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- [00:03]
Benedict Townsend
This is a global player original podcast. The true story of vine begins as soon as it ends. A legacy that will shape the Internet for a decade and gift us the world we have today. Although not really sure how good of a gift that is. Thanks, Vine. In our last episode. Do you believe in life after Vine?
- [00:27]
Kenny Knox
I'm gonna cherish this for the rest of my life. It literally saved Viner the year. Last one ever. In, like, quotations.
- [00:34]
Benedict Townsend
Oh, yes, yes. For the listener, Kenny is just is showing me a beautiful glass trophy with a whale tail, like a dolphin tail at the top. Is that right?
- [00:44]
Russ
What is that?
- [00:44]
Kenny Knox
Yeah, I think it's a dolphin. This is my baby right here.
- [00:48]
Benedict Townsend
Fun. That's a rare thing to have. That is very cool. Thank you. How did that feel? Did it feel bittersweet? Did you know at the time I'm probably gonna be the last one?
- [00:58]
Kenny Knox
Yeah, I didn't know I was gonna win. I mean, I was the only black person, like, in the final nominations and I was just like, I should have this in the bag.
- [01:08]
Benedict Townsend
And then, yeah, they discontinued it on 28th October 2016. For the first time in three years, the world woke up without any new vines. With new uploads disabled, the app exists in a watch. It's the last day to save your vines.
- [01:29]
Unknown
I don't care that you broke your own horse.
- [01:31]
Benedict Townsend
What are those? Twitter is shutting the 6 second video service today. I could have dropped my croissant sudden.
- [01:39]
Unknown
Okay, all those ticking.
- [01:41]
Taylor Lorenz
What's happening to the company, Jeff?
- [01:43]
Benedict Townsend
Right, so they're kind of shifting. What? Vine servers aren't even cold before the post mortem begins. One day later, an article was published entitled Inside the Secret Meeting that changed the fate of Vine Forever.
- [01:58]
Karen
The thing is, when Taylor Lorenz's article came out about, like, and basically pinned the demise of vine to those people. They experienced so much hate. And it's funny because they had approached it as like, you know, we're such hot that we can close the app. And then when the app closed and it was pinned on them, everybody came for them.
- [02:19]
Benedict Townsend
For months, the Vine Street Showdown was known only to insiders and select creators. But details were suddenly being made public. Taylor's article set the online world alight, partly for its general juiciness, but also because it provided a tidy answer to the open question, who killed Vine? The pitchforks were out almost immediately.
- [02:40]
Taylor Lorenz
And I do think that it was this, like, changing of the guard moment almost on the Internet. Yeah, 100% like, previous kind of like, era of, like, innocence and fun and you know, silly content to like, oh, tech is really bad.
- [02:53]
Benedict Townsend
Karen is the first to admit that the 1600 group had power, that they were crucial to Vine's survival. But Taylor's version of history still irritated her.
- [03:02]
Karen
At the time, I saw her as the biggest enemy on the planet because she did sort of, you know, publish the details of that meeting. But my point to Taylor at the time when she wrote the article about, you know, this was the meeting that ended, vine was, I think, in saying that it gives those creators the power and the control that they were saying they had, you know, and I think that the downfall of vine can be attributed to like, probably eight or nine different things. And that was certainly one of them. But I don't think that was the only one.
- [03:33]
Benedict Townsend
From the point of view of vine hq, it was forces from above rather than below that had been crippling Vine's potential long before the meeting had ever taken place. The prevailing narrative that a group of the biggest Viners brought down the app after a climactic multi million dollar showdown was captivating and cinematic. It was one of the main things that drove me to start this project in the first place. But like most captivating cinematic stories, it's just not true. Vine died in October 2016, but as we found over the course of our series, the app had been atrophying for nearly a year before that. In a way, it wasn't that vine left behind legions of morning fans, and it's that legions of fans had already left vine.
