Hi everyone!
We hope you all had a glorious weekend. It was payday for The Curve team so we’re all very excited.
We’re all making the most of the last of the Summer (cannot believe we’re going to be technically in Autumn in 2 weeks time), but the city is certainly needing it with the drought we’re in here in London, more on that in today’s episode (and how it’s affecting everyone’s bank account, no matter where in the world you are).
We’re also covering why Spotify is about to start telling you if your favourite artist is actually AI, how Alix Earle has quietly built her own little VC firm (and how you can be doing a version of it too), and why Alex Cooper’s media empire just got valued at half a billion dollars.
As always, we’ve read the finance news so you don’t have to.
Have a great week.
Soph, Vic & The Curve team x
From mid-September, Spotify’s rolling out an “AI Persona” badge. It’ll sit on the artist’s profile, show up in search, and land right next to their name on your playlists. Tagged acts will also get dropped from personalised recommendations by default.
Why is this important?
Spotify pulled 75 million AI tracks off the platform last year, out of a catalogue of about 100 million (!!!???). Nearly the size of the whole legitimate catalogue. AI artists are cheaper for Spotify, no royalties to pay, so this badge is them front footing the backlash before it costs them real artists and real listeners. Convenient timing too, it landed the same week as their quarterly earnings results.
Forget the brand deals, Alix Earle has been taking equity in the companies she promotes, and she’s developing an impressive portfolio. Turns out that’s a pretty solid answer to anyone calling her and Stassie “yacht girls,” something she addressed in her latest GRWM TikTok, pointing out she can fund her own holidays just fine.
Why is this important?
A VC bets on early stage companies with high growth potential, spreading money across 10, 20, 30 companies because most fail and you’re hunting for the one unicorn. Alix knows when she posts about a brand, it goes off, so now she takes equity instead of just a flat fee. That’s the bit people miss, she gets paid twice on the same bet. Poppi is the proof, she invested before PepsiCo bought it for close to $2 billion. Her latest, Cymbiotika, just raised $25 million with The Weeknd, Zac Efron and the Jonas Brothers also on the cap table.
Unlike a public company, where the share price tells you the value every day, a private company only gets valued when money changes hands. That just happened, Silver Lake and another media firm took a stake in Unwell, the business behind Call Her Daddy. They’ve been profitable since day one, so this is fuel to grow, not rescue money.
Why is this important?
The audience explains the price tag, 89% female, mostly 18 to 35, around 100 million followers. It's also a good lesson in how media companies make money, rarely just the thing you watch or listen to. SiriusXM pays Unwell over $30 million a year just to host the podcast exclusively, then there's TV deals (their new dating show Let's Marry Harry just landed on Netflix - terrible TV but also a guilty pleasure if you haven’t watched yet), live events, and a drinks line with Nestlé (not for much longer eek). Key takeaway: the valuation isn't about one podcast, it's about turning an audience into a whole ecosystem of income, and a strong marker of the women's economy's real value.
We flagged this back in June, and it became one of our most downloaded Curve Weekly episodes ever. This year’s El Niño is tracking as the strongest since 1950, and it’s already hitting crop sensitive commodities hard. Arabica coffee is up around 30% since June, its biggest jump in 47 years, cocoa is up over 60% at its peak (you can imagine how devo Soph is about the cocoa).
Why is this important?
A strong El Niño adds roughly 9% to global food prices on its own, and coffee and cocoa are two of the most globally traded soft commodities, so it hits your basket fast (especially in NZ and Australia, some of the highest per capita coffee spenders in the world). Cost is the top reason people skip sustainable options, and nobody should feel guilty for choosing cheaper when money's tight. Key takeaway: the bigger lever isn't your daily shop, it's where your KiwiSaver, super or ISA sits (and Vic won’t be skipping on takeaway coffees), as well as who you vote into government.
Hannah Hart is back for her third, and final, IOU episode, and she’s saved one of the best for last: how to save for the stuff you actually want without giving up on your future.
From reverse engineering a Japan trip to tripling a renovation budget she swore she’d priced properly, Hannah walks through exactly how she splits her money into short term “mini goals,” why an emergency fund is the least exciting, most important thing you’ll ever build, and the number she wishes she’d known before she started.
We’re proud to partner with BNZ. There’s an art to starting something new, and like any art form, you need the right tools to make it work. Whether you’re flatting, saving to travel, or making a career move, BNZ has the tools to help you master your money from the get-go.
Vic’s in the red, Miso had to get her teeth cleaned, which came to a whopping £360.
Soph’s in the green, she finally sold the bike her ex-boyfriend bought her for £190, plus offloaded a dress that never quite worked on her, netting an extra £220 total, so she spent £40 on some stunning new swimming gear (see iconic pic at the beginning of the newsletter).
Everything The Curve crew is loving this week!
What we’re watching: Kate’s just started Big Mistakes from the creator of Schitt’s Creek. It follows a brother and sister who accidentally steal an expensive necklace that ends up buried with their grandma. Obviously the plot gets very chaotic after that. Dark humour, 20 minute episodes, on Netflix. Perfect to watch while eating dinner.
What we’re reading (audiobook edition, so also listening): Em’s just finished the Yesteryear audiobook. Absolutely THRILLING... it follows a tradwife/social media influencer through the sudden collapse of her online persona, flicking between different periods of her life, before, during, and after the event that triggers her downfall (no spoilers hehe). Em loved the narrator of the audiobook, she's addictive to listen to: like sickly sweet one moment, harrowing the next. Highly recommend.
Restaurant recommendation (in London): Lucy went to Bar Etna in Newington Green last week and couldn’t recommend more. Also, £5 negronis - say no more!!
That’s all for this week. We hope you all have a wonderful week!
Soph, Vic & The Curve team x
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