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What Smart Homes Will—And Won't—Do In 2017

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Rosie the Robot won't be moving in quite yet, but virtual assistants and other tech will make life easier and entertain us more than ever.

Of all the tech industry's current obsessions, smart homes might have the biggest gap between fantasy and reality. We've been dreaming of a home that runs itself—restocking supplies, maximizing energy efficiency, and even performing some chores—but for the most part we got glorified remote controls for appliances instead.

Even if a true smart home is further off, we'll get that much closer in 2017. Here's what to expect next year—and what will remain elusive:

Eero

They'll Finally Understand Context

For years, Nest thermostats have tracked whether you're home or away, and used that information to adjust the temperature and control other smart home devices. That kind of contextual awareness should expand in several ways next year.

More of us are wearing smartwatches and fitness trackers that can tell whether we're awake, asleep, exercising, or relaxing. Those signals can in turn feed into smart thermostats, ceiling fans, light bulbs, and blinds to adjust a home's climate and atmosphere. We're also starting to see a proliferation of mesh router systems such as eero, Plume, and Google Wi-Fi, which add multiple connectivity points throughout the house. Eero already uses this capability to tell you which part of the house you left your phone in, and it's not hard to imagine a system that adjusts temperature and lighting based on where people are gathering.

On the software side, services like IFTTT are tying disparate products and apps together in more complex ways. IFTTT now supports multiple actions from a single trigger, so it can turn on the lights and crank the heat when you open the garage door. Soon, the service will also support variable triggering conditions, so it might leave the lighting and heat alone if someone else is home already.

Amazon Echo with Alexa Enabled[Photo: courtesy of Amazon]

They'll Have AI Everywhere

While 2016 was a breakthrough year for connected speakers such as the Amazon Echo and Google Home, in 2017, those products' underlying AI will start to feel omnipresent. Amazon, for instance, has been letting hardware makers build the Alexa virtual assistant into their own products and now offers ready-made prototyping kits to make development easier. Google isn't far behind with similar initiatives, and Microsoft wants to get its Cortana assistant onto more devices as well. Pretty soon, you'll start seeing virtual assistants in alarm clocks, lamps, TVs, and maybe even your fridge, letting you search Google or order items on Amazon from anywhere in the house.

They Won't Set Up Themselves

Talk to enough smart home vendors, and you'll realize that setup is a major obstacle for the average consumer. Between the hub devices that are required for many lighting and sensor systems, and the rigmarole of pairing new devices to a Wi-Fi network, setting up a smart home still feels like a geeky endeavor. And that's assuming users can make sense of the half-dozen competing software ecosystems they must choose from, including Apple HomeKit, Nest, SmartThings, Lowe's Iris, and Wink.

While emerging protocols such as Thread aim to make onboarding easier, and groups like the Open Connectivity Foundation are trying to make more products interoperable, progress has been slow so far as major players such as Apple, Amazon, and Google don't seem interested in rallying around standardized solutions. Chaos seems likely to reign for at least another year.

They Won't Do Much Manual Labor

Don't expect Rosie the Robot to come to life next year, though we are inching ever closer. Aside from your Roombas and iRobots, we're starting to see household robots that can fold your laundry, clean up after your cat, handle your dry cleaning, clean your gutters, and mow your lawn.

Still, these new household robots are pricey, and in some cases the setup seems like more trouble than it's worth. Meanwhile, the idea of a Rosie-like robot remains an immense technological challenge requiring sophisticated mechanical components and artificial intelligence that aren't likely to be commercialized anytime soon.

They'll Shop For You, Within Reason

While appliance makers like Samsung are sticking cameras inside their refrigerators, they haven't quite figured out how to reorder groceries on your behalf.

Dash Replenishment Service

In the meantime, Amazon has the next-best thing with Dash Replenishment Service, a set of software tools that appliance makers can use to order more supplies as they run low. This year, we saw a Brita pitcher that orders more filters, GE dryers and dishwashers that order more fabric softener and detergent packs, and Brother printers that order more ink. And new products are coming, including a trash can that helps you order more of what you just threw away. The only question is whether Amazon will remain unchallenged, or other retailers will catch on.

They'll Delight You In Less Essential Ways

If we learned anything from the Amazon Echo, it's that smart home products don't need to emphasize order and upkeep to be successful. Some of the best smart home applications of 2017 might simply help you stay informed or entertained.

Google has already started down that path with its Google Home speaker that lets you launch Netflix videos by voice on any Chromecast TV device and can play synchronized audio with other Chromecast audio devices around the house. What's the next step? Perhaps you'll be able to ask for video recommendations or transfer the music playback to your phone as you head to the car. These kinds of uses won't drastically change your life or save you from having to do your own chores, but they might do more to take the smart home mainstream next year than any door lock or thermostat.


5 Fintech Startups To Watch In 2017

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After a glum 2016, look for startups tackling massive opportunities like insurance and real estate to reenergize the fintech sector.

For fintech, 2016 was a year of reckoning. Scandals and layoffs killed industry buzz, and deal activity took a mid-year nosedive. Regulatory uncertainty in the U.S. loomed large, as did Brexit. For some companies, the environment led to a greater reliance on partnerships with big banks, with potential implications for the types of exits that investors could realize. For others, 2016 became a time to retrench and refocus.

Those efforts should start to pay off in 2017. Here, we highlight five U.S.-based fintech startups with growing traction that exemplify broader industry trends.

Metromile

After flying under the radar for its first four years of operations, San Francisco-based Metromile dropped a bombshell in September: It had quietly raised nearly $200 million in a series of unannounced investment rounds, while at the same time positioning itself to grow nationwide as an independent auto insurer. Pay-per-mile auto insurance, the company's core offering, is now poised to go mainstream.

For low-mileage drivers, Metromile's typical fees—$35 per month, plus 5¢ per mile—can lead to significant savings. For higher-mileage drivers, the company is experimenting with partnerships. For example, it has teamed up with Uber to offer a specialized plan that encompasses personal and commercial coverage.

Insurance investors say Metromile has become an important proof point for the industry's hottest topic: Measuring observable behavior in order to get more granular about risk. "It's all about data and creating a customized risk profile for yourself," says Nabil Meralli, partner at InsurTech Venture Partners, a new London-based fund.

Watch out for Metromile, and "insurtech" more generally, in the year ahead.

Cadre

Real estate technology moved into the spotlight in 2016, with blockbuster rounds going to Compass ($75 million) and OpenDoor ($210 million). In parallel, crowdfunding real estate platforms have been proving their mettle—bootstrapped Sharestates, for example, recently passed $230 million in funded projects.

Cadre, as its name implies, is less interested in crowdfunding and more interested in capturing the large pools of capital required to fund major commercial deals. Cadre CEO Ryan Williams is just 28 (and a Harvard-educated serial entrepreneur), but he has the ear of some of finance and real estate's top power brokers and a growing team of star players operating out of the startup's headquarters, a loft-style office in Soho. (The digs come courtesy of Cadre investors Josh and Jared Kushner; family firm Kushner Properties owns Soho's Puck Building, where it has installed Cadre and fellow Thrive Capital portfolio company Oscar Health.) Real estate heavyweight Mike Fascitelli sits on Cadre's board, and Andrew Borovsky, a veteran of Square and Apple, runs product.

"To date, our investors on the platform have been family offices, high net worth [individuals], pensions, endowments," Williams says. "We think we can build a strong brand and sense of loyalty, almost social proof, at the top of the investing pyramid."

So far, the company has closed on more than $500 million in inventory.

Stash

Betterment, RobinHood, Wealthfront, Wise Banyan: There is no shortage of options today for managing your investments via smartphone. Even established players like Charles Schwab are upping their game with improved mobile apps. Yet this past year New York-based Stash managed to cut through the noise in this crowded market and win more than 300,000 users.

The company's growth "has been the fastest that we've seen," says Andrew McCormack, founding partner at Valar Ventures, which led the $25 million Series B that Stash announced in mid-December. "They have been growing at an incredible rate with a very low cost of acquisition because there's such viral engagement." Stash is proof positive that the old-fashioned email newsletter can still pack a marketing punch.

Whether the company's high engagement leads to equivalent growth in assets under management remains to be seen. Stash's strength lies in its "start small, think big" ethos; users can invest as little as $5, allocated according to their beliefs and values. The catchy, curated portfolio options include "Roll With Buffett" and "Social Media Mania." At the end of the day, Stash is Blackrock ETFs, rebranded for nest egg newbies. But there might just be a business in that.

Tilt

Is Venmo ripe for disruption, too? That is the thinking behind Tilt, which bills itself as a "social network built around money" and claims to be the fastest-growing app on college campuses. From Friday night pizza with roommates to a sorority-sponsored fundraiser, Tilt brings the functionality of peer-to-peer payments, crowdfunding, and Eventbrite under one roof.

"It's the easiest way to collect, fundraise, and sell with your community," says cofounder and CEO James Beshara. So far, he and his team have raised over $62 million in venture capital. "We don't do any curation. We don't have any featured list. The only thing that's a push to you is through social relations with the people you care about."

Tilt charges a fee for commerce—selling merchandise or tickets, for example. But other transactions are free. When rival Venmo adds the functionality to support merchants, the two mobile platforms will be going head-to-head as they compete for the influential 18-24 demographic.

Cross River Bank

Cross River Bank made headlines (and induced some head scratching) when it announced $28 million in venture capital funding last fall. What did Silicon Valley see in the Fort Lee, New Jersey-based community bank? As it turns out, fintech's self-proclaimed disruptors need access to the banking system's old-fashioned infrastructure in order to move and deposit money, originate loans, and more. And Cross River, seeing a market opportunity, had carved out a valuable niche serving companies like Affirm, Google Wallet, and Rocket Loans.

But fintech regulations are due for big changes in 2017, and Cross River may find itself at a sudden disadvantage. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the nation's top bank regulator, announced plans for a new type of license on December 2. Under the special charter, fintech startups would be able to grow more quickly nationwide by sidestepping the arduous process of navigating state licenses and rules. They would also subject themselves to greater scrutiny on the part of the OCC with regard to consumer protections, capital controls, and more.

Cross River CEO Gilles Gade maintains that there are opportunities for the bank to continue to serve its startup customers, even under the new regulatory regime, by teaching them about compliance. But it's unclear whether that strategy will deliver the kinds of returns that VCs like Andreessen Horowitz expect.

No More Athleisure, Brick And Mortar, Made in China? How Fashion Will Change In 2017

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The tectonic plates of the fashion world are moving. Here are four shifts to expect next year.

Change is afoot in the fashion industry.

We've already seen glimpses of how the tectonic plates in the fashion world are moving. In one of our best-read fashion stories of 2016, we explored how some of the premium U.S. fashion brands of the past—Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren—have lost their luster.

They're losing ground to a new generation of direct-to-consumer brands that were born on the internet, including Everlane, Cuyana, M.Gemi, DSTLD, American Giant, and Vrai & Oro. These companies are offering something different from the flashy designers of yesterday: the insight into their supply chain and sometimes even a breakdown of their sales margins, providing the customer with a better understanding of the quality they're getting for their money.

Over the next year, we'll see how these online brands continue to transform the fashion landscape. We'll see big shifts in brick and mortar stores, fashion supply chains, the athleisure trend, and the idea of value.

[Photo: courtesy of M.Gemi]

1. Brick And Mortar Makes A Comeback

Awesome online and in-store experiences give rise to the "super customer."

When online shopping took off a decade ago, pundits predicted that physical shops would disappear. It turns out that brick-and-mortar stores have remarkable staying power, but their purpose has fundamentally changed as fashion brands try to figure out how physical retail outlets fit in to the shopping experience. "Brands are thinking about what the internet cannot give you," says Katia Beauchamp, CEO of beauty subscription service Birchbox, pointing out that digital tools now allow you to come close to seeing, touching, and even trying on products.

In Beauchamp's view, the one thing the internet does not provide is human contact. She predicts that in 2017, customers will increasingly visit stores to get curated experiences from shop representatives. For brands to meet this demand, they need to have well-trained staff who understand products inside and out and can offer personalized advice.

We will also see a rise in experiential retail, according to Michelle Cordeiro Grant, the founder of underwear brand Lively. To encourage consumers to spend time in their stores browsing their products, brands will get more creative, adding amenities like bars, coffee shops, and yoga classes. In other words, stores will become more like entertainment spots for people who share similar lifestyles and interests to spend time together. "There will be an emphasis on physical brand experiences that will enable consumers to engage with not just product, but brand ethos and community," she says. "The main objective of this kind of blending will be brand awareness, but the scope and reach will be much more than what's been traditional. These experiences will be leveraging what is happening with social and taking it offline."

