Latest / Mini Scroll / MINI SCROLL: Burgergeddon, the viral death of music streaming + Selena Gomez x Benny Blanco dirty footgate

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MINI SCROLL: Burgergeddon, the viral death of music streaming + Selena Gomez x Benny Blanco dirty footgate · Mini Scroll

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  Hi everyone, welcome to Mini Scroll, the daily Internet
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  culture podcast bringing you the biggest stories from social
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  media, the creator economy and the digital space every Monday
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  through Thursday and sometimes Fridays like today.
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  I'm your host, Lauren Meisner, the founder of the youth digital
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  media brand, Australian youth digital media brand Centennial
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  World. Welcome back to Mini Scroll,
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  everyone. OK, so I know I told you guys, I
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  think it was at the beginning of this year or maybe the end of
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  last year that our schedule for the podcast would be slightly
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  different this year when it came to the breaks that we were going
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  to be taking. So in years past, we have done a
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  big break in the middle of the year, like June to July.
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  And then of course, we do our Christmas break.
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  This year, we're doing one week 1/4 instead of taking like
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  chunkier breaks. So the week that we're going to
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  be taking this quarter is the 16th to the 20th.
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  We will be off because that's actually the last week that my
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  parents are here in Australia as well.
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  They've been here for several months, like visiting us and
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  it's been so nice. So they go home that weekend.
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  So I'm going to spend that last week with them and that will be
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  our week for Q1 that we have off.
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  So just a little scheduling update for you guys there.
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  All right, let's get into the stories for today.
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  So the first story that I have for you guys today is that
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  Wendy's, Burger King and A&W have joined the burger review
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  wars in what Annabelle actually dubbed This Morning Burger.
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  Get in. I was like, that's so good.
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  I love that. OK, so if you have no idea
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  what's going on, a couple of days ago I reported on the fact
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  that McDonald's CEO Chris Kozemski posted a video
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  promoting the new Big Arch Burger from the brand
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  McDonald's. And he was like, I love this
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  product, Product. It's so good.
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  I'm going to do a tasting right now.
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  I'm going to eat this for my lunch.
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  He kept calling it a product. People were like, has this man
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  ever eaten a burger in his life? He took a bite.
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  He's like, this is a huge bite. And it was like the smallest
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  bite you've ever seen in your life.
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  And everybody's like, is this man even human?
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  Like, what are we watching? Is this AI?
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  Is this an alien? What is going on?
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  It went viral because it felt, like, so dystopian.
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  It was so cringe, but it was also really funny.
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  So the Internet was trolling him.
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  OK. So now Burger King, Wendy's and
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  A&W have piled on the online troll campaign with their own
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  versions of these burger reviews.
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  OK, So Burger King's North American president Tom Curtis,
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  posted a video of himself enthusiastically eating a
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  Whopper. He went like, in on this bite
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  and he got, like, Mayo on his face and he's like, only one
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  thing missing a napkin. He didn't mention McDonald's in
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  this review, but we all knew what he was mocking, what he was
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  trying to do here. And then Wendy's joined in.
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  So they posted a video on LinkedIn of its U.S.
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  President eating one of their burgers.
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  Captioned. Lots of chatter this week about
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  burgers. Thought we'd remind everyone
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  what fresh never frozen taste like.
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  And then they reposted it on X with the caption this is what it
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  looks like when you don't have to pretend to like your quote UN
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  quote product. Savage Wendy's is always savage.
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  Like they are chronically online.
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  They are one of like the OG brands to be chronically online.
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  So I accept this from that because that is so savage and so
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  funny and it's like actually in line with their online personal
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  brand. And then A&W also released their
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  own video mocking the situation. It featured Alan, the A&W guy.
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  He was wearing a blue Oxford shirt and a light sweater, which
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  was similar to what the CEO of McDonald's was wearing in his
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  video. And he said about their teen
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  burger, which is what he was eating.
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  We love this product. I'm loving this opportunistic
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  marketing. This is the kind of Internet
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  drama that I want to see. Giant corporations capitalizing
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  on each other's misfortunes, each other's cringe content, and
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  making the executive team be front and center in this
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  content, in these feuds. Like that's what I want to see.
