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When the NFL and Apple Music announced Bad Bunny as the 2026 Super Bowl half-time show headliner, the choice surprised some. But to anyone tracking the data over the past few years, it was inevitable. In 2022, Bad Bunnys Un Verano Sin Ti redefined the market, driving Latin musics streaming growth to new heights. It later became the first Spanish-language album nominated for Grammy Album of the Year. The takeaway is simple: When you have accurate, real-time data, you dont guess where culture is going, you know. That kind of foresight is exactly what industries need now, especially as AI accelerates change at a pace that demands evidence, not instinct. In real time, we’re watching AI fundamentally reshape the economics of music, and much of the industry is still arguing that maybe it shouldnt exist at all. The discourse surrounding AI and music is filled with necessary debates, from copyright infringement and artist compensation to vocal cloning and authenticity. These concerns are valid and must be addressed. But while the industry argues about whether AI should change music, our data shows it already is. Some of the resulting evolution has relevant precedent for reference. Some of it requires urgent action. Reliable information, detection, and measurement is required to make sense of it all. Here to stay Whether we like it or not, AI music is here to stay, and rather than fighting it, we should understand its benefits as a tool for artistseither to amplify existing production processes or to introduce new ways of designing music. Recent data from Luminates consumer research shows that 44% of U.S. music listeners say they’re uncomfortable with AI-created songs. But discomfort doesn’t predict behavior. The AI artist Xania Monet (created by Music Designer Telisha Jones) averaged 8 million weekly global on-demand audio streams in October, following her debut on multiple Billboard charts, including Hot Gospel Songs with Let Go, Let Go and Hot R&B Songs with How Was I Supposed to Know? Monets songs touch on emotional healing, life lessons, and heartbreak, pointing to the argument that music at its essence is how it makes you feel and not how its made. This conflicting tension between initial consumer attitudes and actual listening habits is not new. Consider what happened with auto-tune. In 2009, Jay-Z released “D.O.A (Death of Auto-Tune),” declaring war on the technology. That same year, The Black Eyed Peas released “Boom Boom Pow” and “I Gotta Feeling, both anchored by auto-tune production. Today, each of those Black Eyed Peas songs has hundreds of millions of streams in the U.S. Jay-Z’s protest anthem? Less than 40 million. The market spoke. Technological evolution won. Infrastructure evolves If AI continues to earn its place in music productionand all signs point to that inevitable realityit doesnt mean that artists or rights holders have to lose. This is where foresight becomes essential. The sampler wars of the late 1980s offer an instructive parallel. When Biz Markie was sued in 1991 for sampling Gilbert O’Sullivan, the industry faced an existential crisis. The outcome wasn’t suppression of the technology, it was the creation of an entire licensing and clearance infrastructure. Detection and attribution became the foundation of a functioning market. That infrastructure has continued to evolve in the era of streaming and transmedia discovery. Millions are being spent on legacy music catalogs, and those high valuations are proving to be valid. At the midpoint of this year, Becoming Led Zeppelin was the most-viewed new music documentary in the U.S., and its high viewership drove a sustained 23% increase in streams for the bands catalog. Notably, the documentarys release drove Led Zeppelin to its highest-ever weekly total for global on-demand audio streams: 40.4 million in late February. But what happens if AI-generated music infringes on Led Zeppelins copyright during the creation process? I think we can all agree that no one should get away with stealing others creative IP for financial gain. The industry needs to move fast and policy needs to be implemented so that artists and rights holders continue to be paid fairly and rightfully as AIs presence in music expands. At Luminate, our mission is to provide the entertainment industry with essential, objective, and trustworthy data. When it comes to AI, that mission has only become more critical. Our data shows not just what happened, but what’s happening now, and increasingly, what’s about to happen. That visibility is what enables stakeholders across the industry, everyone from labels and publishers to platforms and policymakers, to make informed decisions rather than reactive ones. AI-generated artists designed for scale and low-cost delivery will proliferate. Online and live performance environments will be filled with algorithmically-optimized content. The technology will become more sophisticated, more accessible, and harder to detect without proper infrastructure. We all need to work with the same objective information to navigate these advancements.
