LA Tech Updates: Wave's Roll Continues; TikTok Sweetens Deal for Music Stars

Sam Blake

Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake

LA Tech Updates: Wave's Roll Continues; TikTok Sweetens Deal for Music Stars

Here are the latest updates on news affecting Los Angeles' startup and tech communities. Sign up for our newsletter and follow dot.LA on Twitter for more.

Today:

  • Virtual concert creator Wave adds Netflix executive to C-Suite
  • TikTok signs music distribution deal with UnitedMasters

    Wave Reels in Former Netflix Exec as New CMO

    Tina Rubin is Wave's new chief marketing officer

    Wave, a startup that transforms musicians into avatars for interactive virtual concerts, has reeled in former Netflix executive Tina Rubin as its chief marketing officer, the company announced Monday.

    The L.A.-based entertainment company has been on a winning streak lately, closing a $30 million round in early June and scoring partnerships with Grammy-award winners John Legend and The Weeknd. It's also beefed up its C-suite, adding former Riot Games executive Jarred Kennedy as chief operating officer last month.

    Rubin, who oversaw strategy for Netflix's young adult and family division (including Stranger Things and Umbrella Academy), will focus on ticketing, merchandise, product development and brand awareness at Wave. She'll also build out new ways for artists and their fans to interact remotely.

    "I look forward to helping Wave connect music fans with the artists they love in even more immersive and accessible ways," Rubin said in a statement.

    Earlier this month, Wave designed the avatar and set for The Weeknd's virtual concert on TikTok, which broadcast the show via its main @TikTok account. Wave representatives reported the performance attracted 275,000 peak concurrent viewers – the most in TikTok history – and 1.2 million total unique viewers, a record for a solo artist's performance on the platform.

    Wave, founded in 2016, has now hosted over 50 concerts. Originally conceived as a virtual reality-concert platform, the company has expanded and now distributes its concerts across social media, gaming platforms and VR headsets.

    Rubin replaces Wave interim CMO Jeremy Welt.

    TikTok Signs Music Distribution Deal with UnitedMasters

    TikTok Doles Out Money to Creators, Batting Away Rivals

    Short-form video-sharing app TikTok announced a deal with indie music distributor UnitedMasters on Monday that will make it easier for artists and creators who go viral on the platform to get their music up on streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify.

    It comes as President Donald Trump has ordered ByteDance, the company's Chinese owner, to divest within 90 days from its U.S. operations.

    The move gives musicians an easier way to leverage their success on TikTok without needing a middleman such as a record label to get their songs onto streaming platforms.

    The partnership is the first distribution deal struck by the company, which earlier this year hired former Disney executive Kevin Mayer as its CEO. TikTok has also recently fortified its partnerships with several music publishers so that users can include songs in their videos without worrying about infringing on copyright.

    TikTok thinks it can leverage the UnitedMasters deal to draw in more top and trending artists such as Curtis Roach, Curtis Waters, Breland, Tai Verdes and BMW Kenny. The deal will complement TikTok's recently announced $1 billion Creator Fund to pay top TikTokkers, as the company tries to attract and retain creative talent amid growing competition in the short-form video space.

    UnitedMasters, launched in 2017 by former Interscope executive Steve Stoute, also arranges music deals with brands like ESPN and the NBA.


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    How the 'Thrift Haul' Trend Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms

    Lon Harris
    Lon Harris is a contributor to dot.LA. His work has also appeared on ScreenJunkies, RottenTomatoes and Inside Streaming.
    How the 'Thrift Haul' Trend Boosted Secondhand Ecommerce Platforms
    Evan Xie

    If you can believe it, it’s been more than a decade since rapper Macklemore extolled the virtues of thrift shopping in a viral music video. But while scouring the ranks of vintage clothing stores looking for the ultimate come-up may have waned in popularity since 2012, the online version of this activity is apparently thriving.

    According to a new trend story from CNBC, interest in “reselling” platforms like Etsy-owned Depop and Poshmark has exploded in the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown. In an article that spends a frankly surprising amount of time focused on sellers receiving death threats before concluding that they’re “not the norm,” the network cites the usual belt-tightening ecommerce suspects – housebound individuals doing more of their shopping online coupled with inflation woes and recession fears – as the causes behind the uptick.

    As for data, there’s a survey from Depop themselves, finding that 53% of respondents in the UK are more inclined to shop secondhand as living costs continue to rise. Additional research from Advance Market Analytics confirms the trend, citing not just increased demand for cheap clothes but the pressing need for a sustainable alternative to recycling clothing materials at its core.

