💿  In record time

👋  Good morning. File this one under “acting jobs you’ll never get”: New York City’s Metropolitan Opera just held auditions for a starring snake in an adaptation of Mozart's "Così fan tutte." A carnival performer-turned-opera actor was in charge of picking out the new leading reptile, hoisting each into the air under bright stage lights and staring them in their beady little eyes to test demeanor. The winner: Princess the big sun-glow boa constrictor.

NEWS FLASH 

✈️  Going once, going twice… Startup FlyApp is auctioning off private jet “empty legs” — the hundreds of flights that take off every day without passengers so that planes can reposition. The startup’s operators list available flights and travelers bid in real-time, with prices reflecting demand rather than a broker’s markup. The founders say they one day hope to expand the business model to eVTOLs and across the world.

☁️  Talk about finding a silver lining: Y Combinator-backed startup Meteoric wants to use drones to break up clouds hovering over solar farms so more sunlight can reach the panels, potentially boosting solar generation by up to 30%. The startup says it’s already dissipated an artificial cloud by 13% in the lab, and will begin real-world testing next year. If that works, Meteoric is going into the eye of the storm to use its tech to weaken hurricanes.

🌊  Uncharted territory: HydroSight is building an AI platform to map the seabed using marine survey data from multiple sources to automatically flag changes, anomalies, and patterns for ports, energy companies, and telecom cable operators. With ~30% of the world’s oil and gas produced at sea, and 99%+ of international data traffic running through cables on the seabed, being able to quickly and accurately read the seabed is a clear win.

MORE NEWS TO KNOW

• Space race update: German startup Isar Aerospace successfully launched the first commercial rocket to reach orbit from continental Europe, carrying five small satellites and the hopes of little European boys and girls everywhere. 

• Treat yo' self: Between now and 2050, global spending on AI infrastructure will top $31T — yes, trillion — per the latest estimate from PricewaterhouseCoopers. That number nearly matches the current GDP of the US.

  
  

• Got to know when to fold ‘em: Apple is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone today, but Huawei and Xiaomi already rained on their parade — both Chinese tech companies preempted Apple this week by launching their own new foldable smartphones.
  

• It’s not just you: The cost of streaming services has rocketed up 3x more than the inflation rate since 2022, per The Hollywood Reporter. On the bright side, it makes inflation feel a little less soul crushing by comparison? 
  

GO & GROW 

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THE BIG IDEA

The rise and fall of Columbia House mail-order music club

Like collect calling from a payphone to shout "Moviesovercomepickusup" or having to "be kind and rewind," kids today will never understand some experiences.

Add to that list: receiving a dozen albums in the mail for a mere penny — likely without your parents' knowledge.

And while you probably thought the legendary mail-order music club bit the dust ages ago, Columbia House recently announced it's officially going out of business after 71 years, per CNN.

If you, like me, bolstered your teenage music collection with the too-good-to-be-true service, you're probably wondering:

How the heck did they make that work?

Launched in 1955 as Columbia Record Club, the service began as a CBS-owned Columbia Records experiment to market music by mail to customers:

• It enticed new members with a free record and choice of titles shipped monthly, including jazz, pop, and "teen hits" — AKA newfangled rock 'n' roll.
  
• In the first year, 128k members purchased 700k albums.
  
• By 1963, the club captured 10% of the recorded music retail market.
  
• The company pivoted to reel-to-reel, 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs, and eventually VHS and DVDs.

Columbia House, and similar clubs like BMG, benefited from negative option billing:  It lured customers with an introductory deal (e.g., 12 records for a penny), but buried an agreement to make ongoing monthly purchases in the fine print. 

Members received a reply card to decline monthly shipments, which they were required to return within a specified timeframe. If you missed the deadline, the album shipped automatically with a full-price bill.

The arrangement also saved Columbia House tons of cash.

It paid publishers 75% of standard royalties set by copyright law, arguing they agreed to "implied" licenses, per Mental Floss. It also acquired master tapes and pressed copies for less, and didn't pay royalties on discounted introductory albums.

And it worked... for a while

• Columbia House shipped its one-billionth record in 1990.
  
• At its peak in 1996, it hit $1.4B in revenue and 8m customers, with Columbia House and BMG accounting for one-third of all CDs distributed in the US.
  
• As digital music services grew, the company struggled — even when it tried streaming.
  
• The company bounced to various parent companies before declaring bankruptcy in 2015.
  
• Stripped of its former glory, it hung on by selling DVDs.

Ironically, the grand experiment ends amid a resurgence in vinyl records and CDs.

So, who knows, maybe we'll see those enticing deals arrive in our mailbox again one day.

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HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

These products are hundreds of years old… How have they survived? 

NEWSWORTHY NUMBER

How much alcohol might actually be in your “zero-proof” beer, per The Wall Street Journal. Despite containing trace amounts, some brands still use terms like “nonalcoholic” and “alcohol-free” to describe their not-exactly-N/A beverages. But now that the segment is popping off and more consumers are imbibing, including sensitive groups like pregnant women and organ recipients, regulators are finally cracking down on brands’ loose marketing language.

HOW YOU HUSTLE

You all are always up to something neat. This is our weekly spotlight on a Hustle reader’s ambitious venture.

Founder: Alex Arguelles

Building: Sell2Rent — a platform that connects homeowners facing financial hardship with investors who buy their property and immediately lease it back, so people can unlock home equity without having to move.

Edge: Sell2Rent operates in 25+ states with a fully remote team, serving the gap between distressed homeowners who want to stay put and investors seeking off-market rental properties with tenants already in place.

Advice: "Fail fast and fail early."

Working on something cool? Tell us here.

AROUND THE WEB

📅  On this day: In 2002, at age 72, Buzz Aldrin — the second human to set foot on the moon — punched a moon landing conspiracy theorist in the face.

📸  Game: A daily word game with images as clues.

📚  Bored?: Build your own 3D library.

👁  That’s interesting: The whole deal behind those huge coin-operated binoculars bolted to scenic overlooks.

🐶  Aww: Sleepy puppy.

SHOWER THOUGHT

There may be some amazing lab-created flavors out there that don't resemble anything found in nature. But they're hard to market, most people wouldn't buy something labeled as 'chemical-flavored'. SOURCE

Today's email was brought to you by Ben Berkley, Singdhi Sokpo, and Danny Jensen.

Editing by: Sara "Broken record" Friedman.

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