Direct-to-consumer luxury shoe company M.Gemi says that fashion companies that understand how brick-and-mortar intersects with digital will see the rise in the "super customer." M.Gemi launched a pop-up store in New York earlier this year and found that customers who had a good experience in-store would eventually spend more online and return fewer products than digital-only customers. Similarly, digital customers who went to stores would purchase 33% more in-store than new customers. "The website and the store seemed to be mutually reinforcing," says Cheryl Kaplan, M.Gemi's president.

Now M.Gemi is making the most of these insights by opening additional shops and creating a more seamless experience between digital and brick-and-mortar. For instance, a customer will be able to leave a store and find all the shoes that she tried waiting in her online shopping cart. "This is just the first of many ways we're experimenting with bringing these two experiences together," she says. She believes these efforts will generate even more "super customers."

[Photo: courtesy of Alala]

2. We Finally Ditch The Term "Athleisure"

It's just how we dress.

Last year, the "athleisure" trend became so widespread that the word was officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. The awkward portmanteau refers to athletic clothing that can be worn during leisure activities (i.e., everyday life)—a style kickstarted by Lululemon, creator of yoga pants you could wear to brunch. In the last few years, dozens of new athleisure companies—Bandier, Outdoor Voices, Alala—have entered the market, selling high-performance activewear designed to be worn outside the gym.

But ironically, just as the term enters the official lexicon, some say it won't be necessary because athleisure has become so ubiquitous. "In 2017, athleisure as a concept will simultaneously cease to exist and be everywhere, as it is assimilated into consumers' lifestyles and wardrobes," says Denise Lee, founder of Alala. "I see it becoming less of a trend and more of a normal way of life."

Gregory Lowe, the founder of Fitbox, an activewear subscription service in which Rebecca Minkoff has recently invested, concurs. "It is not a trend," he says. "It's a new way of life sparked by millennials' interest in being stylish and comfy at the same time." Lowe thinks that from now on, all apparel brands will be designing clothes with comfort and performance in mind, while the athleisure market will continue to become more complex. Some lines will focus on fashion and luxury (see: Prabal Gurung Sport and Cushnie et Ochs's capsule collection). Others, such as Adidas's line, will be primarily focused on using advanced technical materials.

Nina Faulhaber, the cofounder of the athleisure brand ADAY, also believes that customers are increasingly looking for high-tech garments they can wear to work. "In the post-athleisure world, consumers want the benefits of athleisure without the 'I just went to the gym' vibe," she says. "Comfort and versatility will be hiding in everyday garments. The less of a spandex look, the better."

This year, ADAY launched a pair of leggings that are designed to be worn throughout the day, even in professional contexts. Made of moisture-wicking fabric, they have a matte finish that does not look like nylon or spandex and have lots of useful features, including special pockets for your cell phone. One woman wore hers in a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Faulhaber says.

[Photo: courtesy of Cuyana]

3. Value Matters More Than Labels

Customers are smart and want to know what they are paying for.

In 2010, Warby Parker and Everlane were among the first brands to make transparency a key part of the customer experience. They offered products at lower prices than designer alternatives, and emphasized the importance of quality through brand storytelling. They explained that by cutting out middlemen and selling through their own channels, they could save the customer money.

These days, customers expect to know exactly what they are paying for. Many upstarts that recently entered the market—bag brand Oliver Cabell, denim brand DSTLD, jewelry brand Vrai and Oro—have all adopted the direct-to-consumer model. "Quality and value are increasingly sought after, more so than specific brand-name or luxury-brand status," says Karla Gallardo, founder and CEO of women's fashion label Cuyana. "This is a new type of 'value': It no longer necessarily means low prices for low quality, but rather low prices for high quality—made possible by being direct-to-consumer."

Gallardo believes that over the next year, companies that build their business model on making large wholesale margins will struggle to compete with this new flock of brands. Consumers are also losing interest in big discounts since they often come paired with lower-quality products. Gallardo says that brands struggling to survive in this shifting landscape—including J.Crew and the Gap Brands—will need to rethink their entire supply chain so they are making high-quality products with the best materials, then selling them at the best possible prices. This means not only being "direct-to-consumer" but also "direct-to-supplier."

[Photo: courtesy of American Giant]

4. Made In America

More production is returning home.

President-elect Trump ran on a platform of bringing more jobs back to the U.S. by eliminating free trade deals. It's unclear whether he will actually follow through on these promises—and whether Congress will work with him to bring them to fruition—but the fashion industry is already thinking about how such legislation could change their business. The majority of U.S. fashion brands have moved production to Asia, where labor costs are lower. But there's been a shift in recent years as a wave of startups have chosen to make products in U.S. factories because it allows them to better monitor quality and take advantage of the most recent manufacturing technology. The possibility of higher tariffs on overseas manufacturing may prompt more fashion brands to follow the startups' lead and head back to the U.S.

Bayard Winthrop, the founder and CEO of American Giant, a brand that makes all of its products in the U.S., believes that the U.S. government's efforts to bring more jobs back by introducing tax breaks and benefits is only part of the solution. American companies need to be able to make products locally so efficiently and cost effectively that they are able to compete with foreign manufacturers. "The focus needs to be on fostering competitiveness," he says.

To do this, Winthrop says that fashion brands need to reimagine every aspect of their supply chain, so that they are able to make a high-quality item at a good price. This sometimes means upgrading factory technology so that the machines are more efficient and require less human intervention. It might mean sourcing materials locally to cut down on shipping costs. "Brands that are nimble and driving change have much lighter cost loads and are freed from this accelerating downward pressure," he says. "There is room for them to be responsive and innovative."

The good news for companies committed to making products locally is that U.S. consumers welcome this change. They want high-quality products, which American factories often can deliver more easily than their Asian counterparts because of U.S. access to cutting-edge technology. According to the 2016 McKinsey Millennial Survey of 11,000 U.S. customers, quality was a top driver of purchasing behavior. As a result, the "fast fashion" model, which was fueled by cheap overseas manufacturing, is waning. "The more time you spend wearing or even just looking at fast fashion as a category, the more aware you become of the shit quality," Winthrop says. "This idea of 'newness' is dampened by poor make. The signal change is that a growing segment is purely interested in quality, less is more, and owning fewer things."

DSTLD, an L.A.-based denim brand that makes most of its products in local factories, has made the same observation. "[Customers] are looking at where items are made, how products are made, and the materials that go into each product," says cofounder Corey Epstein. He says the brand has found that customers are attracted to its commitment to sustainability, zero sweatshops, and reducing the impact fashion is having on the world.

In the upcoming year, Epstein thinks that companies and consumers will both take a "less-is-more" approach to fashion. "More and more brands are focusing on smaller, more timeless product lines," he says. "We're not trying to make the cheapest white T-shirt, but the most well-constructed, best-fitting, softest T-shirt, at the absolute best price."

How Paid Parental Leave Changed In 2016

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This is how much progress the U.S. has—and hasn't—made on a workplace issue that's gaining ever more attention.

This was supposed to be the year paid parental leave was going to expand. Experts predicted employers and lawmakers were going to finally start paying more attention to what many began to recognize as a hugely important benefit for working parents. After all, according to a 2016 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 100 million employees still aren't offered paid family leave at their jobs. A quarter of new mothers go back to work just 10 days after giving birth. Statistics like these, many argued, made a nationwide reckoning with the issue all but inevitable.

As the year draws to a close, some real progress has been made, but 2016 wasn't exactly a watershed year for paid parental leave. The U.S. still comes in last out of 41 developed nations for its lack of a federal mandate for paid parental leave, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Although the benefit usually applies to new mothers, 31 of those 41 countries mandate paid leave for fathers, too.

This is puzzling in a country where the number of two-parent households in which both work full-time has increased from one-third in 1970 to 46% today, according to Pew Research. Here's a look at what's changed in the past 12 months—and what hasn't.

States And Cities Step Up

Continuing on a trend from last year, the responsibility for compelling employers to offer paid parental leave has largely fallen to individual states, cities, and the private sector. Rhode Island, New Jersey, and California are currently the only three states that have provided private workers time off with partial pay. Fourteen other states previously passed measures that expanded the federal Family Medical Leave Act but come with sometimes sharp restrictions, such as covering only government workers.

Following the leads of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Kansas City, Missouri; and Austin, Texas, legislators in other cities stepped in to fill some of the gaps earlier this year, stitching together paid sick leave for individual workers and paid family leave.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio passed a measure to give 20,000 non-unionized workers six weeks of fully paid parental leave; New York City's total municipal workforce is about 300,000. Several months later, San Francisco approved six weeks of parental leave at full pay for either gender who either bear or adopt a child.

In November, Washington, D.C.'s Paid Family Leave Coalition revealed an updated bill that will provide for 11 weeks of parental leave, with progressive wage replacement rates reaching 90% for those earning 1.5 times the minimum wage or less. The bill passed on December 20.

Businesses Get Busy

Over the course of 2016, both privately owned and publicly held companies have further filled in the patchwork of city and statewide policies. Still, only 13% of private-sector employees have access to paid family leave, and that number drops to 6% for low-wage workers. The Society for Human Resources Management found that about 21% of big U.S. companies offered some fathers paid leave in 2015, up from 12% in 2014.

Among the companies implementing or expanding benefits this year (in no particular order):

Etsy. In April, employees became eligible for 26 weeks of fully paid leave over the first two years after a child's birth, with at least eight of those weeks taken continuously during the first six months following the birth.

EY (formerly Ernst & Young). Also in April, EY announced a new policy to expand its parental benefits to over 35,000 U.S. employees. Both new mothers and fathers are eligible for up to 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birth, adoption, surrogacy, foster care, or legal guardianship.

Coca-Cola Company. Starting on January 1, 2017, the company's 40,000 U.S. employees will be eligible for six weeks of paid leave regardless of gender, a policy that includes adoptive or foster parents. These benefits supplement the six to eight weeks of paid leave provided to birth mothers through short-term disability.

American Express. Twenty weeks of paid leave will be offered to men and women bringing a new child into their families through surrogacy, adoption, or birth, with an additional six to eight weeks for birth mothers.

Ikea. Also starting on January 1, 2017, the Swedish home furnishings giant is offering its U.S. staff of 13,000 up to four months of leave with pay and another eight weeks at half their base pay.

BASF. The chemical company announced on December 14 that the new year would bring expanded benefits. "All new parents—maternal, paternal, and adoptive—will be eligible for eight weeks of paid parental leave to bond with their children. For new moms, this is in addition to the typical six to eight weeks of paid maternity leave already available," BASF said in a recent statement.

Looking Forward

Taken together, these policies impact a lot of workers. However, a recent study by Paid Leave for the United States (PL+US), a national nonprofit advocating for paid family leave, shows that there's still a long way to go. The report found that two-thirds of the country's 60 largest companies (ranked by the number of U.S. employees) have either no paid leave policy, or did not disclose their policy.

It remains to be seen what the Trump Administration will do in terms of mandating paid parental leave, but the child care plan the that President-elect announced during the campaign suggests that it will be minimal. As a candidate, Trump proposed only six weeks of paid leave for birth mothers whose employers don't already offer coverage.

There is a business case to be made for offering paid leave. Companies both small and large interviewed by Fast Company cited a range of benefits, like attracting and retaining talented workers, increasing staff diversity, and avoiding the expense of hiring and training new employees—just to name a few—all of which can directly affect the bottom line.

If 2017 is the year crazy perks get left behind in favor of traditional benefits like paid time off, we may see the private sector taking the lead more than it has so far on behalf of new parents.

As Brian Kropp, the human resources practice leader for CEB, recently toldFast Company, "What's likely to happen in 2017, as more and more companies go down that path of setting what that standard is, it will set a de facto social policy. That will have a bigger impact on social policy than what government can accomplish in a dysfunctional Washington."

Here's What Dating Tech Will Look Like In 2017

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From role-playing video games to VR sexual encounters, prepare for innovative new ways to find love and indulge lust.

Every year, we reach new heights in dating technology, as apps, platforms, and gadgets become more deeply entangled in our relationships. No doubt, dating in 2017 will not be materially different from what it was like in 2016—a year tends not to make a lot of difference—but we can certainly glean a picture of what sex and love will look like in the not-so-distant future and beyond.

