The Daily Valet. - 8/22/22, Monday

✔️ Who Is This?

August 22, 2022

Monday, August 22nd Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

Be honest … do I need to watch ‘House of the Dragon’?

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Shazam Tuns 20

Did you know it started in 2002 as a text-message-based service only in the U.K.? Me neither.

I don’t know why, but this makes me feel kind of old. Shazam celebrated its 20th birthday over the weekend. It surpassed 70 billion song recognitions and marked two decades of answering the question: “Hey, who sings this?”

If, like me, you're surprised that it’s been around that long, its because Shazam started in the United Kingdom before coming to America. According to Billboard, it actually debuted in August 2002 as a text-message-based service, where users would dial a number, hold their phone up to a song, and then receive a text with the song title and artist. In the summer of 2008, Shazam launched in the App Store and then was available to Android users by October of that year.

Now a mainstay in popular culture, the platform has more than 225 million global monthly users. And everyone from my mother to my teen nephews rely on the service. You might recall that in 2018, Apple acquired the app and by 2020, they celebrated 200 million users.

To commemorate the anniversary, Apple created a playlist—a trip down memory lane comprised of the most Shazamed song of each calendar year for the past 20 years. Featuring everything from Train’s “Hey, Soul Sister” and Sia’s “Cheap Thrills,” the list includes some certified bangers along with a few catchy hits from more obscure artists that will no doubt be familiar.

Over the years, the app’s global charts have played a crucial role in helping to identify breaking new talent like Australian rapper Masked Wolf, who was one of Shazam’s 5 Artists to Watch last year. Or Nigerian artist CKay who said, “Shazam made me a global sensation even before I started to perform all over the world. The story of CKay cannot be told without Shazam connecting me to the world.”

So who was the first artist to hit 1 million Shazams? It was Lil Wayne in 2009. Then, two years later, he became the first to score 10 million Shazams. But Drake holds the current record—the most Shazamed artist of all time with over 350 million Shazams. “One Dance” is his most popular track at over 17 million Shazams alone.

↦ FYI: The fastest song to reach a million Shazams? “Butter” by BTS, which achieved the milestone in less than nine days.

Mortgage Lenders Are Going Broke

It follows the Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates

The U.S. mortgage industry is seeing its first lenders go out of business after a sudden spike in lending rates, and experts say the wave of failures that's coming could be the worst since the housing bubble burst about 15 years ago.

On the bright side, Bloomberg reports that there's no systemic meltdown coming this time around, because there hasn't been the same level of lending excesses and because many of the biggest banks pulled back from mortgages after the 2008 financial crisis.

More of the business these days is controlled by independent lenders. According to the Wall Street Journal, two-thirds of the top 20 refinancing lenders last year were non-bank firms. But with mortgage volumes plunging, a lot of them are struggling to stay afloat.

Unlike banks (which have stable deposit funding), independent lenders rely on credit lines that are often dependent on mortgage prices. Of course, you should know that if your lender does go bankrupt, you're not off the hook. According to Bankrate, you still have to pay. Your loan will ultimately be sold to another lender—but your principal and interest will stay the same.

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The Feds Issue Nicotine Warning

Are gummies the next teen nicotine threat?

Here's a strange, but true, fact about me: I never smoked, but had friends who did and they seemed to get so much from their cigarettes, that I considered slapping on a nicotine patch just to see if could get the same buzz. I never did, but if they had tasty gummies at the time? Oh boy, would I have been tempted to start chewing.

But these new fruit-flavored nicotine gummies are the latest product in the crosshairs of the Food and Drug Administration, which is continuing its years-long crackdown on nicotine use by teens and young adults.

According to the Associated Press, federal regulators issued a first-of-a-kind warning saying the chews could cause nicotine poisoning or even death if eaten by small children. “Nicotine gummies are a public health crisis just waiting to happen among our nation's youth, particularly as we head into a new school year,” said FDA Commissioner Robert Califf in a statement.

It's a similar profile to early vapes made by companies like Juul—they taste good and are easy to hide from adults. Teen vaping has declined over the past few years. But one researcher told NBC News the brands are using modern packaging designs and utilizing social media marketing campaigns to appeal to young people. However, the FDA has come under intense pressure itself after announcing last month it would miss a deadline to remove thousands of unauthorized synthetic nicotine products from the market.

↦ FYI: A recent study found nicotine candies were the second-most popular tobacco product used by high school students, behind disposable e-cigarettes.

Lucid Unveils New Performance EV

The ‘Air Sapphire Edition’ does zero to 60 in under two seconds

Luxury electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors just unveiled its new top-of-the-line sedan. The company says the Lucid Air Sapphire Edition will do zero to 60mph in under two seconds and zero to 100mph in under four seconds.

That's shocking acceleration for a full-sized sedan, reports Car and Driver. They say the 1,200 HP+ car (powered by three motors, two at the rear and one at the front) will no doubt be the the most powerful sedan in the world.

Just how much above 1,200 horsepower are we talking? MotorTrend says that seeing as how Lucid's already sold customers the 1,111-hp Air Dream Edition P, and the Sapphire has an whole extra motor, “we're thinking much more than 1,200 horsepower.”

In addition to all the performance bits, the Sapphire Edition gets some visual changes as well—most importantly, the exclusive-to-Sapphire blue exterior and a new stealth trim look that smokes out the brightwork, including the side-view mirrors and the added duckbill spoiler at the rear. If that all sounds good, just make sure you're ready to shell out, because the price is going to start around $250,000.

↦ Meanwhile: Lincoln is celebrating 100 years with its new Model L100 concept car.

In Other News

↦ How Meme King Litquidity Is Making Bank by Skewering Wall Street

↦ ‘House Of The Dragon’ Is a Worthy Successor to ‘Game Of Thrones’

↦ The WeWork Founder’s Latest Big Idea? To Become America’s Biggest Landlord

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

Dennis Rodman

This knife launcher

Europe’s finest forgotten cities

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What We’re Buying

You don't have to smoke to appreciate a good ashtray. Despite smoking's inherent danger, ashtrays themselves remain pretty cool among lovers of design. Perhaps it's because they're tied to this verboten behavior—it gives these little receptacles an air of danger. This oversized circular tray ($90) features a vintage-inspired dimple pattern for a modern take on a classic piece. Handmade in Turkey from pure, lead-free crystalline glass, it's a solid item that will also work nicely as a coffee table trinket or entry table catch-all.

↦ Want more? 5 stylish items to buy this week