- [04:18]
Taylor Lorenz
Again. I think people are so nostalgic about vine when it's like you let vine die in front of you, people forget. But vine did not iterate on their product. Users had already moved on by the end of 2016, and I think people forget that because Musical Ly. I think Musical Ly's rise was so undercovered by the tech press, it was essentially ignored because it was an app that was primarily used by teen girls. And so you had Instagram stories, Snapchat stories, just become the way that people shared video from their daily lives. And then you had Musical Ly capturing these creators. And I think that Musical Ly, of course, eventually was renamed TikTok. I don't think that vine would have been competitive. I mean, I just. It's hard to see a world where vine was truly competitive with TikTok.
- [05:03]
Benedict Townsend
It's interesting that Taylor mentions Musical Ly, the lip syncing app that would prove to be Vine's unlikely successor. When I asked Russ if there was anything vine could have done to have Survived. His reply really surprised me.
- [05:15]
Russ
And there was one trend in particular that we missed out on. Had we followed it, I think vine would be in a different place today.
- [05:23]
Benedict Townsend
What, what was that trend?
- [05:25]
Russ
Lip sync videos. You remember, musically, people became proud of the content that they were creating, and they didn't have to employ their creative talents, their comedic talents, or, you know, or anything outside of just like moving your lips to make it look like you're. You're singing the song. That became a huge trend. Musical Ly's user numbers grew to like 150 million downloads or active users monthly. And young people all over the country moved over to Musical Ly to gain audiences and to become famous because it was much easier.
- [06:04]
Benedict Townsend
Quite a few people in tech have really labored this point about the significance of lip syncing, which, you know, at this point kind of feels like a bit of a blip in the history of the Internet. But Musical Ly figured out how to do something that vine had never managed to do, which is to get masses of users to actively post content on their own, rather than sitting back as just passive observers. That's real engagement, right?
- [06:27]
Russ
Vine was very, like, unfiltered and kind of like, just put you there in the spotlight with. Musically, you could leverage the power of this music asset and. And attribute it to yourself and your own capabilities and talents. And we really didn't think that was important. We thought that was like something that, you know, cheesy teenagers did. And it had no place on the vine platform, but it ended up becoming a phenomenon. Musical Ly was acquired by ByteDance and then merged with their video app and relaunched as a new app called TikTok. I think from there, the TikTok algorithm was able to connect audiences to these niche content creators, get a feed of videos that was actually interesting and relevant to you without having to do the work to go find it.
- [07:15]
Benedict Townsend
So there were conversations at Vine. They maybe didn't go very far, but there were conversations at vine about, should we bother with this lip syncing thing?
- [07:22]
Russ
Yeah, brief conversations that were quickly, you know, shut down because it just didn't feel like it was part of the spirit of what made vine special. Vine was about talent and raw creativity and performance. Right. We favored people that could actually sing, as opposed to people that pretend that they sing, but it turns out that, like, nobody really cared.
- [07:45]
Benedict Townsend
It's difficult to imagine any social platform these days ever choosing not to pursue a potentially popular feature because they thought it was too vapid or too uncreative. It's another example of the vine team putting their own creative sensibilities ahead of profit led decision making. If vine had gone all in on lip syncing, would it have survived to this day? Or with the great wisdom of hindsight, did they kind of do themselves a favor by not clinging on? In a way, Russ's aversion to lip syncing has been partly vindicated. No one considers that era of the Internet as particularly iconic.
- [08:19]
Russ
I don't think the way you inspire creators is by putting on parties for them. You inspire them by giving them inspirational tools. So the harpsichord was amazing, but the piano, wow. I can press the key lightly and it makes a quiet sound and I can press it harder and it's louder, like, whoa. Dynamics. So there were a lot of grievances from the vine mafia and they were a very loud voice. Right. Like popular voices are often louder. Like, the reason they all joined vine was because of the inspirational creative tool, because of what the touch and hold to record camera enabled for them creatively. Whether it was Shawn Mendes creating these short looping videos of himself singing, or Logan Paul doing backflips over garbage cans on his college campus working batch with his super funny videos and skits, or Zach King and his camera magic, it was, it was the creation tool. But there were many other creators. It was just too difficult for them to find. Yeah. Turns out the solution to that is something like a for you feed.
