Hey Snackers,
Italy’s Parmigiano-Reggiano producers are embedding edible microchips into their cheese to protect the coveted wheels from counterfeiters. The teeny chips use blockchain tech to trace the cheese wheel’s origin. But don’t worry: they apparently stop working after they’re ingested.
Stocks rose yesterday to kick off the week, led by Big Tech gains. Treasuries hit a 15-year high as investors wait to hear Fed Chair Powell speak at Jackson Hole on Friday. He’s expected to talk about — wait for it — interest rates.
Lyft and Uber could ditch Minneapolis over a minimum-wage bill — and other cities could follow
Breakin’ out the old bike… Uber and Lyft could pump the brakes on their ride-hailing businesses in Minneapolis. Last week the city approved a gig-labor bill mandating a minimum wage of $0.51/minute and $1.40/mile for ride-hailing workers. That would put drivers’ pay in line with the city’s new $15/hour minimum wage. Minneapolis’s mayor is due to decide whether to veto the bill tomorrow, but may have a few reasons to hesitate:Â
If the bill goes through, Uber said it’ll remove cheaper UberX options for riders, leaving only its pricier premium rides like Uber Black and Uber SUV.Â
Lyft said it would exit Minneapolis on January 1 if the bill passes. The ride biz said the new minimum wage would double its fare prices in the city.Â
New news, old story… Gig unions have long battled with ride-hailing biggies for better pay and benefits like healthcare and PTO. Uber, Lyft, and other gig apps scored a major victory in March when a California court upheld Prop 22, which let drivers continue to be classified as independent contractors instead of employees. But the battle isn’t over: last month Uber and DoorDash sued NYC over its first-of-its-kind $18/hour minimum-wage law for delivery workers. Minneapolis and NYC join other urban hubs like San Francisco and Seattle in pushing for gig-labor protections.
A small wave can cause big ripples… While California’s state-wide proposal was struck down, city-by-city legislation can make a difference. Minneapolis’s minimum-wage bill (especially if it passes) could fuel the pay battle for gig workers elsewhere. Already, Chicago and Washington, DC, are said to be considering their own minimum-wage laws.
Spotify’s white-noise headache raises the volume of its podcast struggles
10 hours of white noise… for losing sleep. Spotify recently considered taking the aux away from white-noise podcasts (popular for sleeping and studying), Bloomberg reported. The streamer said that barring users from uploading rainfall on tin-roof soundscapes could boost its yearly gross profit by $38M (some white-noise podcasters have pulled in $18K/month in ad revenue). At the root of the issue: Spotify’s own algorithms.
Boost to bust: Spotify’s algos prioritized “talk” content over music, but a lot of white-noise tracks are released as podcasts. The algo boost helped white-noise pods garner 3M daily listening hours.Â
Siding with sound: Spotify ultimately decided to let white noise stay, though some creators have complained their episodes are disappearing, costing them tens of thousands of daily listeners.
“Cricket sounds” on the pod charts… next to “Armchair Expert.” Noise-pod popularity has frustrated record labels like Warner Music and Universal Music. Music execs are miffed that artists like Ed Sheeran are paid out of the same royalty pool as ocean-sound podcasters. It’s also annoyed Spotify, which has invested $1B+ in podcasting since 2019 to become a leader in premium content. But total US podcast ad revenue reached only $1.8B last year. While the pod-palooza boosted engagement, Spotify is still unprofitable.
Turning up the volume can make it tough to focus… Just a few years after acquiring distribution app Anchor (which hosts 44% of all podcasts) and striking a $200M+ deal with Joe Rogan, Spotify has pulled back from pods as it tunes to profitability. This year, Spotify had layoffs in its pod division and lost big shows from creators like the Obamas. Now it’s reining in efforts to become the “HBO of podcasting” and allowing itself to become more like the “YouTube of audio.”
What else we’re Snackin’
Unmute: Companies haven’t shut the laptop on Zoom yet: the videoconference icon beat quarterly expectations and lifted its annual guidance, but its growth is much slower than in the pandemic boom times.Â
Fly: American Airlines became the second major US carrier to seal a new contract with pilots after sweetening its offer based on United’s union deal. American’s 15K+ pilots will get instant raises of 21%.Â
Stuck: There’s a traffic jam in the Panama Canal. 200+ ships are stalled on both sides of the critical trade route, backed up for more than 20 days as a major drought delays crossings.Â
NotGrande: Evergrande, once China’s second-largest developer, is seeking bankruptcy protection in the US. China’s property market = 30% of the country’s econ activity, and experts worry about contagion.Â
Blocked: Residents of Yellowknife, Canada, fleeing a wildfire likely aren’t getting their news updates from Meta’s Facebook. The biz recently blocked news links in Canada after a new law required it to pay publishers.
Tuesday
BRICS summit begins
Earnings expected from Baidu, Macy’s, Lowe’s, Coty, Urban Outfitters, and Dick’s Sporting GoodsÂ
Authors of this Snacks own shares of Uber and Warner Music