The Best One Yet
🎶 “Baby Cardi B” — Kidz Bop’s record music. Ozempic’s secret side-effect. CNN’s plastic surgery. Single-Lady Home Surge.
Mon, 27 Jan 2025
Kidz Bop is making $50M on cover music… not by creating, by re-creating.If you shop online too much or scroll Instagram too much, the new cure may be… Ozempic.CNN is overhauling its entire business for the Trump presidency… A media plastic surgery.Plus, guess who’s driving luxury home sales these days?... Single ladies (it’s a Beyonce Bump)$NVO $WBD $SPOTWant more business storytelling from us? Check out the latest episode of our new weekly deepdive show: The untold origin story of… 🎸 The Fender Stratocater: The Guitar That Invented Rock ‘N’ Roll.Subscribe to The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinks to listen.“The Best Idea Yet”: The untold origin stories of the products you’re obsessed with — From the McDonald’s Happy Meal to Birkenstock’s sandal to Nintendo’s Super Mario Brothers to Sriracha. New 45-minute episodes drop weekly.—-----------------------------------------------------Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts FOR MORE NICK & JACK: Newsletter: https://tboypod.com/newsletter Connect with Nick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/ Connect with Jack: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/ SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ Subscribe to our new (2nd) show… The Best Idea Yet: Wondery.fm/TheBestIdeaYetLinksEpisodes drop weekly. It’s The Best Idea Yet.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What are the top business news stories today?
This is Nick. This is Jack. Welcome back. It is Monday, January 27th. And today's pod is the best one yet. This one, it's a T-boy. The top three pop business news stories you need to know today. But Jack, how was the hot tub? I can tell you've been... Spent a lot of time there over the last 48 hours. Sure. I told you we had a mad day on Saturday, a mortgage appreciation day.
You're not allowed to do any house chores or any work on your house. Just enjoy the house like it's a vacation house. Well, your hands are still pruney. I can see them from here, Jack. In the meantime, three stories for today's show. What do we got on the pod, man? For our first story, the maker of Ozempic just unveiled an even more powerful weight loss drug.
If you shop online too much or scroll Instagram too much, the new cure may be Ozempic. For our second story, it's Kidz Bop. They've been making kids' versions of adult music for 25 years. Cardi B for babies. Kidz Bop. Their real innovation? It's the re-creator economy. And our third and final story. One week into the Trump presidency, CNN is overhauling its entire business.
We're going to tell you why CNN is having plastic problems. media surgery. But Yetis, before we hit that wonderful mix of stories. I mean, fantastic mix of stories. There's no better mix. I love the mix check. To quote Beyonce, all the single ladies, all the single ladies. Because guess who's driving the housing market right now, Yetis? That's kind of a leading question.
Single ladies.
According to Sotheby's International, the biggest new buyers of luxury real estate are single women. Jack, to quote Diana Ross, it's my house and I live here. According to the data, women were the sole owners of 20% of American homes in 2024. That is twice the percentage from just 30 years ago. And those solo ladies that are owning homes are also the fastest growing segment of luxury real estate.
A villa in Italia owned by a single lady. The mansion in Mallorca, unmarried woman. Jack's ski chalet just outside of Chamonix. It's owned by Charlotte. Yeah. And yeah, she's single. But here's the fascinating twist, yetis. It is single ladies on both sides of the age spectrum that are snapping up all this real estate. That's right. It's both boomers and millennials.
Because on the one hand, older women are living longer than their husbands, so they're buying a new home. the other hand, young working women are putting off marriage and treating themselves to a brand new home instead. And this combination has driven an unprecedented pop in the housing market. We call it the single lady home surge.
It's all proof that you don't need a man, you just need a mortgage. And again, Jack, just to quote Beyonce, I got a gloss on my lips and a man on my hips. Sorry, I don't have another Diana Ross quote. But I got a condo in Cabo. You
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Chapter 2: What is Ozempic and its potential side effects?
Now more trials are needed to measure the impact on these other compulsive behaviors. But if it turns out that these weight loss drugs reduce all of your uncontrollable and often unwanted desires, I mean, Jack, there could be enormous economic impacts on our economy way beyond the food industry. Ozempic could affect Amazon because people might online shop less.
Ozempic could affect Instagram because you have less of a scrolling feeling. This is a huge topic to watch in 2025. Oh, you're buying too many Qtops on Timu? Maybe you start taking Ozempic. We want to see the results. Do these weight loss drugs also make you sin less? For our second story. After 25 years, Kidz Bop is still the power business in kids' music. Maybe even more powerful.
Because Kidz Bop is the music industry's favorite training wheels. All right, Jack. Childhood CDs. Why don't you whip out the CD tower over there? I think we're listening to the same music from New York City with you and Rule of Vermont for me. Jock Jams, volume one. I had volume one, two, three, and six. Disney show tunes, greatest hits. Four, five, and 12. Now that's what I call music.
