Speedrunners come in all sorts, focused on all genres of gaming. But there’s a sizable contingent of them who focus on older Nintendo games and other vintage titles you might’ve seen in the oft-opened cabinet of an entertainment system during the 80s and 90s, stored alongside VHS players and stacks of tapes.

That’s the vibe speedrunner/speedrunning historian Summoning Salt is going for with his new project: A series of VHS tapes containing some of his top YouTube videos.

Perhaps best known as a top speedrunning recordholder for the 1987 Nintendo game Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!, Summoning Salt is also a consistent uploader of documentary-style videos that chronicle the history of speedrunning in certain games, as well as fellow speedrunners’ rises to success. He’s been making said documentaries since 2017, and now has over 2 million subscribers on YouTube.

He announced the VHS project in a June 19 video that also featured him revealing his face for the first time in his eight-year YouTube career. (He usually appears via voiceover.) He says that’s not going to be a regular thing; him appearing on camera was just to promote the inaugural installment of the VHS series.

The first VHS is a remaster of his 2023 YouTube video The History of Halo 2 World Records, edited to 4:3 so it’s playable on an old-school TV. It comes packaged just like the VHS tapes of yesteryear: custom glossy box art on a cardboard sleeve with a fully usable teal-colored tape inside.

The runtime? 59 minutes, thanks to a little extra content that “[shows] off what’s happened to the world record since the original release,” Summoning Salt said. “The only place to watch that is on this tape.”

Why do VHS, nearly 20 years after it went out of popular use? Summoning Salt has a simple explanation: “I love physical media, and I love the nostalgia of VHS. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

“I want to a whole bunch of these going forward, with all my classic videos getting a release,” he added.

But that’ll only happen if this initial VHS is a success. Summoning Salt is selling them for $34.99 each (the equivalent of about twenty bucks when Halo 2 came out in 2004, and about $13.50 in 1990, when VHSes were really popping). That pre-production sale period only lasts two weeks, until July 3, and then viewers will have to wait between two and three months while the tapes are made and shipped to them. If that sounds like a long time, remember if you saw Jurassic Park in theaters in 1993, back when theater-exclusive windows were still a thing, you’d have to wait six months or more for it to come to home video.

You can check out Summoning Salt’s project on his website. We here at Tubefilter always have an eye out for interesting creator endeavors, and this one is a unique way to celebrate the simmering nostalgia that’s baked into speedrunning’s bones. We dig it.

Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature by James Hale
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If you’ve been thinking about launching a Patreon account but haven’t gotten around to it yet, you might want to launch your page by August 4. That’s when the creator monetization platform will roll out a new fiscal policy that will see it take a 10% cut of all on-platform earnings — though users who are locked into previous plans will be able to keep their current rates.

Currently, Patreon offers two different pricing plans for its users: For Pro plans, which provide access to a basic set of monetization and audience engagement tools, Patreon takes an 8% cut. For the full-featured Premium tier, that figure rises to 12%. As you might expect, the 8% plan is more popular than the costlier alternative.

After August 4, Patreon will simplify matters. Everyone who signs up for Patreon after that date will fork over 10% of earnings to the platform. Anyone who claimed a pre-existing rate will be grandfathered into their current plan. And if you’re worried that Patreon will change its mind and do away with the 8% rate, keep in mind there are still some users who are taking advantage of a 5% Founders plan Patreon discontinued in 2019.

The reasoning behind the change is pretty simple: Patreon now offers a lot more tools than it did when it launched 12 years ago. As its creators level up and diversify their businesses, it wants to level up, too.

“Since we last updated our prices six years ago, Patreon has expanded beyond just payments to include media hosting, community, and discovery,” reads a Patreon blog post. “Chat messages between creators and their fans are growing 63% year over year, in the past year fans viewed over 80 million hours of Patreon video, creators are going live daily, and Patreon’s discovery ecosystem is driving over $200 million to creators per year. We’re updating our pricing for new creators to continue offering even more tools to help you grow and connect.”