In a way, pop culture is already showing us. One of the most acclaimed TV dramas of the year, HBO's Westworld, is set in an enormous Dionysian amusement park in which humans indulge their sexual and emotional fantasies with lifelike robots. We're not there yet, but this past April, a Hong Kong designer unveiled his very own humanoid robot that looked remarkably similar to actress Scarlett Johansson. This blond-haired, green-eyed clone—the tinkerings of a hobbyist—was made from silicon, plastic, and circuit boards rather than flesh and blood. Though she wasn't outfitted with artificial intelligence, the soft construction of her face and slight gape of her pouty pink lips are so nearly real that a world populated by Westworld-like robots doesn't feel far off.

In the meantime, adventurous love-seekers can explore many technologies that are emerging right now.

VR Gets Sexual

Headsets took off in 2016, with launches from Oculus Rift, Vive, Daydream View, and PS VR. And while initial sales were deemed low, the technology is still gaining traction. As Stephanie Lamas, director of research for Superdata, noted at the VRX Conference in San Francisco, 16 million people will be using virtual reality by the end of the year. Naturally, the two earliest arrivals to the VR scene are gamers and pornographers.

The abundance of VR equipment has spawned both virtual-reality porn platforms and adults-only social networks. Porn sites like Camsoda, BaDoinkVR, and Naughty America are all encouraging us to strap a headset to our face and try out the latest in masturbation tech. To accompany you on your journey are familiar tools revamped for the virtual-reality era. Fleshlights have morphed into mechanical twerking butts, phone sex has given way to teledildonics, and soon blow-up dolls will be AI-enhanced Realdolls. And there's more. Just last month, CamSoda debuted a catalog of virtual blow jobs, which replicate the feeling (via a connected "sleeve") of a cam girl fellating a smart dildo.

Who Do You Want To Be?

Role-playing games are cropping up as a sort of preamble to virtual dating. 3Dxchat, a subscription multiplayer game, is at its core a virtual sex party. Avatars meet avatars, chat, and sneak off into rooms to act out graphic animated sex. It's not unlike how people meet in other multiplayer role-playing games like Minecraft and World of Warcraft. But with 3Dxchat the intentions are more explicit and the visuals more in-your-face.

Unfortunately, we also learned this year that women can expect to be harassed and impinged with unsolicited advances in virtual reality, just like they do in actual reality. In April, Fusion's Kevin Roose called out AltspaceVR for the sexually aggressive behavior against women that takes place on its platform.

Another scary aspect of digital dating is the growing amount of data that companies are collecting about your most personal interactions. According to a May article from Marie Claire, some apps may soon use that information to create your digital likeness in the form of online avatars that can respond for you. Not just respond, but field first dates.

Companies like Netflix and Foursquare have long cultivated personal data to feed their recommendation engines, and so it's only natural that dating apps would follow suit, slurping up consumer behavior to automate more components of their overall experiences. Consider Tinder's individual desirability rating. The company is attempting to quantify what makes a person attractive, most likely in pursuit of making better matches. But this system could eventually be tailored to an individual so that Tinder understands how you would quantify a person's attractiveness. Leaping ahead, with enough behavioral data, machine learning could mimic your personality and handle lightweight social interactions on your behalf.

Niche No More

Whatever lies ahead, one thing is pretty clear: A majority of people are now open to meeting other people online. According to a Pew Research survey from February, 59% of Americans say online dating is a good way to meet someone, up from 44% a decade ago. Among young adults, the use of dating websites or mobile apps has tripled since 2013.

As people increasingly seek out online forms of dating, the options for finding love and lust are getting more diverse. This growth has allowed niche dating apps like Wing Ma'm or Her to attract larger followings. And though it's far from a blossoming field, meet-up apps catering to married or otherwise entwined couples are proving resilient, even in the face of big setbacks: Adultery website Ashley Madison is down but not out after being slapped with a $1.65 million fine for failing to provide full account deletion services after customers paid for it. The company's website still appears to be attracting traffic even after a massive hack sidelined the business, according to Alexa. Alternatively, the recently renamed Feeld helps triangulate threesomes for couples who are monogamish. There will no doubt be more of these kinds of communities to come.

To some, the proliferation of dating tech has heralded a kind of "dating apocalypse," as Vanity Fair's Nancy Jo Sales coined it in 2015. But I'd offer a different perspective. Rather than obliterating the dating scene as we know it, tech has opened up a bevy of new options to sate our various tastes. Dating is no longer a one-size-fits-all game. And while hookup culture may seem like an exhausting, unwanted guest who forever overextends his welcome, let's remember we invited him over in the first place.

[Photo: courtesy of Pixabay]

Involuntary Polyamory

The movement toward normalizing casual sex has been inching forward over the last 60 years, according to a 2012 study. It's not so much that sex has become more of a priority than dating or love, it's that the separation of sex and love is becoming more and more acceptable in popular culture.

Shifting attitudes around sex, dating, and marriage have paved the way for a sort of involuntary polyamory. In her recently published book Future Sex, author Emily Witt explores this concept through the eyes of a character named Elizabeth, who juggles multiple paramours. Elizabeth doesn't subscribe to the ideology of polyamory, but she nevertheless finds herself in a sort of polyamorish circumstance—one that is common to lots of millennials in 2016.

What this all means is that there's a bubbling array of ways to indulge your curiosities now and going forward, and the internet and social platforms play an integral role in surfacing the kind of content we're most interested in. As Witt explores these endless possibilities, she eventually digs into orgasmic meditation—an intimate yet desexualized interaction wherein a latex-gloved person strokes a woman's genitals for 15 minutes. As a resident of San Francisco, Witt is probably as just as likely to have come to this practice by way of a sandwich board as a Reddit thread, but for those not in proximity to such a facility, there's easily accessible information spread all over the web.

In all these endeavors—whether it's Reddit sex threads, VR role-playing games, teledildonics, or Tinder—what we seem to be striving for is real-life intimacy, or at least the closest simulation we can possibly get. That doesn't mean people don't still want love. As Tinder founder Sean Rad said at the New Yorker Festival in October, "If you ask our users, over 80% say they want a long-term relationship."

So dating tech isn't necessarily the enemy. Rather, it's a means to help us figure out what we want and provide us the paths to get it, for better or worse. Tech never happens in a vacuum, after all. And while it shapes the world we live in and the way we behave, innovation tends to facilitate our aspirations—the way we want things to be. When entrepreneur Cindy Gallop was unable to find porn she felt was relevant to her, she made Make Love Not Porn, a platform, and filled it with homemade sex tapes to help teach people what real sex looks like.

There's always opportunity for good with tech. In 2017, we'll still be grappling around in the dark and under sheets, looking for answers that are rarely in the place we think they should be. But maybe, little by little, tech will help shed a smartphone's worth of light on what future dating should look like.

Will Consumers Change Their Minds About Wearables In 2017?

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This year was a lackluster one for smartwatches and fitness trackers. A lot has to change for 2017 to mark a significant improvement.

It wasn't so long ago that we were all excited about the next great computing platform: wearable devices and (especially) smartwatches.

Many people thought that by 2017 we'd be fairly dependent on our smartwatches and that many of the tasks we normally do on our smartphones would be transferred to the little computers on our wrists.

That wasn't to be. Wearables, by and large, are being used for health and fitness tracking, which we can expect to remain true throughout 2017.

The great test of mobile devices is how likely we are to leave home without them. Our smartphones? Never. Our smartwatches? Well, let's just say that if you're already pulling out of the driveway and look down and see a bare wrist, chances are you won't go back inside to get it.

Three years ago, Motorola, Samsung, and LG were making smartwatches that ran the Android Wear operating system. Google announced the second major version of the OS last May, and we were expecting a new wave of Android Wear-powered smartwatches to show up in Q1 2017, marking the debut of Android Wear 2.0.

That wasn't to be either.

Samsung has said it will build all future smartwatches on its own Tizen platform. Just a few weeks ago, Motorola (Lenovo), said it would not be releasing a new smartwatch in 2017 at all. LG was the first to make an Android Wear smartwatch back in 2014, but the company released no new smartwatches in 2016, and its plans for 2017 remain unclear.

Sales of smartwatches, tablets, and smartphones in 2016.

The smartwatch category as a whole has failed to connect with the general public. Since the start of 2015, approximately 35 million smartwatches have shipped, compared to 385 million tablets and 2.9 billion smartphones. "In 2016 . . . for every smartwatch shipped, 10 tablets and 78 smartphones will have been sold," Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart wrote in a recent research report.

The only smartwatch that looks like it has much of a future right now is the Apple Watch.

The Apple Watch, analysts believe, had a decent first year after its launch in April 2015. Apple doesn't report the numbers, but the industry estimates the device sold between 10 million and 15 million units.

Tim Cook said the Watch saw its highest demand ever over this holiday season, prompting some analysts to speculate that 4 million to 5 million Apple Watches will sell during the fourth calendar quarter of 2016.

If those numbers are correct, and if they continue into 2017, the Watch may start to make an upward sales arc toward the mass-market acceptance enjoyed by other Apple products.

Smartwatch sales from 2015 to 2016.

Cybart says Apple Watch will dominate the smartwatch category in 2017 and it will start to influence the rest of the wearables space more directly. "The sales gap between smartwatches and fitness & health trackers will shrink, and competition begins to emulate Apple Watch much more closely," he explained via email. This could mean that wearables makers will try to imitate the design of the Apple Watch. It could also mean that fitness tracker makers like FitBit will accelerate the process of putting smartwatch-like features (including notifications and mapping) into their products.

But it's also true that many, many people still don't see a good reason to purchase a smartwatch, from Apple or anyone else. The public understands the benefits of tracking steps, exercise, and sleep, but all you need for that is a FitBit, which, it just so happens, has consistently sold millions more than the Apple Watch every quarter.

But even fitness trackers like FitBit hit a wall in 2016, with the market plateauing. FitBit suffered a disappointing third quarter this year, and the company has been extremely cautious about holiday quarter sales.

So for 2017 to be a healthy year for wearables, the companies making them will have to change the minds of lots of people about why they need a fitness tracker or a smartwatch in their lives. And marketing messages might not be enough. The device makers will have to create products that, packed with indispensable new features and functions, make the point themselves.

What Six Leaders Learned From Their Biggest Mistakes Of 2016

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These leaders learned how culture solves problems, why not every change is an innovation, and that poaching talent doesn't always pay.

From Volkswagen's ongoing recovery from its emissions scandal to revelations about Wells Fargo's fraudulent consumer accounts, 2016 hasn't been short on corporate mistakes and misbehavior. Some slipups were more manageable and than others, and in certain cases leaders immediately admitted fault and changed course. Others denied, deflected, and delayed.

It's always been important for business leaders to openly admit their misjudgments to their teams and stakeholders—that's the only way to avoid similar pratfalls in the future. By fits and starts, the business world is coming around to embracing vulnerability, empathy, and transparency, even if we still have a way to go.

As we turn the corner on 2017, here's what six leaders said led to their biggest miscalculations of the past year, and how those experiences helped them each reset their game plans for the next 12 months.

Know Your Values Before You Hire

Last year, Jeff Perkins's company hired two people away from a competitor. "At the time, we thought this was a huge win," he says. "They clearly understood our business and could hit the ground running. We would benefit from their deep knowledge of our competitor—or so we thought."

As it turns out, says Perkins, CMO of the software testing firm QASymphony (which, in full disclosure, is a client of mine), "they ended up not being a good cultural fit. One of these hires was in a critical international sales role, and they slowed our growth in some of our key emerging markets."

But the error has been instructive. "In 2017, we will be much more rigorous about hiring people who align with our company's core values," says Perkins. Having a competitive hiring strategy counts for something, but it isn't everything—and probably shouldn't drive hiring decisions all the time.

Dhruv Saxena, cofounder and CEO of the shipping company ShipBob also discovered the decision-making value of, well, values. But for ShipBob, that lesson came through transitioning from startup to grownup. "In the early days, when everyone is in the same room, it is easy to communicate" he says.

But as the business grew, hiring choices didn't always keep up, and Saxena is now working to retie them more closely to the company's mission. "Building an effective team that represents our culture, values, and mission is a key focus for 2017."

Waiting To Fire Can Cost You

Delayed firings can be as costly as a poorly defined hiring process. Debra Cleaver, CEO and founder of the voter information platform Vote.org, shared that "in 2016, we waited too long to fire one particular manager. He was creating a toxic environment for everyone on his team, and we spent too much time and effort trying to coach him."

Since then, she says the organization has taken much the same approach as QASymphony and ShipBob and documented its values. This way, says Cleaver, her team can not only "more easily determine if someone is a good fit for our company," but also "point to specifics if we need to let someone go." Better defined values creates a two-way street, she believes, paving the way to better staffing choices—from hiring through termination.

