Hey there!

A warm welcome to our new readers who’ve signed up for The Signal over the weekend. We hope it’s going well!

Quick question: do you like reading your news or listening to it on the go? If you, like me, belong to the latter group, then The Signal's daily news podcast, The Signal Daily, is a great way to start your day. Not quite the spoiler alert: We got tens of thousands of listeners every month hooked!

My colleague Manaswini Tripathy and I pick out two stories every episode that are both interesting and have a direct connection to our daily lives. Which is why if you haven't subscribed to The Signal Daily yet, you are missing out on some great stories that we have covered in the past month or so.

You can listen to The Signal Daily on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, PocketCasts, and as the saying goes, wherever you listen to podcasts.

Much like we do in the daily newsletter, here’s a curated mix of some of the best episodes from the last month or so. It’s well worth your time.

Why Karnataka Is Boiling Over Milk

The dairy industry is abuzz with the latest showdown between Gujarat-based Amul and the local favourite, Nandini, in Bengaluru. The idea of Amul treading on Nandini's well-established turf has triggered a strong reaction from the locals. Their concern is that Amul's foray into this space could potentially harm Nandini's market position, which has been firmly established over the years as a trusted household name. But is this really just a clash of brands?

In this episode, we dig deeper into this milk war and analyse the real reason behind the Amul vs Nandini feud. Listen in to get the bigger picture!

Hotstar Sans Hot Content

Indian fans of the uber-popular show Succession will simply have to stream the new season elsewhere as HBO withdrew its content from Hotstar on March 31. If people who primarily watched HBO content on Hotstar were to cancel their subscriptions, the OTT platform would lose out just around 1% of their subscriber count. The real impact for Hotstar is actually coming from losing the rights to stream F1 races and the IPL, which cost the company nearly four million subscribers.

Going forward, how will Disney+ Hotstar manage to stay afloat in India? Tune in!

The Lawsuit Against Internet Archive

Tl;dr: The Big Four of the publishing world aka HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Hachette recently won the first leg of their legal battle against Internet Archive (IA) over copyright infringement. They were especially miffed over IA's ‘National Emergency Library’ initiative, which provided countless copies of books, papers, and other resources with no waitlist during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Unlike the decade-running Google Books vs Author's Guild lawsuit, which ultimately ended in affirming the 'Fair Use' clause for Google's digital library, IA was out of luck.

How will this impact IA's resources? Check out our deep dive on the story.

Another Brick in The Wall

Music catalogue sales are all the rage now. Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, and Bruce Springsteen have all sold their catalogues. Even younger musicians like Justin Bieber, who at the mere age of 30 has six studio albums to his name, sold his rights to all the music he released before 2022 to Hipgnosis, for $200 million.

But Pink Floyd, the trailblazer of the progressive rock genre, is scaring away its potential buyer. Blame the never-ending kerfuffle between bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour. We look at the history of the volatile relationship between the two and what it’s costing the band.

One Treaty to Protect Them All

Open oceans make up for about 70% of the Earth's surface and are also the most exploited resources, no thanks to unrestrained deep sea mining activities in the absence of international laws and regulations.

Until the beginning of 2023, there were no existing intergovernmental frameworks to preserve the water bodies. But after years of negotiation, UN member states have finally agreed on the High Seas Treaty to protect open oceans from exploitation.

Can this kickstart a global move towards ocean conservation? We take a closer look at what new regulations may come in place.

The Next Phone Upgrade

New trends are shaping up in the smartphone market. For starters, Samsung has overtaken Xiaomi to become India’s favourite smartphone brand. Sure, Xiaomi's selling point is affordability, but it seems like people want to spend a little more on their smartphones with every upgrade. That's where Samsung's alluring financing schemes are coming in handy for selling flagship phones.

Interestingly, financing schemes are making all the difference in India's smartphone market, which is now witnessing a "premiumisation" trend. We decode the whys and hows.

Urban Company's New Nemesis

Zomato-owned Blinkit is apparently eyeing an entry in the home services sector. It'll have to face Urban Company, which is the king of this jungle right now.

This is an ambitious plan given that both Zomato and Blinkit are cash-burning, loss-making companies. Many service providers have popped up in this space before and winked out soon enough. Is this going to be a bold move or an impetuous one for Blinkit? Check out our analysis.

Follow The Signal Daily podcast on your preferred streaming platforms so that you don’t miss any of our new episodes. If you have any tips or feedback, please shoot me an email at shorbori@thesignal.co.

Best,

Shorbori Purkayastha