A-Pop

PRESENTED BY BOXABL

New week, new you, Future Party. And that goes for pop stars as well, who all seem to be rolling out re-brands as they release new albums or kick off tours. There’s Miley Cyrus (the queen of re-brands) with Something Beautiful, TikTok-star-turned-singer Addison Rae with Addison, and the upcoming Virgin by Charli XCX rival-turned-bestie Lorde. While they’ll all be competing to take the brat-summer crown, they may one day have to compete with AI for that honor. Wait, what? We have more on that below.

Grammy-winning rapper and music producer Timbaland is launching a company called Stage Zero that will generate artificial pop stars.

The High Note: AI is creating waves in the music industry, with some artists, like Timbaland, embracing the tech, while others, like Billie Eilish, deeming it an existential threat. But Stage Zero is taking things a step further by creating whole artists from generative systems, which could put them on a collision course with human artists who definitely don’t want to battle bots for people’s attention.

Behind the Artists: It’s no secret that some of the biggest pop stars in the world are manufactured by their labels… but Stage Zero is taking that concept to the next level.

Encore: Mudaliar told Billboard that “the artists of tomorrow won’t just be human, they’ll be IP, code, and robotics that are fully autonomous. That’s what we’re building at Stage Zero.” While co-founder Timbaland clearly agrees with that, especially after toying around with Suno, many in the music industry don’t feel the same way. Sony, UMG, and Warner are all suing Suno for allegedly illegally scraping their artists’ music.

Prediction: It’s only a matter of time before an AI pop star is behind the song of the summer… which is really going to throw people for a loop.

Most car factories, like Ford or Tesla, reportedly build one car per minute. Isn’t it time we did the same for houses?

BOXABL believes they have the technology to disrupt a massive and outdated trillion-dollar building construction market by bringing assembly-line automation to the home industry.

Since securing its initial prototype order from SpaceX and a subsequent project order of 156 homes from the Department of Defense, BOXABL has made substantial strides in streamlining its manufacturing and order process. BOXABL is now delivering to developers and consumers. And they just reserved the ticker symbol BXBL on Nasdaq.*

BOXABL has raised over $200M from over 50,000 investors since 2020. They recently achieved a significant milestone: raising over 50% of their Reg A+ funding limit! But the round is closing on June 24th on all platforms, so it’s time to take action.

Invest now before it’s too late.

^{_{This is a paid advertisement for BOXABL’s Regulation A offering. Please read the offering circular here. This is a message from BOXABL.
*Reserving a Nasdaq ticker does not guarantee a future listing on Nasdaq or indicate that BOXABL meets any of Nasdaq's listing criteria to do so.}}

Content creators are finally getting some official backing in the House of Representatives with the formation of the bipartisan Congressional Creators Caucus.

The Big Picture: Content creation is a bona fide cornerstone of the American economy, with Oxford Economics estimating that YouTube’s ecosystem alone was behind 390,000 full-time jobs in 2022. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs believes that the creator economy will be worth $500 billion by 2027. Congress can’t afford to ignore that kind of economic power.

Behind the Support: As long as our members of Congress don’t get involved in any viral dance challenges, the Congressional Creators Caucus is a great idea.

The Future: It’s not surprising that Congress (which is, on average, made up of some very old members) doesn’t have a good grasp on the intricacies of the creator economy. That’s why some top creators, like former YouTuber Matthew Patrick (MatPat) and his wife, Stephanie Patrick, have been lobbying Capitol Hill for years on this issue. They’ve affirmed their support for the new caucus (even speaking at the press event), as have YouTube and Patreon.

Prediction: We wouldn’t be surprised if this caucus potentially changes some minds on whether the TikTok ban should actually go through (because, let’s be real, it’s still kind of up in the air).

Keeping up with AI is hard – we get it!

That’s why over 1M professionals read Superhuman AI to stay ahead.

Sign up and start mastering AI

60.4% of you voted No in Friday’s poll: Would you ever buy a VR headset?

“Sure, VR can be a bit of fun escapism, but reality is enough for me.”

“I bought one out of curiosity, and once I had it, I realized I had no idea what to do with it. It’s been sitting in the closet ever since. Wasted money, but it was one of the cheaper ones, so no great loss.”

“Once they have one that can provide a 90s club experience, I am in.”

“I’m a stroke survivor. VR is a big part of my physical therapy program.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

🍿 28 Years Later is the biggest advance-ticket-selling horror movie in the past year, with an expected box-office debut of over $34 million in two weeks.

🛥️ Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman bought an ownership stake in the Australian competitive sailing team, Bonds Flying Roos.

📰 3 Arts Entertainment is getting news talent on its roster with the acquisition of OManagement.

📱 MrBeast has hired Beau Avril — a veteran of YouTube, Meta, and TikTok — as his new head of media and brand partnerships.

🤳 Kai Cenat is plotting a reality show that will feature other influential streamers and be livestreamed 24/7.

👀 X is testing a new feature that highlights posts the platform believes reflect views you don’t normally align with.

👔 Kering is exploring a sale of a stake in its billion-dollar Fifth Avenue location in an effort to save money.

🏃‍♀️ Peloton is considering licensing its equipment to gyms, which would launch a secondhand marketplace for the company’s products.

🛍️ Big-box retailers are doubling down on private-label products as a way to circumvent price increases due to tariffs.