Patreon has copy-pasted popular forms of monetization from across the social web, ranging from TikTok-style live video to Twitch-style subscriptions. It has dabbled in the realm of IRL events with its acquisition of Moment, helped podcasters bring in hundreds of millions of dollars from their fans, and made it easier to discover popular creators on the platform. Patreon even came up with a “great plan” to help its community navigate the onerous fees associated with Apple’s App Store.

When you add up all of those revenue streams, you get a lot more money going into creators’ pockets. Patreon’s increased fees may not sit well with some new users, but given the diversity of the platform’s monetization options, the higher rate is a worthy price to pay.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Patreon by Sam Gutelle
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YouTube wants its creator community to upload videos that can be used in schools, so it’s making those videos more profitable than they previously were. Monetization is now available through YouTube’s classroom-safe Player for Education, with payouts proportional to watch time.

Jonah Manzano, a tech enthusiast known for leaking new and upcoming features on social media, posted about the Player for Education update on Threads. Manzano noticed that a new tab had been added to the “Earn on YouTube” landing page, which details various monetization opportunities for the platform’s creators.

YouTube also updated its Player for Education support page to reflect the change. “Our educational partners pay to license the Player for Education from YouTube,” reads the page. “Even though there aren’t any ads, you can still earn money from the amount of time people watch your videos in the player.” Accumulated earnings are routed through AdSense and can be managed there.

The Player for Education was one of the new features YouTube launched in 2023 as part of its effort to expand its utility in classroom settings. The alternative video player is designed to cut down on distractions, and it also offers an ad-free experience.

YouTube channels like Crash Course have long been applicable tools for teachers, and recent research suggests that students might learn better when course materials are conveyed through a stimulating format — i.e. an entertaining YouTube video. For YouTube to reach its educational potential, its creators need to keep making classroom-appropriate videos.

If those clips are viewed through the Player for Education, the ad-free environment makes it harder for creators to support their work. That’s why the latest monetization update is important: It gives creators more runway to create content that can make a positive change in schools.

We’ve seen YouTube adopt strategies like this in several different areas. A recent change to the platform’s monetization policies, for example, made it easier for creators to post newsy and political videos without drawing takedown notices. Across all facets of its business, YouTube is making it easier and more profitable to upload content that enriches and informs its viewers. When you consider some of the problems today’s teens are dealing with, the value of YouTube’s effort becomes clear.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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For the first time in its 15-year history, Pinterest is putting out an original, co-branded product.

And it picked a creator to be its partner.

Vlogger Emma Chamberlain and her eponymous coffee company this week released Sea Salt Toffee, a “trend-inspired blend” that’s Pinterest-official. The limited-edition blend (available on Chamberlain Coffee‘s website for buyers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Europe) was inspired by the very ~aesthetic~ idea of “sipping an iced coffee by the seaside,” Pinterest says.

For those curious, it’s $23.95 for a 10 oz bag of ground roast, and there’s also some associated merch, like keychains for $14, a pitcher for $54, and a tote for $64. Tasting notes include “buttery caramel, a hint of sea salt, and toasted brown butter,” and the blend is 100% arabica beans.

 

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A post shared by Chamberlain Coffee (@chamberlaincoffee)

Pinterest says that, in developing the flavor, it took cues from the popular “fisherman aesthetic” trend, where users pin images exemplifying cozy ocean cottage living and a “laid back maritime attitude” with “cable knit sweaters, sardine tattoos and stripes. on. everything.” We’re not too surprised it went with this theme, considering it already predicted the world of boats and buoys would be one of its top trends of 2025.

“The collaboration illustrates how Pinterest’s trend forecasting system not only predicts consumer trends, but provides valuable insights to help brands plan and predict upcoming products,” it says, adding that it chose to work with Chamberlain Coffee because the brand is “known for its bold brand and creative approach to at-home coffee.”