Your Partners May Have Other Ideas Than You Do

"I grew up on a farm in West Texas and was raised on the wisdom that 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,'" says Curtis Eggemeyer, CEO of Lemi Shine, which sells nontoxic household cleaners. The company rolled out new product packaging this year that, as it later turned out, wasn't necessarily fixing something broken.

"The packaging tested great with our target consumers. We were so confident in our work that we couldn't wait to unveil it to our retail partners," Eggemeyer recalls. "We were surprised when, instead of being thrilled, they were concerned about generating any sales from a product that looked new."

Lemi Shine had assumed retailers would simply grandfather in its new look. "We were wrong," says Eggemeyer. The company is heading into 2017 focused on looping in its retail partners earlier on and more regularly.

Butcherbox was also surprised this year to find how ideas can either fly or fall once they're rolled out. Mike Salguero, founder CEO of the subscription beef delivery startup, says it tried partnering with major promoters to "share the health and ethical benefits of humanely raised, grass-fed beef," only to find "our message was being reduced to 'meat in a box.'"

"We realized that we needed to reach a smaller, specific audience," says Salguero, plus a more targeted way to reach it. The new marketing approach is already paying off, he says, and Butcherbox is doubling down on it in 2017.

Your Culture Can Solve Unexpected Headaches

Marcia Deutsch is CEO of Medical Electronic Systems, which makes YO Sperm Test, a smartphone-based fertility test for men. The company operates in Israel, where a regulation this year required workers to begin logging hours. "We have always based our culture on trusting one another to get the job done," says Deutsch, and asking her teams to clock in and clock out all the time had a demoralizing effect.

There's a reason why "just punching the clock" is another way of describing disengagement, they found. So the company turned to its culture of trust in order to find a new way to comply with the law. "In 2017, we will only require a morning sign-in sheet and will allow teams to work from home. This compromise meets the legal requirement," says Deutsch, while expanding "flexibility for our staff."

It's On! 2017 Is The Year The Virtual Assistant Wars Get Real

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Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant, and Microsoft's Cortana look to hardware partnerships and development deals to take on Apple's Siri.

The tech industry's titans have been preparing for an all-out virtual assistant war in 2017—and it'll be fought by Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant and maybe even Microsoft's Cortana.

Their AI helpers are getting better at talking to other apps and services, and they're starting to pop up on other companies' hardware, so you'll no longer need an iPhone, WIndows PC, Amazon Echo, or Google Home speaker to interact with them.

The goal is not just to win consumer market share—that'll come later—but to establish AI ecosystems with widespread device and developer support. Just like the mobile platform wars that saw iOS and Android triumph over BlackBerry and Windows Phone, tech companies have kicked off a land grab to ensure their virtual assistants stay relevant.

Here's a look at where things stand:

Branching Out

Virtual assistants used to live inside their own bubbles. Google could deliver search results from the open web, but couldn't interact directly with third-party apps and services. Siri could gather information from a handful of external services such as Yelp or Rotten Tomatoes, but was mostly cut off from other apps.

Over the last year or so, virtual assistants have gotten better at connecting. Amazon launched a "Skills Kit" for Alexa in mid-2015, letting developers create their own voice commands, and some Windows apps started to support Cortana voice commands. Siri begin to work with a range of third-party apps in iOS 10, and Google opened its Assistant to developers earlier this month.

That's not to say they all work the same way.

Siri, for instance, only supports a handful of uses, including audio or video calling, messaging, payments, photo search, workouts, and ride booking. (Smart home controls are supported as well, but only for devices in the HomeKit ecosystem.)

Apple also controls the flow of conversation, with apps providing just the data and some visuals. While Apple's strict control limits what users can do with Siri, it also reduces the odds of an interaction gone awry.

Amazon is building a similar system for certain uses, including smart home controls and to-do lists, but in the meantime it's also letting developers build pretty much whatever they want. As such, Amazon now boasts around 5,000 third-party Alexa skills, but there's a downside: Most of them require highly specific syntax to activate. (One example: Users must say "Alexa, ask Domino's to track my order" instead of "Alexa, where's my pizza?")

Google, meanwhile, is trying to split the difference between these approaches. Like Apple, Google will play a gatekeeper role, deciding which keywords can activate a specific third-party service. But once the user speaks an approved keyword, the developer takes over the interaction, using AI tools such as API.ai to carry out a conversation.

As for Microsoft, its plans are a bit hazier. Although Cortana already works with third-party apps in Windows 10, a new system for non-Windows devices (such as Cortana-enabled speaker systems) won't launch until February. And while Microsoft says developers will be able to "repurpose code from their existing Alexa skills to create Cortana skills," the company also mentions being able to "proactively present skills to users in the appropriate context." Perhaps Cortana will offer additional information or services in the middle of a conversation, which is something other assistants aren't doing yet.

Hardware Everywhere

Virtual assistants aren't just competing for developers' attention. Tech companies are also trying to woo third-party hardware makers as their AI expands beyond phones, computers, and connected speakers. The hope is that their assistants will always be within earshot, even when a smartphone isn't handy.

The challenges here are twofold: Hardware makers need a simple path to creating voice-controlled products, and they need software support for the specific types of products they're creating.

To help launch new hardware, Amazon and chip maker Conexant recently started to offer hardware developer kits that allow companies to quickly start prototyping new products with hands-free voice controls. A process for commercializing those prototypes is also in the works.

Google is going a step further with Android Things, a new initiative that's part software tools and part ready-made development hardware with all the basic components and FCC certifications. Android Things devices can then tie into Google's Weave communications platform, which includes Google Assistant capabilities. Chip maker NXP, for instance, is one of the companies offering development boards, and plans to have a module with voice support that hardware makers can easily build into their products.

Microsoft also wants to encourage third-party Cortana devices and has announced speaker maker Harmon Kardon as an early partner. Details are a bit hazy, but a "Cortana Devices SDK" is on the way, and it'll support devices running Android, Linux, and Windows 10 IoT.

Once the hardware tools are in place, we'll start to see more specialized software. You can imagine, for instance, Alexa offering new categories of voice commands for alarm clocks, cars, and intercoms, and assistants that know how to pass a conversation between devices as you move through the house.

Where does Apple fit into all of this? So far, the company hasn't announced any plans to put Siri in third-party hardware (unless you count automobiles that support CarPlay), but Apple may not feel like it has to. It already makes the most popular smartphone, and the Apple Watch is the only voice-controlled smartwatch to have achieved any sort of mass market success. Apple may think it can achieve virtual assistant ubiquity without any outside help, especially if it releases a proper Amazon Echo competitor as rumored.

It's hard to say how quickly third-party developers and device makers will adopt these virtual assistants, but the stage is now set for a major push in 2017. Once you see tech executives start bragging about the size of their AI ecosystems, you'll know the war is in full swing.


The 10 Best And Worst Moments In Leadership 2016

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A look back at some of the best and worst leadership moves this year.

This has been anything but a normal year. One of the strangest U.S. elections in history has finally ended, and businesses have come and gone. Throughout the year, a few people and organizations have stood out as leadership beacons, showing the world the best way to accomplish things. Conversely, others have shown themselves to be less-than-stellar leaders and role models.

We've looked back at the last year and all the crazy events that have happened. With that, here's our rundown of the best and worst moments in leadership.

The Best Leadership Moments of 2016

There were undoubtedly some great leaders this year. Numerous people spent 2016 trying to make a difference and show others the good that can be done. While there are hundreds of people who fit the bill as good and thoughtful leaders, here's our top five list.

Hamdi Ulukaya, CEO, Chobani
The smartest leaders are the ones who look out for their employees. Chobani's Hamdi Ulukaya fits into that category, thanks to his recent plan to give employees shares in the company. Of course, offering stock programs for employees isn't unheard of, but Chobani is a somewhat new and very successful company (it's currently making $1 billion in revenue). Employees can transfer these shares into stock or cash in the event of a sale or IPO, which is something most workers aren't able to do. According to Ulukaya, he wants those at Chobani to be truly invested in the company's growth.

However altruistic this move may seem, it's also a smart business tactic for retaining talent and maintaining internal satisfaction. All the same, you'd be hard pressed to find other companies at Chobani's scale that have offered similar programs.

Ulukaya, however, doesn't stop at just stock options. He's also committed to giving all kinds of workers an option for employment. He's committed to offering refugees a place to work. This has caused some to call for a full-on Chobani boycott. Ulukaya didn't back down, and days after the boycott was announced, he told Fast Company at our annual Innovation Festival that he plans to continue helping out those in need.

Barack and Michelle Obama
This has been the Obama's final year in the White House, and no matter which end of the political spectrum you're on, it's undeniable that they got a lot done. What's more important for this list: They've shown the world how to be a calm, cool, and respected leaders. In the latest Gallup approval ratings, President Obama had more than half of the country signing off on what he did. And the first lady has continually made headlines with her thoughtful, composed speeches that connect with American women.

In October, Michelle Obama gave a speech in New Hampshire that was considered one of the best and most powerful presentations given this election season. "It was for the absolute master class she offered in that elusive quality of leadership: 'authenticity,'" wrote the Washington Post. Throughout the year, she was the go-to woman for words that both galvanized audiences and made everyone feel included.

Meanwhile, President Obama has led the country—dramatically reducing unemployment, building a national health care system, and working toward an international climate change agreement. While some may disagree with the policies, Obama's leadership style was never confrontational, always presidential. The president and the first lady were a leadership dream team, trying to make change in the world and compel fellow Americans to act.

Muriel Bowser
The mayor of Washington, D.C., may not appear to be an obvious choice at first glance, but she had a major moment this month. Bowser, who campaigned on a platform to foster a culture of inclusion, transparency, and action, was sworn in on January 2015. Since then, she's earned solid support for improving public schools and reducing corruption.

This year, Bowser led a charge to make Washington, D.C., a capital of tech industry to rival hubs such as New York City, Boulder, Austin, and others. With a population dominated by black and Latino residents, this goal also paves the way for more inclusion in a very homogenous industry. The city's Innovation & Technology Inclusion Council just released its first "Pathways to Inclusion Report," that details both strengths and weaknesses. Most notably, the lack of computer and broadband access in black homes is contributing to the lack of representation in D.C.'s 30,000 tech jobs. This level of transparency stands in contrast to companies in the tech sector that have delayed publishing their diversity numbers, potentially setting the industry's efforts back even further.

Melinda Gates
This year, Bill and Melinda Gates received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In his note describing why they received the honor, President Obama explained that the foundation donated millions of dollars to help "all people lead healthy, productive lives." The foundation has done work in the U.S. and developing countries.

Melinda Gates has been at the helm of that Foundation, but that's not the only thing she's been doing. In September she announced her own initiative to provide resources to get more women in tech, a problem she sees as fundamental. Gates uses her enormous wealth to create platforms for good, and this latest initiative may spotlight the issue of gender parity in tech.

Read More:Melinda Gates And Regina Dugan On How To Get More Women Into Tech (And Keep Them)

Google Leadership
How a company visualizes both its and the world's future shows a lot about what it values. For Google, renewable energy has been a quiet pillar.

Over the last few years, the company has been inking deals with various renewable energy companies in the hopes that it would be able to lower its carbon footprint. This December, the company announced something big: The tech giant will run entirely on renewable energy in 2017, including its data centers.

Of course, it's a little more complicated than that. While Google computers and offices are run via local energy companies that are powered by a number of nonrenewable sources, the company has spent years investing in renewable energy—including wind, solar, etc.—that are then plugged back into the grid to offset what the company has been consuming, reports the New York Times. These investments, beyond just making the company carbon neutral, also give vital capital to renewable energy sources so that they can scale and become more mainstream. Thanks to the incremental deals Google has been forging with these companies for nearly a decade, the company has been able to make environmentally friendly energy more readily available.

Other companies have made similar gains—Microsoft notably considers itself carbon neutral, although a great deal of that is due to work it's done with renewable projects like tree planting. Google's attempt to allow for new, sustainable businesses to grow help make it possible for new forms of energy to become a part of the world's energy consumption. The company says that it's going to continue investing and seeking out better energy avenues.

Honorable Mentions
Tim Cook
The Apple CEO went to bat with the FBI when the department asked that the company make a backdoor in its software so the government could more easily access user data. He posted an open letter, describing the demands as "chilling," as a way to signal that Apple would protects its users' privacy.

DeRay Mckesson
The Black Lives Matter activist has been speaking out, going to protests, and trying to get people politically involved for quite a while now. Mckesson has been working both on the streets and digitally to highlight the Black Lives Matter movement. And 2017 likely won't slow him down.

