DigiTour wants to bring YouTube, Vine, and social media stars to more of their fans next year. The live event company plans to more than double the amount of shows and tickets for its flagship DigiTour event for 2015, and is looking at other ways it can expand the business.

The social-media-star-studded celebration sold over 120,000 tickets for 60 shows last year, according to Variety. For 2015, DigiTour aims to almost triple its ticket sales at 350,000 tickets, and more than double its number of shows at 141. Variety also noted the live event company will create an all-day festival on June 6, 2015, at Citi Field in New York where it hopes to sell 25,000 tickets.

Past DigiTours have included appearances from YouTuber Tyler Oakley (who’s recently expanded his own tour), Jack Johnson and Jack Gilinsky (known to the online media masses as Jack & Jack), and YouTube group Our 2nd Life (O2L). We could see these faces return for 2015 in addition to other social media stars DigiTour nabs, though the company hasn’t yet confirmed any celebrities or appearances as of yet.

“I think that teen culture has validated that there are not social stars — they’ve blurred with mainstream stars,” said Meridith Valiando Rojas, DigiTour CEO and co-founder, to Variety. “Teens don’t want to just buy a concert ticket. They want to meet the stars that they have an affinity for.”

While Valiando Rojas says DigiTour, essentially a startup staffed with 12 employees, isn’t “desperate for cash,” it’s entertaining more funding by way of a Series A investment to truly up its scale and game in 2015. DigiTour previously received an investment round just shy of $2 million from investors like Ryan Seacrest and Advance Publications, the parent company of Conde Nast.

In addition to growing its live events and shows, DigiTour has delved into the world of merchandising. The company created products related to their live events like a documentary about Jack & Jack. Variety reports DigiTour has already sold more than 10,000 pre-orders of the DVD. Additionally, DigiTour is putting together a merchandise-subscription service not unlike Michelle Phan’s Ipsy service. DigiTour’s service will focus on merchandise related to today’s most popular social media stars, and will cost $10 a month.

Finally, Valiando Rojas said brands are starting to team up with DigiTour and its stars for promotional purposes. For example, in a deal with DigiTour, Verizon will open its newest store in Chicago’s Magnificent Mile on November 15, 2014, with Jack & Jack and other social media star Matthew Lee Espinosa appearing at the opening and posting about it to their followers.

These initiatives all put DigiTour’s trajectory on the upswing, and we can’t see it slowing down anytime soon.

Filed under: Articles, DigiTour, News by Bree Brouwer
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Season four of Epic Rap Battles of History is live. The newest installment of Nice Peter and EpicLLOYD‘s hugely popular YouTube series is a busy affair, as the four members of the Ghostbusters take on the cast of Mythbusters.

The episode’s matchup was spoiled during ERB‘s season four trailer, in which the ghost of Adolf History got busted. “We were really kind of getting sick of doing Vader vs. Hitler,” said Nice Peter in the new battle’s behind-the-scenes video. “There’s only so many weird Holocaust jokes we feel like making.”

Instead, Peter and Lloyd opted for what Peter called “one of the most popular suggestions since season one,” and as has become the norm with ERB it is full of guest appearances. Mark Douglass of Barely Political shows up as Ghostbuster Raymond Stantz; Mary Doodles shows up in a Kari Byron costume so accurate that I initially assumed Byron had agreed to play herself; an ERB fan named Walter Downing got a chance to join the cast as Winston Zeddemore; and Dodger shows up to shout this line. Those are only a few of the cameos among biggest cast we’ve seen in an ERB thus far.

Thanks to a quickened schedule, new episodes of ERB will arrive every Monday.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
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Production is about to begin on the online-only sixth season of Community, and Yahoo–which will distribute the show through its Yahoo Screen platform–has announced a pair of new names who will join the comedy’s cast. The latest additions to the Greendale Community College campus are Paget Brewster and Keith David.

A press release from Yahoo defines the two new roles. Brewster, who recently completed a seven-season run on the CBS drama Criminal Minds, will play a consultant hired to “shape up” Greendale. David, who has acted in films like Platoon and Crash, will play “a retired scientist reinventing himself.” It’s worth noting that David was also one of The Cape, a short-lived NBC series that served as the inspiration for Community‘s famous “six seasons and a movie” joke. If Community creator Dan Harmon doesn’t find a way to slip in a reference to that role, I’ll be disappointed.

