This week the trend is Taylor Swift

I turned on the Grammys on Sunday night and watched for about 45 minutes. During that time I was pleasantly surprised, like most people, to see Taylor Swift announce her new album, The Tortured Poets Department. As someone always craving new music, there’s nothing better than continually getting new music.

We've seen a track listing already, but the thing that’s been on my mind the most is around the release date, April 19th. I’m sure there’s a fan theory out there somewhere about why this date is significant and how certain numbers align, but I’ve been incredibly curious about the time between an announcement and a release date. I think it has to do with my curiosity about marketing music. What's the perfect amount of time to garner attention, but not too long to burn people out on a single?

Folklore and Evermore were some of the best surprises. There was no time to get preconceived thoughts about the music or anything. The albums were announced on a Thursday and released the next day on Friday. It was amazing. Midnights, however, strayed from that instant release schedule and was a little less than two months between announcement and release. Now, TTPD is a little more than two months between announcement and debut.

If you're curious, here are the times between announcements and releases for her most recent albums.

• 1989 - 210 days (~April 15 - October 27, 2014)
• Reputation - 102 days (August 23 - November 10, 2017)
• Lover - 84 days (June 13 - August 23, 2019)
• Folklore - 1 day
• Evermore - 1 day
• Midnights - 53 days (August 29 - October 21, 2023)
• The Tortured Poets Department - 74 days (February 4 - April 19, 2024)

Both 1989 and Reputation were on Big Machine Records, meaning Swift had much less control over the album releases than she has since she left the label. What do these numbers say? I'm not sure. Maybe nothing! Based on the amount of number games she incorporates into her songs and music videos, however, I wouldn't be surprised to find out there is a rhythm or reason to the amount of time between announcement and release. I've always assumed she was A/B testing these things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Other things I’m thinking about this week

I’ve been heads deep in the Vision Pro, reviewing and writing about it. There’s so much to unpack about it. A lot of which feels like figuring out the best ways to work with it. Or use it to work? There is certainly a lot to try out. Early on it seemed like a big omission that certain features weren’t included at launch, such as fitness, but it makes a lot more sense in hindsight. First, the headset is heavy. But more importantly, even this 1.0 version is sensory overload. They didn't need to pack every single feature in this first generation.

This is a unique product in that, even if everyone came to the consensus that it was perfect and nothing was wrong with it, it’s still expensive. Even if people want to buy it, a lot of people can’t afford it. So no, I don’t think most people should buy this Vision Pro. Plus, it's just missing some core functionality for a lot of use cases.

I do think this is a product worth trying. It’s eye-opening in what is technologically possible at scale today. A level set in our understanding of where the future of computing is at and where it could go. Book a demo at an Apple Store and try it.

Music

Here are a couple of new songs out today I'm enjoying. There are plenty of other albums and songs, but nothing is hitting quite right, yet.

TV

I've known about the Mr. and Mrs. Smith show for a while, but I wasn't looking forward to it–at least not until I finally saw the trailer. Well, it's out now and it’s good—really good. I loved the tone and pacing. It had a genuinely modern take on a spy thriller which blended comedy, emotion, and action. You should check it out.

Apple announced a lot of its new shows and I'm super excited about a lot of them. Especially:

• Dark Matter
• Sugar
• The Reluctant Traveler (Season 2)
• The Big Door Prize (Season 2)
• Manhunt
• The New Look

I may or may not have seen some of these already and can verify that there's some good stuff coming. I haven't seen Dark Matter yet, but I read the book a few years ago and remember really liking it.

Misc links

• Want an old keyboard for your new iPhone? Retrokeys fixes that.
• Sequel is my favorite app for tracking TV shows, movies, and books. Not only does it have great episode tracking, but it also has a nice discovery section with new shows coming up and trending options. It will even show you where shows or movies are streaming. I don't play enough games for it to matter, but you can track those too. I've tried so many apps for this purpose and this one fits my needs perfectly.