Volume 27. Oh, so close, so close. But yet, despite all of those CDs, Yetis, the most successful kids music business of all is Kidz Bop. Kids with a Z. Even though CDs are gone, Kidz Bop has never been bigger today. We got fascinated about that, so we jumped in T-boy style. Yetis, Kidz Bop, they've been around since 2001. Jack, how would you describe this exactly?
They publish sanitized, child-friendly covers of popular pop songs. They basically child-proof the Kidz songs, is what we're saying. Yeah. Yeah. Parental advisory sticker. They basically just peel it off for you. It's off. They target anyone at four to 12 years old. Basically too old for Barney, but not quite ready for Beyonce.
They'll take Blink-182's All the Small Things and turn it into a G-rated sing-along song for the minivan. Training wheels for T-Pain. They edit away the references to sex, drugs, rock and roll, and they replace Cardi B with the nine-year-old ensemble. Hang on, they don't edit out references to rock and roll. Did you mean like violence or something like that? I'm going with violence.
I was thinking violence. Volume one came out in 2001. Who's featured in that CD, Jack? Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and my favorite, Smash Mouth. But sung by kids. And Jack, who's in volume 50 coming out right now? Songs by Sabrina Carpenter, Chapel Roan, and Taylor Swift. But again, sung by kids. Jack, can I read you an example of this? Because like, did you listen to Kidz Bop growing up?
Like, did you hear any of this? I did not. I actually, this is totally new to me. Let me give you a great example I found of this. Okay. Lyric changes go like this. Lady Gaga sang in a song, out in the club, sipping on the bub. All right. You want to hear the Kidz Bop volume 10 version? Yeah. Out in the club, eating all that grub. That is dad approved. But here's the news, yetis.
Kidz Bop just released their 50th album. Yeah, it's called Kidz Bop Volume 50. So we're jumping into the business. In 25 years, Kidz Bop has sold 25 million albums. How consistent is that? Very consistent, Jack. And according to Forbes, Kidz Bop is now 23% of the entire kid's music category. They have 24 Billboard Top 10 albums.
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Chapter 3: How is Kidz Bop reinventing children's music?
So the new CEO of CNN, Mark Thompson, isn't doing a makeover of the channel. He's doing a full-on surgery of the channel. He just announced last week 200 layoffs to the CNN TV division, but at the same time, he's hiring 200 new people for the digital team. That's right, Yetis. He's not just putting cosmetics on CNN. He's full-on rearranging the company.
And CNN is actually inspired by a business model we've covered many times before. Where have we seen this, Jack? The New York Times. That's right. They fund their news journalism with other stuff. Because yeti's, the New York Times has defied the rest of the newspaper industry by developing a thriving games app, a thriving cooking app.
They even have a shopping review business, Wirecutter, that is doing its best in years. That's why me and all my friends have the same spatula. Because we all just got what Wirecutter told us to get. Well, it's working for the New York Times business. Basically, everything we just described, the lifestyle things from the New York Times, subsidize their news division.
And now CNN is going to launch something similar. There's a new CNN health and lifestyle business coming soon. And funny thing, Yetis, it's actually perfect that Mark Thompson, the new CEO of CNN, is borrowing a strategy from the New York Times. Because he used to be the CEO of the New York Times. Yeah, he literally is using the same spreadsheets.
But as CNN tries to launch CNN Plus again, we're looking at Ted Turner again. So Jack, what's the takeaway for our buddies over at the new CNN? Markets are not the Marines. They will leave a man behind. Oh yeah, they will. Yetis, when Ted Turner launched CNN 45 years ago, he had this really good quote about the industry. He said, give people news when and where they want it.
In 1980, TV is where people wanted news, and they wanted it 24-7. So that's what CNN did. But in 2025, people want their news at a different time and in a different place. New York Times realized this two decades ago. They did. So they made the shift from print to digital and from just news to lifestyle too. And honestly, you can see it in the New York Times stock price.
Now CNN is finally making the change. They're finally remembering their founder's quote. Give people the news when and where they want it. Because the Marines, yeah, they leave no man behind. But if you don't adapt, the markets, they will gladly leave you behind. Jack, could you whip up the takeaways for us to kick off the week?
Novo Nordisk just released early trial results of what we're calling Ozempic 2.0. But the bigger deal, what is it, Jack? It looks like their weight loss drugs don't just make you eat less, they make you sin less too. If your credit card bill is too big, your doctor may prescribe Ozempic. Yeah, your financial advisor might, actually.
For our second story, Kidz Bop has been selling hit albums for 25 years of child-friendly pop covers. Never underestimate the re-creator economy. And our third and final story, CNN is performing surgery on itself. And it'll have what New York Times is having. Because the Marines, yeah, they leave no man behind. But markets, they'll gladly leave you behind. But yetis, this pod's not over yet.
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