In today’s issue we discuss Joe Rogan & Spotify, Apple & AI, Quentin Tarantino & Brad Pitt, the Knights of Malta, and Spotify Tattoos. 

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The Next Star Wars Movie Will Be "The Mandalorian & Grogu" In 2026

Business

It looks like Joe Rogan just switched his relationship status with Spotify to “It’s Complicated”.

It’s been 4 years since Spotify first signed Joe Rogan to an exclusive deal in 2020. Since then Joe Rogan’s “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast has been the #1 podcast around the world.

Now Joe Rogan has signed a new multi-year contract with Spotify for a reported $250 million dollars, but it’s no longer exclusive. This new contract will see “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast available on various platforms including Apple, Amazon, and Google’s YouTube

Spotify has been crushing it ever since they signed Joe Rogan in 2020, and they’ve experienced an “80% increase in revenue in 2023 since 2021”, “while podcast consumption on the platform increased by 232%.” according to Spotify in an announcement of Joe Rogan’s new deal.

Joe Rogan explains his “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast saying:

“There’s no script of what we’re going to talk about, and it all just sort of happens in real time. It’s just an actual organic conversation with people enjoying themselves, which is something we all can relate to, and something we all love to do. These conversations have changed the way I think about life immeasurably and continue to do so.”

Those “organic conversations” apparently only happen people people Joe Rogan thinks are interesting, saying:

"I only have people on the show that I’m genuinely interested in talking to. I never do a podcast just because a person is popular. It’s always from a place of 'I think it would be cool to talk to that person.’”

His podcast isn’t without controversy, and has included some celebrities from the Entertainment, Sports, and Business world with some not-so-mainstream-views. This has led to a lot of controversial statements that, let’s just say, have been a little awkward for Spotify to respond to.

Since we’re all about business here at irl Media NEWS we’re not going to get into that, because it turns out all the controversy hasn’t affected Spotify’s bank account, unless you count it increasing the number of subscribers Joe Rogan pulls in. I guess you could say all controversy has actually been good for business.

‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ will no longer be exclusive to Spotify

Tech

Apple entering the AI market will be a game changer!

If there’s one thing you can count on about Apple, it’s that they will never be 1st to any new trends, and that’s on purpose. Apple likes to analyze the market, carefully develop their products, and when they launch they target the higher end of the market with a singular goal of domination.

During a conference call with analysts following Apple’s 1st quarter earnings report, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said when asked about Apple’s plans for entering the AI market  “Let me just say that I think there’s a huge opportunity for Apple with Gen AI and AI, without getting into more details and getting out in front of myself.”

That little tease was enough to get Apple fanboys all fired up for what could be to come.

So let’s talk about the top 3 ways Apple could incorporate AI their products

1) Siri

The most obvious way Apple could incorporate AI into an existing product would be to turn Siri into a full-blown AI chatbot. Currently Siri is like a magician at a children’s birthday party. She can do a couple of neat tricks to get a smile out of you, and yes she can even perform some tasks like turn on music or a smart device. I see a lot of potential for adding AI to Siri, and I imagine Apple is already deep into bringing this new functionality to market.

According to a report by Next Move Strategy Consulting “The Voice Assistant Market was valued at USD 2.73 billion in 2021 and is predicted to reach USD 36.35 billion by 2030 with a CAGR of 33.6% from 2022-2030.”

2) iTunes

I used to love iTunes, but then Apple went and fiddled with a good thing, and in my opinion tailored it predominantly for existing Mac and iPhone users leaving Windows and Android users out in the cold. Again, just my opinion, but I’m not alone feeling this way.

If Apple were to incorporate AI into iTunes to be able to better suggest music to all users, not just Mac and iPhone users, then I think they could surpass Spotify and Pandora in their ability to suggest new music based on your listening preferences.

According to a report by Business of Apps “Apple Music made approximately $8.3 billion revenue in 2022” and had “88 million people subscribe to Apple Music as of June 2022” which is “more subscribers than Spotify in the United States, but Spotify has more in Europe and South America.”

3) Vision Pro

While the Vision Pro is Apple’s latest product they’ve just brought to market, its potential could be game changing for the entire company. No singular product since the iPhone could bring together all of the products in Apple’s ecosystem within one device.

There are already over 600 apps for the Vision Pro just days after its release, and that number is going to continue to grow as more consumers purchase the product and rave about it in reviews.

Now imagine if Apple incorporated a personalized AI avatar exclusive to the Vision Pro. Talk about mass adoption!

According to a report by Markets and Markets the market for VR/AR is expected to “reach $71.2 billion by 2028 from $25.1 billion in 2023” with a “CAGR of 23.2% during the 2023-2028 period.”

Bonus:

An unknown new product. AI is pushing the limits on what we think is even possible to achieve each day. It’s tough to predict the future, but Apple has proven they have a keen sense for what is to come even if that means they create a new product category that never existed before.

Apple hasn’t innovated as much in the video editing and content creator segment of the industry as rivals Adobe has, but I think there’s a lot of room for Apple to incorporate AI into some of their video editing products such as Final Cut Pro. Apple could introduce enhanced audio to clean up audio and remove background noise automatically, like Adobe does with their Adobe Enhanced Audio which they’ve incorporated into their Premiere Pro and Adobe Podcast.

Acquisitions:

Apple is notoriously selective in their acquisitions. While many companies do acquisitions to hire talent, called acquihires, Apple prefers to acquire technology. Sure, they did acquire Beats Electronics for $3 billion in 2014, but that was as much of a technology acquisition as it was an acquihire to hire Beats co-founders Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre.

