Your apps are watching you, Not all restaurants closed during the pandemic, Catch your next concert on Spotify, & Walmart’s woes
Issue #19
Good morning and welcome to Five Moments!
Spotify Concerts Moment
Spotify announced they will begin hosting virtual concerts on their platform this coming week. Tickets start at $15 and the first few shows are listed below.
May 27: The Black Keys will be coming to fans from one of their favorite juke joints, Blue Front Café in Mississippi.
June 3: Rag’n’Bone Man will be playing at one of his beloved venues, the Roundhouse in London, where fans will virtually join him for an intimate performance.
June 10: Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff will take fans on a journey from Brooklyn, NY, to Asbury Park, NJ— all while on a city bus.
June 17: Leon Bridges fans will hear songs from across his catalog as they get an inside look into the meaningful spaces at the Gold-Diggers Hotel, where Leon spent time writing, recording, and being inspired for his upcoming July album, Gold-Diggers Sound.
June 24: girl in red’s Oslo-based performance will bring fans into a world in red (and a world of rock) with unique lights and video filters.
This is not Spotify’s first foray into live music (previously ran shows in 2017), however I have to think people may now be much more receptive to the notion given we all have been longing for live music this past year. Though people are much more comfortable experience the world via Zoom these days, it is hard to say whether people will be willing to pay for these virtual concerts as they will soon be competing with live, in person music.
Positive Restaurant News Moment
I have written extensively about the impact the pandemic has had on small business restaurants — particularity the dubious relationship between the popular delivery apps and mom and pop establishments.
Well, today we have a positive outlook! Bloomberg reported that only 14% of restaurants closed in the last twelve months, much lower than the prediction of upwards of 75%!
A year ago experts predicted that one-third of the restaurants in America might close in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Chef and activist Tom Colicchio said the number of casualties could go as high as 75%.
New data from the National Restaurant Association, a Washington-based industry group, found that 90,000 restaurants across the U.S. have closed permanently or long-term. That’s less than 14% of the country’s restaurants. It’s lower than the 110,000 figure reported by the association in December, when the executive vice president for public affairs, Sean Kennedy, described the industry’s status as “an economic free fall.”
This is certainly welcome news as life is starting to return to pre-pandemic normalcy with people eating at restaurants. While 14% is still a brutal statistic for all of the employees and families that owned and operated these businesses, the world is trending upwards!
Walmart’s Woes Moment
Recode reported on a leaked, internal highlighting that the pandemic has helped cement Walmart’s rivals in the online grocery space (Instacart, Target, Amazon, etc.) and Walmart is rapidly losing market share. I would have never guessed that Walmart would be leaving the pandemic worse off than a year ago
Walmart is still the world’s largest retailer, but a recent company memo highlights its struggles to overcome competitors like Amazon, Instacart, and Target. The document also hints at challenges the company’s new subscription service Walmart+ is facing in retaining new members.
Even in the online grocery market, where Walmart has held the No. 1 position thanks in large part to its popular curbside pickup service at its supercenter stores, the memo reports that the company is barely holding on to the lead position. Delivery company Instacart gained popularity at Walmart’s expense early in the pandemic, when the retail chain could not keep up with the rush of customer demand, the memo states, and is seen on an enclosed chart as being nearly even with the retail giant for the top position in the US online grocery market.
I guess the pandemic was not good to all the large, incumbent players during the pandemic. While this makes sense that people who never shopped for groceries online helped boost Walmart’s competitors, I still would have expected Walmart to benefit moreso than anyone seeing as how they are the worlds #1 grocery store.
Your Apps Are Watching You Moment
If you are an iPhone user with the most up to date software, you have probably noticed that apps are now required to prompt you with a question asking your permission to track you (see below).
This is all part of Apple’s multi-year campaign to demonstrate their commitment to privacy and securing your data when you use their products. As you can imagine, not many people said yes to this question (only 4%!!). This has also angered companies who make their living in advertising (see Google / Facebook)
I have supremely buried the lede here. A privacy based messaging app, Signal, ran ads on Instagram to show you just how scarily well Facebook and Instagram know you and can target you with such good ads (hint — this is why we all have bought something from an Instagram ad b/c they are so well targeted). Anywho, after Instagram realized Signal was running such ads on its platform - they removed them from their platform. It really is quite frightening just how targeted and accurate these ads were. It will be incredibly interesting to watch companies like Google snd Facebook adapt to this new privacy-focused world or if anyone really cares.
Music Moment
Lots of big music releases these past few weeks! If you live on Planet Earth and have feelings — you too have probably been listening and enjoying Olivia Rodrigo’s debut album Sour. For the uninitiated - start here, then go here, and finally here.
Additionally, J. Cole released a new album The Off Season, along with the Black Keys’ Delta Kream. The latter is a cover album and ode to the Blues of the Mississippi Delta. This is not the Keys’ first foray into the blues, but I do think it is their most thoughtful and deliberate. It’s a really enjoyable record highlighting great, American music.
At first glance, Delta Kream—the 10th studio album from the blues-rock duo the Black Keys—appears to embody a hoary rock’n’roll cliché. It’s a collection of covers Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney learned to play when they were younger, an attempt to get back where they once belonged.
In the case of the Black Keys, that spiritual home lies in the Mississippi Delta, the swamp that gave birth to American blues. Plenty of legendary musicians played Delta blues in the early 20th century, but Auerbach and Carney were drawn chiefly to Junior Kimbrough, a Mississippi bluesman whose career didn’t take off until the 1990s, when the future Black Keys members were teenagers.
Cutting Room Floor
Stories that are great to read but did not make it into the newsletter
A Complete Newbie Meets Her First Watch Collector | Hodinkee
Tina Turner and Jay-Z Lead Rock Hall of Fame’s 2021 Inductees | NYTimes
Spotify is overrun with artist impostors. I tracked some down | Slate
Van Morrison: from eccentric genius to conspiracy theorist - LATimes
Why the Weeknd needed Ariana Grande to send “Save Your Tears” to No. 1 on the Hot 100 | Slate
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