Chamberlain, meanwhile, says she’s a longtime Pinterest user, and that it’s “a dream to team up with them for this special Chamberlain Coffee launch.”

“Pinterest has been a massive inspiration and tool for building Chamberlain Coffee—it’s where we find inspiration for upcoming campaigns, discover new flavors and keep up with drink trends,” she explains. “I can’t wait for everyone to try this limited-edition blend, it’s absolutely delicious (and cute…).”

To mark her first-of-its-kind partnership with Pinterest, Chamberlain is headed to major advertising event Cannes Lions this week, where she’s holding a Chamberlain Coffee popup and hosting a fireside chat with Pinterest CEO Bill Ready.

She’s also celebrating by adding a special drink, the “Salted Sailor,” to the menu at Chamberlain Coffee’s brick-and-mortar location, which opened in Los Angeles this past January.

While Chamberlain Coffee isn’t as loud a beverage brand as, say, Prime, and Chamberlain doesn’t have an in-your-face style of promoting it, it’s been a successful endeavor for her, hitting an estimated $20 million in annual sales–and, of course, nabbing this partnership for her. Pinterest choosing a creator to lead its first foray into consumer products is a big deal; it shows the platform takes creators seriously and recognizes their power not just as individuals, but as businesses. We’re curious if Chamberlain Coffee will produce more blends based on Pinterest trends–or if the platform will start reaching out to more creators for equally unique partnerships.

Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature, Pinterest by James Hale
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Welcome to our rundown of the most-watched branded YouTube videos of the week.

We’re publishing this snippet of a larger Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report in order to analyze sponsorship trends in the creator economy. Any video launched in tandem with an official brand partner is eligible for the ranking.

And – as the name up above would imply – all the data comes from Gospel Stats. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.

Our latest Gospel Stats Weekly Brand Report is full of pop culture moments. Old Spice is riding the new Superman movie hype thanks to a collab with Adam W, Red Bull is in the spotlight with an experiment from NileBlue, Nintendo‘s new Switch 2 gets a hard look from Marques Brownlee, and viral K-beauty still has a strong presence online thanks to thrifty “skinthusiast” Gothamista.

Check ’em all out right here:

#1 #ad #OldSpicePartner When @oldspice saves the day
Channel: Adam W
Brand: Old Spice
Views: 6,930,861

This week’s top vid is a prime example of YouTube Shorts sponcon. Unlike the vast majority of sponsored long-form videos, Shorts tend to revolve entirely around the partner brand–as is the case with this 60-second Old Spice ad. Adam W‘s take on things pitched the antiperspirant brand as a heroic force for the good of humanity. And, having spent time in a high school surrounded by teenagers, we can’t really argue there. His Short also rocks up to a pop culture moment, since the new Superman movie (yes, another one) is coming out July 8. Old Spice has a reputation for smart, savvy advertising, and it seems keen to preserve that reputation. It’s choosy about YouTube partners, having decided to only work with Adam W and Kevin Hart on his latest episode of Cold as Balls.

#2 Making the world’s most powerful Red Bull
Channel: NileBlue
Brand: Brilliant
Views: 6,843,945

Hey kids! Want to feel your heart explode? NileBlue can help, thanks to the power of science! Okay, okay, in all seriousness, we’ve all experienced caffeine pangs, and those of us willing to risk kidney stones have also experienced the crash that comes after sucking down an energy drink with a couple hundred milligrams of caffeine. NileBlue has one question: What if that energy drink had more than a couple hundred milligrams? And what if he could make it quicker and easier to consume all that caffeine? Think 5-Hour Energy but supercharged, since NileBlue sets out to combine a whopping 100 Red Bulls into one concentrated, palpitation-inducing slurp. (We hope we don’t have to say this, but do not try that at home.) While Nile’s adventure is sponsored by educational company Brilliant, it (obviously) also has some decent screen time for Red Bull, which–at least on YouTube–doesn’t exactly need help getting the word out.