Brewster and David will join the rest of Community‘s cast, which includes returning stars Joel McHale, Alison Brie, Danny Pudi, Gillian Jacobs, Jim Rash, and Ken Jeong. Notably absent from that list is Yvette Nicole Brown; the actress, who played the character of Shirley Bennett, declined to return for season six. Since the Community cast also lost regulars Chevy Chase and Donald Glover during season five, it is good to see some fresh roles for the new season.

Production for season six of Community will begin on November 17th. Yahoo hasn’t announced an exact release date, though the show is expect to return in early 2015.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, News, Web Series by Sam Gutelle
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The Dollar Shave Club certainly knows how to garner attention online, and now it wants to do the same on TV. The company has released four new ads which began airing on nationwide television on November 10, 2014.

Dollar Shave Club’s TV ads are full of the signature comedy established by the company’s first viral video starring its CEO and founder Michael Dubin (which was followed up with yet another “f***ing great” short). Each TV ad farcically emphasizes the inconvenient-and-dangerous nature of having to buy razor blades in a brick-and-mortar store.

For example, one customer sets off an alarm when he tries to grab razors from a case no employee will help him open — and consequently gets shot in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. And in another ad, a man is forced to give up everything on his person (except for his underwear) in order to afford one pack of new razor blades.

The Dollar Shave Club’s TV spots all end with an appearance by Dubin as he points out how stores act like they don’t want you to buy razors, or “beat you up” with painfully-high razor prices when you do. The marketing campaign is well-timed considering many consumers will be looking for easy, convenient gift ideas as the holidays fast approach.

Even if the Dollar Shave Club TV ads don’t harness as much interest in the brand as its internet videos did, the spots are a f***ing great addition to the company’s marketing catalog.

Filed under: Articles, News by Bree Brouwer
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Lately, Netflix has been dominating the news, but Amazon Studios also has some high-profile original series in the works. The studio just released its trailer for its upcoming original series Bosch.

Bosch is based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling books about a Los Angeles Police Department detective named Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch. According to Variety, the series follows Bosch as he tries to solve the murder of a 13-year-old boy while he himself is on trial in federal court for the murder of a serial killer.

The police drama series stars Titus Welliver (Argo) as Bosch. Annie Wersching (from Extant and The Last of Us) and Jamie Hector (of The Wire and Heroes) are set to co-star. Connelly and Eric Overmyer (of Boardwalk Empire) co-scripted the original series, and Henrik Bastin and Fabrik Entertainment (known for The Killing) are co-producers.

If Connelly’s success with stories and entertainment are any indication, Bosch could be a big hit for Amazon. Two of Connelly’s works have previously been turned into feature-length films: Blood Work in 2002 (directed by and starring Clint Eastwood) and The Lincoln Lawyer in 2011 (starring Matthew McConaughey as a criminal defense attorney who is also Bosch’s half-brother).

Amazon will likely debut Bosch in 2015 exclusively for its members on the Amazon Prime Instant Video subscription service.

Filed under: Amazon Studios, Articles, Channels, News by Bree Brouwer
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How much of our personal income should we donate to charity? For Jack McPartland and Paul Calway, the answer is 0.7%; that small number defines a slick online campaign the two designers launched in partnership with Australian creative studio Future Büro and American creative director Amanda Clelland.

The message behind Give 0.7% is clear: If you donate a small portion of your salary to foreign aid (the 0.7% percent figure comes from the United Nations), you can make a “mind blowing” difference in the world. That assertion comes from Give 0.7%’s centerpiece: A ten-minute, five-second video outlining the campaign’s goals and encourage viewers to donate. That runtime is a specific one; 10:05 comes out to 0.7% of your day.

In case you the campaign’s use of YouTube doesn’t make it clear, Give 0.7% is aimed squarely at Millennials. The video ties together shots from films like Anchorman, clips from viral hits like Katy Perry’s “Roar” video, snippets of hip-hop tracks like Jay-Z’s “99 Problems”, and other pop culture references meant to appeal to the Internet’s main demographic.

In the end, the video is a stream of targeted appeals, all of which are expertly woven together with flashy editing. This is, as Calway told Newsweek, is meant to energize and educate viewers who would otherwise have little awareness of international policy. “[Donating to foreign aid is] such a huge subject, and I think it’s quite scary for someone looking in from the outside who has got absolutely no idea what’s going on,” he said. “We’re trying to create an interest in people to give them the basics and hopefully then they’ll be engaged, go on further and find out more.”

More information on Give 0.7% can be found on the campaign’s equally-slick website.

Filed under: Articles, Charity, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle
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Netflix wasn’t about to leave its fans in the dark with its newest original series Bloodline. The streaming video-on-demand service just released six new images from the upcoming original series.

