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In 2017, Nathan Cozzolino started Rose, a farm to edibles brand based in Los Angeles. Cozzolino and his team cultivated organic hemp and marijuana, produced its own low-dose gummies with natural organic ingredients, and sold the product to licensed dispensaries. This structure required overhead that cost upwards of $80,000 a month. Six years in, the brand wasnt able to sell enough products to cover its expenses despite being sold in more than 100 retailers. That changed in July of 2023 when Rose switched the entirety of its production to hemp. We did it because it was that or go out of business, Cozzolino says. He let go of his cannabis licenses, downsized his facilities, and within 60 days built a website where he could sell directly to customers. Within the first month of online sales, Rose was able to break even. Now, the company is selling more products than its able to make, and Cozzolino and his team can focus on the part of the business they love most: the agricultural and culinary work, and sharing the therapeutic benefits of cannabis. Being able to sell online directly to our customer in a responsible way has been what Rose has needed to fully realize our potential as a company and to be able to pursue everything that we dreamed of doing, Cozzolino says. And that always brings us back to the farm, investing in the land, and seeing how we can make our product more interesting, starting with the agricultural component of it. Rose is part of a bigger shift in the cannabis industry toward hemp-derived edibles, which can give users much of the same effects as cannabis-derived THC at lower dosages. As customers increasingly search out low-dose options, theyre finding that these products, from gummies to chocolate to mints and beverages, can be legally shipped right to their door with a few clicks online, circumventing the need to visit a licensed dispensary. [Photo: Rose] The recreational cannabis landscape has been rapidly changing in recent years. While flower and vapes still account for the majority of the market, edibles are becoming a fast-growing category, especially in the United States. The market generated $10.6 billion in 2024a figure thats expected to reach $47.1 billion in 2043, according to a recent report from Research and Markets. And within the edibles market, a growing number of brands are using hemp-derived THC, which is biochemically the same as cannabis-derived THC, in their products. The explosion of hemp-derived cannabis products has helped quicken the normalization of cannabis, says John Kagia, the director of cannabis policy in New York and an industry analyst. There are a few reasons for this: Cannabis companies have found that low-dose edibles are extremely popular with their customers. Meanwhile, the 2018 Farm Bill that removed hemp containing up to 0.3% THC from the federal list of controlled substances has made it easier for cannabis companies to meet the demand. Brands are betting that curious cannabis users will be intrigued enough by gummies and seltzers to eventually become loyal shoppers and daily cannabis users. [Photo: Gossamer] The Edible Future of Cannabis To people in the cannabis space, the mainstreaming of edibles is a natural next step for recreational and medicinal weed. Theyre very universal, says Verena von Pfetten, a cofounder, with David Weiner, of Gossamer, a cannabis media platform. You don’t have to learn how to roll a joint, you don’t need to buy a piece. Plus, clearly labeled doses make it easy to measure just how much THC youre ingesting. These arent the mystery brownies that might knock you out for an entire afternoon. Gummies account for 72% of the edibles market, and a gummy vitamin is something people are comfortable with, von Pfetten adds. When Weiner and von Pfetten, who have media backgrounds, launched Gossamer in 2017, they saw an opportunity to make cannabis more accessible to people who were interested in the effects of THC but were alienated by the stereotypical stoner branding or expert-level discussions about strains. Everything was verity or green or canna something, Weiner says. It was just kind of like, surely there’s a more sophisticated way of tapping into this. [Photo: Gossamer] The marketing around edibles tends to be approachable, with brands playing into the deired effect that someone might want to achieve, like better sleep, more energy, or relaxation. The customer we want to reach, and that we believe is actually the largest customer base across the board, doesnt make their lives revolve around cannabis; they incorporate cannabis into their lives, von Pfetten says. And so how can we help them do that? Gossamers online store, which began offering hemp-derived edibles in 2024, sells everything from THC tinctures to gummies to pre-rolls. The bestsellers are, by far, one- and two-milligram products. [Photo: Rose] The Business of Edibles Edibles also make business sense for cannabis producers. The THC in these products can be derived from hemp, a variety of the same plant species as marijuana that contains a lower concentration of THC. