🎈 Spotify's Clubhouse-style party

No crying in the Clubhouse... Well, maybe a few tears. Yesterday, Spotify launched its Clubhouse competitor "Greenroom." The social audio app is a Spotify-branded revamp of Locker Room, a sports-talk app that Spotify bought in March. Greenroom expands beyond Sunday football, to convos about music, culture, and Q&As with artists and podcasters.

• Testing, testing: Some features of Greenroom could be integrated into the actual Spotify app. For now, Spotify wants to see how (and if) people use it.
• Beyond Wrapped: Spotify loves designing cool stories for your Insta (your Top Song of 2020 is crucial info). But Greenroom is its first real stab at a social platform.

Two parties on the same night... Claaassic high-school conundrum. To lure people to yours, you might throw in Taco Bell and even a DJ. Spotify does things a little differently. In its quest to steal ears from Apple, Spotify has spent nearly $1B on pod-related acquisitions — including The Ringer, Gimlet, and Parcast. Now it's beefing up the VIP list.

• Alex Cooper will be there. Spotify just snagged exclusive rights for top podcast "Call Her Daddy" (reportedly for $60M+).
• Joe Rogan's already sipping the green punch. Spotify brought "The Joe Rogan Experience" into its gated garden party (reportedly for $100M+).
• It's working: Spotify’s US podcast listenership is expected to surpass Apple Podcasts for the first time this year.

June 19, 1865… More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, federal troops marched into Texas to take control of the state and ensure all enslaved people were freed. Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the US — and the US government just made it a federal holiday. Beyond this recognition, lawmakers have been discussing how to make amends. Amid a national reckoning over racial injustice, more attention is being paid to reparations.

• Reparations = The US government compensating descendants of Black American slaves for their labor, an idea that dates back to the Civil War.
• $3B: The value assigned to Black American slaves’ labor in 1860. Academics have struggled to agree on a total value for reparations, with estimates ranging from as low as $17B to as high as $97T.

150+ years later… The economic effects of slavery are still being felt. Even after Emancipation, Black Americans were denied land ownership, home loans, and capital, while segregation affected educational and job opportunities. That all led to the racial wealth gap: the typical white family has 8X the wealth of the typical Black family.

Reparations could take many forms… Including: individual payments, college tuition, student loan forgiveness, and housing grants. Since 2019, cities and states have been making moves toward their own reparations:

• In March, Evanston, IL became the first US city to offer reparations to Black residents. Each qualifying household would receive $25K for home repairs, down payments, and interest or late fees on city property.
• A handful of cities, including Detroit, Providence, RI, and Asheville, NC, have also either approved their own programs or are considering proposals.

• Whoa: TikTok-owner Bytedance said its revenue more than doubled to $34B+ last year, while profit nearly doubled to $19B.
• Viral: The US will invest $3B+ on developing and manufacturing Covid antiviral meds which can be taken at home (ETA: end of 2021).
• Flated: The US' booming economy is driving inflation higher around the world, pushing some central banks to raise interest rates.
• Again: Chinese ride-hail giant Didi was reportedly hit with an antitrust probe by China. We'll see if its massive IPO still happens on schedule.
• Fanz: OnlyFans is reportedly in talks to raise fresh funding at a $1B+ valuation. It's trying to move into more PG-13 content.

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Apple

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