- [09:32]
Benedict Townsend
Hmm.
- [09:32]
Russ
Right. Something that's less like a social network and more like social media.
- [09:36]
Benedict Townsend
I don't think that would ever work. Personally. That sounds like a crazy idea. Just before I say goodbye to Russ, he drops a wild alternate history where vine is bought back by its creator, the prodigal son returning into the fold.
- [09:49]
Russ
It did not come as a shock because I had already been engaged with Twitter about possibly buying vine and I knew when someone's trying to sell their company that they're probably exploring other options if it doesn't sell. Up to and including winding down, it was not really surprising. It always felt like an inevitability as long as the user numbers continued to decline.
- [10:15]
Benedict Townsend
Can you, Siri, I don't think I've heard that before about you possibly trying to buy it. Can you very quickly run us through the tale of you trying to buy it back?
- [10:23]
Russ
Yeah. Breaking news.
- [10:24]
Benedict Townsend
Yeah. Exclusive.
- [10:27]
Russ
This was at a time when shortly after Colin and I founded Intermedia Labs, the app studio. Yeah. We were very well capitalized in business and we, we knew that Twitter was going to make some decision about Vine. We didn't know what it was. We engaged with. With some of the folks at Twitter and learned that they were open to possibly selling. Selling Vine. And we thought, okay, well, we could either revive it or fold it into what we were working on, which was HQ trivia and live streaming tools. But it just didn't make sense. And when looking at the numbers and the costs, it just didn't make sense for us. The costs were astronomical. It was just too heavy of a weight for us to pull.
- [11:11]
Benedict Townsend
Was that. Was that a bit of a bummer for you?
- [11:13]
Russ
Uh, yeah, it was. Um, but we also knew, like, hey, this world moves so quickly. We just build something new that can scale just as quickly. HQ trivia came out of that process.
- [11:23]
Benedict Townsend
So I think that brings us to the end. I'm just going to check Mary, is there anything you want to jump in with?
- [11:29]
Mary Goodheart
Russ, thanks so much. If it's all right, I have just one more, and it is to sort of hand it back to you. If this is us telling the life story of vine, is there anything, basically that we haven't asked you that you would not want us to miss from this story?
- [11:42]
Russ
I think also it's important to mention Colin Crow's involvement. He has, you know, he tragically passed away few years ago. I miss him. He was a good friend of mine, one of the best engineers I've ever worked with, and I think it's important to just acknowledge his contributions to vine and, yeah, hope to see some more news about vine soon.
- [12:11]
Benedict Townsend
So was vine dying in a quick and timely manner the best thing that ever happened to it? For Jasmeet Rainer, it was a case of getting out while the going was good.
- [12:21]
Jasmeet Rainer
It was sad that vine died, but it was also interesting that vine died. And I'm like, that's cool. That, like, an apple's like, all right, this is my time. We had our thing, you know, it was great. We had a lot of great memories. We should close up shop. But we got cannibalized by Instagram. We got cannibalized by Snapchat. We're mature enough to be, like, cool, this is it. And, you know, I was sad at Twitter at the time for not maybe propping up Vine. But, you know, now, in retrospect, when I look back at it, I get it. Like, that's how, you know vine was real part of the circle of life and death. And at its adolescence, it has its youth. It had its, like, prime, and then it was, like, on its way out, and then it died. And I'm like, that's. Vine had a soul. Vine had a Spirit. It was an entity, it was a being. You know, what's that Batman quote like it, you either die a hero or live live long enough to see yourself become the villain. It never became the villain. When everything happened for it to to die, it died a hero.
- [13:20]
Benedict Townsend
Is Jasmyte right? If vine had survived, would it have simply devolved into yet another social media site that users love to hate? Taylor Lorenz seems to think so.
- [13:29]
Taylor Lorenz
I think it's because it ended right before the Internet got super bad, you know, and so I think it's like people look back at it wistfully because it was a platform that was never really truly weaponized for evil.
