Happy Friday, FutureParty people. Feeling nostalgic for the early 2000s? Us, too. Now you can relive the good ol’ days (ahem, Myspace) with Instagram’s latest launch — a feature that lets you add your song du jour to your profile. Just try not to cringe too hard when you look back at your picks in a decade or two.

In other news… buying a house is a gamble, influencers pen newsletters, and Starbucks is a bank.

Want to discover even more newsletters? Here are some of our favorites

• YouTube – “Somebody Save Me (feat. Jelly Roll)” - Eminem 

• X (Twitter) – Myspace

• Google – Gus Walz

• Reddit – Dancing with the Stars

• TikTok – “Came Here for Love” - Sigala & Ella Eyre

• Spotify –  “Nobody’s Soldier” - Hozier

HOUSING

Buying a house is more of a gamble than ever

The Future. Climate change is spiking homeowners’ insurance rates across the country — even in areas previously considered safe. As economists warn of an impending housing bubble, how the government responds to this challenge could ultimately determine whether the market deflates slowly or pops suddenly — with far-reaching economic consequences.

An inconvenient truth
As wildfire and flooding turn assets into liabilities, homeownership is becoming a greater gamble. 

• For generations, buying a home was considered one of the safest and wisest investments.

• But many economists now think we’re on the verge of a new housing bubble — especially since home prices don’t yet reflect climate reality.

• Estimates suggest US residential properties are overvalued by $121 to $237 billion for flood risks alone.

Rent or risk?
Government-backed insurance programs are already strained, with some facing potential insolvency. If these programs fail, it could result in plummeting home values, shrinking tax bases, and significant economic hardship for homeowners.

Experts recommend investing in climate-adaptation measures for vulnerable areas, implementing managed retreat from high-risk zones, and improving transparency about climate risks in real-estate transactions. Or, maybe it’s time to work with Wall Street.

86.2% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Do you think AI will create more jobs than it eliminates in the tech industry?

“AI might as well mean ‘All Inclusive.’ It seems it’s coming for everyone.”

“Some jobs should never have had people working in them and been automated from the beginning, but companies got fat, and people were doing mediocre work [...] clean-up is inevitable. Maybe universities will stop peddling mediocre degrees now, too.”

“It just changes work. It’s been like this with every tech breakthrough. We drive more cars than we ever did horses. Blacksmiths were replaced by engineers.”

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Media, Music, & Entertainment

• Blink Twice applies Get Out’s satirical horror to the world of ultra-rich tech bros. [Read More]

• Francis Ford Coppola’s new film Megalopolis took down its trailer after falsely attributing mean quotes to Coppola’s work. [Read More]

• TV writers are asking for “development fees” to create pitches and be paid the money whether the shows get made or not. [Read More]

Fashion & E-Commerce

• Checkout tech company Bolt Financial must decide whether to accept $200 million from an investor who insists upon remaining anonymous. [Read More]

• Macy’s will be closing five more stores in addition to the 50 others they announced earlier this year — but they insist that’s a good thing. [Read More]

• Compact, understated “separates” dominate the fashion of fall 2024. [Read More]

Tech, Web3, & AI

• MIT’s “AI Risk Repository” tabulates all the major risks of AI — and there are over 700. [Read More]

• Google is going to court over whether they have a monopoly on digital ad technology in search. [Read More]

• The AI bubble is bursting for many investors and much of the general public, but marketers welcome the correction. [Read More]

Creator Economy

• Content monetization platform Fanfix has helped its creator community earn $100 million since 2021. [Read More]

• Why social media is poised to create a media revolution like MTV and why creators have more power than ever before. [Read More]

• YouTubers haven’t just infiltrated professional golf; they’ve changed the enterprise entirely. [Read More]

.MEDIA.

Marketers eye influencer-run newsletters

The Future. Influencers — especially video creators on Instagram and TikTok — are starting their own newsletters. The trend presents an opportunity for brands to connect with more engaged audiences (than social media advertising provides them) and to get a foothold in the future of digital marketing if short-form video goes belly up.

The great migration
Short-form video creators are flocking to beehiiv and Substack to launch newsletters.

• Newsletters offer creators a chance to tackle more in-depth projects and circumvent users’ social media exhaustion while providing novel ad display and affiliate marketing options.

• beehiiv and Substack have launched creator acceleration programs aimed at boosting the popularity of already-famous creators, with beehiiv choosing five fellows and Substack picking 10.

• The services’ ad networks are growing fast, with brands doubling their ad spend on beehiiv in 2024.

Meanwhile, Substack is attracting more journalists and influencers than ever before.

The long haul
The rationale behind newsletter advertising is that fans who read newsletters are a niche community — small but far more likely to respond to advertisements because they’re invested in the lifestyle of their favorite influencer. And more likely to stick around.

That’s especially important if TikTok gets banned in the US or if short-form video ever falls out of style. It’s funny to imagine that the future of advertising really might be the written word.

• Watch: The Verge looks back at the rise and fall of California’s “hydrogen highway,” AKA how hydrogen fuel cell tech lost out to battery electric cars. 

• Read: The Atlantic covers the rise of AI cheating in colleges and what professors are doing (and not doing) about it. 

• Listen: Chris Williamson of Modern Wisdom chats with exec coach Joe Hudson about how to leverage enjoyment as unlikely fuel for productivity. 

LATEST PODCAST EPISODE

Today, on an extra special bonus episode of Future Forecast, our hosts Boye and Chris sit down with Andrew Kenward, the President and COO of Almost Friday Media. Andrew was an agent at WME in the digital media department at WME before being brought into the Almost Friday universe in 2021. We chat with him about his career, his goals for the brand moving forward, and what it's like working in media today.