Avoiding the “Digital Guillotine”: Creators increasingly face backlash from fans for not taking a stand on politically sensitive issues. Blockout 2024 is just the latest example, but we’ve also seen creators in Southeast Asia losing followers for not supporting the Starbucks and McDonalds boycott and more. The macabre term for this is Digital Guillotine or “digitine”, and creators will need to carefully navigate political issues to avoid getting cancelled too. Every community is different, and the more you understand how yours feels the less likely you’ll get chopped.
- Related: YouTube testing AI-generated Topics on Shorts to help creators discover community insights.
Shakeup at Mr. Beast: The iconic company run by Jimmy Donaldson, his brother and mother now has two presidents. The new one – focused on “MrBeast Industries”, includes current and future retail and SAAS businesses, while the existing YouTube one continues to be run by Marc Hustevedt. “Industries” will likely be packaged up for a public offering or private equity investment – perhaps letting the founders take some money off the table – while the content side continues to expand. Key question: can the business transition from BeastMom and Sons to a corporate enterprise that’s not totally Jimmy Donaldson dependent. Hopefully this helps.
Kling Beats Sora? Lots of chatter about Chinese AI video generation app Kling as being “better” than Sora. Here’s a comparison to help you decide. Note you’ll need a Chinese phone number to actually 100%use Kling. You’ll need papal dispensation from OpenAI to use Sora. Until we can actually use each side-by-side, it’s a fascinating view into the future – but not a game-changer today. Note, I’m pretty sure Kling stands for “KeLing AI Vision”.
Sports Will Slaughter Entertainment: Sports rights are not in a bubble, argues media expert Doug Shapiro, instead they could end up taking 40% or more of total media content spend – up from about 20% now. That means entertainment content spend drops by the same amount. What does that mean for creators? A smaller market for big TV and movie projects like Mr Beast’s Amazon Prime show, along with other creator-developed streaming and theatrical efforts. OR… The assumed lower-cost of creator-first projects could absorb more of that smaller pie. On the flip side, leaning into sports with new creator-first IP – or even new sports – could deliver huge success. For example, check out the new Kings League, powered by creators (H/T Publish Press). Also expect YouTube to focus more on sports and less on creators. The copycat video platforms won’t be far behind.
AI Giveth, AI Taketh: As AI disrupts internet search, expect more “sky is falling” stories about how it’ll be bad for creators. On balance I think it will hurt some creators but benefit others. Here’s my take on the outcomes – with the caveat that no one really knows:
- Search Traffic: If the balance of your product sales come from SEO-juiced search, this will be a problem. But the inverse is also true. We’ll see more search traffic for creators who make things of true value. Those AI-generated search summaries will include MORE links to trusted creator products and videos compared to SEO farmed produce.
- AI Video Summaries: As YouTube rolls out search-based video deep-links, some utility creators will see less decreased watch time and less views. However, those deep-links will increase exposure for many creators, thus improving discovery and adding new subscribers and fans.
SPONSOR: Whalar and the Tribeca Film Festival Launch a New Creator Vertical!
Tribeca and Whalar Group launched a new creator vertical at the Tribeca Festival this week. The new creator vertical will bridge the gap between Hollywood and the growing Creator Economy space. The vertical will be year-round at the first physical campus for creators and their teams, The Lighthouse. Read more about it here.
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- YouTube has a leakage problem, but companies have few alternatives.
- What took so long? Gun videos now restricted for kids’ viewing.
- YouTube Studio adds AI to “Research” tab and renames it “Inspiration” – to provide ideas for videos. Plus don’t miss Rene Ritchie at Open Sauce Friday!
- South Korea now the second country to get YouTube’s Shopping capabilities.
META
- Instagram leans into new carousel features to drive more usage and a better experience.
- No one’s happy about Instagram testing unskippable ads. BUT they could be good for creators if only Instagram would share the revenue (don’t hold your breath).
- Artists are threatening to leave Instagram over forced AI training.
TIKTOK
- Europe Shop paused as TikTok focuses on US.
- Hackers are ransacking some of the top TikTok accounts. Double T says they fixed the problem.
- Bytedance hires a new global “general counsel” – who was previously at Warner Bros.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- Alex Choi faces jail for shooting fireworks from a helicopter. Yet another reason why YouTubers need good lawyers BEFORE they break the law.
- Twitch works on program to help DJs manage rights and still get paid. In success it could be a model for future curators, but unclear if creators will pay standard rights fees after the program matures in a year – which could be unhealthy for everyone.
- Details on Rakuten’s affiliate program for creators.
- TikTok and YouTube a must buy for 70% of large advertisers, while traditional TV is just 2/3rds of that – H/T to Mike Shields (read his newsletter) for surfacing this April IAB data.
- The weird story of Lillie Jean, Passionfruit and DMCA takedowns.
- A 2022 US law could invalidate the NDAs that reality TV cast members sign. This could affect challenge and reaction creators on YouTube as well, like Mr. Beast and the Sidemen (if they bring Inside to the US).
CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE
- Sony says it out loud: We will use AI to cut content creation costs.
- Stability AI releases Stable Open Audio – a free new tool to create up to 47 seconds of samples and sound-effects.
- Reddit has pivoted its entire business model to selling its conversation corpus to train LLMs – and what that means for the future of the web.
- Investor and analyst @Ollie Forsyth rolls out a comprehensive market map of 120 AI Agent startups – including 10 in the voice and video space.
- Here’s a unique and cool use of Roblox.
- Explainable AI is a big deal – OpenAI’s latest research gets us closer.
Hopefully I will see you at Open Sauce on Friday, where I’ve been programming the industry day – and will host it too! It’s like VidCon and Maker Faire had a baby.
100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).
Like this free newsletter? Buy me a coffee and say thanks! Or let’s do a meetup in your town.
I’ve built and sold multiple creator economy startups to top media companies – including Discovery and Paramount. Subscribe here on LinkedIn to get this newsletter every Monday.
Let me know what you think – email me at jim@louderback.com. Thanks for reading and see you around the internet.