The Worst Leadership Moments of 2016

Much like last year, it wasn't difficult to point to examples of bad behavior on both the individual and corporate level. Here is a short, and by no means comprehensive list of ethics breached, responsibilities shirked, narcissism flagrantly displayed, and other scorched earth behavior.

Wells Fargo
In addition to an operating ploy that led Wells Fargo employees to open up millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts to meet cross-selling targets, the bank took advantage of a tax law loophole to give a "bonus" of over $100 million to Carrie Tolstedt, an executive who oversaw Wells Fargo's Community Banking group where much of the fraud happened. The company then deducted $78 million of that from its taxes, "effectively giving itself a $27 million tax boost." Shortly after the news broke, Tolstedt left the company without severance or $19 million in unvested equity awards.

Further investigations revealed that the largest bank in the U.S. (by market value) allegedly fired staff who blew the whistle on this unethical practice.

Wells Fargo maintained that those 5,300 employees who opened up 1.5 million false bank accounts and 565,000 fraudulent credit cards on behalf of its customers acted alone. A spokesperson for the bank also told Fast Company that Wells Fargo has a non-retaliation policy for reporting on its EthicsLine, suggesting that the firings weren't related to people calling to complain about the breach.

Peter Thiel
This year Gawker Media filed for bankruptcy. And this was all because billionaire Peter Thiel had an axe to grind with the news organization. For years he harbored ill will because of critical articles the site published—bullying, as he described it—and secretly funded a slew of lawsuits aimed at undercutting the company's financials. The most high-profile lawsuit, a $100 million case with wrestler Hulk Hogan, hamstrung Gawker and ultimately forced it to become cashless.

Thiel didn't just go after the company itself, but its editors and writers, too. In most cases journalists are protected by media organizations that give them the freedom to punch up to richer entities without fearing the wrath of a deep-pocketed foe. Thiel's secret legal team used a series of legal maneuverings to try and make the writers themselves liable, which forced the assets of one former Gawker editor, A.J. Daulerio, to be frozen. Daulerio is still in legal limbo. Meanwhile, Thiel has continued to double down publicly on his disdain for the now-dead website.

Thiel, a Facebook board member, was outspoken in his support for Donald Trump, and donated $1.25 million to his campaign just before the election.

Roger Ailes
Back in June, Ailes, the chairman and megaforce behind Fox News, was sued for sexual harassment by Fox and Friends host Gretchen Carlson who had been fired after 11 years at the network. She said she was let go because she wouldn't have sex with Ailes and complained about it. More reports surfaced after Carlson came forward. The Washington Post reported that 25 women spoke out with claims dating back to the 1960s. "Interviews with four of those women portray the 76-year-old television powerhouse as a man who could be routinely crude and inappropriate, ogling young women, commenting about their breasts and legs, and fostering a macho, insensitive culture," according to the Post.

Ailes resigned a month later, but the stories keep coming. Although she was reportedly pressured to put out a positive statement in light of the events, Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly devoted a whole chapter of her memoir to Ailes's harassment. According to the New York Times, Lidia Curanaj, a reporter for Fox 5 in New York, filed a 28-page discrimination and hostile work environment suit against the network's parent company, 21st Century Fox, saying that Ailes harassed her. Ailes continues to deny the allegations.

Yahoo Leadership
It's been a rough year for Yahoo. The company has been trying to figure out a path forward, and things with Marissa Mayer at the helm haven't been going as well as planned.

The company has been hacked multiple times and has been reticent to own up to the magnitude of the attacks. In September, Yahoo admitted that nearly 500 million accounts had been hacked by a "state-sponsored actor" back in 2014. It's unclear when Yahoo became aware of the attack.

But that's nothing compared to the most recent blunder: Now Yahoo has admitted that in 2013, hackers were able to obtain the records of over 1 billion users. This makes it one of the biggest attacks in history. While cyberattacks of these kind are becoming more commonplace, the magnitude of Yahoo's security missteps are more glaring than nearly any company in history. Now, as Yahoo's sale to Verizon may be in limbo, it becomes clear that the ailing company needs to figure out a strong path forward through stronger leadership.

President-Elect Donald Trump
Last year, the billionaire businessman and reality-TV host was on the presidential campaign trail, leaving scorched earth in his wake. This year, he continued a campaign that centered around insults and vulgarity, racism, sexism, and xenophobia, and was voted in to become the 45th president of the United States.

Emboldened by his newly won power, the PEOTUS has continued his attacks on critics, the media, the current administration, members of his own party, women who have claimed he sexually abused them, small business owners who were bankrupted when he failed to make good on payment of services rendered, and more.

But beyond his Twitter tantrums and controversial political moves, Trump's transition and ongoing cabinet appointments point to many conflicts of interest as his businesses and family members remain tangled in his governing choices.

Not a week after his election, he'd surrounded himself with the same class of special interests and corporate leadership that he'd decried on the campaign trail. Fast Company is keeping a running list of the lobbyists that continue to be appointed to the transition team.

Dishonorable Mentions
Mylan
The company that makes EpiPens jacked up the price of the medical devices by over 500%. The company has since been fighting to defend its odious actions.

The State of Michigan
Whether the news headlines continue or not, the Flint water crisis persists. The city has been drinking contaminated water for years because of a decision to reroute the water source. Now the city remains in peril because of the government's inaction and inability to fix the crisis.

Lessons From Silicon Valley's Biggest Mistakes Of 2016

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Before 2017 starts, let's look back at what we can learn from this year's missteps.

Sometimes it's good to take stock, not only of your own errors, but also those of your peers. This year Silicon Valley startups, unicorns, and public companies made blunders they'd probably like to forget about. But in the spirit of self-education, we're highlighting three such miscalculations so you don't fall into the cavernous missteps of giants.

If You're Going To Be Transparent, Don't Double Back

Two years ago, major companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and others started to release diversity reports as a way to highlight their intention to change homogeneity within their ranks. But the road to an inclusive company has been a slow slog for just about all the companies that have attempted to make diversity a priority. The percentage of black employees at most of these companies stays woefully below 5%, and women represent less than one-third of staffs. Far more dismal are their percentages among management and technical positions. Given the lack of momentum, several companies, including Twitter, Pinterest, eBay, and Salesforce, have delayed the release of their latest diversity reports.

While it may be painful to show that they have made little or no progress, retreating is a bad idea after the companies decided to be open about their demographics. For one, it looks weak. But it can also be detrimental. In the case of diversity reports, the whole point (as my colleague Rich Bellis points out) is to keep the issue top of mind; to remember that it is and should remain a priority. Because reports continue to indicate that employees at top tech companies are disappointingly uniform. In order to support ethnic, racial, and gender diversity, we need to keep talking about how inclusive we are or aren't.

Algorithms Are Limited

This year, we learned the limitations of algorithms through Facebook's multiple attempts to replace human judgment with tech. In late 2015, Facebook was criticized for the way it deployed its safety check-in product, for instance turning it on for Paris when it was under terrorist attack, but not for Beirut after dual suicide bombings killed more than 40 people. At the time, Facebook said that Paris represented the first time it had turned on the feature during a terrorist attack (it was primarily being used for natural disasters). In 2016, Facebook created a way to trigger the function in a region where a large number of people were discussing a local catastrophe. Emergency response organizations were concerned about the launch of this feature, because it has the power to let misinformation dictate when a situation is deemed a crisis.

"The biggest thing we always say in emergency response is, bad information is worse than no information," Rebecca Gustafson told Fast Company's Steven Melendez earlier this year. "People can criticize emergency responders for taking too long, but the tech community moves at warp speed, and I think being able to take this extra beat to say, is this, is this not, is worth it to verify."

This worry is echoed in critiques of Facebook's fake news problem that came up increasingly over the course of the 2016 election cycle. When confronted about its role in spreading misinformation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed to community flagging as a way to stifle false content and added that the company wasn't really interested in being an arbiter of truth. Either way, both the safety check-in and the flow of fake news demonstrated that algorithms are not equipped to differentiate between factual information and exaggeration or remodeled reality. After public pressure, Facebook announced an effort to flag fake news through a partnership with Poynter International Fact Checking Network. Posts of questionable authority will soon be marked as such and occupy lower relevance in newsfeeds. But 2016 serves as a lesson to companies that think they can solve inefficiencies entirely through machines, and that some services require a human touch.

The Customer Is Always Right

This hackneyed phrase may seem quaint, but it's true nonetheless. We learned in 2016 that with enough haranguing, a company will cave to customer demands. Facebook, mentioned above, serves as one example. Another is Evernote. Just recently, the company released a new privacy policy wherein customer's notes would be periodically reviewed by employees supervising the company's machine learning technology. Evernote's CEO explained that any notes shared with employees would be stripped of identifying information, but users remained concerned. After much backlash, the company has made participation in this program voluntary. Only users who have signed off on having their notes occasionally viewed by employees will have to abide by the new policy.

And Jessica Alba's Honest Company is allegedly altering the formula of its laundry detergent after a report from the Wall Street Journal called the natural products company out for its use of sodium coco sulfate. This year, the Honest Company suffered several customer complaints about whether or not its products were truly natural or organic. The Honest Company told the Journal it was changing the formula to "improve the efficacy of our products."

How will these lessons apply in 2017? As companies dive deeper into machine learning, self-driving cars, and other forms of automation, it would be wise to bear in mind the limitations of technology as we forge ahead and remember where humans excel. And as we think about transparency in our companies and professional relationships, it's important to remember that transparency, while a great tactic for developing trust between companies and consumers and managers and employees, is not a panacea—it's a tool. Retracting or withholding information you once gave willingly can damage trust in any relationship. Finally, as you're building new products or perhaps thinking about the positive ways your business can create change in the world, listen to your customers. They may have more answers than you think.

Related Video: Are Tech Companies Hobbling The Success Of VR With Their Money?

Four Steps To Take Right Now To Make Your First Day Back From The Holidays Suck Less

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It only takes a little time to set yourself up for a simple, stress-free return to work after New Year's Day.

With any luck, if you took some time off for the holidays, you were able to relax and unplug. But if you're among the 42% of people who feel obligated to check in on your work while away, congratulations—you may have an easier time getting back into the saddle. Even a brief check-in can ensure that you feel less stressed when you get back to the office.

To further boost your powers of productivity and make returning after the holidays less painful, here's a roundup of the best tips we could find to help you hit the ground running on your first day back.

1. Delete With Abandon

According to recent research, the average worker sends and receives about 122 messages a day, which amounts to around 30 hours each week spent just on email. If you've got your autoresponder turned on while you're away, no doubt those missives are stacking up—and we know there's nothing more anxiety-inducing than watching the number of unread messages ratchet ever higher.

Experts suggest shaving down that mountain by deleting as much as possible without even reading. You can dispatch junk mail with abandon, but you can also rid yourself of lengthy threads you've been copied on, stuff that's not essential for you to tackle, and the like. Feeling a twinge of guilt before you press the trash icon? Ask yourself: What's the worst that could happen if you deleted that message? Maura Thomas, founder of the productivity website RegainYourTime.com, says if the answer is, "Not much," then out it goes.

Read More:Six Expert Tricks For Achieving Inbox Zero Every Day

2. Do A Digital Declutter

Digital pile-ups on your computer can cause as much stress as accumulations of useless stuff in your house. While lots of people go through their homes collecting unwanted items to donate before the end of the year, you can do the same with your virtual hoard by dedicating a few minutes a day. It won't have the same tax benefit, but nothing beats the feeling of starting fresh in a new year.

Start by scrapping duplicate documents or downloads and deleting files you no longer need. Then do a defriending detox on social media. By scouring Facebook, Twitter, and other social streams, you can whittle down your network of friends, fans, and followers to only the most essential. Mute the ones you feel too guilty to dismiss altogether so you don't waste precious productive time reading their updates.

Read More:Your Four-Step, Digital-Clutter Detox Plan

3. Write Your Day One To-Do List Right Now

We know that writing things down helps us remember them better simply because it forces our brains to process that information. Writing down your list of tasks can serve the same function, especially as you work to prioritize what to do first.

While you've still got some downtime, set out to write down the most important things you'll need to accomplish on your first day back. Here's the catch: Don't put down more than six things. By forcing yourself to narrow down the number of tasks, you'll give yourself a manageable list to tackle and remove the angst of staring at a monumental workload.