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the industrial production of hemp containing up to 0.3% THC. It also declassified the plant and cannabinoids derived from it, as a controlled substance. This means that products made with hemp can cross state lines and dont need to be sold in regulated dispensaries, opening the market to states where recreational marijuana use is prohibited so long as they dont have regulations against hemp. Despite more states legalizing recreational cannabis, companies in this space havent been growing as quickly or as easily as they anticipated. Just 27% of cannabis businesses are profitable. The regulated adult-use market across the country is fragmented, with each state having slightly different rules about retail. Since hemp- and marijuana-derived THC are biochemically the same, edibles brands have been switching to hemp-derived THC in their products, which has helped their businesses remain viable. A significant advantage that the hemp-derived ecosystem has is centralized production, Kagia says. It’s much cheaper for these brands to build in one place and ship nationally than to build in every individual market like they would have to do in the adult-use space. Additionally, Kagia is seeing the strongest growth in demand for hemp-derived edibles in states that have not legalized medical or recreational marijuana. What the industry needed was to be able to have a small operation, with little overhead, still working in a regulated way using third party labs for testing, Cozzolino of Rose says. But they needed to be able to sell directly to their customers without a storefront and with an online business the way the rest of the world works. The most popular edibles brands have also quietly shifted to hemp-derived THC for their low-dose edibles, including Wyld (the best seller in most states); Kiva, a portfolio of brands that makes chocolates, gummies, and mints; the chewables brand Sundae School; and Cann, the beverage company. The move is paying off. Aaron Nosbisch, the founder of Brez, a maker of beverages infused with hemp-derived cannabis and mushrooms, posted on LinkedIn that 83% of its sales were DTC and that the brand is pacing to make over $50 million in revenue this year. [Screenshot: Edibles.com] Selling Edibles, Without the Dispensary With more edibles on the market, the retail landscape is changing, too. Before, these brands were at the mercy of dispensaries, which often paid wholesale prices based on the amount of THC in a product and not the overall quality of experience. (For example, a package of 20 microdose gummies from Rose retails for $40 and has 20 mg of THC total while a tin of pre-rolls with 1,635 mg THC total sells for $45 at MedMen.) Additionally, the brand communication could be uneven depending on how familiar dispensary staff was with a product. It wasnt the best environment for low-dose options. Most brands from the get-go have said, we think people want a lower dose edible, von Pfetten says. And then the struggle has been getting dispensaries and the general industry on board with selling them at that price point. The hemp-derived market allowed brands to sell the products that they always wanted to make direct-to-consumer. And despite big investments in retail design, dispensaries remain alienating for some shoppersor just inconvenient. The experience that retailers are providing is not speaking to individuals, Cozzolino says. Meanwhile, gas stations and corner stores have also begun to sell these products, leading to confusion about what is actually being sold and how safe it is. This is still such a young market that we don’t yet have a good sense ofhow consumers are processing the difference between these two products, Kagia says, referring to hemp-derived THC and marijuana-derived THC. Von Pfetten compares the public level of knowledge about the cannabis industry and all the products available to skincare in the 1960s. If you talked to women about AHAs, retinol, salicylic acid, and hyaluronic acid, I think most women would be like, What the fuck are you talking about? I use cold cream, she explains. We are just barely getting to that point in cannabis. People are like, oh, weed gets you high, but then you start talking about CBD, CBG, and terpenes and PHC. So there’s all this education that needs to happen in order for customers to really understand the benefits of the products, and a lot of that education is happening online. [Screenshot: Edibles.com] In addition to direct-to-consumer sales, online shops specializing in edibles, like Gossamer, are now entering the marketplace to balance a trustworthy, reliable retail experience with convenience. You still need some guardrails, von Pfetten says, noting that a fully DTC market isnt sustainable since brands need multiple points of discovery. How do I know that this is vetted and curated? Edible Arrangements, the fruit basket company, launched Edibles.com, a marketplace for hemp-based THC products in March. It now sells to customers in Texas, which has not legalized recreational cannabis, and is using its existing franchise locations as delivery hubs. It essentially layered another product onto its logistics infrastructure. It plans to expand to Florida, the Carolinas, and Georgia next. Soon, Edibles.com will also build a physical retail location in Atlanta. An interesting strategic thing for us to solve is how do we alleviate some of the barriers to entry and how do we give trust and education to our consumers that will then translate into permission to say, You know what, maybe I will try these products, says Thomas Winstanley, the chief marketing officer for Edibles.com. Because if it’s coming from Edible Brands, then maybe I can take it a little bit more seriously than what I see at a gas station. [Photo: Rose] The Complicated Future of Hemp-Derived Edibles While hemp-based edibles continue to gain popularity, some states are beginning to regulate the product, citing public health concerns. Meanwhile, cannabis interest groups are lobbying the government to regulate hemp-based products and close the loophole in the Farm Bill, as U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC) Executive Director Edward Conklin wrote in a letter to Congress last year. The alcohol industry is also lobbying for more restrictions on hemp-based edibles. As states