Short Squeez
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🍋 TikTok Tunes

🍋 TikTok Tunes

Short Squeez
September 06, 2022

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"Knowing when you have an edge is very difficult, but in my experience it is the critical factor that allows us to stand out in the ultra competitive world of institutional money management." — Brian Bares

Good Morning! Hope you enjoyed an extra day off yesterday. Amazon is planning a lot of days off for employees, as it's closing dozens of US warehouses in October, amid slowing sales growth. On the bright side, gas prices are expected to continue to fall, potentially below the $3 a gallon mark in some states. That should help consumers, as the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index is now at levels usually seen during much worse economic environments. In the UK, people may be feeling some closure, after a long drawn-out election has finally resulted in Liz Truss replacing Boris Johnson as Prime Minister.

As promised, you can find the full Short Squeez recommended book list here.

Miss your second monitor on while traveling? Check out ViewSonic's portable monitors.

1. Story of the Day: TikTok Tunes

TikTok trends have taken over our lives, from the clothes we wear to the recipes we cook. One of the biggest influences TikTok influencers have is on the music we listen to. If a song catches the ear of a group of kids that can choreograph a weirdly expressive dance to it, then an unknown artist can rise to stardom almost overnight.

Take the example of "Supalonely" by Benee. When the song first came out, Zoi Lerma worked at a bagel shop and choreographed a dance to the tune. That dance routine went viral, and the video has since gotten 45 million views on TikTok. She's now an influencer, and Benee is a superstar, who performed at Bonnaroo and received a nomination for new artist of 2020 at the People’s Choice Awards.

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. In May, the company filed a trademark application for "TikTok Music," a service that would allow users to play, share, purchase, and download music. This expands on TikTok's roots with Musical.ly, a startup that ByteDance acquired which let users make videos with other people's music. ByteDance merged TikTok and Musical.ly to create the gamechanger we know today.

It really is a gamechanger, with ripple effects making waves for everyone in the industry. In 2021, Spotify had to pay out over $7 billion in royalties, a lot of which were for songs that came to fame off TikTok. Older songs can become popular again, with Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" getting back onto the charts after that one dude drank cranberry juice and skateboarded with the song in the background.

Big Sean, whose song "Down" topped the charts in 2009, is trying to take advantage of the new medium. Sean said, "I'm reaching a brand-new fan base. I've been doing music for 20 years, so some of them were just kids when my music came out and they're starting to discover my back catalog through this."

Short Squeez Takeaway: I love discovering new music, and a lot of times the best way to do that is through non-music services. Like when a random YouTube video explaining "What is Blockchain" has a fire soundtrack in the background. I don't have a TikTok, but if it'll introduce me to good tunes, maybe I, and a bunch of other atypical millennial users, will get one.

2. Markets Rundown

Markets were closed yesterday for Labor Day, while crypto managed to snag some gainz.

Private Dealmaking

Planted, a vegan meat manufacturer, raised $72 million
Solid, a fintech and SaaS payment platform, raised $63 million
OneSignal, a mobile app notification platform, raised $50 million
Everphone, a startup that allows users to rent smartphones and laptops, raised $32 million
98point6, a virtual medical communications platform, raised $20 million
Falkon, an AI sales analytics platform, raised $16 million

3. Top Reads

Economists divided on risk of U.S. recession (CNBC)
Euro slides below 99 cents, two-decade low (Fox)
CVS to buy home health giant Signify Health for about $8 billion (CNBC)
Europe heading for recession as cost of living deepens (Reuters)
Stocks are stormy heading into September (CNBC)
Why millennial and Gen-Z investors have an edge (YF)
NY corporate bond distress index improved in August (Reuters)
Banks, bankers, and ESG demands (Fox)
How Tommy Bahama spreads its brand without making anything (CNN)

A Message From ViewSonic: Portable Monitors for Productivity on the Go

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I myself use one of these and highly recommend.

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4. Book of the Day: Slouching Towards Utopia

Before 1870, humanity lived in dire poverty, with a slow crawl of invention offset by a growing population. Then came a great shift: invention sprinted forward, doubling our technological capabilities each generation and utterly transforming the economy again and again.

Our ancestors would have presumed we would have used such powers to build utopia. But it was not so. When 1870–2010 ended, the world instead saw global warming; economic depression, uncertainty, and inequality; and broad rejection of the status quo.

Economist Brad DeLong's Slouching Towards Utopia tells the story of how this unprecedented explosion of material wealth  occurred, how it transformed the globe, and why it failed to deliver us to utopia. Of remarkable breadth and ambition, it reveals the last century to have been less  a march of progress than a slouch in the right direction.

“We live in a (relatively) free and prosperous country and, compared to the past, a relatively free and prosperous world.”

5. Short Squeez Picks

Is quiet quitting about bad bosses, or bad employees?
10 free Chrome extensions that will accelerate your learning
2 time management skills learned from working with Bill Gates
25 most expensive cities in America
How airlines give you internet access at 35,000 feet - and why it still needs work
Every day Refind picks 7 links from around the web that make you smarter, tailored to your interests. Loved by 50k+ curious minds.

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6. Daily Visual: Small Investors are Snapping Up Out-Of-State Properties

Source: WSJ

7. Daily Acumen: Discipline

“If small changes create big results, then why is success so elusive?

The answer boils down to a single word: discipline. Not many people have consistent discipline when times are good. Even fewer in times of stress.

Anyone can do something once. Not everyone can do it consistently. Eating healthy for a meal is common. Eating healthy all week is not. Working out occasionally is common. Working out a few times a week is not. Going to bed on time is easy. Doing it for a week is not.

Positioning yourself for future success is simple but not easy. The hardest part is the discipline required to do otherwise ordinary things for an extraordinarily long period of time, even when the results are barely noticeable.

When people say you need to love the process, this is what they mean. Can you do it when it’s hard? Can you do it when other people stop? Can you work on something long enough to let it compound? Can you do it when the results aren’t visible?

Putting yourself in a position for success is simple. Doing it day in and day out is hard.

Extraordinary results come from ordinary people with uncommon discipline.”