Read More:This 100-Year-Old To-Do List Hack Works Like A Charm

4. Give Your Calendar A Check

While you're in prioritization mode, give your calendar a gut check and make sure that any meetings you have scheduled for your first week back are absolutely necessary. If you're struggling to decide, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Will this meeting assist me in achieving my goals?
  • How does the purpose of the meeting align with my company's strategic priorities?
  • What contribution can I make in the meeting?
  • Will anyone even notice if I'm not present?
  • Will this meeting be energizing, or will it suck the life right out of me?
  • Will this meeting be a rehash of the last five meetings I attended?
  • Is attending this meeting the highest and best use of my time right now?

If the answers are no, take that right off your calendar.

Read More:Three Steps Toward More Efficient And Valuable Meetings

Coming back to work after the holidays can be a stressful, chaotic experience, but it doesn't have to be. A little light administrative work before your vacation is officially over can save you hours of time and a good deal of anguish once you're situated back at your desk.

Related Video: This CEO's Trick At Getting To Inbox Zero

The Secrets To Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

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Only 8% of people follow through on the goals they set in January. These tactics will put you in that winning camp.

If you're like the majority of Americans, you're probably thinking about making a New Year's resolution. From losing weight to getting organized, spending less/saving more, and enjoying life to the fullest (last year's top four resolutions), we often make grand plans every January.

Unfortunately, just 8% of us will be successful, according to Statistic Brain. But your odds don't have to be so disheartening. We've compiled the best advice that can put you in the 8% that make it happen. Good luck!

Phrase Your Resolution As If You've Already Achieved It

Instead of focusing on what you want, describe the action as complete, says May McCarthy, author of The Path to Wealth.

"Often you'll hear somebody say, 'I want to lose 10 pounds' or 'I want to be debt-free,'" she says. Instead, phrase your goal in a way that enables your subconscious and intuition to show up and help, says McCarthy. "Describe the goal as already completed and use gratitude," she says. "If you've already met your goal, you might say, 'I'm so grateful to be physically fit, in a trim, toned, healthy body.'

When you describe a goal with gratitude, you light up the front part of brain. Studies have shown that this part of the brain enhances focus and helps you notice more possibilities to succeed."

Set Small Goals Throughout The Year

New Year's resolutions are often big announcements—such as losing 50 pounds or "Konmari-ing" your house by January 15—and this stems from the desire to have a clean slate free from all of our vices and shortcomings, says Jonathan M. Jackson, director of the Center for Psychological Services and Practicum Training at the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies.

"It feels good simply to assert that you will do new things or do things differently," he says. "It's like the U.S. president's State of the Union address where he sets a worthy but impossibly ambitious agenda for the year ahead."

Instead of attempting sweeping reforms, you'll be more successful if you commit to modest, measurable improvements that might be achieved and maintained over time, says Jackson. Break big goals into smaller milestones, and consider setting goals throughout the year instead of grand gestures on January 1.

Use Repetition To Strengthen New Habits

Resolution makers often write down their goals and get excited about them for two weeks, says McCarthy. "Then the goal goes into a drawer and they go back to flowing through life, reacting to whatever happens to show up," she says.

Instead, successful people use the power of repetition to create new habits. "People struggle with goals because they don't understand how the brain works," says McCarthy. "You have old behaviors you've come to this stage in life with; they are deep-rooted neuropathways that can be very strong, like mind grooves. If your new goal is bigger or different than those you've made before, you have to create new beliefs and new neuropathways to get there."

Start out every morning reviewing your goal, reading it out loud with emotion, and anchoring it within you, McCarthy suggests. "When you go out and start your workday, your goals are at the forefront," she says. "You are essentially training your brain for success."

Find People Who Have Already Achieved Your Goal

You'll be more likely to attain your resolution goal if you connect with people who have already achieved it. Finding people, stories, and situations that are similar to the goals you want to achieve brings a sense of familiarity to the goal, and that can be essential to sticking with your resolution, says McCarthy.

"This helps you practice the technique, see what life can be like if you achieve it, and raise your mental equivalent," she says. "When you see people being successful at your goal, it helps you think, 'If they can do that, I can do that, too.'"

Familiarity can also come when you recycle a former resolution that you haven't been able to complete, adds Jackson. "We know that the more often someone attempts to change a habit, the more likely they are to succeed," he says. "The maxim, 'If at first you don't succeed . . . ' is apt with New Year's resolutions."

Remind Yourself Why You Want To Make The Change

Identify an important reason why you are resolving to change something in your life, suggests Tim Bono, assistant dean and lecturer on psychological and brain science at Washington University in St. Louis.

"For example, 'I'm doing it for my kids,' or 'This is to improve my overall health,'" he says. "Research shows that reminding yourself of that will keep you motivated."

Create A Plan For Dealing With Temptation And Setbacks

The reason most resolution makers don't stick with their goal is that they lack self-control. Before you set out after success, think about the potential barriers that might get in the way, says Bono. "You might get lazy, tired, forget, or lured away by another temptation," he says. "Then identify contingency plans for how you will respond in those moments."

If you do succumb to temptation, don't make the failure big, says Gretchen Rubin, author of Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits—to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life.

"I remind myself, 'A stumble may prevent a fall,'" she writes in her blog. "Because of the colorfully named 'what the hell' phenomenon, a minor stumble often becomes a major fall; once a good behavior is broken, we act as though it doesn't matter whether it's broken by a little or a lot . . . It's important to try to fail small, not big."

Send Written Progress Reports To A Friend

Having an accountability partner can increase your chance for sticking to your resolution, according to a study at the Dominican University of California. More than 70% of the participants who wrote down their goals and then sent weekly updates to a friend reported successful goal achievement. For participants who created a goal and kept it to themselves, just 35% were successful.

Gail Matthews, psychology professor and lead author of the study, explained: "[The results provide] empirical evidence for the effectiveness of three coaching tools: accountability, commitment, and writing down one's goals."

Where Will Trump Fall On The Encryption Debate? Tough Call

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Parsing the impulsive president-elect's stance on encryption is tricky. Here, a look at how the encryption issue could unfold in 2017.

Judging by Donald Trump's statements about Apple on the campaign trail, you'd think privacy advocates and tech company attorneys would be nervous about attacks on encryption in 2017. They probably are—and they should be. But what the president-elect actually thinks about the matter is a mystery. As we've seen during his transition process, what he said while campaigning may not fit into his plans for governing. So figuring out where he might land on the encryption debate takes a bit of guesswork.

First, let's recap. Apple became the poster child for strong encryption this year when the FBI publicly demanded the company hack into an iPhone to access evidence on the 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino. Apple held the line, explaining repeatedly that if it were to weaken the encryption on one phone, the encryption on all phones of that type would be weakened, too. Decrypting one iPhone would in effect create an opening through which some clever bad apple could wreak all kinds of chaos. The FBI eventually withdrew its request for a warrant to compel Apple to help.

While other presidential candidates were circumspect on the matter, Trump came down strongly on the side of law enforcement, stating that Apple should unlock the phone in question. "Who do they think they are!?" he said. Apple eventually won the PR war, successfully spreading the message that weakening encryption hurts everybody and works against both national security and law enforcement interests.

The Argument That Trump Will Uphold Strong Encryption

Despite his earlier comments, Trump may not buy the FBI's argument that tech companies build encryption "backdoors" into their products, either. Over the past several weeks, Trump has shown no compunction of reversing himself on his campaign promises. (He has softened his tone on immediately dismantling Obamacare, for instance.) He continues to appear impulsive and unpredictable, seemingly glomming onto the opinion of the last person he spoke to. Trump's handlers' advice for those of us trying to make sense of it all? "Take him seriously, not literally."

And there are more concrete indicators that Trump could become pro-encryption. Earlier this month, Tim Cook sat in a room with Trump and a bunch of other tech leaders to talk about how Silicon Valley and the government can work together. Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg was there. So was Peter Thiel, who we can officially call the Trump Whisperer.

Thiel isn't likely to advise Trump to take any action that might harm encryption. Thiel serves on the board at Facebook, and Facebook's business relies on strong encryption as much as Apple's does, if not more.

There's also a good chance that weak encryption's biggest proponent, FBI director James Comey, won't be leading the FBI for much longer, since Trump has criticized him in the past. When asked on 60 Minutes if he would keep Comey on as FBI director, the president-elect was offered an evasive, "I'm not sure." (Comey, of course, might have been the single most damaging factor in Hillary Clinton's surprise defeat on November 8.)

The Argument That Trump Will Weaken Encryption

On the other hand, Trump might decide that encryption backdoors are a good idea. If he does, he may go nuclear—that is, use executive orders—to make tech companies comply.

"It is entirely possible for the new administration to totally circumvent the traditional channels of statute in the agency regulation process by going the route of executive orders or presidential policy directives," tech attorney and encryption expert Peter Fu said in an email to Fast Company.

Fu says that despite outward appearances, Trump has a very deep data science bench working for him, and they may decide to put their expertise and influence behind law-enforcement goals. "I think this president, more than any other president since Nixon, will test the outer boundaries of executive action, particularly in the world of digital security." Trump might sign an executive order stating that tech companies must build encryption backdoors into their products (hardware or software), and shoulder the significant expense of doing so.

And if he's like Nixon, Trump might work behind the scenes to pressure tech companies into providing encryption backdoors, says Fu. Meetings with tech leaders would take place in secret and the public would never know.

Or Trump might connect the immigration issue with the encryption issue and insist that encryption backdoors are crucial for monitoring or investigating immigrants the government suspects have bad intentions.

At the moment, the encryption issue is on "simmer" in the capital, as one industry source said. No major encryption bills are circulating during Congress's holiday recess. But if, after Trump takes office on January 20, any of those scenarios come to pass, tech company lawyers and lobbyists can look forward to a busy 2017 as they fight against backdoors. Lobbying by large tech companies and their associations was already intense through much of 2016, and encryption is still at the top of tech companies' policy agendas for next year. With the trust of their customers at stake, Apple and Facebook would spare no expense in a battle that would be the biggest tech policy fight in years.

For its part, Apple hopes that encryption never comes to a boiling point like it did earlier this year. If it does, it might end up being the issue that defines Tim Cook's tenure as CEO.

10 Productivity Resolutions To Simplify Your Workday All Year Long

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Put your brain on autopilot, make lists at the end of the day, and other simple tips and tricks can help you have a more productive 2017.

Most New Year's resolutions don't survive long enough to see February. There are myriad reasons why our January 1 ambitions disappear, and many abandon ship as soon as they realize just how difficult the journey will be.

But having a more productive 2017 doesn't require any life-changing revelations or complete lifestyle overhauls. Minor changes to routines, small adjustments to working habits, and a little bit more focus on a few oft-ignored areas are not only simple ways to improve workplace performance in the coming year, but can also help build habits that are more likely to survive the entire year.

Here are 10 extremely simple hacks, tricks, and habit changes that will lead to a more productive 2017.

1. Listen To Music At Work

Though it can be a distraction from any highly engaging or difficult tasks, multiple studies have shown how listening to ambient, familiar music can make repetitive tasks easier, provide an escape from a noisy workplace, and improve focus. Other studies have found that 15 minutes of music at work can help increase creative problem-solving abilities and performance and improve your mood while you work.

2. Declutter Your Workspace, But Don't Leave It Empty

Albert Einstein is often quoted as saying, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" While a desk that makes things difficult to find can be a productivity killer, an empty desk can work against your motivation and creativity.

"Keeping too much other clutter around distracts me from getting things done," admits Michael Pryor, the CEO of Trello, a project management and collaboration software provider. Pryor instead recommends keeping no more than three items on your desk at a time, adding that his features only a photo of his family and his laptop.

Whatever permanent desk decorations you choose, however, the key is to ensure that all the other stuff that piles up is removed at the end of each workday. "When you start the workday with a clean desk, you have fewer distractions and you can focus on the work at hand," explains Janine Adams, a certified professional organizer and owner of Peace of Mind Organizing in St. Louis, Missouri.

[Photo: Eric Rothermel via Unsplash]

3. Schedule The Unschedulable

For those who are accustomed to having their day meticulously scheduled, it's important to carve out a portion of the day and dedicate it to the unschedulable, according to Pryor, who recommends leaving a 30-minute window open each day.

"I try not to overschedule myself," he says. "Sometimes the best moments of creativity happen while I'm passing by someone's office or having an informal, unplanned lunch."

4. Make End-Of-The-Day To-Do Lists

Bridging one day's productivity over to the next is often a challenge, which is why many spend the first part of their day figuring out where they left off the night before. You can save yourself a bit of time and early-morning mental capacity by instead making a short to-do list at the end of each day, says Adams.

"A really helpful part of your end-of-the-day routine can be to jot down the three or four most important tasks you need to get done tomorrow," she says. "If they're in your face when you get to work, you can hop right to them before competing priorities rear their heads."