roll out more regulations around hemp-derived THC, the online shops and brands have stopped shipping to them. In 2023, Washington State created a new law that said any product containing THC is considered cannabis and must be sold in licensed dispensaries. In September of 2024, California enacted temporary emergency regulations to ban hemp products with detectable levels of THC and recently extended the policy to June 2025. In New York, where edibles constitute 15% of licensed cannabis sales, there are now potency limits on the sale of hemp-derived edibles. Anything over one milligram per dose, or 10 milligrams per package, must be sold in a dispensary. According to Kagia, New York set the limits based on potential intoxication risk. Kagia hopes that there is more clarity on the federal level about the production and distribution of hemp-derived THC products as a matter of public health and safety and for business efficiency reasons, too. It would be unfortunate if we ended up with another patchwork national model for hemp-derived products just as we have for the adult use ecosystem, he says. I don’t think it serves the cannabis economy writ large to have these bifurcated models where functionally the same products can be sold in one context but not in another. And so we are looking forward to robust discussion with our national lawmakers on the governance of hemp-derived cannabinoids moving forward. Cannabis companies are cautiously watching the space. Von Pfetten believes that dispensary customers will and should continue to shop in licensed facilities for high-dose edibles but as long as the right guardrails in place are in place in terms of shipping, age gating, and vetting, someone should be able to buy a one-milligram or a two-milligram edible online or receive it direct in a store. To Cozzolino, the regulatory discussion about low-dose edibles is missing the fact that these products are about a culture of cannabis, not intoxication. If the people regulating [cannabis] try to force us back into a three-tiered system, then they’re inhibiting that and ultimately they are decreasing the value of what people in the world can experience with cannabis, he says. So while low-dose edibles might be the future of cannabis, anxiety about the category looms. Luckily, theres a gummy for that.
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With music streaming, users have gotten used to being at the mercy of algorithms. But French music streamer Deezer is making it easier for its subscribers to make the algorithm work for them. The company unveiled an update to its mobile experience that doubles down on its emphasis on personalization and sharing to set it apart from larger competitors like Spotify and Apple Music. The new features were introducing today give users more control over their algorithm, greater flexibility to personalize their experience, and easy ways to share content with their friends, even beyond Deezer, CEO Alexis Lanternier said in a press release. Rolling out over the next two months, the update includes enhancements to Deezers Flow feature, more options for interface personalization, a monthly Spotify Wrapped-style listening roundup called My Deezer Month, and a universal sharing function to share songs with users on other music platforms. With Flow, listeners can set certain songs as favorites and ban others, effectively steering the algorithm in the direction they choose. From there, they can even tune in to specific moods, like chill, sad, or party. The apps interface can be personalized as well. Deezer had previously rolled out a personalized homepage to a subset of users, but now all subscribers will have the ability to decide what they see featured on their Favorites page, making it easier to navigate to their preferred tracks, playlists, and albums. Users can further customize the way the app looks with photos and stickers for their playlist covers. For fans of Spotifys annual Wrapped feature, My Deezer Month ups the ante with more frequency, providing a monthly breakdown of users listening habits delivered in highly shareable form. This feature builds on the strong engagement growth the platform said it saw in 2024 for its annual wrap-up, My Deezer Year. Alongside its full-year earnings in March, Deezer said engagement and social media shares of the feature were up 27% and 75% year over year, respectively, in 2024. But what fun would these features be if you couldnt share them? The apps Shaker feature has long allowed users to make playlists with users across platforms; now they can also share tracks with users on different platforms thanks to Deezers unique universal sharing link. The company has stepped up efforts to stand out in a competitive streaming landscape with both users and artists. In 2023, Deezer was one of the first platforms to adopt what it calls an artist-centric payment model that set a minimum number of monthly streams a song needs before it can start earning royalties (Spotify followed suit with a similar policy later that year). It has also invested in AI tools, including AI-powered playlists and a tool for identifying AI-generated songs, which Deezer says make up roughly 18% of all songs submitted to streaming platforms. So far Deezer is also the only music streaming service to sign the Statement on AI Training that promises not to allow its music data to train AI models. Generative AI has the potential to positively impact music creation and consumption, Aurélien Hérault, Deezers chief innovation officer, said in a press release. But we need to approach the development with responsibility and care in order to safeguard the rights and revenues of artists and songwriters while maintaining transparency for the fans.
