Thursday’s Themes . . .

June 1, 2017Uncategorizedgmtartaglia@aol.com

TAKING YOUR WORKOUT MUSIC UP A NOTCH: Sometimes the best new ideas are as simple as connecting preexisting dots in a new way. That adage is on display with Pandora’s new branded radio stations featuring on-demand functionality, which is highlighted in the attached AdWeek link. In 2016 Propel blazed a trail with Pandora by using gyroscopic technology to allow fitness enthusiasts to unlock Sponsored Listening by literally shaking their phones (which works perfectly during mid-workout). Now Propel is taking things one step further by creating custom stations which are curated by local fitness influencers, and then allowing listeners to hit a “Power Up” button to save the song for on-demand play later. For those who love listening to music as they work out think about this flow for a minute . . . you get to hear prepackaged playlists from wanna-be-them fitness enthusiasts, and then you have the ability to one tap save those songs to create your own best-of-you workout playlist. It’s sort of like getting to unleash your own inner fitness instructor while keeping your day job. So who’s ready to Power Up in their next workout?!?

RIP FM?: Could the FM dial eventually go the way of 8-tracks or tape decks and become non-existent? That’s the gist of a provocative guest author article in Billboard magazine. There’s plenty of evidence to support this theory. Station valuations are way down – 20 years ago top FMs in major markets could sell for as much as half a billion dollars and now they’re selling for under a hundred mill. The largest broadcasters, like iHeart and Cumulus, are debt-laden behemoths who bought high during the era of broadcast consolidation in the 90s and are now trapped in a declining legacy business. As for the product itself, not only is FM radio’s primary content (music) under attack from so many other new technologies, but now the local content side (think news/weather/traffic) are more conveniently accessed on a mobile device than waiting to hear it on the radio. All of these ingredients are creating a recipe of disaster for a medium that was once considered a state of the art replacement to the AM band.

KEEP YOUR HUSTLE REAL: Finally today, I LOVE this LinkedIn article on the idea of the False Hustle. The author’s reference to Cubs’ outfielder Sammy Sosa sprinting out of the dugout to his position only to loaf around in the outfield is the perfect analogy. Nobody, in sports or business or whatever industry, likes a showboat. But what’s worse is the showboat who makes a point of humblebragging and then doesn’t back it up with actual work. To check yourself on any False Hustle tendencies check out the four common traits listed in the piece – so true! The embedded FedEx commercial is also a funny exaggeration of these personality types. Bottom line – being a hard worker is good. But acting like a hard worker and then not backing it up with any actual work is bad to the point of embarrassing. So is your hustle real or false!?!