Bloodline tells the story of the Florida Keys-based Rayburn siblings. The four are tight-knit, but when their oldest brother and black sheep of the family comes home, he “exposes the emotional demons that lie at the core of the family, threatening to tear them apart.” Netflix announced the show in October, and plans to debut the series on its platform in March 2015.

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Bloodline is executive produced by Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler, and Daniel Zelman, the three powers behind FX’s popular show Damages. Netflix’s upcoming series boasts an impressive roster of acting talent, including Kyle Chandler (of Friday Night Lights fame), Ben Mendelsohn (“The Dark Knight Rises”), Linda Cardellini (“Mad Men”), Sam Shepard (“The Right Stuff”), Sissy Spacek (“Carrie”), Norbert Leo Butz (“Dan in Real Life”), Jamie McShane (“Sons of Anarchy”), Jacinda Barrett (“Suits”) and Enrique Murciano (“Without a Trace”).

You can get more information about Bloodline when you follow the Netflix original series on your preferred digital platform(s) of choice: Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.

Filed under: Articles, Netflix, News by Bree Brouwer
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In a massive development that will shake up the online video landscape, Fullscreen–a top multi-channel network that manages content on YouTube and other online video platforms–has agreed to acquire Rooster Teeth, a creative studio best known for its gaming-related content.

Fullscreen announced the acquisition with a press release, in which Fullscreen CEO George Strompolos called Rooster Teeth “a perfect match for Fullscreen.”

Rooster Teeth first came to prominence through Red Vs. Blue, a web series set in the world of Halo that recently concluded its 12th season. While that series put Rooster Teeth on the map, it has since branched out its offerings. It now runs hugely popular channels like Let’s Play, and its library of web series includes RWBY, The Gauntlet, and The Know. Rooster Teeth’s network now sprawls well beyond video, too. It has its own podcast, an upcoming video game based on RWBY, and Lazer Team, a feature film funded by a record-breaking Indiegogo campaign.

For years, Rooster Teeth has operated independently out of its home base in Austin, where it is led by CEO Matt Hullum and creative director Burnie Burns. The sale to Los Angeles-based Fullscreen will not result in any big personnel changes; Hullum and Burns will continue to headquarter Rooster Teeth in the Texas capital.

As a subsidiary of Fullscreen, Rooster Teeth will be integrated into the network’s infrastructure. This will likely make it a key part of Otter Media, the joint venture launched by AT&T and The Chernin Group, which recently acquired a majority stake in Fullscreen. Rooster Teeth is not the only gaming network under that banner; earlier this year, Fullscreen acquired ScrewAttack, another online network related to gaming.

Fullscreen will help support several Rooster Teeth initiatives, including its retail division (which recently extended to a pop-in store in Austin) and its live events (such as RTX, the yearly convention that attracted more than 30,00 attendees in 2014). “At Rooster Teeth, we have a long history of creating the best digital content in the industry,” said Burns in a release. “With Fullscreen, we look forward to continuing that tradition in even bigger and better ways. Matt and I are excited about the opportunities this alliance will present for our creators and all the amazing content it will empower them to produce for our audience.”

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Filed under: Fullscreen, Rooster Teeth by Sam Gutelle
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DisneyCollectorBR is in first place on the U.S. charts for its seventh week in a row. The YouTube destination for toddlers who want to watch videos of adults playing with children’s toys dipped 3% in views on the week, but still racked up more than 84.2 million views. In second place is The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon. Daniel Radcliffe helped NBC’s flagship late night program score more than 70 million views on the week. The Ellen Show is next up in third place. Ellen DeGeneres’ syndication talk show’s YouTube home amassed nearly 69.5 million views in the last seven days.

In the #4 spot is Katy Perry. The lone pop star in the Top 5 in the U.S. stayed relatively steady with nearly 40.8 million views on the week. And rounding out the Top 5 is Blucollection. One of the other top destination for toddler’s looking for videos of adults playing with children’s toys scored nearly 40.5 million views during the week.

Top Gainers

The honor of one of our Top Gainers in the U.S. this week goes to Fast & Furious.

Universal Pictures released the official trailer of the seventh installment of the movie franchise “built on speed, Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and Dwayne Johnson” this week and the two-minute-and-forty-tw0-second video quickly racked up an eight figure view count. The peek at Furious 7 almost singularly pushed the film’s YouTube channel up 1,806% in views on the week, to top out at more than 27.1 million views and the #20 spot in the U.S.