#3 Puzzles That Look Easy But Are Actually IMPOSSIBLE!
Channel: Hafu Go
Brand: Odoo
Views: 5,317,211

In case you got inspired by NileBlue’s project and grabbed your own source of caffeine, video #3 has a place for all that energy to go. Hafu Go started as a sports and fitness YouTuber, but in the last couple years has shifted his channel’s direction to “testing the future of science, tech, and engineering.” As part of that testing, he’s expanding viewers’ brains with 25 minutes of puzzles that are deceptively simple-looking. None of them are nearly as easy as they look at first glance–but Go’s sponsor, Odoo, is out to make business website design the exact opposite. It sponsored ~8 videos this week, including #427, about building a solar-powered RC car, and #632, about the prevalence of “creepy fake buildings” in cities.

#4 Nintendo Switch 2 Unboxing & First Gameplay!
Channel: Marques Brownlee
Brand: dbrand
Views: 4,965,684

In the gaming world, it’s the question on pretty much everyone’s mind right now: Is the Switch 2 worth it? After years of waiting for Nintendo to come out with version 2.0 of its portable console, gamers have been hit with megacorpo greed, where not only is the Switch 2 price jacked, but so are prices of individual games. The dollar increase has brought more scrutiny over whether the Switch 2 will be worth it–and now one of YouTube’s top tech reviewers is giving his definitive opinion. Marques Brownlee was cautiously critical of the Switch 2 after its announcement, but now that he’s got it in his hands, will that opinion change? We won’t spoil, but we will say the Switch 2 is getting a lot of attention on YouTube right now. This week alone, there are ~40+ sponsored videos about it, and likely hundreds or even thousands more that aren’t sponsored. (Oh, speaking of sponsors, Brownlee’s video comes from his frequent partner dbrand, which is probably about to supply a lot of Switch 2 cases and skins to gamers everywhere.)

BONUS #2,097 New Affordable Korean Beauty for Summer!
Channel: Gothamista
Brand: Stylevana
Views: 36,938

K-beauty blew up in the U.S. during COVID, and though the fervor has somewhat calmed in brick-and-mortar shopping (remember when every CVS, Walmart, and corner store had face masks? Those were the days…), it’s still thriving online. And self-dubbed “skinthusiast” Gothamista is not about spending big bucks to get the latest K-beauty cool stuff. Her chill, 20-minute video runs down some newly released products for viewers who want to treat their skin without gutting their wallets–and it’s sponsored by a company doing some excellent niche outreach: Stylevana, an online marketplace for Asian fashion & beauty.

…and there’s a lot more data where that came from. If you’re interested in learning more about Gospel – and which brands are sponsoring what creators on YouTube – click here.

Filed under: Articles, Brands, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by James Hale
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In February 2025, YouTube turned 20. The video site has gone through a lot over the past two decades, including an acquisition, an earnings glow-up, and multiple generations of star creators. In our 20 Years of YouTube series, we’ll examine the uploads, trends, and influencers that have defined the world’s favorite video site — one year at a time. Click here for a full archive of the series.

In retrospect, it makes perfect sense that the most influential YouTube video of all time is pretty weird.

Its signature dance move involves invisible horses. It includes the most famous elevator twerk of all time. For many of its viewers, its lyrics are indecipherable, save for “hey, sexy lady” and “oppa, Gangnam Style.”

Psy‘s magnum opus arrived in July 2012 and captivated the internet like nothing before. Its earth-shattering success was due, in large part, to good timing. Seven years into YouTube’s existence, viral videos were peaking, music videos were doing massive numbers, and the platform’s global era was just beginning. ‘Gangnam Style’ arrived at that pivotal moment and set records that would not be broken for years.