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E-Commerce
Almost everywhere you go, from the doctors office to the library to the car dealership, theres one ubiquitous design gem hidden in plain sight: the Bic Cristal. This unsung hero of the writing desk has produced uncountable signatures and annotationsbut now its getting its moment in the spotlight through a collaboration with the Italian home goods brand Seletti. The Bic Cristal is the worlds best-selling pen, boasting more than 120 billion sales since its release in 1950. For the tail end of the pens 75th anniversary, Bic teamed up with Seletti to produce a work of art inspired by the pen: a giant, 12:1 scale lamp. The products massive scale translates particularly well for a lamp, with a clear case revealing a glowing, neon-like LED light inside. It can be positioned vertically or horizontally, and used as a floor lamp, pendant, or wall sconce. The lamp will be available in the pens classic blue, red, and black colorways when it debuts in the U.S. later this year for around $350. [Photo: Bic] Why the Bic Cristal makes a perfect lamp The Bic Cristal is an adaptation of the first-ever ballpoint pen, invented in 1938 by a Hungarian journalist named László Biró (hence the pens common nickname, the Bic Biro). According to a breakdown written for the MoMA exhibition Pirouette: Turning Points in Design, which featured the Bic Crystal, Birós original pen was designed to allow ink to flow more consistently than older fountain pens, but it still had some issues with clogging and leaking. After acquiring Birós patent, Bic founder Marcel Bich adjusted the design to include a smaller, 1-millimeter-wide ballpoint tip with a simple quirk: an air hole, which prevented a vacuum from forming inside the pen. This tiny tweak allows the pen’s ink to flow freely to the nub, and is what makes it such a reliable choice to this day. Aesthetically, Bichs choice of a clear plastic for the pens body reveals how it works and renders it instantly recognizable. Paola Antonelli, MoMAs senior curator of architecture and design, said in the museums breakdown, It almost looks like it is within a crystal tube. It was such a beautiful use of plastic that almost made us think plastic could be precious. [Photo: Bic] Art director Stefano Seletti was similarly drawn to the Bic Cristals sleek, crystalline aesthetic as a potential lighting object for Seletti. Since the brand began dabbling in lighting several years ago, its embraced an out-of-the-box approach to its catalog, playing with everything from animal figures holding light bulbs to an anatomically correct rendition of a human heart. The structure of the pen was absolutely perfect for this project: The transparent tubular body allows light to pass through, the ink cartridge could easily be transformed into the LED that provides the light, and the electrical components could be easily hidden by the colored plastic parts, Seletti says. His team partnered with Italian designer Mario Paroli, as well as with Bic, to bring the Bic Lamp to life. They used Bics archives and technical drawings to faithfully reproduce the pen at a 12-to-1 scale. The final product is an ode to Bics simple-yet-functional design ethosand its the perfect kitsch addition to any space where writing gets done.
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You sit down at your desk, ready to start the day. Before you can even open your first email, youve already typed in three different passwordseach more complex than the last. By lunchtime, youve repeated the ritual half a dozen times. Its frustrating, its slow, and its happening to millions of employees every single day. This is password fatiguethe silent productivity killer and hidden security risk plaguing modern enterprises. Its more than an annoyance; its a costly vulnerability. Our global survey found that most users still rely on passwords as their primary authentication method. This should concern most organizations, because in an era defined by work-from-everywhere policies, apps, and mobile devices, businesses are still relying on a defense that hasnt meaningfully evolved since the 1960s. Complexity Without Security When it comes to password complexity, organizations are damned if they do and damned if they dont. They either abandon complexity altogetherlook at the Louvre, which used “Louvre” as the password to secure its surveillance systemor require increasingly complex strings of mixed cases, numbers, symbols, frequent changes, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). While intended to strengthen security, complex password requirements can just as easily have the opposite effect. How many times has someone been locked out of their system for days because they forgot their recovery answer, or lost the phone that sends the authentication link needed to grant access? And in how many instances has that person decided to forsake those approved tools and upload sensitive data into a personal Google Driveeasier for them and their colleagues to access, but also easier for cybercriminals to exploit? The tragedy is that added complexity doesnt guarantee safety. Cybercriminals have long since adapted to password advances with credential stuffing and brute-force attacks. But the most effective technique theyre using targets the weakest link in the password chain; not the password itself but the person who created it. Why spend hours trying to pick a lock when the owner will unknowingly hand you the combination? There have been instances of cybercriminals creating look-alike login pages