marthasmith (she/her)

The fastest way to lower housing prices in America would be to add a comment section to Zillow. “Oh, you bought this house in 2021 for $287K at 2.5% interest, did ZERO renovations, and now you want $450K because you painted the kitchen cabinets gray?” Let the internet bully the housing market back into reality.

Warren: "Democrats must deliver popular, meaningful legislation to Trump's desk, and then dare him to veto it. Dare him to veto an increase to the minimum wage for hard-working Americans. Dare him to veto a ban on price gouging. Dare him to veto a ban on AI surveillance pricing ... you can't win what you don't fight for"

You bet I have a plan for that.

Hello, DC. Let’s get to work. 🇺🇸

BREAKING: A national group of US students are compiling a Serbia-style list of politicians who have been complicit in covering up the Epstein Files, egregious stock trading, and ICE's violations of constitutional rights so Millennials and Gen Z can vote them all out in 2028.

Spotify just announced a feature that could either save the music industry or destroy it. Starting as early as Q1 2027, Spotify Premium subscribers will be able to use AI to transform any participating artist’s song into a completely different version. Turn a folk ballad into a dance track. Make a hip-hop song sound acoustic. Generate a cover where one artist’s voice performs another artist’s song. Remix a pop hit into lo-fi study music. Create the version of your favorite song that only existed in your head until now. The remixes will be uploaded directly to Spotify. They’ll appear in playlists. They’ll count toward the original song’s chart position. And most importantly the original artist will earn royalties every time someone listens to a fan-created remix of their work. Spotify has already signed a landmark licensing deal with Universal Music Group the world’s largest record label. Negotiations with Sony Music and Warner Music are ongoing. The feature will cost an additional $4–$5/month on top of Spotify Premium. And analysts project 7–8% of American subscribers will adopt it by 2028. This is not Suno or Udio generating music from text prompts. This is fans remixing real songs by real artists with the artists’ permission, on the world’s largest streaming platform, with royalties flowing back to the creators. A music industry analyst who’s covered streaming economics for 15 years told her team something after reading the licensing agreement that reframed how she understood the future of recorded music. “Spotify just turned 640 million listeners into 640 million potential remixers. The question isn’t whether people will use it they will. The question is whether paying artists for fan remixes solves the economics of streaming or creates a world where the original recording is worth less than the infinite remixes generated from it.” Here’s what Spotify’s AI remix feature actually is, who wins, who loses, and why this might be the most consequential decision in the music industry since the launch of streaming itself 🧵

The scale of James Talarico’s victory is simply astounding. He still wins if you remove Dallas, Travis, and Harris counties.