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  I'm loving this. Oh my God, that's literally the
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  McDonald's slogan. Sorry, I didn't even mean to say
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  that. OK, the next word that I have
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  for you guys today, this is actually a little bit more like
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  mini tech adjacent, but it just came across my desk this morning
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  and I was like, I need to cover this because I want to hear your
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  guys's opinion on this. So there's a post from Sub Stack
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  going viral right now about the death of streaming.
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  The article is by Joel Guevea and he was inspired to write it
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  after music industry legend Ivine, who was the cofounder of
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  Interscope and the creator of Beats by Dre, made the bold
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  claim recently that streaming services are quote minutes away
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  from being obsolete. So the author, Joel, he breaks
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  down why he thinks that this is actually correct.
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  So I'm going to basically summarize what his article says,
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  what his sub stack post says, and I will of course link it
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  down below so you guys can read it yourselves and then let me
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  know what you guys think about this.
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  OK, so he talks about how for most of history, record labels
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  didn't just own the copyrights of the music, but they also
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  owned the hardware that played music.
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  So for example, Philips helped create the cassette, Sony helped
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  create the CD, things like that. Now, labels are entirely
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  dependent on these third party giants like Apple, Google,
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  Amazon and Spotify, who own the algorithms and the hardware.
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  And next, he talks about how music has become devalued for
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  the consumer through this process of music streaming.
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  So he says, unlike video streaming, where, like, you
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  know, you need Netflix to watch Stranger Things, there's nothing
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  unique about subscribing to Spotify or Amazon or whatever.
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  All of these streaming platforms all have the same 100 million
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  songs, which is very different, different than back in the day
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  with physical media where if you owned a CD you had, I mean,
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  first of all you owned it. You owned that CD, but also you
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  had like 12 songs on that CD. That made the experience of
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  listening to that CD much more special and unique.
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  And part of why consumers have kind of devalued, I suppose the
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  experience of listening to music is also because platforms like
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  Spotify and Amazon Music and Apple Music and all of that,
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  they have created this one-dimensional relationship
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  between fan and artist. He quotes Jimmy Ivan in this.
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  He says quote. It's one-dimensional.
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  It's an ATM machine you put your money in, you get your music.
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  They don't do anything for the artist.
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  The artist wants to communicate with their fans, period.
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  And the streaming services are still saying we'll put you on
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  our list if you're nice to us. That's bullshit.
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  And of course, money is always a huge topic of conversation when
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  we talk about the streamers. And in the sub SEC he actually
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  argues that streamers are not making any money.
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  He writes streaming music operates in reverse.
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  Because DSPS payout roughly 70% of every dollar earned back to
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  rights holders labels in public publishers, their costs scale
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  linearly with their user base. Every time a song is streamed, a
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  fraction of a cent leaves the building.
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  This model only works for Apple, Amazon, and Google because they
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  don't need their music platforms to be wildly profitable.
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  Amazon uses music as a loss leader to keep you paying for
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  Prime. Apple uses it to sell $1000
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  iPhones. As for Spotify or any stand
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  alone music streaming company, they're kind of screwed.
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  And guess what? When the platform's margins are
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  structurally squeezed, guess who gets squeezed first?
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  The artists. And of course, this
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  disproportionately effects kind of those mid tier and emerging
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  artists. It's essentially like the top 1%
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  of artists get the most money, which is unsurprising here.
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  So I guess what's next? The author argues that artists
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  need to shift to direct ownership.
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  So capturing phone numbers, building Discord communities,
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  and focusing on high margin revenue like merch and vinyl.
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  Essentially what we've been saying about media and creators
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  and influencers for the past few years, which is like 1000 true
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  fans, like loyal people that will continually show up for you
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  and pay for your stuff and follow you.
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  They are so much more valuable than having like 1000 people
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  that are randomly streaming your music on a road trip.
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  So I thought it was really interesting.
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  Let me know what you guys think about this because I haven't
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  heard anybody articulate or suggest that streaming for music
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  is possibly going to die, but I guess it sounds like from this
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  piece. What I take away from it is the
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  author is arguing it needs to start from within.
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  Like it needs to be almost like grassroots initiatives that come
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  about from those mid tier artists who are like, OK, I'm
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  done with this and it's time to kind of take some control back
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  into my own hands. I would be so down to be in a
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  Discord community for one of my favorite artists.