Channel Distribution

The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 1,409,139,560 views. Here’s the distribution of those channels by multi-channel network:

• VEVO: 20 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Katy Perry topping out at #4.
• BuzzFeed, Fullscreen, Maker Studios, WMG: 2 channels each the Top 50, with BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #9, Fullscreen’s PopularMMO at #13, Maker’s markiplierGAME at #15, and WMG’s Jason Derulo at #38.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all of our news at Tubefilter by subscribing to our newsletter, following us on Twitter, becoming a fan on Facebook, and watching our videos on YouTube.

OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 250,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.

Filed under: Articles, News, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Joshua Cohen
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Machinima is switching up its image. The multi-channel network that began as a home for gaming-related content has rebranded, and it now sports a new tagline, a new talent management system, and a snazzier website.

The new tagline is “Heroes Rise“, and it speaks to Machinima’s focus on pop culture fandoms and its relationship with its “core fan.” The most visible place where this slogan has been implemented is on Machinima’s website; as a press release explains, the network’s online home is no longer a “sterile corporate placeholder.” Instead, it invites creators and advertisers to “enlist” while footage from Let’s Play videos, live-action shows, and animated series plays in the background.

Machinima’s rebrand isn’t limited to cosmetic changes. Instead, the network is also out to improve its talent management services, which have long served as a sticking point for creators. For example, in a recent interview, PewDiePie–a former Machinima partner–claimed the network “was managed in such a terrible way.”

In order to make its creators happier, Machinima now offers a three-tiered “Level UP” program, through which each content creator receives a package of services based on the size of his or her audience. Machinima partners will be able to access channel management tools through Console, a newly-constructed platform.

The final part of Machinima’s rebrand is the launch of Machinima Legion, a group of 10,000 viewers who Machinima will use as a focus group of sorts.

These changes are among the biggest ones Chad Gutstein has implemented since he became Machinima’s CEO in March 2014. Gutstein has also overseen a re-launch of the Machinima Prime channel. “Machinima needed a brand identity that reflects our position as the most notorious purveyors and cultivators of fandom and gamer culture and is worthy of the passion and aspirations of our Millennial audience and creators,” said Gutstein in a release.  “We have spent the past seven months building out the team, tools, and programming capabilities, enabling us to truly super serve our talent network and bring forth the programming our audience craves.  We want the world to know that Machinima is where Heroes Rise.”

Machinima is currently coming out of a rough period that saw it cancel high-profile projects, lay off employees, and struggle in the Comscore rankings. With its new look, Machinima is hoping to continue its growth while fashioning itself a new suite of online video powers.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Machinima.com, News by Sam Gutelle
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Shane Dawson has at least 250,000 reasons to thanks his fans. The insanely popular YouTuber (he boasts over 12.6 million subscribers across three channels) won $250,000 after his rabid social media followings voted his film Not Cool as the winner of Starz’s reality TV series The Chair.

The ten-episode series documented the independent filmmaking progress of its two contestants — Dawson and fellow budding filmmaker Anna Martemucci — as they produced their own versions of the same script penned by Dan Schoffer. Starz released the installments of the series on television and online to its subscribers, and asked viewers to tune in and then vote on their favorite flick. Martemucci’s movie Hollidaysburg and Dawson’s Not Cool debuted on digital platforms, with Dawson’s creative vision hitting the #5 spot on iTunes within hours of its release on September 23, 2014.

Starz announced Dawson the winner after the voting was tallied on Saturday, November 8, 2014. And that’s when the criticism started coming in.

According to Variety, New York Times’s Neil Genzlingersept said Not Cool was “so poorly executed and so unfunny that no one involved with it should ever be allowed to work in the movies again.” The Chair executive producer Zachary Quinto, star of Star Trek: Into Darkness, said, “I’m glad Shane won — he set out to what he wanted to do. But [his film is] not my cup of tea. [Martemucci] made a better film, from a technical perspective… That, to me, is not subjective.”

But subjectivity is not necessarily what fans notice, especially among the teen crowd that adores Dawson so much. While Starz didn’t reveal any actual voting counts, the network said reviewers gave Not Cool an average score 63 out of 100, while only giving Martemucci’s film a 58. This was the case even after Starz had to disqualify about 39% of the voters because they couldn’t answer questions about plot points to prove they’d seen both films.

The Chair’s executive producer Chris Moore said the difference in opinions and voting for The Chair’s contestants likely stemmed from their “arthouse versus mainstream” tones. “I feel very confident the movies were judged as movies,” he said. “It’s a thinking man’s reality show. It’s complicated.”

