Cultural trends

Netflix sues Barlow and Bear: is all fair in love and content creation?

Cover image for Netflix sues Barlow and Bear: is all fair in love and content creation?
Ashleigh Millar
TikTok sensations and The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical composers, Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, are being sued by subscription video on demand (SVOD) giant Netflix, and it raises the question: how far can fan creators go before they infringe intellectual property (IP)? “What if Bridgerton was a musical?” Back when Bridgerton series one was released at the end of 2020, Barlow and Bear took on a project to create a musical surrounding the Bridgerton storyline.
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TikTok tests ‘clear mode’ as consumers struggle with what is a distraction and what is not

Cover image for TikTok tests ‘clear mode’ as consumers struggle with what is a distraction and what is not
Hanna Kahlert
The announcement of TikTok testing a distraction-free ‘clear mode’ might come across as ironic, given the ‘distraction’-prone default use case of most social media platforms. Is TikTok not already a distraction from other things? What is left if a ‘distraction free’ mode is activated? Yet it is exactly this paradox of perception that makes the development interesting.
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Consumers as creators
The artist / audience line is blurring

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Hanna Kahlert
The growing independent artists sector, the rise of user-generated content (UGC), and the proliferation of basic creator tools on social platforms are all interlinked parts of the same cultural trend: creativity as a product. Enabled by intuitive creative tools, platforms to share on, and direct, easy ways to engage with creators, the barrier between artist and audience has been dramatically lowered.
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Is the rising popularity of the BeReal app proof that raw authenticity is the social media trend of 2022?

Cover image for Is the rising popularity of the BeReal app proof that raw authenticity is the social media trend of 2022?
Ashleigh Millar
‘Genuineness’ is trending on TikTok at the moment. Influencer celebrities have risen to fame because of their transparency and relatability, from the likes of Brittany Broski sharing candid, unfiltered content , to Eden Harvey sharing intimate and private moments with her followers to keep them included in every step of her life , both of whom boast millions of followers (6.
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The Covid entertainment boom is over

Cover image for The Covid entertainment boom is over
Hanna Kahlert
Two years of pandemic-driven lockdown restrictions turned out to be a golden era for digital entertainment. With 12% of extra available free time allocated to various entertainment propositions, and additional spend freed up due to the lull in expenditures on the likes of transport and ‘in real life’ (IRL) activities, entertainment prospered in 2020: video consumption grew by 7%, non-music audio by 24%, music streaming by 19%, and games by 30% (source: MIDiA Research Consumer Survey Q4 2020).
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Meta’s 2024 vision for AR glasses demonstrates the tech barrier to the metaverse

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Hanna Kahlert
Mark Zuckerberg is pushing for an ‘iPhone moment’ with his company’s Project Nazare, announcing AR glasses due to come in 2024, with hints at upgrades already in the works for 2026 and 2028. Not only would this cast his company in a new light, embattled as it is by regulatory attempts and negative PR, which the rebrand from Facebook to Meta has failed to shake entirely, but it would also place Meta at the ideal position to facilitate the interaction between consumers and the proposed metaverse – an underpinning for the predicted Web 3.
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Why Dolly Parton may want to wait before selling her catalogue

Cover image for Why Dolly Parton may want to wait before selling her catalogue
Mark Mulligan
In a recent interview with the BBC, Dolly Parton said that she is considering selling her publishing catalogue, stating that she would simply launch a new publishing company and start all over again. On the one hand, this is not the first time she has publicly pondered the move (the first time was in December 2020 ), and is thus probably aimed at pushing up buyer demand and creating a bidding war.
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