to collect passwords. The massive data breaches that hit MGM Resorts and Clorox were the result of cybercriminals masquerading as legitimate users, asking the IT help desk to reset their password and MFA. These threat actors didnt break inthey logged in. The rise of AI has made the password problem even more urgent. Cybercriminals now use AI to guess passwords, craft flawless phishing emails, and even generate deepfake voices to trick help desk staff. Traditional passwords simply cant withstand this new generation of attacks. According to the 2026 RSA ID IQ Report, 69% of organizations reported an identity-related breach in the last three years, a 27-percentage-point increase from last years survey. These arent abstract statisticsthey represent real financial losses, operational disruption, and reputational harm. And in many cases, they could have been prevented. But how? Employees are burdened with increasingly unmanageable login rituals, yet organizations remain exposed to the very breaches these measures were meant to prevent. So, whats the answer? The Passwordless Solution The most viable way out of this cycle is passwordless authentication. When theres no password to steal, organizations significantly reduce their risks and streamline the login process by eliminating the need to remember, update, or constantly reenter a password string. Passwords typically rely on “something you know” for users to gain access. Passwordless authentication replaces typing in a password with two or more other factors, including “something you have” like a mobile phone or hardware token, or “something you are,” like a face or fingerprint scan. Typically, using those factors manifests in one of three ways, each with its own trade-offs: Authenticator Apps & Push Notifications: What it is: Instead of typing a password, the user enters their username and receives a secure notification on a trusted mobile app asking them to verify the login, often by matching a number. Pros: Highly popular in business environments; relies on the smartphone the user already carries. Cons: Requires the user to have a smartphone with data access; slightly slower than direct biometrics; susceptible to phishing and other attacks. Magic Links: What it is: Similar to the “forgot password” link Instagram or Slack might send you, the system emails a unique link or texts a code to log you in. Pros: No hardware or setup is required; it works on any device with access to email. Cons: While “password-free,” this is not truly “passwordless” in the security sense. It relies on the security of the email inbox (which is often protected only by a weak password) and is still susceptible to phishing and interception. Platform Biometrics (Face ID, Touch ID, Windows Hello): What it is: The user verifies their identity using a fingerprint scan or facial recognition built directly into their laptop or smartphone. Pros: This offers the highest convenience and speed; users are already trained to unlock their phones this way. Cons: It ties the credential to a specific device. If that device is lost or broken, account recovery mechanisms must be robust. What to Look for in an Enterprise-Grade Passwordless Solution If youre evaluating passwordless options for your company, ask yourself these two questions: 1. Is it comprehensive? If your solution only works for one environment or user group, then youll need to bolt on additional solutions to cover everyone and everything. For example, a solution might offer seamless biometric login for modern cloud apps like Office 365, but fail completely with legacy on-premises mainframes or VPNs, forcing users to fall back to passwords for critical internal systems. Your solution must work across every platform, deployment model, and environmentcloud, on-premises, edge, legacy, Microsoft, and macOS. 2. Is it truly secure? Phishing-resistance is a key trend in passwordless solutions, and its a critcal feature for eliminating one of the most frequent and highest-impact attack vectors. But phishing-resistance isnt enoughorganizations also need to be bypass resistant, malware resistant, fraud resistant, and outage resistant. If a cybercriminal can evade passwordless MFA by convincing your IT Help Desk to let them in, then the passwordless method itself isnt worth all that much. Making the Transition Shifting to a different paradigm doesnt happen overnight, but the payoff is immediate. Start with your most critical applications or highest-risk users and choose device-bound passkeys over synced alternatives that allow keys to roam between devices for stronger security. Build rigorous enrollment processes with identity verification and liveness detection, which validates that the biometric source is a live person. In addition, protect your help desk with bilateral verification: this process confirms the caller’s identity via a device prompt and proves the agents legitimacy by displaying their verified status on the callers screen. Plan for secure recovery when devices are lost by establishing high-assurance fallbacks, like pre-registered backup keys or biometric re-verification, instead of passwords. Look for solutions that automatically provide device-bound passkeys when users register the app. Lastly, measure the percentage of passwordless authentications over time against any suspected account compromises to ensure your actions are having a positive impact. By eliminating the daily drain of password fatigue while closing one of the biggest doors to cybercriminals, enterprises can finally reclaim both productivity and peace of mind.
