Hi! Out of pocket: Apple's new $230 knitted phone pouch — or, the "iPhone Pocket," as they're calling it — hasn't gone down brilliantly, with some describing the accessory as a "crossbody sock." Today we're exploring: |
- See you in 2075: Trump and the FHFA are floating the idea of a 50-year mortgage.
- Listen up: Tencent Music's overall user base is shrinking, though those paying are on the rise.
- Do you hear what I hear? Christmas music streaming has started earlier this year.
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What would a 50-year mortgage look like? |
The typical first-time homebuyer in the United States is 40 years old — the highest on record. That's a problem, and it's one that President Trump believes could be alleviated with a 50-year mortgage. Jumping on Fox News yesterday to promote the idea, the commander in chief said: "All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a longer period of time. It's not like a big factor. It might help a little bit." Indeed, slightly smaller payments over a longer period could certainly help some younger people get onto the property ladder and begin building equity in their home. But some napkin math reveals just how long that could take. |
Let's consider someone buying a home for $444,444, with a 10% deposit, leaving them borrowing a conveniently round $400,000. In this scenario, at current rates — about 6.25% for a 30-year fixed mortgage — it would take the individual about 14 years before they pay off the first $100,000 of the principal of the loan. The second $100,000 comes quicker, and the third and fourth even faster still, as the interest accrued each year on the outstanding debt falls. |
Now, let's consider a theoretical 50-year mortgage and assume a slightly higher interest rate. We'll say 0.5% higher, as banks typically charge more interest for a longer loan — it would take a whopping 31 years before the first $100,000 is paid off, with the bulk of the payments in the first decade just servicing the interest on the debt. The math is clear: you might pay a little less per month, but you won't make a serious dent in your debt for years. |
Tencent Music has enough users — it just needs them to start paying |
Tencent Music Entertainment (TME), China's largest music streamer, is learning to make more from less — as its user base shrinks but paying listeners grow. In Q3, the company posted a 27% year-over-year jump in online music revenue — which makes up over 80% of total sales — to $989 million, driven by what it called "solid growth" in subscription revenues. Indeed, TME has decided that it's time to cash in, with its paying users for online music soaring to 125 million, more than 5x what it had when it went public in late 2018. Paying subscribers now account for nearly a quarter (23%) of its total monthly active users, up from just 4% seven years ago. But that push has come at a cost: users are fleeing the platform. |
Founded in 2016 through a Tencent-led merger combining three Chinese streaming giants, TME already boasted 644 million total online-music users by its 2018 IPO, roughly 3x Spotify's global count at the time. However, after peaking in early 2020, that number has slipped to 551 million, and it now sits below Spotify's 713 million. Even so, TME has been getting better at milking the users it has: average revenue per paying user has climbed about 40% since 2018, towards ~$1.70 a month — though its Swedish counterpart earns over 3x more per premium subscriber, at roughly $5.30. While the two streaming giants operate in largely separate worlds — Tencent mostly within China, Spotify almost everywhere but — TME seems to be vying for global relevance. Last week, the company said it would share its streaming data with Luminate, the firm behind Billboard's global charts, marking the first time Chinese listening trends will feed into international rankings. |
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B2B payments are going on-chain. |
The volume of B2B transactions using stablecoins, like Ripple's fast-growing RLUSD1, has spiked in recent years. In early 2023, less than $150 million of monthly transactions were made with stablecoin every month. By August 2025, that figure was $6.4 billion – an increase of over 40x. And last year, stablecoin transfers outpaced the combined volume of Visa and Mastercard by over 7.6%. |
For anyone watching the growth of stablecoin and regulatory developments like the GENIUS Act, these figures might feel unsurprising. Digital Assets infrastructure such as Ripple Payments powered by RLUSD offer substantial improvements from legacy payment infrastructure, including speed, cost, transparency, availability, and increased inclusion. For some, it might feel overwhelming to keep up with the pace of stablecoin adoption. That's why Ripple also created the Block Stars podcast: a bite-sized analysis for busy commuters hosted by industry expert David Schwartz. |
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Christmas is coming earlier and earlier for music streamers |
There's always debate about when Christmas festivities should begin, with the fatigue-conscious putting off partaking until at least December 1, while others hardly wait for the Halloween decor to come down before decking the halls. Still, like it or lump it, you'll probably hear some of the most instantly recognisable xylophone tinkles in music history even earlier this year. |
I-I-I... get streamed a lot for Christmas |
It seems that Mariah Carey is already defrosted for 2025: her classic hit "All I Want for Christmas Is You" has officially re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 after accruing almost 10 million streams (+252% week-over-week) from Oct 31 to Nov 6, per Luminate. This marks one of the earliest points that the song, which is estimated to gross up to $4 million each year, has ever charted in the US, only achieving this milestone at the very end of November in 2023. It's not just Mariah, however — Spotify data, compiled by Kworb, shows that users are generally listening to the wider Yuletide genre earlier each year, and in greater quantities. |
Last year, "AIWFCIY" had its biggest week on Spotify in history, accruing nearly 93 million streams from Dec 19 - 26 — and more than 323 million across the whole festive season from Nov 7 onwards. "Last Christmas" by Wham! notched 314 million total streams over the same nine weeks on Spotify in 2024, and has also already re-entered the Billboard chart in 2025. Compare this to 2013, when both songs entered Spotify's Top 200 just three weeks before Christmas, and it's clear that the music-on-demand era brought about by streaming has been good news for merry mega-hits. While the trend has something to do with streaming's swelling userbase, the "christmas creep" observed in previous years might now be coming earlier, as many seek comfort at the end of a tumultuous 2025. |
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- Disney's ongoing content contract battle with YouTube, which has seen over 20 of its channels go dark on YouTube TV, is costing the company $4.3 million a day, per Morgan Stanley estimates.
- Chinese EV maker BYD could sell up to 1.6 million vehicles abroad next year, according to a new Citi report — the same number analysts polled by FactSet expect rival Tesla to sell in total in 2025.
- Silicon Docks: A fascinating longread from The Dial on how big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta have changed Ireland since arriving in the 2000s.
- Target announced yesterday that it will lower prices across 3,000 food, beverage, and essential products to "make everyday shopping more affordable through the holiday season."
- X'd AI: Tesla shareholders — 70% of whom voted in favor of CEO Elon Musk's $1 trillion pay package last week — were a little less supportive of investing in Musk's other company, xAI.
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| - KPop CD Hunters: Kontinentalist explores the enduring appeal of the physical format for fans of Korean pop music.
- Everybody knows about tech's fast growers… But in Q3, natural gas stocks made up a substantial chunk of the quickest-growing assets in the S&P 500.
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Off the charts: Shares of which running shoe company were sprinting this morning, as it continues to widen the sales gap ahead of rival Hoka? [Answer below]. |
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Advertiser's disclosures: 1 The market cap surpassed $1B on 11/3/25. See article for further details. Digital assets are not suitable for an investor that cannot afford the loss of the entire investment. Stablecoins are subject to risk, including depegging, volatility, and run risks. Availability dependent on jurisdiction. RLUSD is issued by Standard Custody & Trust Company, a limited purpose trust company chartered by the NYDFS to engage in virtual currency business. Ripple Markets Delaware LLC is licensed to engage in Virtual Currency Business Activity and licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. |
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