An Astor Place diner needs your help.
NYT said it’s a perfect place to cry. 🍔
Good evening, everyone. Sending this letter from dinner at the bar on Long Island.
For all of you still waiting on answers about TBPN’s sale to OpenAI, you can head over to the Feed Me chat to ask the tech show’s President, Dylan Abruscato, about the deal. Or his time as a Page at NBC. Or how he thinks about viral content.
Yesterday morning, before I had a lunchtime martini with Susana Mejia, before I walked out onto Beaver Street, I recorded an episode of People vs Algorithms. You can listen to it here.
Today’s newsletter includes: eliza mclamb’s investigation into how alt music goes viral, a Feed Me contributor launched his own newsletter, and Jamie Dimon is bullish on media.
Have a story you want me to look into this week? Reply to this email or text the anonymous Feed Me Tip Line: (646) 494-3916
The New York Times is hiring a fitness reporter. Of course, preferred qualifications include: “Experience with on-camera interviews and generating story ideas for video.”
The Wainscott house belonging to Josh Aaronson (played by Adrien Brody) on “Succession” just sold for $59 million. It was the second-most expensive transaction in the Hamptons so far this year.
eliza mclamb published an incredible investigation into Chaotic Good, a music marketing agency that creates fake accounts to appear as fans for your favorite alt musicians. The most shocking part to me is that this agency wasn’t operating under the radar – they gave a full interview about their work to Billboard last month, even saying: “Everything on the internet is fake.” Everything on the internet is fake.” I happen to hate this claim, because I remember some of the realest moments of my life took place on the internet. However, I can’t deny this is no longer the internet I grew up on. Huge swaths of it are blighted by sock puppets, influence campaigns, fake accounts trying to tilt sentiment. A new, turbocharged tyranny of the minority, with the bots on sale to the highest bidder. Thankfully, this hasn’t reached the Feed Me comment section and you’re all 100% real. McLamb, a musician herself, pointed out that Chaotic Good’s founders’ advice for artists echoes what her own management company has told her: “post, post, post, try to hit the algorithm, fail miserably, post, post, post again, try covering other songs, try posting memes, try posting your feet, try posting your songs again, well, no, try posting the feet again.” The idea is to manipulate the public’s perception of an artist through virality and algorithms. The agency’s roster has included Mk.gee., Cameron Winter, Oklou, some of whom have disappeared from their site in the hours since McLamb published this piece. It’s a nice weekend to listen to Eliza’s music.