Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you.
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BOYCOTT APPLE
The common perception is that creators make big bucks. It’s totally not true, but Apple didn’t get the memo. Its latest monopolist move: Stealing up to 30% of fan payments ostensibly made directly to creators using Patreon on IOS. It’s like the devil hoovering up tithes from the church collection plate. Patreon CEO Jack Conte recommends that creators increase their prices on the IOS app only – along with letting potential subscribers know that lower fees are elsewhere. I’ve got a better idea. How about creators band together and boycott all Apple products? Google’s store takes less, but still has an outsized vig too that impacts creators. Perhaps the creator-friendly White House can add this to the Apple monopoly action – after it figures out how to penalize Google for its own transgressions. Even more reason for creators to band together and stick up for their rights.
Related: YouTube and Spotify overtake Apple in podcasting.
CHANNEL HACKING GROWS
As more creators get hacked, more solutions pop up to either protect or pick up the pieces. YouTube just introduced a new AI-based tool to help creators recover their channels, while an interesting new startup promises to protect accounts from being compromised in the first place. And old friend @Liron Segev is helping creators protect themselves too. With creators taking center stage, it was inevitable that more and more criminals would move. Be careful out there.
AI FALLING INTO THE TROUGH OF DESPAIR
Regular readers know I’m a big fan of Gartner’s hype cycle, a proven way to track new technologies from introduction, to hype, to despair and then to profitable productivity. The venerable research company just released its 2024 version – and no surprise – Generative AI is free-falling into disillusionment and despair. But paradoxically you shouldn’t despair. History has proved over and over again that now is the time to build – just don’t expect a meaningful return for a few years. That means focus, adopting a lean operating model and preserving cash. Three technologies with creator ramifications that are headed up? Autonomous agents (aka creator clones), humanoid robots and digital twins. Gartner also recently released its hype cycle for digital advertising, calling retail media networks the latest to drop into the pit of despair.
SPONSOR: Content Creator and Whalar Talent Drew Afualo just launched her first book “LOUD” debuting #3 on the NYT Bestseller List for Advice, How To and Misc. category. This empowering, inspiring, and patriarchy smashing book is a must read. Check it out and pick up a copy!
QUIBIS:
YOUTUBE
- YouTube is the first streaming platform to cross 10% of total TV viewing.
- On the heels of last week’s Pixel/creator disaster, Google hires the talented @josh raab to run social for android and devices. Coinkydink?
- Shopify and YouTube expand their partnership in an attempt to blunt TikTok Shop.
- Mike Shields explores YouTubeTV’s kids problem.
META
- Instagram’s working on a vertical profile grid. Makes sense, given that most videos and photos are now vertical – but creators aren’t happy.
- Meta axes high-end VR headset under development.
- This could be annoying – now you can share your favorite song (if Instagram has licensed it) with people who visit your profile. Luckily for all of you non Phish-heads, I don’t have the feature yet.
- TikTok Live Matches prove to be a real moneymaker during US election cycle.
- Zuckerberg and Spotify CEO Daniel Ek implore the EU to embrace open source.
- Meta releases its Q2 2024 transparency report, showing an uptick in violent and graphical content on Facebook, along with self-reported progress on hate, child endangerment and spam. Meta also changes cadence to twice-yearly from quarterly.
TIKTOK
- TikTok announces its first developers conference – October in San Jose. I tried to register but got 404ed.
- The diaspora continues. Congrats to @Lina Renzina for landing her new role at Verizon, and @michael modon, departing after 8 years for greener pastures at Epic Games.
- Still the loneliest page on the internet.
OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY
- VidCon layoffs means some amazingly talented execs are now available for your creator first events and festivals, including their head of security (@wendy ekblade), video streaming (@Kyle Hollinger) and international events (@celine sargent). Ping me for details and contact info.
- @Max Benator and Orca announce what looks like an amazing social commerce event in LA on October 17th.
- Formula One is now sending out cease-and-desist orders to creators using “F1” in their channel handle or branding. Guess that’s the end for my “F1-F12 Life” podcast about the beauty of Windows keyboards. Vroom-Vroom.
- Congrats to Rhett and Link for releasing their new show Wonderhole! Good interview with them from the premier.
- It’s hard for creators to break into China. This company can help ($).
- India continues to struggle with how to define and license creators as part of the media landscape.
- Top VTuber network Hololive launches unmoderated community app globally. Predictably it did not go well, with doxxing and other awful behavior dominating.
- Creators take center stage at US democratic convention. More evidence of creator power!
- The Creator Economy is a HUGE threat to creative advertising agencies – so why are so many not paying attention?
- Ludwig and team RedBull won the first Ludwig’s Streamer Games, co-created with Red Bull. Reminds me of when that kid who owned the football always won the game.
- Chapelle Roan takes on the twisted side of modern fandom.
- Meet the creator running for Senate in Utah.
- Best wishes for rapid recovery to @Amanda Rose. Being a creator is tough – and when you are injured in the line of duty there’s really no safety net. Hopefully the government will do more to support creators here soon.
BEAST WATCH
- Rosanna Pansino leaks 36-page employee manual from MrBeast Productions. You can download the full doc from Pansino’s video description.
- Two weeks ago Business Insider reporter @lucia modes reported that Mr Beast had hired PR Crisis pro Matthew Hiltzik (who also has worked with Spotter). Looks like the team has expanded, as @tyler chou posted that fixer Quinn Emanuel has been brought on to focus on legal issues. Emanuel’s firm also works with Elon Musk and Alec Baldwin.
- Much of the internet got into a tizzy when Jimmy Donaldson’s girlfriend commented. It’s a non-story but shows just how frothy the frenzy has become – and how everyone around him needs to STFU.
- Related: Interestingly, Sports Illustrated also had a story on the girlfriend comments, but it has been removed. They’re still linking to it, though, in this exhaustive timeline. The new PR team has clearly enabled STFU Mode.
- More STFU Mode: The week’s biggest beast story was about how Christiano Ronaldo’s manufactured YouTube launch broke the Beast’s record for fastest growing channel.
RESEARCH
- Pew looks more carefully at their March study to tease out more insights about TikTok as a news platform, with more than half of the population under 30 seeing at least some political content on the platform.
- Izea’s latest report shows that almost half of social media users have changed their political opinion based on an creator’s content, while more than half have unfollowed a creator because of their political views.
- New Harvard Business Review study shows that creators become “less sincere, likable and persuasive” when they disable comments – at least on Twitter and Instagram. Connect with the authors here on LinkedIn.
- Social video viewing will surpass Linear TV next year, according to EMARKETER.
- Other new research pegs the European creator market at 10B, growing to 41B by 2030 (ht . @Ankur Mehra)
CREATOR TECH – AI, WEB3, VR, MORE
- Google’s latest AI image generator Imagen3 is blowing people away. Try it for free (in the US) here and check out the research paper for more details. I made this week’s cover image with it.
- Adobe CSO Scott Belsky’s monthly drop explores how SciFi sets the innovation tone, Perplexity’s search advances and more. A must read.
- Despite the demise of Meta’s high-end VR headset, there are lots of new headsets coming this fall – including the new Pico 4 Ultra from ByteDance!
- Meta and Snap are also planning on releasing AR glasses soon too.
100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!).
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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.