I look at fan capital in the wild so you don’t have to. This roundup gathers the stories that stood out to me and what they say about how fandom actually works.
a podcast about leaks
A recent podcast episode of ICYMI is about fandom leaks and the the forever complicated ethics around consuming them. Coincidentally, I’ve been thinking about Limewire and Napster and how nostalgic I can get thinking about downloading a leaked version of a song that hadn’t been released yet. I had an alt version of Coldplay’s Speed of Sound the months leading up to their July 2005 album release and I wish I still had it! The leaked song was of a different time for sure.
Back to the episode! Kate Lindsay and Princess Weeks discuss everything from leaked Taylor Swift albums to pirated TV shows, TikTok spoiler culture, anime fan-sub communities, and the recently leaked Avatar: The Last Airbender animated film. The conversation explores how fandom culture has shifted from older internet spaces like Tumblr forums and fan communities into today’s algorithm-driven environment where leaks, clips, spoilers, and unfinished media spread instantly across TikTok and social platforms.
The episode keeps returning to the tension between fandom access and artist support. The hosts discuss how fans often justify leaks when media is geographically restricted, locked behind streaming services, or financially inaccessible.
At the same time, they acknowledge that leaks can genuinely harm artists, animators, musicians, and creators, especially within today’s unstable media economy where streaming residuals and physical sales matter more than ever. Again, this is a different time. Other notes:
Artists like SZA and Dua Lipa are referenced directly, both having publicly framed leaks as financial harm and creative violations.
The hosts also spend a lot of time discussing how fandom etiquette has changed online. Older fandom spaces often operated with stronger “social contracts” around spoiler tagging, leak containment, and respectful sharing practices.
Modern social platforms, especially TikTok, are described as flattening everything into constant content circulation, making spoilers and leaks feel nearly impossible to avoid.
Ultimately, the episode doesn’t land on a hard moral stance about leaks themselves. Instead, it frames fandom as something increasingly shaped by economics, platform design, access culture, and changing online behavior! They argue that modern fans are constantly navigating messy tradeoffs between wanting to support artists ethically and feeling frustrated by paywalls, streaming fragmentation, exclusivity deals, and platform capitalism.
intimacy is currency
I took these screenshots on April 28th and never got a chance to write about it! I saw Charli xcx post something semi cryptic on Instagram. I opted in and got added to Charli’s SMS list and then was asked to submit questions! Since then, I’ve seen a few of my favorite newsletters mention it.
Emily Sundberg wrote about a growing shift toward intimacy-driven fandom experiences, using a recent fan meetup hosted by Charli XCX as the entry point. Someone I know personally got to attend the meet up!
Fans received cryptic texts inviting them to a Brooklyn recording studio where Charli met attendees one-on-one for 5–10 minute conversations. According to one fan, the experience felt unusually natural and reciprocal. Charli answered questions, asked questions back, and seemed genuinely interested in hearing from fans directly. The event ended with Polaroid photos and informal hangouts between attendees, creating what the fan described as “a day of genuine connection.”
Emily connected this to a broader pattern happening across entertainment and media right now. She points to authors, filmmakers, and musicians creating small-scale, intimate experiences for highly engaged audiences: private gatherings, extended Q&As, surprise venue performances, and direct fan interactions that feel personal rather than mass-produced. If you want to read more about what I call the “intimacy channel,” click here!
I appreciated her writing about how bigger celebrities and pop stars are starting to borrow tactics that traditionally belonged more to indie artists and niche creative communities. Instead of relying only on massive visibility, they’re creating “things that don’t scale.”
Emily ultimately questions why this shift is happening. Is it relatability marketing? Is it exhaustion with celebrity distance? Are famous people craving more genuine interaction outside their “glass castles”? Or is intimacy itself becoming one of the most valuable forms of cultural currency in an era where attention is fragmented and audiences are harder to hold onto? I’d say yes.
it works because it’s fleeting
I clicked on this piece on Allure’s site because I am not only a huge fan of Dr Pepper (the beverage…which my teammate says is uniquely United States-y) but I also had my own collection of Dr Pepper Lip Smackers back in the day. I’d say the piece is really about fandom and nostalgia so I naturally had to mention it.
Courtesy The Oz of Lip Smacker Land
The writer covers the history of the iconic balm from its 1975 partnership between Bonne Bell and Dr Pepper through it becoming a cultural staple. It occupied a very particular cultural role for generations of girls and teens. It was affordable, accessible, and subtly rebellious. Celebrities like Brittany Murphy (RIP, still miss you), Gwen Stefani (remember when she was cool?), and others publicly loved it which helped elevate its place in beauty culture lore. I attended Catholic grade school and junior high where we weren’t allowed to wear makeup so Lip Smackers always came through with the opportunity to differentiate yourself, try on personalities, and pass around scented chapsticks with your friends (I still think about a pistachio lip product that my friend Martine owned)!
The article spends a lot of time unpacking why Dr Pepper Lip Smacker inspired such devotion. Former Bonne Bell employees, collectors, and beauty historians describe it as one of the earliest true beauty collaborations long before modern brand collabs became so common. Fans talk about the product almost like an artifact from a lost internet-free era of girlhood, friendship, mall culture, and low-stakes beauty experimentation. Same!! If you handed me my old iPod with that leaked Coldplay song and a tube of this chapstick, my week would be made.
The latter half of the piece explores how the brand changed after Bonne Bell sold Lip Smacker in 2015. Many longtime fans believe the product lost some of its magic after the acquisition, even if chemists and former employees debate whether the formula actually changed. (Doesn’t it always?) For collectors and loyal users, the “real” Dr Pepper Lip Smacker effectively died years before its official discontinuation anyway. It reminded me that everything is fleeting. Fans and consumers need to remember to enjoy it while it lasts.