There’s one new product in the marketplace that made a big splash toward the end of 2023 for about a week, then everyone forgot about it. The company is called Humane AI, and they came out with their AI Pin products that retails for $699. This high price point is in line with Apple’s upmarket strategy, and the form-factors of the AI is a dead ringer for Apple products - probably because the AI Pin’s designers are former Apple designers Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno.

Humane’s AI Pin holds a lot of promise that I think Apple could unlock and integrate with existing Apple products like Siri, iTunes, and their  Vision Pro.

In closing, I have no doubt that Apple entering the AI market will be a gamechanger for not only the industry, but also for the Apple growth trajectory going forward.

Tim Cook teases Apple AI announcement 'later this year'

Entertainment

Quentin Tarantino is getting ready to direct his last film, and he wants to work with Brad Pitt one final time.

Brad Pitt is in discussions to work again with Quentin Tarantino on the director’s final film, entitled “The Movie Critic”.

This will be Quentin Tarantino’s 10th film he’s directed, and his 3rd movie with Brad Pitt . They’ve previously worked together on the 2099 film "Inglourious Basterds", and the 2019 film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. That doesn’t even include the 1993 film "True Romance" that Quentin Tarantino wrote, but was directed by Tony Scott.

Quentin Tarantino’s director credits include his feature debut with the 1992 independent crime drama “Reservoir Dogs”, then his 1994 film “Pulp Fiction”, then Jackie Brown in 1997, followed by the two-part action movie “Kill Bill 1” in 2003 and “Kill Bill 2” in 2004, then he has his first movie flip with his 2007 movie “Death Proof” (which I’ll admit I’ve never even seen), but then he climbed out his slump with one of my favorite WW2 movies “Inglourious Basterds” in 2009, and as if his films couldn’t get any darker he came out with “Django Unchained” in 2012  and “The Hateful Eight” in 2015. Quentin Tarantino’s last film was “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” released in 2019.

In case you were wondering how many movies Brad Pitt has been in, according to IMDB (which is almost always right) Brad Pitt acted in and “appeared” in 48 movies. That doesn’t include (22) movies where he provided only his voice, or had such a minor bit part that may have even gone uncredited, but I digress.

Next to nothing is known about “The Movie Critic”, except that Quentin Tarantino has finished writing the script, and is shopping it around to studios to make it. He’s also decided he’ll film the movie in California, thanks to a $20 million dollar credit from the State of California, so the film is sure to feature many of the most famous locations in Hollywood.

Variety: Brad Pitt in Talks to Star in Quentin Tarantino’s Final Film ‘The Movie Critic’

Travel

Do you know what nation has the rarest passport in the world?

I’ll pause while you think it over, but there’s no possible way you could even guess it.

The answer is The Sovereign Military Order of Malta, which goes by the much easier name to remember Knights of Malta.

This religious Catholic order has been around for 1,000 years, and has active humanitarian “refugee camps and disaster relief programs in some 120 countries around the world.” according to an article on CNN.

The Sovereign Military Order of Malta is actually a sovereign nation that has observer status with the United Nations. They have their own constitution, and make their own stamps, currency and passports. They even issue license plates, but ironically they don’t actually have any roads for their citizens to drive on. That’s because the only property the order still partially owns is Fort St. Angelo, located on the island country of the Republic of Malta.

The passport is crimson in color, and has gold lettering spelling out the organization’s name in French “Ordre Souverain Militaire de Malte” with a picture of their crest.

There are only approximately 500 of these diplomatic passports in circulation, and they are reserved for members of the Sovereign Council, leaders of diplomatic missions around the world, and their families.

This makes The Sovereign Military Order of Malta the rarest passport in the world.

This is the world’s rarest passport

Culture

There’s a new trend in the tattoo industry, and you’ll never guess what tattoo people are lining up to get.

We all have our favorite streaming music platform. I subscribe to YouTube Music for their ability to build playlists, I use Spotify to listen to while working, and I use Pandora to discover new music, but I’m not sure I love any of those platforms enough to get a tattoo of their songs.

Now there’s a new trend in tattoos of people getting their favorite song in the form of a unique sound bar, known as a Spotify code. Appropriately enough this new trend is called the “Spotify Tattoo”, and it’s catching on as quickly as a new Taylor Swift song skyrockets to the top of Spotify.

When these tattoos are done right, if someone scans the barcode it should immediately play the content associated with it, although some people who’ve gotten the “Spotify Tattoo” have complained that once the tattoo heals and has aged it no longer scans.

Talk about having buyers' regret.

This new tattoo trend is taking off. A search of TikTok reveals videos tagged with the #spotifytattoo have received over 14.8 million views.

In a poll by the Pew Research Center, they found that one-third of American adults have tattoos.

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, “The global tattoo market is projected to grow from $2.04 billion in 2023 to $3.93 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 9.87% during the forecast period.”

On the flip side, the global tattoo removal industry was estimated to be $478 million in 2019 with a projected growth to more than $795 million by 2027, according to Allied Market Research.

Full disclosure: I’m uninked, and I doubt the 1st tattoo I ever get would be the “Spotify Tattoo” of my favorite song, but I do love the concept of tattoo barcodes or crypto addresses as a form of expression.

Would you ever get a “Spotify Tattoo”? Drop us a line and let us know.

Before you get a Spotify tattoo, artists want you to know these risks

So much news, so little time. Until tomorrow we’re signing out.

— Chris