Trends & Artefacts: bookstreaming edition
In this week’s edition of Trends & Artefacts, we round up the snackable trends, stats and insights from around the world, including:
Men's Makeup Market Reaches $7.1 Billion in US
Pet Deathcare is Getting Digital
Competency P*rn Becomes 2026's Escapism
Explainer: Bookstreaming
Sony Launches First Turntables Since 2019
Men's Makeup Market Reaches $7.1 Billion in US
US men's grooming sales hit $7.1 billion in 2025, up 6.9% year-over-year, with 68% of Gen Z men now using facial skincare versus 42% in 2023. Retailers are shifting from "Men's" aisles to gender-neutral displays, whilst TikTok tutorials remove the need to ask in-store questions, reframing cosmetics as maintenance rather than vanity. When gender categories dissolve in beauty retail, does that signal cultural progress or just brands finding new ways to sell the same products?
Pet Deathcare is Getting Digital
Angelpaw uses waterproof scanners and fixed antennas to monitor pet remains across every crematorium station, sending owners real-time updates from pickup to ashes. The platform now covers 100,000 pets monthly through 10,000 vets, addressing a $2.4 billion industry that previously ran on trust and clipboards. If grief needs logistical transparency to feel legitimate, does that comfort mourning or just make loss another trackable transaction?
Competency P*rn Becomes 2026's Escapism
Watching people excel at their jobs has become the hottest form of entertainment. Shows like The Pitt and The Paper are winning audiences not through spectacle but by depicting doctors and journalists quietly doing their work well, whilst TikTok accounts demonstrating flawless cookie-icing techniques rack up views. When the world feels chaotic and incompetently run, aspirational fantasy has shifted from Game of Thrones-style power struggles to therapists with nice furniture solving problems calmly. If basic competence now counts as escapism, what does that reveal about our baseline expectations of the people in charge?
Explainer: Bookstreaming
Kai Cenat, the platform's biggest creator, is now streaming himself reading self-help books with a timer, pausing to look up unfamiliar words. His audience says the vulnerability encourages them to read too, following a 'body doubling' effect where people work better alongside others. If young people need parasocial accountability to finish a book, what happens to solitary focus as a skill?
Sony Launches First Turntables Since 2019
Sony's releasing two new turntables with one-button automatic playback, transparent dust covers for coloured vinyl, and 96kHz/24-bit wireless Bluetooth audio. The PS-LX3BT costs $399.99, whilst the step-up PS-LX5BT at $499.99 features detachable cables, an aluminium platter, and higher-quality components to reduce noise. The timing's uncertain though, as Sony and TCL are exploring a joint venture that could reshape Sony's home entertainment division entirely. When a legacy electronics brand returns to vinyl just as its own future looks shaky, is that nostalgia or a hedge?