    The major popularity of “thrift haul” videos across social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok has also boosted the visibility of vintage clothes shopping and hunting for buried treasures. Teenage TikToker Jacklyn Wells scores millions of views on her thrift haul videos, only to get routinely mass-accused of greed for ratching up the Depop resell prices for her coolest finds and discoveries. Nonetheless, viral clips like Wells’ have helped to embed secondhand shopping apps more generally within online fashion culture. Fashion and beauty magazine Hunger now features a regular list of the hottest items on the re-sale market, with a focus on how to use them to recreate hot runway looks.

    As with a lot of consumer and technology trends, the sudden surge of interest in second-hand clothing retailers was only partly organic. According to The Drum, ecommerce apps Vinted, eBay, and Depop have collectively spent around $120 million on advertising throughout the last few years, promoting the recent vintage shopping boom and helping to normalize second-hand shopping. This includes conventional advertising, of course, but also deals with online influencers to post content like “thrift haul” videos, along with shoutouts for where to track down the best finds.

    Reselling platforms have naturally responded to the increase in visibility with new features (as well as a predictable hike in transaction fees). Poshmark recently introduced livestreamed “Posh Shows” during which sellers can host auctions or provide deeper insight into their inventory. Depop, meanwhile, has introduced a “Make Offer” option to fully integrate the bartering and negotiation process into the app, rather than forcing buyers and sellers to text or Direct Message one another elsewhere. (The platform formerly had a comments section on product pages, but shut this option down after finding that it led to arguments, and wasn’t particularly helpful in making purchase decisions.)

    Now that it’s clear there’s money to be made in online thrift stores, larger and more established brands and retailers are also pushing their way into the space. H&M and Target have both partnered with online thrift store ThredUp on featured collections of previously-worn clothing. A new “curated” resale collection from Tommy Hilfiger – featuring minorly damaged items that were returned to its retail stores – was developed and promoted through a partnership with Depop, which has also teamed with Kellogg’s on a line of Pop-Tarts-inspired wear. J.Crew is even bringing back its classic ‘80s Rollneck Sweater in a nod to the renewed interest in all things vintage.

    Still, with any surge of popularity and visibility, there must also come an accompanying backlash. In a sharp editorial this week for Arizona University’s Daily Wildcat, thrift shopping enthusiast Luke Lawson makes the case that sites like Depop are “gentrifying fashion,” stripping communities of local thrift stores that provide a valuable public service, particularly for members of low-income communities. As well, UK tabloids are routinely filled with secondhand shopping horror stories these days, another evidence point as to their increased visibility among British consumers specifically, not to mention the general dangers of buying personal items from strangers you met over the internet.

    How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

    Spencer Rascoff

    Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

    How to Startup: Mission Acquisition

    Numbers don’t lie, but often they don’t tell the whole story. If you look at the facts and figures alone, launching a startup seems like a daunting enterprise. It seems like a miracle anyone makes it out the other side.

    • 90% of startups around the world fail.
    • On average, it takes startups 2-3 years to turn a profit. (Venture funded startups take far longer.)
    • Post-seed round, fewer than 10% of startups go on to successfully raise a Series A investment.
    • Less than 1% of startups go public.
    • A startup only has a .00006% chance of becoming a unicorn.

    Ouch.

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    From The Vault: VC Legend Bill Gurley On Startups, Venture Capital and Scaling

    Spencer Rascoff

    Spencer Rascoff serves as executive chairman of dot.LA. He is an entrepreneur and company leader who co-founded Zillow, Hotwire, dot.LA, Pacaso and Supernova, and who served as Zillow's CEO for a decade. During Spencer's time as CEO, Zillow won dozens of "best places to work" awards as it grew to over 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to Zillow, Spencer co-founded and was VP Corporate Development of Hotwire, which was sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. Through his startup studio and venture capital firm, 75 & Sunny, Spencer is an active angel investor in over 100 companies and is incubating several more.

    Bill Gurley in a blue suit
    Bill Gurley

    This interview was originally published on December of 2020, and was recorded at the inaugural dot.LA Summit held October 27th & 28th.

    One of my longtime favorite episodes of Office Hours was a few years ago when famed venture capitalist Bill Gurley and I talked about marketplace-based companies, how work-from-home will continue to accelerate business opportunities and his thoughts on big tech and antitrust.

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