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The 2026 national park pass features a portrait of Donald Trumps face, and the Department of the Interior (DOI) has threatened to penalize anyone who tries to cover it up. Now, park lovers are inventing their own clever work-arounds to remove the presidents visage from their passes. For over two decades, the annual America the Beautiful park pass design has featured photography of nature, animals, and scenery across the United States. But when the DOI revealed the 2026 pass in November, something was glaringly different. Rather than a cascading waterfall or towering redwoods, the pass included a portrait of George Washington, framed side by side with Trumps mug-shot-inspired headshot. The response to the pass design was swift. Many cardholders took to the internet to show themselves covering Trumps face with stickers as a form of protest. But mere weeks later, per an internal email obtained by SFGate, the DOI updated its Void if Altered policy in a transparent effort to discourage pass holders from covering Trumps face. Whereas the policy previously stated that passes could be voided only if the signature section of the card was altered, it now overtly flags stickers and other coverings as alterations that could invalidate the pass. According to a policy document shared with The Washington Post, staff who come across altered passes are instructed to ask that stickers or coverings be removed. If that’s not possible, they’re permitted to either charge the guest with the regular entrance fee or give them the option to buy a brand-new pass. While the Trump administration is acting quickly to redesign the National Park Service in Trumps literal image, national parkgoers are quicker. In the days since the pass policy was altered in early January, multiple designers have stepped up with clever work-arounds that conceal the presidents glowering face without running afoul of the restrictions. The simplest solution is a card sleeve that covers Trump’s face most of the time, but can be easily removed when the card is shown at park entrances. [Photo: Dirt Roads Project] How small designers are fighting back against the DOI Katie Weber and her husband, Chris, started their Michigan-based apparel brand Dirt Roads Project in March 2025. The company, Weber says, was her way to make a difference after feeling overwhelmed by everything happening in our country.” So part of each purchase gives back to the preservation of parks and nature, including through collaborations with nonprofits like the Michigan Animal Rescue League, Alliance for the Great Lakes, and Reef Relief. When Weber saw the park pass design for 2026, she immediately decided to create something that would cover Trumps face. I was incredibly frustrated and wanted to be able to bring the parks front and center instead of showing someone who is honestly trying to dismantle our parks, Weber says. That night, I started going through all of our photography from past hiking trips, chose a handful that I loved, and created the design. Her final selections, which run for just $6 each, feature photos taken at eight prominent national parks, including Zion in Utah, Haleakal in Maui, and Yosemite in California. After they launched for preorder around Thanksgiving, Weber says, interest in the stickers has been growing rapidly. Weber specifically engineered the stickers to avoid covering any pertinent information on the cards, including the signature section, holographic strip, and barcode. But in the wake of the DOIs new sticker ban, she adapted the design to guarantee that users wont be penalized. Instead of adding the sticker directly to their passes, customers can now purchase a $2 plastic card sleeve from Dirt Roads Project to keep their cards completely unaltered while still obscuring the presidents face. After the DOIs new regulations emerged, Weber says Dirt Roads Project has seen “skyrocketing” demand, bringing in over $6,000 from the stickers alone in the first weeks of January. To me, that shows that this small form of protest is being seen, and that people’s frustration is being heard, she says. Other small businesses are similarly using their art to fight back. Mitchell Bowen is a graphic designer who runs a poster company called Recollection Project, pulling inspiration from 1930s illustrations to create posters of national parks and other travel destinations. He designed
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E-Commerce
My grandmother never realized she was practicing a die with zero philosophy. She liked to give generous presents to her children and grandchildren on birthdays, gift-giving occasionsand whenever the mood struck her. I once asked her why she kept her loved ones so well-supplied in gifts, and she remarked, Why should you be glad Im dead? In other words, she didnt see the point in holding onto the money that would come to her family anyway when she died. By spending her money on us while she was still alive, she enjoyed our delight in her generosity. She saw that as a better use of her money than letting it grow until it became our emotionally uncomfortable inheritance. In many ways, Grandma embodied the die with zero financial planning philosophy popularized by Bill Perkins. This philosophy encourages people to enjoy their money while