- [13:43]
Benedict Townsend
Most friends I tell about this project usually respond with some version of oh, I loved Vine. But was vine good or did it simply never get the chance to turn bad?
- [13:53]
Taylor Lorenz
Vine existed in this kind of like age of innocence, and it died before this era of tech platforms being weaponized. So vine was never really weaponized by sort of like, you know, nefarious people. You know, there was never any data harvesting scandals or anything. Like it kind of died with its reputation intact and no tech company since has remained unscathed. And if vine had stuck around, by the way, I do think it would have come under scrutiny and people wouldn't be so nostalgic about it or think so positively of it. But yeah, it died before the tech press turned on big tech as well.
- [14:26]
Benedict Townsend
You know, it's funny, working on this project, I've come to realize that so much of the sort of misty eyed nostalgia around vine is less about the app itself and more about just this broad yearning for this bygone era of the Internet. You know, it's not so much about missing vine, it's just people wanting it to be 2015 online again.
- [14:45]
Mary Goodheart
Yeah, Internet and the whole world, in fact.
- [14:49]
Benedict Townsend
Yeah. And then you have this peek into this alternate reality where Russ buys Vine back. Do you think that would have been the salvation of everyone?
- [14:58]
Mary Goodheart
That's a fun alternative history. I think we know what we would have liked it to have been, right? Which is that same magic, original, random people in random places, catching random moments, and it just being this unselfconscious, completely unegoed kind of treasure trove of moments. I think even if you manage to get that amazing algorithmic trick where you stop anyone from dominating, I just don't think that people are going to be that unselfconscious again online. Yeah, maybe that's a really bold claim, but I think if you kind of look, it's in everything that we do now. I think from the moment that we learned that you can go viral, you know, that you can really be seen by so many people. It's become so normal to curate everything. If you think of the way that photos now as a default, people are putting filters on, people are editing. It's so normal that you want to really control your image. It's the same thing that you have with reality TV formats. Right. You can maybe once have this sort of magical social experiment where you have contestant subjects, I don't know, reacting in this completely raw, spontaneous way. And it's fascinating and amazing. The minute that show gets popular, people are going to see it as a route to fame. It's just not real anymore and it's gone and you kind of have to move on and do something else.
- [16:11]
Benedict Townsend
You can't have vine in a post vine world.
- [16:14]
Mary Goodheart
That's very true.
- [16:16]
Benedict Townsend
Thank you very much. Thank you. It's sort of deeper than I expected, but, yeah, it's sort of itself cannibalizes, doesn't it? It's iterative. I mean, Elon Musk keeps talking about bringing vine back. As the owner of Twitter, he technically owns vine as well. But, like, what would new vine be? I mean, if vine had survived to this point, it would basically just be TikTok, which is vine, but with algorithms and other stuff, but with also this more modern sense of self awareness and self branding. I think really, when we talk about bringing vine back, it's about bringing back a feeling. And there will be something that does that, but it probably won't be like a random video app. It will be some new, exciting thing that none of us can picture yet. Yeah, it still can't take you back to 2015. Do you know what I mean?
- [16:57]
Mary Goodheart
Sadly, I mean, to put it bluntly, the Internet now feels like a pretty harsh place. You know, things that previously might have been a bit eye roll are scary now. I think there was a moment where we realized that we're the product and it just changed the whole experience. And it's very hard to backtrack into that age of innocence where it just felt like this great, amazing experiment where everyone's playing a weird role and we don't know what's going to happen.
- [17:23]
Benedict Townsend
I'm on the computer and I'm having a fun time on Facebook.
- [17:26]
Mary Goodheart
Exactly.
- [17:26]
Benedict Townsend
No one feels like that anymore.
- [17:28]
Mary Goodheart
No, very much not. It was never about the platform.
- [17:30]
Benedict Townsend
No.
- [17:31]
Mary Goodheart
It was about what it did to us. It was about what it meant.
