«When things go back to normal.» I’ve heard that phrase time and time again this year; I’ve even used it myself.
Looking back through my playlists from March and April, I named one «Corona I» and another «Corona II.» In case you can’t tell, I am not exactly creative with these titles; I often name playlists after a single moment, trip or event. Each one captures a couple of weeks of my life.
Because life during the pandemic feels so limited, so fraught, so redundant and so unusual, we assume it’s just a phase. Life will snap back when this is over. But here we are, nine months after «Corona II,» and my hometown is experiencing record case numbers.
This is not to say we will live this way forever, but there is also no going backwards. There are certain behaviors we will carry with us, and some changes that are irreversible. To that end, I am going to devote this newsletter to a few thoughts on the year ahead. I reserve the right to be wrong. Please respond with your own predictions, so that I may share them in the new year!
Apple + Amazon will make a much bigger push into podcasts (and audio in general). Spotify’s value soared from about $27 billion at the start of the year to more than $60 billion today, based largely on its investment in podcasting. While there are still a lot of skeptics when it comes to this strategy, that kind of jump tends to get the attention of technology giants that don’t like to miss the next big thing.
Apple, of course, didn’t miss it. It helped create podcasting. But it’s done almost nothing to innovate over the last 15 years. Nor has Amazon’s Audible, which has been talking about podcasts for more than a decade but is still seen as an app for audiobooks. Both companies are starting to invest more in, in original series and marketing, and I’d expect that to continue.
Seguir leyendo: Bloomberg
