explains how our phones affect our sleep, which is sure to keep you up at night.

.GIVEAWAY ALERT.

Entering your festival era

🌤️🎸 Free tickets for you and a pal to the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival? Check. $1,000 cash to cover travel and accommodations? Check. A VISA gift card for your festival essentials? Check. Enter to win a weekend of good vibes and awesome music in Manchester, TN, this summer.

Hollywood, your next mega-hit.

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today we get into the NFL potentially allowing private equity into team ownership, how brands are paying school tuition fees, and how streamers are trying to change the way they pay their talent.