In case you weren’t active on YouTube in 2012 (and just because I’m fascinated by this type of analysis), let’s run through a few of the most gobsmacking ‘Gangnam Style’ stats. From its upload date to the point where it became YouTube’s most-watched video, it averaged 70 views per second. It needed only five months to become the first YouTube video with at least one billion views, and when it reached that milestone, there were only 56 YouTube channels with that many views. On a single day in October 2012, the phrase “gangnam style” was searched more than five million times on YouTube.

A 2015 retrospective gave us a few more eye-popping numbers. “With 11,000+ years of watchtime, the total amount of Gangnam Style served up by YouTube thus far would be enough to fill nearly 50 million standard VHS tapes,” reads a YouTube blog post published at the time.

I think you get the point. ‘Gangnam Style’ was bigger than any video that came before it. It arrived at the United Nations, crashed the Oval Office, and got so much traffic that it broke YouTube’s view counter. Go ahead and add one more to tally, if you feel like it:

There are two different ways YouTube can be split into pre- and post-‘Gangnam Style’ eras. The most obvious divide concerns the song’s genre. K-pop was largely an Asian phenomenon in 2012, but after Psy burst onto the international scene, fans from all over the world got excited about South Korea’s hottest artists. In 2011, YouTube noted that “less than half the viewership of top K-Pop channels was from outside the Asia-Pacific region.” One year after ‘Gangnam Style,’ 91% of viewership on those hubs came from outside Korea.

That wasn’t just a shift in musical taste. It was a cultural upheaval that caused artists around the world to adopt the particular style associated with K-pop tastemakers. “Afterwards, viral hits became a constant across genres, with artists using memorable videos or you-can-do-it-too dances as a way to gain attention (alongside more cynical and bizarre attempts at chart-crashing),” Pitchfork wrote in 2017. “Thanks to its surprise success, ‘Gangnam Style’ helped usher in the streaming age in the West.”

YouTube was already become a global force in 2012, with international creators like HolaSoyGerman and Hikakin becoming household names. That was good news for Google’s bottom line, but it made it much more difficult to envision the YouTube community as a singular entity, rather than the fractured collection of niches it is today.

The decline of YouTube Rewind supports that theory. In the years following Psy’s breakout, YouTube’s year-end recap became so overstuffed that it struggled to function as a platform-wide celebration.

In that case, YouTube couldn’t go back to the way things were before ‘Gangnam Style.’ The other quality of the post-Gangnam era is even more irreversible: The numbers just keep going up. Once one video got a billion views, the floodgates opened up, and the YouTube ecosystem became wholly different from its early years.

Consider that, between 2012 and 2022, the number of music videos with at least one billion YouTube views went from zero to 317. Psy showed the scale that could be achieved through the power of worldwide appeal, and other creators were quick to pick up on that growth hack. YouTube was always bound to become a numbers game, but ‘Gangnam Style’ took that phenomenon from a canter to a gallop.

These days, YouTube is so big that the founding father of the billion-views club has been left behind. Younger K-pop stars have broken his chart records and other music videos have overtaken ‘Gangnam Style’ on YouTube. Psy has left to ponder what exactly made his greatest hit into such a smash. “I still don’t know why it was so special,” he told Billboard in 2017. “If I knew why, I could make it again and again.”

Unpredictability powered the ‘Gangnam Style’ rocket ship in the first place and became a big part of the song’s legacy. The impresario behind that track — and the star of its iconic video — seems to have made peace with the wacky YouTube world he unleashed.

“One of the things I love most about this job is that it’s unpredictable. We say among ourselves we’re in the ‘lid business’ — because you don’t know what you’ve got until you open it,” Psy told The New York Times in 2022. “You don’t know which cloud will bring the rain.”

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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On the heels of its investment in Whalar’s Lighthouse brand, the Fox Corporation is forging another connection to the creator economy. Tubi, the Fox-owned platform known for free, ad-supported TV (FAST), is launching a new content hub called Tubi for Creators.

