🎧 Hip-hop’s golden anniversary

Plus: Blue-check chaos | Friday, March 31, 2023

Open in app View in browser   Presented By Shopify   Axios Closer By Hope King and Nathan Bomey · Mar 31, 2023 👋 Farewell to the week, month and Q1. April, treat us well. Today's newsletter is 637 words, a 2½-minute read. 🔔 The dashboard: The S&P 500 finished up 1.4% on the day — and closed out Q1 up 7.5%. Today's biggest gainer? Align Technology (+7.1%), the medical device company. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Today's biggest decliner? Micron Technology (-4.4%), the computer-memory company, became the subject of a cybersecurity investigation from Chinese authorities.     1 big thing: Hip-hop's fingerprints Grammy-winning artist Timbaland with Hope at this week's Axios What's Next Summit. Photo: Ron Flores for Axios   Fans and the music industry are celebrating hip-hop's golden anniversary this year, Hope writes. Why it matters: Since its official birth on Aug. 11, 1973, the genre's influence has stretched beyond the medium of sound and the borders of the U.S., let alone the Bronx where one party started it all. Driving the news: Amazon Music this week released a slew of programming to celebrate the milestone, ranging from original content and playlists to livestreams and events. iHeartMedia and Warner Music Group have yearlong tributes planned, while the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York has an exhibition of hip-hop fashion. The Grammys last month produced a well-received retrospective medley, and networks such as Showtime have had multiyear commemoration campaigns. What they're saying: "Hip-hop is the whole music industry right now. … Hip-hop influenced the whole world," Grammy-winning artist Timbaland told me earlier this week at our What's Next Summit. That includes brands that previously shunned the genre, now clamoring to work with hip-hop artists. The big picture: Those artists have been able to transform their influence into personal empires — just look at Jay-Z, hip-hop's first billionaire, now estimated to be worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes' latest estimate. Timbaland has also recently pivoted into entrepreneurship with Beatclub, a digital platform that connects songwriters to brands, music licensing teams, and record label scouts and managers. Or as he describes it, "the Amazon of beats." The bottom line: "Hip-hop from the beginning has always been aspirational," Jay-Z told Forbes over a decade ago. "It always broke that notion that an artist can't think about money as well."     2. Charted: Streaming money Data: RIAA; Note: Synchronization royalties includes fees and royalties from synchronization of recordings with other media; Chart: Axios Visuals Measuring the total economic impact of hip-hop may be tricky, but if it were the whole music industry, it would be worth nearly $16 billion in the U.S., Hope continues. Recorded music revenues grew 6% in 2022 to a record high of $15.9 billion, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The vast majority of that came from streaming — 84%. Driving those streams: Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny.     3. What's happening 🚂 The DOJ sued Norfolk Southern on behalf of the EPA over the East Palestine derailment. (NYT) 🇮🇹 Italy is temporarily blocking AI software ChatGPT pending a data breach investigation. (AP)     A message from Shopify A new way to evaluate your commerce stack     Monolithic architectures or microservices? One is overly complex while the other imposes too many constraints. An expert take: Ilya Grigorik, principal engineer at Shopify, shares his view on both and proposes a new, more flexible way forward for enterprise retailers. Learn more.     4. Bye-bye blue check marks Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios   Blue checks that we've come to associate with authenticity, trustworthiness and prominence on Twitter are set to disappear tomorrow from accounts that won't pay for the badges, Hope writes. Driving the news: New owner Elon Musk has been doing away with vetting processes for the verification badge and replacing them with a paid check-mark system (Twitter Blue). The idea is to juice revenue and reorganize "For You" feeds to feature more posts from paying users. The big picture: For the past 14 of Twitter's 17 years of existence, the badge has served as a sieve — separating real and mostly credible content from a sea of spammers, impersonators and bots. Those set to lose their badges — including White House staffers — are worried about imposters and losing reach, while users will have a harder time picking out accounts they can trust. What they're saying: "It's more about treating everyone equally," Musk tweeted earlier this week in response to concerns. "There shouldn't be a different standard for celebrities imo." Go deeper.   Share Axios and earn rewards If you like this newsletter, your friends may, too! Refer your friends and get free Axios swag when they sign up. Be a good friend and share   5. Best regards, Gwyneth Actor Gwyneth Paltrow speaks with retired optometrist Terry Sanderson after the verdict. Photo: Rick Bowmer/Pool/Getty Images   Your mission for the weekend, should you choose to accept it, is to watch and rewatch Gwyneth Paltrow lord her courtroom win over Terry Sanderson — the man who sued her over a ski collision in 2016 — with a vicious whisper, Hope writes. "I wish you well," Paltrow said as she tapped him on the shoulder and left. "Thank you, dear," he replied. Sanderson had sued for more than $300,000 (down from an earlier $3.1 million), and Paltrow countersued for $1 and attorney fees. What to watch: My email sign-off from now on.     A message from Shopify Finding the right commerce architecture for your business     The right commerce stack can help retailers streamline their operations and cut costs. What you need to know: Ilya Grigorik, principal engineer at Shopify, takes an in-depth look at the properties of a modern commerce operation system and proposes a new way forward. Get the white paper.   Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Sheryl Miller. ✏️ Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here to get Axios Closer in your inbox. Why stop here? Let's go Pro. Join the thousands of professionals using Axios Pro to keep up with the companies, deals and trends changing their industries.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. 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