- [17:34]
Benedict Townsend
Because, you know, no matter how bleak it gets out there, Mary, we will be back at it again one day and maybe it'll be at Krispy Kreme.
- [17:45]
Taylor Lorenz
If vine launched today, it would like immediately be weaponized by the worst people on the Internet to push fascism or other kind of regressive ideology. But back then it was this like wholesome time online. It was Obama's second term, There was so much optimism. This is pre Trump. This is when most people still think of tech as an inherent good and social media as an inherent good. And so there's a lot of excitement and innocence almost around these platforms where everyone is just like, wow, this could really change the world. How exciting. You know, and I think that that showed in the political content online, because the political content online was, was very kind of like funny and light hearted. And I remember the Independent Journal Review, which is a conservative news publication, they had a Vine account and they would just do these silly little skits with like members of Congress or political figures and same thing with the White House. Like the White House would just show kind of like daily behind the scenes clips of President Obama, you know, or little jokes. Like it was just, it was so wholesome.
- [18:50]
Benedict Townsend
For Matt and Matthews though, vine itself is part of the nostalgia, not just something that benefits from it.
- [18:56]
Matt
I do think it was as magical as people look back because it was everybody's first experience into this portal world where people are being funny and creative. So we were all in it together, experiencing it for the first time. I look back on it so fondly.
- [19:13]
Benedict Townsend
Ryan argues that we'll never see an app quite like it again.
- [19:16]
Jasmeet Rainer
There was no real algorithm involved. It was sort of. They would all just sort of go into the same feed and it was really integrated with Twitter and, and Twitter back then had like zero algorithmic recommendations. So there was just a lightning in the bottle effect for all of that content. And we really haven't seen anything like it since because no vine imitator has been able to capture that or seems interested in capturing that. They don't really want people just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what happens. But that's what made vine special and has made it, I think, still a fascination for young people who now I think just consume it via compilations on YouTube.
- [19:54]
Benedict Townsend
There's something to be said about that. How Gen Z, even Gen Alpha, hold an obsession for vine despite never being old enough to have actually used it. It proves that Vine's legacy isn't just propped up by nostalgia. That even under scrutiny from a whole new generation who never knew a nicer Internet, Vine's content stands the Test of time.
- [20:12]
Unknown
People all the time. Like, even today, like, you know, I worked at Instagram for six years, like, on stories, on a thing that, like, you know, far, far, far more people use. But when I tell people I worked at vine at some point, that's always the one people say, and they're like, oh, I loved Vine. And, you know, in my mind, I'm always like, you don't love Vine. You love Vines.
- [20:31]
Benedict Townsend
Funnily enough, those compilations are the primary way creators like Kenny Knox have even managed to earn any money at all from their vine fame.
- [20:38]
Kenny Knox
I didn't get any brand deals while I was on vine, which was strange, but I ain't have no filters. I was this kind of owner, just making whatever I wanted to make, just being a kid, for real. I posted so many Vines that my Vines were compilations on YouTube, so they were getting millions of views. So I signed with Collab, and they would just claim all the money from the compilation. So I would get, like, a monthly check. So that's how I was getting paid. So at first I wasn't getting paid, but, like, after, like, late junior year high school, my mom was on my head about getting a job and make like, yo, you need to work. I went to Target, they declined me. I went to. I went to Wendy's, they declined me. I'm like, bro, Wendy's, you're gonna decline me? I like, bro, I can't even put the fries in the bag. And then I checked my first collab check I got. This was a lot for me at the time. It said, like, 550. And I was like. I was like, ma, do I have to get a job still? This 550? She's like, where'd that come from?
- [21:36]
Benedict Townsend
I don't know.
- [21:38]
Kenny Knox
I lied.
- [21:39]
Benedict Townsend
I'll take it.
- [21:39]
Kenny Knox
And then, like, I just kept making stuff, and then eventually it went up.
- [21:43]
Benedict Townsend
Whatever you make of Vine's influence on the Internet, there's no denying the impact it had on the real lives of the people who used it. The creators who started careers, paid off their debts, and had paths open to them that they never even thought possible.
