Ben and Andrew react to a killer round of earnings for Spotify and Daniel Ek’s final earnings call, including thoughts on Spotify’s transformation of the music industry, how a record company oligopoly helped create the definitive tech bundle, and why Spotify’s personalization requires an addendum to aggregation theory. From there: The difference between AI spending at Google and Amazon, why the AI buildout should be funded by debt, un-optimized tech companies, and the logic and risks of Amazon’s AI future. At the end: Reactions to a viral essay on AI job loss, a note about the Princeton Law Review, an ad man strikes back after Ben’s Anthropic criticism, and thoughts on Giannis’ investment in Kalshi.
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Spotify Earnings, Individualized Networks, AI and Aggregation — Stratechery Update
Amazon Earnings, CapEx Concerns, Commodity AI — Stratechery Update
An Interview with Ben Thompson by John Collison on the Cheeky Pint Podcast — Stratechery Interview
Something Big Is Happening — X: @mattshumer_
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