Tipping past Tuesday, the newsletter [re]format continues, taking more time than estimates suggested.  The 2023 challenges have all been successfully completed, and a recap of the challenges is coming soon.  Today is a quick read with a proper Shuffled Up mix of stories for your enjoyment.

If you are interested in going deep into the Netflix origin story, the ultimate demise of Blockbuster video.  Reed Hastings has recently stepped down as the CEO of Netflix, and the post-pandemic subscriber slide continues for all major content providers.  Netflix recently launched an ad tier and has begun cracking down on password sharing; the future may not be as consistent as in the recent past.

This deep piece, Stratechery, shows an exciting cycle of innovators taking on established businesses, returning to being the established business, and what happens when everybody comes after you and your market.  The balance sheet for Netflix looks better than the competition, but when your match contains names like Disney and Amazon, there is a lot of debt you can handle. 

Right now, on Netflix, the story will be worth watching.  Oh, yea, rumor has it Hastings started down the path of turning Netflix into what it became after a $40 late fee from Blockbuster.  Hate to see what he would do to the library if he ever returned a book late.

The NYT has a story about corporate cafeterias.  As a group of Indie artists and writers, we have never been in a corporate cafeteria, but the picture that headlines this story is Kansas City's very own Hallmark, so highlight we will.  According to the report about cafeterias, two things stand out.  One, the traditional cafeteria may only make it back as fast as the WFH crowd comes back to the offices 5 days a week, and two, people gotta eat. 

What it will look like is unknown, but the experiments are beginning to sprout as more people head back to the office this year.

From what we can only think of, YouTube not wanting to be outdone by ChatGPT "we are too busy with requests to handle any more queries" – they recently launched a new Music Listening Room.  When we checked out this new listening room, it was busy.

According to Digital Music News, participants in the beta program will be asked to provide feedback through a Discord group.  It sounds like an exciting concept; we may start our own!

Digital Music News reported layoffs in the music business, but the list of firms was dominated by tech companies.  Facebook (Meta), TikTok, Snap, Amazon, and Google are all on the list.  That's a bit of a stretch, but the article did go deeper into a few more music companies.  BMI, SoundCloud, Spotify, and CD Baby were on the latest layoff list. 

Nation Building.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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