- [21:57]
Jasmeet Rainer
It's just attached to so much positivity and so much free expression and free creativity.
- [22:03]
Benedict Townsend
Oh, hey.
- [22:03]
Jasmeet Rainer
How's your job interview?
- [22:04]
Benedict Townsend
Good.
- [22:04]
Jasmeet Rainer
I think I really blew them away.
- [22:05]
Benedict Townsend
Was it worth it? What do you mean? Who do I meet?
- [22:07]
Taylor Lorenz
Some of them probably had families.
- [22:09]
Jasmeet Rainer
Some of my best friends to this day, I made through vine, and people that I'm going to be working with and being friends with forever. That's why I think it's fondly remembered. It was like this great cool uncle or you know, father figure.
- [22:25]
Matt
I think I kind of shut myself off to the, the numbers following really early on. I just wanted to have fun and enjoy myself.
- [22:33]
Benedict Townsend
Kristen Stewart, I love you and I think you're beautiful. So are you. I'm over here.
- [22:38]
Matt
But it's definitely given me a sense of value. You know, I try not to, to tie my self worth to the amount of followers I have, but it's definitely there, it definitely exists. You know, if I lost all my followers today, I think I'd be pretty disappointed. But at the same time, I did lose 3 million followers. And as long as I'm creating, I'm happy. As long as I'm laughing and making something with a friend, I'm pretty genuinely happy. Do I want people to see it? Do I want to share it? Absolutely. But I think we're creative beings and as long as we're doing something, that is what matters most. The followers and the views are like the icing on the cake for me.
- [23:23]
Benedict Townsend
The only reason why I'm doing this because if you're coming on, I'll talk about social media. It's like, oh, I've done it before, I've done it in the past, but it's cause it's about Vine. I've hit the next door neighbour's dog. It's in the boot of my car. You gotta help me, dad, please, I'm scared. It's like talking about my nan who passed away like it's. I owe vine everything. And it was, it wasn't just an app, mate. It really, it was the most, how can I put it? Like it was a phenomenon. Literally. It started everything for everyone. Perhaps Vine's biggest fumble was ignoring those creatives, especially the ones they looked down upon. They hoped they could just ignore Logan Paul until he went away. But an unwritten law of the universe is that Logan Paul never goes away inadvertently. It was the 1600 gang who changed the future of how business approaches creators. Bridget Todd thinks they're more important than perhaps we'd like to admit.
- [24:14]
Bridget Todd
I think that right now we're seeing sort of the, the, the fruit come to bear of what these early vine stars were trying to do. They might not have used the word unionization or like organizing, but, but that's what they were doing. A lot of tech press and like business press just ignored them. The same way that it sounds like vine just ignored these people. It seems to be that their policy was like, these are not serious People, these are not people worthy of serious scrutiny or serious relationship building with. And I think like that era, it seems so arcane now, but that's really how it was. And so I think you saw these creators really being aware of the power that they held, really being aware of how much of a debt vine actually did owe them, and that they were kind of like the lifeblood of why people came to this platform and flexing that muscle a little bit. And like, I think that if, if they had not done that on Vine, I don't think we would be in an era today where creators are taken seriously, where people are giving the creator economy real scrutiny and giving it the real attention that it deserves. And that platforms, you know, they're not doing the best job all the time. But understand that there needs to be some sort of relationship between the people who are bringing eyeballs to your platforms, right? That like, you need to compensate them with real money, give them meaningful support. I think vine was really a throwback to a time where like, that just wasn't happening.
