Closing Remarks for 2023

Thanks for tagging along in 2023, here’s to 2024!

It’s the holidays, and I hope you’re having relaxing days and spending them with family and the people close to you.

If you think any of them might fancy insights and analysis from the frontlines of technology innovation at the intersection of entertainment and consumer, you can always refer them to In Transit

As we approach the end 2023 I wanted to send you a few end of year reflections. Writing consistently for this newsletter through the year has been incredibly valuable as a research and learning tool for me. I hope it’s valuable for you, too.

Technology continues to shape entertainment and consumer behavior. We’re in a perfect storm, with emerging technologies that alone can create significant changes:

• The acceleration of AI, and generative AI in particular

• Growth of immersive platforms like Roblox, Fortnite, and Zepeto

• Web3 and blockchain technology, especially the significant infrastructure advancements made while most looked away for the past year and a half.

While powerful alone, these technologies converge, interconnect, and fuel each other.

It’s also happening as we close a year in which

• Taylor Swift exemplifies the “hits get bigger and fewer" as the media landscape morphs into a barbell (more on this early next year)

• Hollywood endured a marathon double-strike.

• Studios are reconfiguring cost structures to make streaming sustainable.

• We’re seeing real signs of “superhero fatigue”

Challenges and opportunities will accompany each other.

Next year is ideal to explore the interplay between these moving parts. I look forward to doing so through In Transit with you.

For 2024, I plan to continue writing short, timely pieces frequently for In Transit. I’m also looking for opportunities to explore broader topics through series of connected essays. Exploring various perspectives and connecting them to form models and frameworks we can apply elsewhere.

I also spend more time researching web3/Cryptoland than my writing suggests. Next year, I’ll experiment with writing more in-depth posts on related topics.

This publication will only be as good as we make it. If you have ideas and topics you’d like to see me explore, or any other kind of feedback, I would love to hear it. This thing becomes more powerful if it’s not only one-way. So, you’re always welcome to hit reply.

To wrap up, I want to leave you with three things:

1. A selection of the most popular posts of 2023:

• The New Social Network (nobody is paying attention to)

• The Spectrum of Entertainment Participation

• Remixing Entertainment - The Future of IP

• Passion for Characters Over Studios

2. A teaser for next year, three titles of posts I’m currently working on:

• “We Built This City on Rock & Roll (and Superheroes)”

• “The Content Barbell Theory”

• “Next-gen Hollywood; Tokenized Entertainment"
  

3. A big thank you for following along this year.

Happy New Year, and look out for the first In Transit transmission in your inbox early next month.

Thanks,

– Martin