And Dawson agrees, saying the fact that he won “was a validation… People are out of touch with what teenagers are interested in. I wasn’t making a movie for middle-aged people writing about TV,” he stated. “I made the movie I wanted to make.”

While Moore said neither The Chair nor Dawson’s film attracted a large viewership, Dawson is looking into more of his movie-making opportunities. He did note he’ll stay on YouTube for the time being, but said to Variety, “I don’t think I’ll be doing daily videos forever.”

If you’d like to decide for yourself which film was the deserved winner, you can purchase both Not Cool and Hollidaysburg on iTunes.

Filed under: Articles, News, Shane Dawson, Studios by Bree Brouwer
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Jacob and Josh Fu may be famous for their musical prowess, but the duo is branching into new territory. The brothers (known as The Fu to more than 100,00 YouTube subscribers across two channels on YouTube) just debuted a new original web series called The FuZees.

With a kid-focused, family-friendly attitude, the 16-episode series was filmed entirely at YouTube Space LA and launched on November 8, 2014. The FuZees features puppet adaptations of the Fu brothers that sing and dance with collaborators (who are in their human forms) like Lana McKissack, Brizzy Voices, Brock Baker, and more.

We sat down with Jacob and Josh to discuss the inspiration behind the show, the decisions the brothers made before and during production, and the possibility of future puppet collaborations with other YouTubers.

Tubefilter: Who came up with the idea for FuZees? What will the show be about?

Josh & Jacob Fu: In 2011 we built homemade puppets to cover “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets movie and a seed was planted for The FuZees. Since then, it’s been an idea for a kids puppet show in the back of our minds but never felt like we had the right opportunity to work on it. If we did it, we wanted to be sure to do it right! Earlier this year, all the pieces seemed to fall in place and we started bringing life to The FuZees!

The FuZees is a fun online show utilizing music, arts, and dance to teach kids about behavioral, social, and emotional topics. Ultimately, they are YouTubers themselves and hope to connect with their audience like other YouTubers do!

TF: Why a children’s show as opposed to something for older audiences? And in a similar vein, why puppets?

JJF: Puppets are fun. Growing up, we used to watch Sesame Street all the time and loved the characters. There’s something more real and tangible about them. Lately puppets have been used more and more but a lot of times for older audiences, which is great, but we want to bring that love and imagination back to what we grew up on. We’ve always wanted to be responsible with any sort of voice we have in the YouTube space and create content that is family friendly. The FuZees ended up being the perfect fit for it!

TF: How did you find/choose Christian Anderson to make the puppet versions of yourselves?

JJF: We started looking into building our own puppets when we moved to LA in 2013 and met Christian through our YomYomF family. Although we couldn’t pull the trigger then, we knew that when we started working on the show, we would want to bring him on board! When you talk to Christian, you can see how much he loves building puppets and puppeteering and knew that passion would be seen when bringing out characters to life.

TF: How did you pick which collaborators would appear on the show?

JJF: We want to bring on YouTubers that believe in bringing quality family content to YouTube, and specifically content for kids. All of the guests that have come on The FuZees are excited to see The FuZees come to life and reaching out to a younger audience.

TF: Which episode has been your favorite to create, and why?

JJF: It’s really hard to pick just one! But if we had to, it would probably be the first episode. It’s the first one where we get to see the entire world become reality and introduces the show and main characters!

TF: What is the one idea/message you want viewers to get out of this show?

JJF: For kids, we want them to connect with the characters and know that there are others dealing with what they are dealing with as 3-5 year olds. Things like learning to make friends, their own identities, how to help around the house, or what to do when they are scared.

For the older audience, we want to have a fun show where they can see their favorite YouTubers interacting with The FuZees. We want to make them smile and remind them what they used to love as kids.

For parents, we want to create a show that they can play for their kids and know they don’t have to worry about what they are seeing and hearing. And of course, that they can watch, sing, and dance along to as well!

TF: As of now, how does the future of The FuZees look in terms of more seasons?

JJF: The first season will have 16 episodes and launches on November 8th with new episodes every Saturday! We look forward to bringing out new partners and bringing more episodes in the future. In the meantime, The FuZees may put on other “traditional” YouTube videos like Q&As, vlogs, or even challenges.

TF: Do you have any more puppet collaborations lined up?

JJF: We’re hoping to build a FuZees family that continues to grow, both in puppets and humans! We plan to have The FuZees collaborate with other YouTubers on their channels and definitely hope to bring on more to theirs!

Filed under: Articles, News, Web Series by Bree Brouwer
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