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  I think that would be so cool. It would kind of feel like the
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  OG Twitter days when celebrities were on Twitter and they would
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  follow their fans and they would actually like genuinely respond
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  to them and interact with them and they'd be in groups together
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  and stuff like that. I know we have seen some of
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  those situations get out of hand and there are definitely things
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  to consider when you have like a celebrity and a fan power
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  dynamic there. But unfortunately, like, the
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  Internet is never going away. Social media is never going
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  away, right? So I feel like celebrities,
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  influencers, artists are going to have to figure out how to
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  operate with like, parasocial relationships and do it
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  appropriately, obviously, and also be able to like, leverage
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  that as a benefit and not take it too far and be weird about
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  it. Colleen Ballinger OK, the next
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  story that I have for you guys today, this is such a random 1.
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  I don't know. I just felt inspired to talk
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  about it. So Selena Gomez and Benny
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  Blanco, they're going viral. Everything we have learned about
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  their relationship, let's just start here, has been against all
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  of our wills, of course. But they're going viral again
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  because Selena kissing Benny Blanco's dirty ass feet.
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  So during the debut episode of Benny Blanco's new podcast,
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  Friends Keep Secrets, Benny Blanco was like lounging on a
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  couch and you could see his bare feet.
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  And they were really dirty on the bottom.
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  Oh, and he also farted into the microphone in this episode.
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  OK, so people were like, actually, what the hell, Selena
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  Gomez? Like, this is who you're married
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  to. And obviously he was like joking
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  around, but people were really grossed out by their dirty feet.
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  People were like telling her to divorce him.
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  That's that's dramatic. OK.
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  People were commenting like, I can't believe she lets him touch
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  her. Literally.
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  Why would she marry him out of all the men in the world?
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  Benny Blanco then defended himself.
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  He said that dust and dirt had been tracked across the floors
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  of their studio where they were recording this by the crew
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  moving equipment. And then Selena was the guest on
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  the next episode. And at the end of the episode,
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  she leans over and kisses his feet on camera.
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  And honestly, like they're not clean again.
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  Like they are still pretty dirty.
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  People are commenting like, I never want to be this in love.
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  How can I Unsee this? Obviously that's kind of cringe.
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  I do like that she's clapped back and she's standing by
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  Herman. OK.
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  Also The Dirty feet thing. I feel like people get dirty
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  feet really easily. I don't know, is that like a
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  gross thing to say? I feel like that's not that
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  unusual that the bottom of his feet were dirty.
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  Maybe it's because I live in Australia and I've never done
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  this myself, but people walk around barefoot here like all
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  the time. I'm not even kidding.
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  You will go to like a grocery store in a random suburb in
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  Sydney. It's not even like a Beachy
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  suburb, OK. You'll go to like a mainstream
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  grocery store, a mall, and people are walking around
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  barefoot. Like, people go barefoot here
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  all the time. You know, North America, where
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  it's like no shoes, no shirt, no service.
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  Like those signs are everywhere around, like beach communities
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  or something. No, you would never see that
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  here. People walk around without shoes
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  on all the time. So I feel like that's
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  conditioned me to expect that the bottom of someone's feet are
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  usually really dirty. I didn't think that was like so
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  crazy. I think it's kind of gross to
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  see on camera, I guess, especially like a professional
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  podcast like this and Selena kissing his feet.
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  I would literally never kiss Sean's feet.
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  Oh, I would never kiss someone's feet.
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  I don't even like getting pedicures because I don't like
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  people touching my feet. I wouldn't say I'm like super
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  weird about feet, but they do kind of gross me out.
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  So you know what? That's bold.
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  But I think at the end of the day, what I want to take away
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  from this story, what I take away from the story at least is
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  we need to leave these people alone.
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  Do I think it's kind of gross and cringe that his feet were
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  dirty and that he farted into the microphone?
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  Yes. Does that mean that she needs to
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  be flooded with comments about how she should divorce Benny
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  Blanco over that? Like also, no, we need to chill.
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  We need to leave these people alone.
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  Anyways, guys, that's it for mini scroll today, a Friday mini
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  for you. Thank you so much for listening.
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  I love you guys. Please remember to rate review
• 11:52
  and subscribe. Please Spotify star rate US.
• 11:55
  I hope you have a great weekend and and I will talk to you guys
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  on Monday by Centennial World Podcast Network operates on
• 12:02
  Gadigal land. We would like to acknowledge the
• 12:04
  Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this
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  land, and pay our respects to elders both past and present.