In fact, the humble to-do list is Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani's favorite productivity hack. She tells Fast Company that those lists include "what I want to accomplish this week, when do I want to get it done, how do I want to get it done."

[Photo: Eder Pozo Pérez via Unsplash]

5. Maximize Your Most Productive Hour

Everyone has a time of day when they're most productive, and it doesn't necessarily fall between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Pryor defines it as the period when he's "getting through the most work without sticking to a strict schedule."

Whether you're a morning person, a night owl, or someone who's only fully awake after their first cup of coffee, it's important to find your optimal productivity time and make the most of it.

"For instance, if you get more done in the morning than the afternoon, try starting work earlier in the day on a busy day," says Adams. "That makes your morning longer, giving you more optimal work time."

6. Have A Low-Productivity To-Do List

We can't all be firing on all cylinders all the time, and when those sluggish moments inevitably arrive, it's good to be prepared with a to-do list packed with low mental-capacity activities.

"You can't be at 100% all of the time, so you want to have stuff that you can do when your brain is kind of fried but you still need to be working," says Lisa Zaslow, an organizational productivity expert and founder of Gotham Organizers. "That's the time to clear out your inbox, enter contacts into your database, or make follow-up calls."

[Photo: Mathew MacQuarrie via Unsplash]

7. Develop A Pregame Ritual

Many high-performing athletes are known for quirky pregame rituals and superstitions: Think Michael Phelp's preswim hoodie and headphones moments, Michael Jordan's lucky shorts, or Tiger Woods's red Nike shirt. Taking a moment to follow a routine before entering a high-pressure situation has been proven effective, and not just for professional athletes.

"It's about having a few simple steps that you can repeat consistently so that you know, 'Now I'm going into focus mode'," says Zaslow, explaining that these rituals can range from clearing off your desk to breaking out a lucky pen to striking a power pose. "Having these consistent steps can decrease anxiety and give you a sense of control in a situation where you might not have a ton of control, and studies show it actually does increase performance," she adds.

8. Put Your Brain On Autopilot As Often As Possible

Some of the world's most productive people, including Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barack Obama, were known for wearing the same outfit every single day, and for good reason.

"You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits," Obama once told Vanity Fair. "I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make."

Though it may sound boring, putting decisions like what to eat and what to wear on autopilot can help significantly improve productivity.

"Productivity is a function of your brain energy and the actual time you spend on stuff, and so often the mental space slows us down more than the actual work," says Zaslow. "Picking a couple of things, either in your personal or business life, where you basically just set 'em and forget 'em, saves a lot of time."

[Photo: JJ Thompson via Unsplash]

9. Aim For A B+

They say that perfect is the enemy of the good, and while we should all strive to do our best work, being a perfectionist can be very unproductive. Zaslow explains that some important projects may require the extra time and attention, but too often we fall into the trap of wasting significant time on minor details.

"Not for every single project, but if you're trying to find a perfect word in an email, nobody really cares," she says. Zaslow says she even employed this tactic when designing her company's website. "The goal that I set for myself was to be 80% happy with it, because I knew I would just never be 100% happy with it. If you're not wasting time on that last 20%, you can just end projects and move on to the next."

10. Link Your Productivity Hacks Together

Pursuing too many resolutions and productivity hacks may become counterproductive if simply tracking and following each becomes a task of its own. Instead, Adams suggests making a mental link between the habits that already exist and those you'd like to pursue in the New Year.

"If you want to start doing a daily to-do list, for example, and you're already checking email every day when you get to work, start making that to-do list right after you check email," she suggests. "You may have to establish some reminders at first, but once the two are linked in your mind, a beautiful routine is born."

Such routines, suggests Adams, will have a much better chance of surviving beyond the typical resolution expiry date.

The 10 Most Popular Leadership Stories Of 2016

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These are the leadership stories you read and shared the most this year.

2016 saw its fair share of changes in the world of leadership. A pretty eventful U.S. presidential election accompanied seismic occurrences, scandals, mishaps, and mistakes in the business world.

Fast Company covered the low points just as thoroughly as the sunnier moments in leadership over the course of 2016. And while readers followed those stories closely, they proved eager to read about more personal issues, too. In fact, the most popular stories of the year weren't primarily about the best-known leaders' wins and losses. They were about firsthand self-improvement methods, science-backed ways to sharpen one's own skills, habits, and decision making.

Most of us want our leaders to do better—to make smart, ethical, innovative choices that maximize everyone's success, not just their own. That's one reason why accountability and transparency matter. But it seems we want much the same for ourselves—to push ourselves to greater heights bit by bit, to learn from our setbacks, and to move forward more capably than before.

As we turn the corner on 2017, that's surely a good thing. Which stories helped you excel the most over the past year?

1. Your Brain Has A "Delete" Button—Here's How To Use It

You may already know about your brain's ability to generate new neural pathways. But that isn't all there is to it. In order to learn new things, your brain also needs make room for it—by eliminating information. This year, two brain scientists explained how "neural pruning" works and how to tap into it.

2. How I Became A Morning Person, Read More Books, And Learned A Language In A Year

Exist founder Belle Beth Cooper is "a big fan of working smarter, not harder," which led her to undertake a daunting yearlong experiment. Cooper spent five minutes every single day studying French, and committed to reading just one page of a book each night. Here's her recap of how it all went, and the strategy that made it possible.

3. Why Six Hours Of Sleep Is As Bad As None At All

Some sleep is better than none, right? Wrong, says science. In one recent study, participants who'd slept six hours performed at about the same cognitive level as those who hadn't slept at all.

4. 12 Habits Of The Most Productive People

Productivity starts in your head, at least according to one expert. "Once you've got the mind-set," author Paul Rulkens told Fast Company in March, "you will have the behaviors, and then it will turn into action." Here's Rulkens's breakdown of the dozen habits that high performers tend to share.

5. Why Millennial Women Are Burning Out

Millennial women are leaving their jobs at higher rates than millennial men. You might assume that's because of the pressures of motherhood, but the data says otherwise. This year, writer Kelly Clay compared millennial women's own accounts of their job departures with the latest research to suggest that that demographic faces a higher risk of burnout early in their careers.

6. You Should Plan On Switching Jobs Every Three Years For The Rest Of Your Life

According to entrepreneur and author Penelope Trunk, job hopping can actually be a strategic move over the long term: "If you don't change jobs every three years, you don't develop the skills of getting a job quickly, so then you don't have any career stability."

7. The Woman Who Created Netflix's Enviable Company Culture

Patty McCord was Netflix's chief talent officer when she put together a 124-slide deck that's been shared on Slideshare over 13 million times and been referred to as "the most important document ever to come out of the Valley" by Sheryl Sandberg. Earlier this year, we heard from McCord about the document's genesis, and the long shadow it's cast over Netflix's culture and beyond.

8. How To Be A Better Friend, Even When You're Busy

You don't need to be told that having friends is important for your health and well-being, even though there's now psychological evidence bearing that out. Researchers are also beginning to study why friendships are so hard to sustain over long periods of time, and what makes some of them work, especially among busy professionals. Here are a few practical tips to keep your best relationships going strong.

9. What Happened When I Moved My Company To A 5-Hour Workday

When this entrepreneur first started letting his employees leave by lunchtime, "I told my employees I wanted to give them two things. First, I simply wanted to give them their lives back . . . Second, I wanted to pay them better for the more focused effort that would take." Here's his firsthand account of how the experiment worked.

10. The First Four Things You Should Do Every Workday

You may be able to set the tone for your entire day in the first hour or so after pouring your coffee. This simple four-step routine can help you lay productive groundwork each morning.


Fast Company's 2016 Photo Year in Review: Part 1

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Our cadre of talented photographers helped bring our stories to life this year.

One of the best aspects of working at Fast Company is the care and consideration which goes into the art that accompanies our stories.

This year, photographer Peter Hapak helped us peek behind the curtain of Chelsea Handler's new show, ioulex brought our Q&A with designer Zac Posen to life, and Samantha Casolari brought the inspiration of Malala Yousafzai to our pages. Check out these portraits, and other beautiful images from 2016, in the slideshow above.

My Battle-Tested Secret To Handling Career Rejection

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You can still be committed to your work without being (too) attached to the outcomes.

No one likes rejection. As a career coach, I talk to people just about every day who are struggling with professional setbacks. Job opportunities fizzle out. Bosses shut down great ideas. Investors pass up promising startups.

I've personally experienced rejections myself. Reporters and editors turn down my pitches. Prospective clients say no to my services. Some of these disappointments are easily brushed off; others aren't. For every bit of positive traction I've gained, I can point to many more instances when my efforts were greeted with a negative response—or none at all.

Still, in spite of inevitable rejections along the way, my business is still thriving and expanding. And in fact, my I credit a lot of that to the way I've learned to manage the career rejections that I know will always come my way. Here's a look at my hard-won and deceptively simple strategy.

Staying Committed Without Getting Attached

There's a difference—a subtle one to be sure, but important all the same—between staying committed to your work and being overly attached to its outcomes. Many people consider commitment and attachment to be inextricably linked, but I've learned to see them as two distinct things.

Commitment means being dedicated to giving 100% all the time to my business. It's what helps me take the most productive actions possible to improve my chances of success. It fuels the types of continuous rituals my success depends on—creating another piece of content, investing in an important new project, or pursuing another lead that moves me one step closer toward reaching my goals.

On the other hand, attachment, as I've come to see it, is when all my energy is consumed with end results. It's easy, after all, to link your happiness to positive outcomes, and it makes sense why so many of us do—that sense of accomplishment is often a huge emotional (and material) payoff. But in my experience, it's often counterproductive to let my work satisfaction hinge on whether or not I land that prestigious speaking gig, get my podcast to go viral, or secure that big sponsor.

Being attached to outcomes like those means granting them a disproportionate impact on my emotions—and even my self-regard as a professional. When things go my way, the impact on my perceived self-worth and confidence can skyrocket, but when thigns don't, it can feel devastating.

What Bad Outcomes Can't Teach You

That's why I've tried to distance myself from outcomes and focus instead on the process of reaching them. This may sound simple, but it's much easier said than done, and it certainly comes with at least one drawback: It means I don't experience those incredible highs when things work out, but it also means I don't feel the debilitating lows when they don't.

That may sound like I'm just repressing my natural human emotions, but for me it's the downward plummets, rather than the low-points themselves, that I find most exhausting. There are three key beliefs I've come to embrace that help me avoid dwelling on rejection.

First, I remind myself that fixating on the experience of rejection gets in the way when it's time to pursue my next opportunity. It's simply an unhelpful mind-set. Learning from failure is one thing, but stewing in it is another. What's more, prospective clients or business partners can sniff out when I'm feeling down, and that doesn't exactly instill them with confidence about working with me.

Second, I try to remember that it detracts from my productivity by trickling into the rest of my work, distracting me from the very projects I need to focus on in order to bounce back.

And the third belief I try to keep in mind is that dwelling on rejection creates a disconnect between my behaviors and my work. As a career consultant, part of my job is helping my clients stay motivated, positive, and forward-looking. If I don't share those attitudes myself, I can't do my best work for them.

Process Over Outcomes

Instead of fixating on the outcome of a failed effort, I try to focus on the process involved. It's what you learn along the way that counts the most when it comes to doing better next time.

That's why it's important to avoid staying down for too long. Opportunities have a way of fizzling out, and the more of them that do, the more you learn over time that sulking is okay—just as long as you sulk quickly. Reflect on what you could've done differently, think critically about why it didn't work out, maybe give it another shot (or two), then drop it. Fast. There's a limit to how much failure can actually teach you, and sometimes the longer you stew on it the less you learn.

Next, I try to create another unit of progress right after a major setback. When people don't respond to my outreach, for instance, I still maintain a steady cadence of work—no matter whether I'm feeling motivated or completely demotivated. I dig deep and produce one more podcast episode, write one more article, or pitch myself one more time.

No, it isn't easy, but this type of dogged perseverance is exactly what it takes to push yourself back into the process of your work, so you can detach yourself a little from the outcomes of it. I've learned to make sure my metronome of productivity stays ticking every single day.

Stick More Irons In The Fire

In fact, I try to set myself not just one unit of progress after a major rejection but several. One setback matters less when you have a lot going on, so I've learned to avoid putting all my eggs in a single basket. That helps remind me that I'm not dependent on any particular opportunity to make or break me. And I can focus on the experience of working toward each of them simultaneously instead.