they liveideally spending their final dollar just before kicking the bucketbecause theres no point in being the wealthiest person in the cemetery. Considering the complexities of traditional financial planningnot to mention your understandable worries about running out of money in retirementthe die with zero philosophy may sound like a great way to live with low-grade anxiety during your golden years. But theres a way to balance your impulse to save for the future with the joy of enjoying your money right now. The problem with traditional planning Every day without fail, youll find a brand new think piece about how painfully underfunded the average American retirement account is. That’s why financial medias prevailing message about retirement planning is only slightly less hyperbolic than, For the love of all that is holy, put some money in a 401(k) NOW before its too late!!! Unfortunately, this hyperfocus on building wealth makes it seem like even the largest of nest eggs is one unwary purchase away from leaving you destitute. The majority of retirees have built the life they want, but almost half are afraid to spend their money so they can live that life. While this is not a problem that every retiree will face (see the depressing statistics about the size of the average American retirement account), its still a common issue for anyone who has internalized the accumulate! retirement planning message for decades. Enter the die with zero financial philosophy. What is Die with Zero? Although hedge fund manager Bill Perkins coined the term (and wrote the eponymous book Die With Zero), the concept is hardly a new one. With the possible exception of some pharaohs and oligarchs, we all know we cant take it with us when we go. Instead, Perkins suggests that our highest goal should be to maximize positive life experiences using the three limited resources we are all afforded: health, time, and money. Of course, our levels of health, time, and money are not in perfect balance throughout our lives, which is why Perkins recommends using each of these resources when we have them. When youre young, healthy, and have plenty of time, you can spend it enjoying low-cost but high-effort experiences, like backpacking through Europe. Once youre older, time-crunched, and wealthierbut still enjoying good healthyou can spend money to enjoy luxurious experiences that are lower-effort, like taking a cruise through the Greek Isles. And anytime your health is declining, you can spend time and money to help improve your health. Die with zero financial planning Die with zero is an appealing philosophy in part because its not just about money, retirement, or financial planning. Its a framework for optimizing your life. Much of the die with zero model is about changing your view of money, health, and time throughout your life. However, the die with zero philosophy includes a blueprint for financial planning. Specifically, Perkins recommends the following rules for handling your finances so that you can die with zero: Plan for different seasons of your life: Described by Perkins as time-bucketing, this strategy separates your life into 5- to 10-year chunks. For each time-bucket, you set experience goals you want to meet that will change as your time, health, and wealth change. Spend with intention: Rather than accumulate wealth that youre afraid to spend, joyfully spend your money on memorable experiences that will make your life more meaningful. Give money away to children and charities when its the most impactful: This is an echo of my grandmothers attitude. Rather than leaving a financial legacy to beloved family or charities when you diewhen they may no longer need the moneygive it away when the money can do the most good and while youre alive to see the benefit. Recognize when youve hit your wealth peak: So much of retirement planning is about accumulation, which means it can be tough to know when youve reached enough. And then it can be even harder to feel comfortable spending down your nest egg. This philosophy suggests that you figure out when youre done growing your wealth so you can let go of the drive to keep growing. Balancing prudence with pleasure Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die may be an excellent motto for soldiers heading off to war, but its a little harder to justify as a responsible life maxim when youre impulsively charging once-in-a-lifetime trips to Bali on your high-interest credit card. Which is why its a good idea to fold the philosophy of the die with zero movement into traditional financial planning. Focus on growing your nest egg, especially when you have the benefit of compound interest over time. But make sure you also invest some of your resourcestime, health, and moneyinto making memories. Plan ahead for potential health problems in old age, which may mean earmarking money for future medical expenses. But also let yourself be generous with money to your loved ones when they need it. Continue to make smart and frugal financial decisions in retirement. Butkeep meeting the experience goals you set for yourself, too, so that you continue to have new adventures to look forward to. Treating your finances with intentionality is the best way to enjoy yourself and your moneynow and in retirement.
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