Netflix Launches Flixtape Service

Sara Perez, writing for TechCrunch, on Netflix’s new “Flixtape” service that lets you create mixtape/playlists of TV shows and movies:

The new tool lets you create these lists based on a genre or theme of some sort, then share them with friends or family over text message, email or social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

There are a number of ways you can use something like Flixtape. You can make your own mixes of favorite movies or shows, just for reference’s sake, or you could create curated recommendations for friends.

I’ve only got one current obsession I’d put into a flixtape: Stranger Things.

The Punisher is Coming to Netflix

The Punisher is getting his own series on Netflix.

EW has learned that Marvel has ordered a spin-off starring vigilante character introduced in Daredevil season 2. Jon Bernthal will reprise his role as vengeful military veteran Frank Castle, who brings his own lethal form of justice to Hell’s Kitchen.

Writer and executive producer Steve Lightfoot (Hanniba, Casualty) will serve as showrunner.

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Netflix to Release ‘Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later”

Lesley Goldberg, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, on the news that Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later is confirmed for a Netflix release:

The Wet Hot: Ten marks the second Netflix follow-up to the movie. The streaming giant last year released the eight-episode Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, a prequel series featuring the movie’s original stars. The new incarnation will again be written by Showalter and Wain, with the latter on board to direct. Showalter, Wain, Peter Principato, Jonathan Stern and Howard Bernstein are set to exec produce.

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Netflix’s Plan to Conquer the World

Brian Barrett, writing for Wired, with a behind the scenes look at Netflix:

The instant Daredevil premiered, Netflix greeted its users with eight header image variations of Matt Murdock and friends, shown to customers in eight identically sized chunks. Netflix immediately began tracking which top shots inspired the most streaming.

By now, those eight images will have given way to the best-performing two or three. After 35 days, one of those will become the default. The rest will vanish. This happens now for every Netflix original show. It’s survival of the clickest, all around the world.

Netflix Revamps Recommendation System

Ben Popper, writing for The Verge, looks at how Netflix has revamped their recommendation system to handle a more global audience:

“We were very worried that running the algorithms we knew worked well when we pulled data from a single country and a single catalog, if we tried across places where the catalog differed, the recommendations would be pretty bad,” says Carlos Gomez-Uribe, vice president of product innovation at Netflix, and the leader of the recommendation redesign.

This obsession over the data and delivering the best recommendations for every subscriber is something I think is sorely missing in the music world. Spotify cares more than Apple Music, but imagine if it gets this good?