SMART WINDSHIELDS?!?:  At last week’s CES and this week’s North American Auto Show we’re starting to hear buzz around the next phase of the connected car evolution . . . Smart Windshields.  The OEMs have been monkeying with heads up display in the corner of windshields for years, but those were just illuminated projections coming from the top of the dash.  Tomorrow’s smart windshields will truly be computers unto themselves.  This will open up a whole new frontier in sight-based in-car marketing for display and even video.  Admittedly, safety concerns may limit this platform’s development for first-person drivers.  But imagine the day when driverless cars will be projecting all sorts of content right to your windshield as you ride along.  (link)

SOUNDCLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF RAIN:  You may recall about six months ago that SoundCloud revamped its business model from a file sharing service (think Napster 2.0) to a subscription-based platform.  According to Investopedia early results from this switchover have not be positive, with only ~250,000 listeners purchasing a sub.  By comparison 11M purchased Apple Music subs in its first six months out of the gate.  The reason for the lackluster start probably has to do with the product itself.  Since SoundCloud relies on users to upload content they end up with a real hodge podge of music on the site.  By comparison Spotify and Apple mostly feature the normal label releases, which is the version everyone knows the songs by.   You can imagine the prospects for SoundCloud may become even more bleak once Pandora launches its own on-demand platform later in Q1.  (link)

IS CONTENT BY ITSELF ENOUGH ANYMORE?:  Finally today, I wanted to share a provocative Bloomberg article which has been making its way around the trades over the past few weeks.  It’s centers around Time Warner’s decision to sell itself to AT&T.  It’s a prime example of a successful content provider (TW) merging with a distribution platform (AT&T).  What’s scary for the TV and Movie industries is that Time Warner (which owns HBO, CNN, Warner Bros Studios and countless other successful media properties), decided they could no longer go it alone.  So what does this say for the rest of the of the weaker networks out there?  And is it time for other old school networks to find a dance partner on the distribution side to keep afloat during this age of media consolidation and content proliferation?  (link)

Have a great Tuesday guys!