Spotify's "Stations" app reinvents radio
Hey Snackers,
Ignore the distracting "Jeado" (jeans-Speedo). Enjoy the market's best day since January.
The Dow surged 512 points on fresh words from the Fed — The nation's central bank implied it'll support the US economy through the trade war by not raising interest rates (and cutting them if it has to).
Spotify unveils a new app: "Stations" is your personalized radio
Nice antenna 😏... Spotify is now the proud parent of a new app — "Stations." The Spotify sequel is designed to bring the best parts of old school radio to an app (but better because, Spotify). And Spotify shares jumped 4% on the new market potential:
- Stations = "Lean-back" media: Music, video, or other content that just plays. It's on in the background or whenever you can't decide what to watch/listen to.
- Spotify = "Lean Forward" media: When you know what you want, and you want it now.
The original lean-back media is radio... Stations takes that on, as well as Sirius XM and Pandora (which Sirius owns). Here's how Stations is lean-back:
- Instant music: It starts playing right when you open the app.
- Personalized: It has pre-set stations based on what you like on Spotify.
- Radio-like: The app is super simple — you ~~turn~~ scroll the dial to find the right station.
- Free: Spotify's calling it an experiment, and it costs nothing (for now).
Just like that, Radio's advantage is gone... Stations is a simplified, dumbed-down, smartened-up version of Spotify offering the users less control. Turns out, that's what we always wanted. Radio's "just turn it on" convenience advantage is baked into this product tweak – And the target is commuters and background listeners.
CVS just evolved pharmacies — They're now "HealthHUBs"
Drink plenty of fluids... and open a lot of new "HealthHUBs" by 2021. That's the prognosis for CVS, whose stock is down 14% in the last year. It announced yesterday it's remodeling a fifth of the floorspace in 1,500 CVS stores to create HealthHUBs: Part pharmacy, part hospital, and part urban wellness retreat. We also noticed these perks:
- "Care Concierge": Someone who walks you through how your medical insurance works (only 9% of Americans understand 4 key health insurance terms).
- A little bit of yoga: Each spot gets wellness rooms (+ dieticians) so you can practice your practice.
- A serious amount of lab work: Blood-testing and health screenings will be going down, using medical equipment that’s permanently installed.
Who's the adult responsible?... Aetna. CVS acquired the health insurer last year — And that gave it direct access to Aetna's 22M members. Next, it's scaling HealthHUBs from a pilot version in Texas, to Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Tampa first. And it's got 10K of its own pharmacies to potentially freshen up after revamping the first 1.5K.
This is about empty shelves, not your heart rate... Candy. Protein bars. Tissue paper. Your random go-to's used to be bought at drugstores — Now they're bought online (via Amazon). That's given CVS empty space, so it's investing big on its expertise in health to fill that gap: Turn its pharmacies into immersive experiences (think, 6pm vinyasa flow after the eye exam).
Bird unveils a big-wheeled "Cruiser" e-bike
When a parking spot costs $400/month... You ditch your car. And when public transit looks like this, you want 2-wheels. So e-scooter pioneer Bird introduced another ride option Tuesday — Bird Cruiser — a motorized moped/bike thing. They'll be available this summer in some cities where Bird operates, helping the $2B startup expand its not-car mobility game (macro-valuation, micro-transit).
For sitting, not standing... Bird and Lime raced for e-scooter domination last summer, parking fleets in every city and college town. Now Bird's trying to differentiate itself with a menu of mobility modes.
- The OG scoot-share: Bird's electric rides go about 15 miles on 1 charge, and can be rented starting at $1/ride through the app.
- "Bird One": The $1,299 version for riders who are tired of renting, but cool with standing on the Razor scooter-with-motor.
- NEW "Bird Cruiser": This thing's got room for 2 butts, and is a bike that doesn't need pedaling. Not for buying yet, just for inclusion in Bird's scoot-share fleets.
Urban + high income + low time... That's the target market. As high-income jobs consolidate in tops cities whose transit systems can't handle that much human cargo, there's demand for "last mile transit" options. Uber and Lyft are both chasing that. But Bird and Lime are totally focused on scoots and bikes to get you to work and home faster.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Swiped: Bumble's ladies-first dating app launches a wine bar in NYC's SoHo for less-awkward first dates
- Unpolished: Tiffany's sales fell 5% so it blamed Chinese tourists for shopping less
- Shared: Hertz launches a $999/month car rental subscription service so you never have to own one
- Playdate: Hasbro jumps 6% as its "Magic: The Gathering" game gets a show on Netflix
- Encore: Netflix just ordered up a Jurassic Park series, too
Wednesday
- Earnings from Stitch Fix, American Eagle, and Campbell Soup
Disclosure: An author of this Snacks owns shares of Amazon.