The Tubi for Creators program will unite the titular platform’s efforts to get big names from YouTube and TikTok into its content library. The initial Tubi for Creators lineup is powered by deals with six YouTube notables, who are collectively bringing 500 episodes of serialized content to FAST viewers.

The shows arriving on Tubi include Kinigra Deon‘s Vampire Siblings (pictured above), Dan and Riya‘s Beverly Valley High, FunnyMike‘s Mr. Creepy Eyes, and content from creator-led media companies like Jubilee, Watcher, and Rhett & Link‘s Mythical.

Previously, Tubi announced several creator-facing initiatives that targeted up-and-coming artists, including a partnership with Kickstarter and the Issa Rae-led incubator Stubio. The new Tubi for Creators represents a pivot, as it involves high-profile partnerships with YouTube stars who reach millions of subscribers. According to Tubi press release, “thousands of videos” will hit the platform “in the coming weeks.”

That approach will allow Tubi to get a piece of the work creators are already doing. Emboldened by platforms like YouTube and creator economy companies like Jellysmack, prominent influencers are launching channels that are compatible with FAST hubs. Mythical and Watcher are two such entities.

Some of the streaming services launched by creators have been powered by Vimeo Streaming, a tool that facilitates the development and monetization of premium content hubs. Vimeo, and its streaming service toolkit in particular, has strong ties to Tubi’s current venture. Former Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud left the company in 2023 to take the same position at Tubi.

Sud has now brought a fellow Vimeo vet to Tubi with her. Rich Bloom, the former GM of Vimeo Streaming predecessor Vimeo OTT, is overseeing Tubi for Creators as the company’s GM of Creator Programs and EVP of Business Development.

“I’m thrilled to join Tubi as they are committed to offering creators unique opportunities, creative freedom and importantly, an audience,” Bloom said in a statement. “Many creators today function like full-fledged production studios creating longer-form, episodic content that is a perfect fit for broader distribution and Tubi is the right partner to level-up their content and grow their audience.”

In the streaming landscape, subscriptions with ads are becoming more common — as of last December, FAST-style memberships account for about half of all streaming subscriptions. Tubi is well-positioned to play a key role in that explosion of ad-supported content, and its experienced execs are making sure that creators come along for the ride.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Tubi by Sam Gutelle
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Back in 2021, we wrote about how social ecommerce, which was doing billions of dollars in sales in China, was struggling to find a foothold with U.S. shoppers despite significant potential. Marketing companies (especially influencer marketing companies) and brands wanted social shopping to catch on in the West, but just couldn’t find the catalyst that would get American audiences to embrace it.

Then, in 2023, TikTok Shop happened.

Now? Live shopping in the U.S. is growing faster than any other market, and is projected to hit $19 billion in sales this year.

Ecommerce startup Orca is one of the companies at the forefront of this movement; in the last 12 months, it’s sold over $100 million on TikTok Shop with brands like e.l.f Beauty, Esteé Lauder, Joy Mangano‘s CleanBoss, Alicia Keys‘ Keys Soulcare, SKINN, and KimChi Chic Beauty. So if there’s someone who understands the current scope and prospective future of social shopping, it’s Orca’s co-founder and CEO Max Benator.

This understanding is why Benator launched SoCom, a conference dedicated to social ecommerce. During SoCom’s inaugural event in February, it hosted 600 industry professionals and content creators, with talks, panels, and workshops by C-suites and senior leaders at platforms and brands like TikTok Shop, YouTube, Snap, Pinterest, e.l.f., Gap, Athleta, and LTK.

For SoCom’s second event, it’ll return to Venice Beach for a full day of programming, including social commerce workshops and a livestream gifting suite for content creators.

