Happy Taco Tuesday to all who celebrate. Another day, another strange quirk of living in a world with autonomous vehicles. In San Francisco, Waymo's autonomous taxis have taken over a parking lot as their nighttime holding zone. When the lot fills up, there’s apparently an endless cacophony of honks as the cars navigate the space… which is keeping nearby residents wide awake. Waymo said it’s working on the issue. At this point, we wouldn’t be surprised if Waymo is the only car company with more customer service reps than engineers.

In other news… the Olympics get an assist from the NCAA, music catalogs are the gifts that keep on giving, and Broadway welcomes star power to drive ticket sales.

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The Future. In the aftermath of the 2021 ruling that college athletes could monetize their name, image, and likeness, more and more athletes are competing at both the Olympics and NCAA tournaments — an either/or choice in previous years. As the spotlight on top athletes brings them celebrity acclaim, watch for universities to market their programs as “Olympic pipelines.”

University of Team USA
College athletes are now competing at the pro level at the Olympics and the amateur level in the NCAA.

And since the US doesn’t have its own centralized sports ministry like many developed countries, American colleges are now seen as training grounds for Olympic athletes, domestically and internationally. That in and of itself is a tricky situation — as colleges face budget contractions, support for sports that don’t bring in significant revenue could get cut.

For example, Stanford got rid of nine sports programs from its offerings with Olympic events in 2020.

83.3% of you voted Yes in yesterday’s poll: Did you enjoy the Olympics news coverage this summer?

“I enjoyed the coverage of sporting events. The opening and closing ceremonies were a tolerance test because of the inane commentary by everyone except Mike Tirico, who was brilliant throughout.”

“My family and I watch the Olympics whenever they’re on, but this year had so much to see, and I was able to watch sports that never get air time. Loved Snoop as well.”

“I watched more Olympics this year than ever, driven by the accessibility through the Peacock app and the terrific job of Mike Tirico. Such an improvement from the Tokyo coverage.”

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The Future. The last few years have seen a wave of top artists selling stakes in their music catalogs for major windfalls. The investments have become a significant asset class for labels and PE firms. As the gold rush continues, some innovative companies may look to offer their own version of an ETF in individual music catalogs to craft a new kind of alternative asset.

Rock the slots
Companies like Primary Wave and Universal Music Group have found several ways to monetize the music catalogs of legacy acts.

How lucrative is this? Bloomberg notes that Primary Wave took a 50% stake in Whitney Houston’s estate in 2019 for $7 million. Her work now generates $8 million annually. Talk about a return on investment.

Scooby snacks > Olympic medals

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.