How did "Epic AF," a compilation album not available for purchase, spend the last seven weeks at the top of the Billboard album charts? Savvy marketing, opportunism, a bit of metrics gaming, and a commanding grasp of the industry in 2016. Here's the backstory: in 2014 Billboard added stream counts to their Billboard 200 album sales formula, and Epic Records saw an opportunity to exploit otherwise uncounted streams for between cycle releases; an "album" that stacks up massive metrics and stands out at the top of the charts as an "Epic AF" piece of marketing.
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Though HBO put an end date on Game of Thrones, they know there's a huge fanbase that can be further monetized. Traditionally this would look like merch (see: Star Wars). Instead, and in line with broader consumption trends, HBO will roll out the "Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience," an in-person immersive experiential tour hitting 28 cities across the US. Because experiences > things.
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The story of the GIF tracks nicely with the story of the web as a whole (which turned 25 this week), so here's your definitive history of the rise, fall and rise of the GIF. In 1995, GIF images were as important as HTML to the web, and the story of its rapid fall to obscurity, and subsequent reemergence as the visual alphabet of internet culture reveals the role of technical advance (and constraint), social communication, and chance play in culture at large.
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See ya next week...
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