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The Decline of Music Festivals: What’s Driving the Slump?
Plus: AI revolution in smartphones: What’s next for your device?
What’s In This Email
The decline of music festivals: What’s driving the slump?
AI revolution in smartphones: What’s next for your device?
New emoji drop
Childish Gambino is retiring… sorta
Notable Spotlight: ‘Honest Ed’ Mirvish is bringing back FREE turkeys
Notable Plug 🔌
✍️ TAKE NOTE
The Decline of Music Festivals: What’s Driving the Slump?
2024 has been a rough year for music festivals, with many iconic events canceled and even major names like Coachella and Burning Man struggling to sell tickets. The once-booming festival scene now faces declining demand, rising production costs, and shifting consumer habits. Here's a closer look at what's happening in the festival industry.
Key Takeaways
Rising Production Costs: Inflation has dramatically increased the cost of staging festivals, from porta potties to artist pay, making it harder to stay profitable.
High Ticket Prices: General admission prices for festivals have risen by 55% since 2014, outpacing inflation and making attendance unaffordable for many.
Consumer Spending Shift: Many festival-goers, affected by the cost-of-living crisis, are prioritizing top-tier events like Coachella or big-name concerts over smaller festivals.
Festival Oversaturation: The boom years saw an explosion in the number of festivals, leading to too much competition for the same audience, further impacting ticket sales.
Technological and Generational Shifts: Streaming algorithms are narrowing music tastes, and Gen Z is reportedly less social and adventurous, which may be driving down interest in multigenre festivals.
Why this matters: The festival landscape is undergoing a transformation, driven by economic pressures and changing cultural attitudes. For festival organizers and music fans alike, this shift raises important questions about the future of live music events and what it will take to draw crowds back to these once-thriving celebrations of sound and community.
AI Revolution in Smartphones: What’s Next for Your Device
AI is set to radically transform smartphones, making them smarter, more intuitive, and capable of seamlessly integrating into our daily lives. Tech giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung are leading the charge, introducing AI-powered features that will soon make our devices more responsive to our needs, without constant app-switching or manual adjustments. Here's how AI is reshaping the smartphone landscape.
Key Takeaways
AI-Powered Features: Apple's iPhone 16 introduces "visual intelligence," allowing users to learn about their environment by pointing their phone camera at objects and accessing relevant information instantly.
Voice Interaction: Voice commands are evolving, with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google Gemini offering more conversational and natural interactions. Voice could soon be the primary way we use AI on our phones.
Smarter Devices: Google is rebuilding Android around AI, with Project Astra using cameras and speech input to understand surroundings and process requests — transforming how we interact with devices.
Deeper Integration: Phones are becoming more than just screens. AI will help eliminate the need for constant menu navigation and app usage by anticipating user needs and automating tasks.
Generative AI Concerns: Tools like Google's Reimagine can create images that weren’t originally in photos, raising ethical concerns about potential misuse and misinformation.
Why this matters: The smartphone is evolving beyond a simple touch-based device into an AI-powered assistant that anticipates our needs and seamlessly connects with other smart gadgets. As AI becomes more integrated into our phones, it will not only enhance convenience but also reshape how we interact with technology. This new wave of innovation is just the beginning of a smarter, more intuitive digital world.
🌐 AROUND THE INTERWEBS
Here are the eight new emoji coming to smartphones.
New characters include the exhausted face, a root vegetable, a harp, a leafless tree, a fingerprint, a shovel, a purple splatter, and a flag for the remote island in the English Channel called Sark.
Actor, writer, director, producer, and musical phenom Donald Glover a.k.a. Childish Gambino sat down with Wall Street Journal to discuss why he’s leaving the musical persona behind while on his sixth and final world tour.
🔦 NOTABLE SPOTLIGHT 🔦
REVIVING HONEST ED’S TRADITION
It’s FREE Turkey Time Again
Get your free turkey, just in time for Thanksgiving …
and The Thanksgiving Play
In partnership with Mike’s No Frills (222 Lansdowne Ave.),
two tonnes (that’s 500) grade-A turkeys will be given away on a first-come-first-served basis on Saturday, September 28, beginning at 11 AM at the CAA Theatre (651 Yonge St).
It’s a tradition that goes back many decades. “Honest Ed” Mirvish would give away turkeys at his namesake store (1948-2016) to usher in the festive giving season.
This tradition is revived in honour of Thanksgiving and to mark the beginning of the Canadian premiere production of the hilarious Broadway comedy, The Thanksgiving Play.
The turkeys will be given away by the cast of The Thanksgiving Play — Rachel Cairns, Colin A. Doyle, Craig Lauzon, and Jada Rifkin. There are no strings (or roasting twine) attached to this offer. All you need to do is show up and collect a plump, grade-A turkey – one per person while quantities last.
The Thanksgiving Play will have begun performances the night before the Turkey Giveaway, on Friday, September 27th, and will play until October 20th, at the CAA Theatre, the first show in the 2024/25 Off-Mirvish Season.
🔌 NOTABLE PLUG
🎙️ Get Into It: You Must Remember This podcast. You Must Remember This is a storytelling podcast exploring the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. It’s the brainchild and passion project of Karina Longworth (founder of Cinematical.com, and former film critic for LA Weekly), who writes, narrates, records, and edits each episode. It is a heavily researched work of creative nonfiction: navigating through conflicting reports, mythology, and institutionalized spin, Karina tries to sort out what really happened behind the films, stars, and scandals of the 20th century. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
📄 Notable Hires: VP Stakeholder Relations @ HydroOne (on-site, Toronto)
🎓 Hope This Helps: OwnAI. Create your own personal AI assistant to help you with your work. Or a helpful AI assistant for your team, even under your own company domain.
🌍 Notable Destinations: Toronto to Bahamas ($341 - $540) Dates: October 23 - October 30. Click on this link to see the deal.
🧠 Today We Learned: that nicotine, as well as being present in tobacco, is also present in tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants. it provides natural protection against insects and has been used as a pesticide since at least the 17th century.
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Notable Life is Canada for young professionals, entrepreneurs, and culture generators operated by The Notable Group. Notable Daily inspires ideas and sharpens the minds of over 40,000 top-tier professionals in competitive industries.
Disclosure: While we utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to assist with certain aspects of content development, all information provided in our content is thoroughly vetted and edited by our team of humans. We strive to ensure the accuracy and reliability of all information. However, we recommend that readers conduct research or seek professional advice to make informed decisions. This email may contain sponsored content.
Written and curated by Ashley Nedaei