Rejection can either slowly chip away at your confidence, or it can build your resilience, perseverance, and resourcefulness. If you can find a way to focus on the road ahead instead of staring in the rearview mirror, you'll always find the fuel to keep going. After all, a career is a process, not a destination.


Joseph Liu is a career change strategist and speaker. Hear inspiring stories of career reinvention on his Career Relaunch Podcast and follow him on Twitter at @JosephPLiu.

Fast Company's 2016 Photo Year in Review: Part 2

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These images brought our stories to life in 2016.

Sometimes an image can do what words cannot.

Here at Fast Company, we take great pride in the photography and art that accompanies our stories. Each image is thoughtfully considered by our photo team, who curate the presentation of the pictures alongside our writers and editors.

Click through the slideshow above to view some of the very best images we published in 2016. With so many good photographs to choose from, this was a tough list to make!

Fast Company's 2016 Illustration Year in Review

7 Ways Streaming Music Will Change in 2017, After Another Crazy Year

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The music industry continued to adapt to the digital world in 2016. And there's much more chaos and innovation to come.

Last year was another eventful one in the history of music. And that was no surprise.

In 2016, the music industry saw its first signs of true growth since the internet started ravaging it a decade and a half ago. By mid-year, labels saw revenue grow 8.1% over the same period in 2015, fueled mostly by an explosion in subscribers flocking to services like Spotify (40 million subscribers) and Apple Music (20 million). Indeed, in early 2016, we learned that streaming had officially become the industry's biggest source of income in 2015. While revenue from downloads and physical album sales both continued their years-long decline (by 14% and 17%, respectively), streaming revenue grew 57% during the first half of 2016, and since then, all signs have pointed to continued growth. This is good news for record execs, but what it means for artists and streaming platforms—which each have their own contractual relationships with labels—remains to be seen. As the pie grows, expect to see intensified battles over how it all gets divvied up.

There were also big changes within the streaming landscape itself. Amazon and Soundcloud launched Spotify competitors. Apple polished up its existing service with a new interface. Pandora also unveiled its premium subscription service, expected to launch in the first quarter of 2017. For those keeping count at home, that's three new subscription services in one year, on top of the three that launched the year before (Tidal, Apple Music, and YouTube Red). Despite all the new competition, Spotify has held onto its dominant role, growing its listenership and flexing its playlisting muscle with more in-house curation and data-powered personalized playlists like Discover Weekly, Release Radar, and Your Daily Mix.

Despite all the upward-sloping numbers, the music industry still found reason to gripe. Its chief target this year was YouTube, which, along with Spotify's free tier, creates what the RIAA calls a "value gap" for the industry. Simply put, ad-supported services just don't make as much money as music subscriptions. Indeed, vinyl sales—a relatively tiny sliver of the industry's income—generated more money than ad-supported streaming like YouTube, SoundCloud, and Spotify's free tier.

There was tension elsewhere as well. Frank Ocean pulled a fast one on his label Def Jam by releasing his short visual album Endless on Apple Music to fulfill his contract before self-releasing the blockbuster Blond and denying Def Jam a cut of the profits. The maneuver made record executives rethink the already-controversial practice of releasing albums by major artists exclusively on one platform, which may help drive subscription numbers, but frustrates fans and encourages piracy. Up until that point, big name exclusives practically defined the year in popular music: Kanye West, Drake, Beyoncé, and Chance the Rapper all put out albums initially available only via either Apple Music or Tidal. (Spotify refuses to play this game.) Meanwhile, the concept of the album itself became ever more fuzzy, thanks to visual albums (i.e., music released as a long-form video or film) from Ocean and Beyoncé, plus Kanye West's post-release editing of Life of Pablo.

With so much change in the last few years, what could 2017 possibly hold? Plenty. Here are our predictions.

The music subscription boom will continue.

The number of people willing to pay $10 a month for music skyrocketed in 2016, but it's still pretty small. All told, about 100 million people are believed to subscribe to music services. (This doesn't include free streaming from SoundCloud, YouTube or Spotify's free tier.) But considering that there are 319 million people in the United States alone, there's plenty of room for growth. Just look at Apple Music. The service, which is available in 113 countries and comes pre-installed on every iOS device, only took a year and a half to reach half of Spotify's size in terms of paying subscribers. And they both keep expanding. Now we have Amazon Music Unlimited, which is well-positioned to reel in new subscribers at $8 per month for Prime members. When Pandora finally launches its subscription service, it will have 78 million listeners to potentially convert into paying subscribers—not to mention a newfound possibility of expansion beyond the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia (although those plans are still being hammered out).

Streaming music is also breaking free from the confines of our smartphones and laptops. Thanks to the rise of smart speakers like Amazon Echo, Sonos, and Google Home, more listening is happening at home, making the prospect of treating music like a monthly utility an even more sensible one. Cheaper family subscription plans don't hurt, either.

At least one music service will disappear.

We've seen five new music subscription services arrive in the last two years (and one more coming from Pandora early next year), but that doesn't mean music streaming has become a lucrative successful business. Quite the opposite: None of these services has made an enduring profit, although Spotify is working aggressively toward that goal as it gets ready to go public next year. Big tech companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon can afford to run their music services at a loss indefinitely. This landscape makes it tricky for smaller players like Tidal, SoundCloud, Deezer, and Napster (formerly Rhapsody). Both Tidal and SoundCloud were the subject of acquisition rumors in 2016, and rumors continue to swirl around the prospect of Pandora selling itself off. Bandcamp would make a very attractive acquisition for Pandora or Spotify, but the artist-centric music and merch marketplace is well-positioned to stay independent if it prefers: The company has been profitable since 2012 and its cultural influence is only growing.

The bottom line: Expect to see fewer music services this time next year. At least one of these companies is bound to get acquired or go under altogether.

Streaming exclusives won't die.

Frank Ocean may have put a damper on the industry's enthusiasm about platform-exclusive album releases, but don't expect to see the trend die off just yet. Universal (owner of Def Jam) may have sworn them off, but the other major labels have remained silent on the issue. Besides, in an age when many artists have an unprecedented capacity to chart their own course, does it really matter what the labels think?

Apple and Tidal are apparently willing to shell out a ton of money for these exclusive deals. And as long as they remain an effective tool for driving subscriptions amidst intensifying competition, the streaming platforms aren't likely to stop offering them. Despite some controversy, the exclusivity approach seems to work for most artists: Drake was the most streamed artist on Spotify this year, despite Views only being available on Apple Music when it debuted. Like Beyoncé's Lemonade and Ocean's Blond, Drake's latest album was a massive success overall.

That said, we should expect to see fewer of these deals next year. Streaming platforms, labels, and artists will use the tactic much more selectively to minimize fallout while still extracting whatever competitive value they can.

Musicians will squirm as A.I. gets better at making music

Have you ever seen a computer write a song? It's nuts. Give IBM's Watson a simple melody and define a mood, and the multi-talented artificial intelligence platform will churn out an original song that sounds like it was made by a person—albeit not an especially talented one. But it's now possible to teach machines enough about the rules of music theory to let them compose their own music, complete with multiple instrumental layers and changes in key and tempo. The result isn't something you'll want to listen to on your daily commute, but it's still early in the quest to teach computers how to make art. And it's not just IBM that's focused on this. Google's Magenta project, announced in April 2016, is in the beginning stages of stretching the limits of machine learning to help computers understand—and eventually mimic—creative thinking. Like Watson, Magenta has already produced a rudimentary song of its own.

Machines aren't about to put artists out of work, but advances in artificial intelligence could make certain types of music easier and cheaper to create—video-game soundtracks or background music for a retail store, for instance—that would not require licensing or paying royalties. A.I. could also augment the creative process for flesh-and-blood songwriters. An artist stuck on writing the chorus of a song could tap into tools based on Watson or Magenta to auto-generate a few ideas.

Next year, expect the technology to improve slightly and for more artists to catch wind of it. Some will see an exciting new creative opportunity. Others will cringe at the mere idea of it.

New answers (and dollar signs) for artists

The brief history of streaming's rise has been accompanied by an often awkward question: How will artists fare? It's a natural concern given the minuscule per-stream royalty rates offered under a model that's still scaling to its full potential. There won't be a silver bullet in 2017, but artists will see more reasons to be hopeful about the future because catering to artists has increasingly become a priority for streaming services.

Apple Music and Tidal have famously made artist-friendliness a key tenet of their offerings—or at least of their marketing. In June 2016, Spotify hired former Lady Gaga manager Troy Carter to oversee its expanding artist relations initiatives. Middle class artists might not be getting huge checks from Spotify, but many are finding new promotional value in landing on the service's most popular playlists, whether they be hand-curated in-house or data-powered. Discover Weekly alone drove more than half of all listening for 8,000 artists in less than a year. Spotify is also building out more tools and services for artists and finding ways to tap into the passion—and disposable income—of super-fans. Meanwhile, Pandora is busy reshaping itself into a service that caters more directly to artists' needs, be it with data, marketing tools for artists or the ability to sell concert tickets directly to fans from within the app.

For now, record labels still reap the lion's share of revenue, but that balance of power is poised to shift. Between the platforms' investment in artist relations and the growing slice of revenue being generated by streaming, musicians are bound to see new benefits. And streaming services, labels, and artists will all have to renegotiate their relationships with one another. Artists may soon be in a better position to demand more from their labels or, following Frank Ocean's lead, sidestep the middlemen all together—a prospect that could become easier for less-than-household names as the streaming industry's artist-facing services mature.

We're also seeing promising signs outside of the all-you-can-stream model. In 2015, Bandcamp announced that it had paid out $100 million to artists since being founded in 2008. As 2016 winds down, that number is already up to $190 million, a number that suggests Bandcamp is booming. That's not just good news for Bandcamp and the artists who use it to sell music and merchandise. It's also a clear sign that music fans are perfectly happy to pay for music and support artists directly in the digital age.

Amazon will become a major player in music

In 2016, the streaming battle was primarily framed as a competitive struggle between Apple and Spotify. That will continue in 2017, but while late-comers to the subscription game like Pandora and SoundCloud fight to amass bigger numbers, one company will have a relatively easy time: Amazon. Like Apple, Amazon has the advantage of being a giant tech company with a massive customer base to which it can market its music service. Its wildly successful Echo smart speaker is also a natural vehicle for a full-fledged music subscription service, and Alexa offers more voice control functionality to Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers than it does to users of other services like Spotify and Pandora.

It's also a cheaper option for many people: If you subscribe to Amazon Prime, Amazon's music service is $8 per month. If you own an Echo or Echo Dot, you can get the service for $4 per month (although it will only work on that device). No other major subscription service has been able to dip below the standard $10 monthly price tag, making Amazon's lower cost a unique competitive advantage.

While it's no Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited launched as a perfectly decent, cross-platform music service. And the company is already starting to improve the service with more hand-curated playlists and exclusive content deals like the one it recently signed with Garth Brooks. Like Apple and Google, Amazon can afford to invest in this area without much concern for profitability. Expect Amazon to nab quite a few subscribers pretty quickly.

Next wave of innovation: Virtual reality

Music execs might have been caught off guard by file-sharing and other technological innovations, but the resulting wounds have taught the industry a valuable defensive tactic: Sleep—to paraphrase Napster's one-time archnemesis Metallica—with one eye open, lest it get blindsided by change yet again.

If virtual reality is going to be as explosive as the experts predict (ballooning to nearly $30 billion in revenue by 2020), the music industry will be ready. Big names like Paul McCartney, U2, Björk, Coldplay, and Deadmau5 are just a few of the artists who have already embraced V.R. in the form of immersive music videos or live concerts that invite fans onstage. But since consumers are just starting to get acquainted with VR, the music industry has pumped the breaks as it waits for the market for hardware and software (and thus demand for immersive content) to catch up with its ambitions. It's pretty unusual for the music industry to be ahead of the next wave of innovation, but that's what's happening with V.R.

There are already signs that VR will yield exciting developments for fans and the music industry. Immersive livestreams of concerts, for instance, could evolve into a real source of revenue beyond the standard catalogs of recorded music. Music videos, music documentaries, and music-oriented video games can also take on new life in a world where virtual reality headsets are common. There are also interactive music visualizers, which turn songs—or even your own voice—into responsive animations that unfold in front of you. Then there's the audio itself. For the best experience, immersive music environments will require engineers to mix songs in more spatially-complex manners than standard stereo or even surround sound, which could pave the way for innovations in the way music is composed and produced.

There could also be money in V.R. It's still early enough that artists and labels can start crafting business models around a simple but familiar logic: Give fans something meaningful and entertaining that they can't get anywhere else (or easily pirate) and they just might give you their money. Sounds crazy, I know.

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