- [25:40]
Benedict Townsend
The story of vine may not fit within six seconds, but it does loop. We used to dip our toe into the babbling brook of the Internet, but Vine opened the floodgates that turned it into a raging river where mere seconds of immersion can sweep you away for hours. And if you drown, well, at least someone's getting your ad money. Maybe it's a little harsh to lay the blame on vine for opening Pandora's box. I mean, the truth is, if they hadn't invented it, somebody else probably would have. TikTok took Vine's blueprint of short form video and supercharged it with a. A personalized algorithm, some creator focused strategy, and that. All important monetization. I came to this project as a former vine addict, hoping to uncover the mystery of what happened to the app that gave us spaghetti drills and screaming goats. I thought it'd be a grand tale of rebellion, a creator uprising, or some epic war between artists and suits, but as always, the truth is messier. You posted the last evervine, is that right? I mean, first of all, what an honor. How did you come to have that great privilege?
- [26:43]
Unknown
At that point, I was already working at Instagram and I was still tight with some of the backend engineers there. And so I messaged my friend and I was like, shout in the dark. Is it possible I could squeeze in one last volume before you shut it down? And he was like, yeah, we can do this. And he's like, we'll shut it down. And then we'll leave it open for your user ID for 10 more minutes. Basically, we'll just give you this window and you gotta post in this 10 minutes, and then we're gonna shut it down for everyone. And then. So, like, the day they were actually shutting down, I was in a, like a design review at Instagram and I got a text from my friend. He's like, it's now or never.
- [27:14]
Benedict Townsend
Go.
- [27:15]
Unknown
And I had to, like, run out of this room to go, like, upload my video in that, like, 10 minute window after they shut it down for everyone else and then come back in.
- [27:24]
Benedict Townsend
That is amazing. So you had that locked and loaded? Ready. Ready for the call?
- [27:29]
Unknown
Oh, yeah. Me and a friend of mine, we decided what we were gonna post, like a month earlier.
- [27:33]
Benedict Townsend
And yeah, just for. Just for the listeners. What did you post? What was the final video?
- [27:37]
Unknown
It's. It's. It's a like, VHS footage of, like, a sunset. And it's the. The song is. It's a Kanye song, but it's the. The lyrics are, like, young and real life. We're never gonna die.
- [27:49]
Benedict Townsend
Nice. Nice. I like that. That's crazy. The. So this is the pub we play Famous by Kanye West. It's the track that closed out Vine's final moments. Can we just get that loaded up?
- [28:03]
Mary Goodheart
Sorry, Benedict, we don't have that kind of money.
- [28:06]
Benedict Townsend
Ah, okay. Well, instead, picture this. A grainy VHS sunset, Kanye crooning we're never gonna die, and the spirit of vine ascending to the great cloud server in the sky. It's beautiful, it's poetic, and it's much cheaper for us to describe than to actually play it. And that's a wrap. This show has been a real labor of love, but it's also just been one giant excuse for me to talk about vine like it's some great lost civilization of the Internet. We may never get another vine, but its legacy lives on. Every time you doom scroll, Every time a TikTok ear worm ruins your day, every time someone yells, what are those in the wild there Be the spirit of Vine. Seriously though, I want to thank everyone who's helped bring this project to life. My producers, editors, and the truly unhinged world of vine. Creators who opened up their lives and their DMs to us. It's been a ride. Stay weird and I'll see you on the Internet.
- [29:03]
Taylor Lorenz
Goodbye.
- [29:09]
Benedict Townsend
You can listen to vine six Seconds that Change the World on Global Player, Download it from the App Store, or go to globalplayer.com vine 6 seconds that changed the World is a Global Original Podcast created and hosted by me, Benedict Townsend and produced by my co creator Mary Goodheart. Narrative and creative by producer Kevia Cardoso. Score and sound design by Patrick Lee and mix by Chris James. Sophie Snelling is the Executive Producer, Al Riddell is Head Head of Factual Podcasts and Vicky Etchels is Director of Podcasts at Global. This is a Global Player Original Podcast. It's the most wonderful time of the year. Paddy McGinnis here to tell you about the ultimate holiday perk with on the beach free Fast Track airport security. So pack those shades, slap on your best smug face and enjoy that sweet fast track freedom on the beach. Boot like a genius. Holiday like a fool. Conditions apply. Four star holidays, seven night minimum. Stay outbound only for selected airports.