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E-Commerce
If real Easter eggs arent your thing this weekend, you may find hunting for digital ones more enjoyable. And there are some cool ones to find at your fingertips, provided you have an iPhone or Mac. Apple has packed the iOS and macOS operating systems with several fun little references, many harking back to the legacy of the company or other companies in the tech industry. Microsofts Blue Screen of Death This one’s been around for a while, and it’s a fan favorite. The Finder on your Mac can show other computers connected to the same network. These computers are represented by icons. If the connected computers are other Macs, youll see icons that accurately represent the shape of the computer, such as a modern MacBook Pro or even an old G4 iMac from the early 2000s. But if the connected computers are Windows PCs, youll see the same icon for them all: an ugly beige CRT monitor with the infamous Windows Blue Screen of Deaththe screen PC users see when something has gone seriously wrong with the Windows operating system. The icon choice is Apples subtle dig at its once archnemesis, and it has been an Easter egg in the Macs operating systems for a few decades now. iPhone Voice Memo app icon In this case, the Easter egg is an iPhone app icon itself. The waveform in the Voice Memos app icon may not be just a random glyph. Instead, SiliconRepublic says, the waveform’s shape is the one you get when you use Voice Memos to record the word Apple. In my tests, its pretty accurate, but your mileage may vary depending on how you enunciate words. Safari Reading List icon Apple has snuck a few direct references to Steve Jobs in its operating systems. The first can be found in the Safari app on iPhone. Open up Safari and then tap the bookmarks icon at the bottom of the screen. See the Reading List icon in the center of the pop-up? Those are a pair of eyeglassesbut not just any. They look remarkably identical to the round spectacles Steve Jobs made iconic. Record label with Steve Jobs’s phrases Theres another reported Steve Jobs reference in Apples software. This one is in macOS. If you open the System Settings app, click Users & Groups, and then click on your profile picture to edit it, youll notice that under the Suggestions folder full of icons, you can select an icon of a record turntable. Well, if you go to where the icon image file is actually stored in macOS (Macintosh HD>Library>User Pictures>Instruments) and open the Turntable.heic file, youll see the record on the turntable lists four tracks on its label: 1. Magic 2. Revolution 3. Boom! 4. Unbelievable. These were all words Jobs frequently exclamed during his keynote speeches and demos, notes iDropNews. Heres to the crazy ones Next to its seminal “1984” ad, Apples most iconic campaign was probably Think Different, from the late 1990s. That campaign features a poem called Heres to the crazy ones. Apple has commemorated that poem in two places in its operating systems. The first is in the System Settings app in macOS. Click on the Display preferences panel, and you’ll notice the text size adjustment icons display the opening text from the poem. Heres to the crazy ones can also be found printed on the pages of the open book emoji found in iOS and macOS. Let It Snow (in the Apple Store app) Finally, back in 2021, Apple snuck a little Easter egg into its Apple Store app for iPhone, noted AppleInsider. If you type in let it snow in the search field of the Apple Store app, the app will then display digital falling snow across your screen. While this Easter egg isn’t a direct reference to Apple, it’s a fun one to trigger during the winter holidays. A history of Apple Easter eggs During my research for this story, I consulted several older Apple Easter egg roundupssuch as the ones published by iDropNews, MacRumors, and Mental Flossto make sure that I had forgotten any big ones. I discovered that Apple has actually removed a fair amount of them from its operating systems. These removals include former Easter eggs that allowed you to play Tetris in the Terminal app or watch Star Wars reenacted in ASCII. There also used to be a Bitcoin Easter egg in macOS, but Apple has now removed that, too. I also remember from back in the day that when you typed evil empire into the OS X Dictionary app, you would find the entry for Microsoft. But that seems to be gone from macOS now, too. In other words, it seems like Apple has been cracking down on Easter eggs in recent years, so enjoy the above while you can.
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E-Commerce
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