“It’s wild that, even today, we’re all still forced to shop online by reading product descriptions and clicking on photos,” Benator tells Tubefilter. “Obviously, the technology exists for livestreams, short videos, creator content, etc to be shoppable with a click. AI advances will make shopping within video an even more seamless experience. It’s no surprise that social commerce will be a one trillion dollar industry in 2026.”

He adds, “Given the response from our first SoCom last year, and our advisory board this year, SoCom ’26 is shaping up to be the best place for leaders in the space to connect, learn and stay at the cutting edge of social commerce.”

The advisory board he mentions is packed with a dozen execs and senior leaders. Here’s the full roster:

• (new) Julie Haleluk, Amazon Shoppable Video, Global Head, Growth
• (new) Alanna Baruch Essig, TikTok, Head of TikTok Shop Partner Activations
• (new) Rashmi Paul, Pinterest, Merchants & Shopping Lead, Global Content
• (new) Noah Wieseneck, Snap, Senior Manager, Creator Business Partnerships
• (new) Brian Wessel, SVP, Media & Data Strategy, Sony Pictures Entertainment
• (returning) Damon Berger, Gap, Head of Consumer Digital Engagement, Gap Inc.
• (returning) Madison Luscombe, The Creator Society, Co-Founder and CEO
• (returning) Amy Neben, Partner, Select Management Group
• (returning) Ethan Kramer, President, Agital
• (returning) Drew Baldwin, Founder, Tubefilter, Executive Producer, Streamy Awards
• (returning) Max Benator, Co-Founder & CEO, Orca
• (returning) Lauren Stevens, Co-Founder & Chief Content Officer, Orca

“With the guidance of our new and returning advisors, we’re confident that SoCom 2026 will be an unmissable event for anyone in the social commerce space,” Benator says.

SoCom 2026 will take place Feb. 26, 2026, at 57 Windward in Venice Beach, California. Tickets start at $399 and are available here.

Tubefilter is the official press partner for SoCom.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, News by James Hale
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At the annual Cannes Lions festival in France, Neal Mohan delved into the past, present, and future of YouTube. As the YouTube CEO reminisced about 20 years of videos and shared some stats that underscore the platform’s current day platform, he looked ahead by announcing that the hyperrealistic Veo 3 generative AI model will soon make its debut on YouTube Shorts.

Shorts has grown rapidly since its launch more than four years ago, and YouTube’s recent decision to take a more liberal approach to the format’s view counts has furthered its expansion — at least in terms of raw numbers. Mohan announced that Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views. That’s a mind-boggling stat, though we wouldn’t be doing our jobs if we didn’t remind everyone that YouTube counts all Shorts feed impressions as views — and therefore your mileage may vary regarding the import of YouTube’s round-number viewership milestones.

YouTube Shorts’ impact goes far beyond the raw viewership data. Mohan noted that TV is the most-watched screen for more than half of the world’s 100 most-watched YouTube channels, and he also claimed that the platform’s AI-powered language dubbing tool has been used to translate more than 20 million videos. From mobile-oriented vertical feeds to living room TV sets, YouTube currently dominates the entertainment world.

“Today, YouTube is the epicenter of culture,” Mohan said. “I’m not talking about forgettable fads or one-hit-wonders we scroll right past. I mean culture with a capital ‘C.’ The place where day after day, year after year, the events, conversations and voices that define the moment break through and leave their mark.”

New AI innovations are on the way to help YouTube consolidate that dominance. Veo 3 has shocked observers by generative lifelike clips that invoke popular YouTube trends. Its arrival on YouTube Shorts “later this summer” will add a powerful new tool to an AI arsenal that already includes creator-facing features like Dream Screen.

Mohan argued that Veo 3 will “push the limits of human creativity,” allowing YouTube’s community to carry on the creator revolution. Of course, some creators are more worried about Veo putting them out of work than they are excited about the model’s potential. Google’s powerful AI tools will ensure the Shorts numbers keep going up — though viewers will have to be extra vigiliant if they want to recognize all of the machine-generated videos that are coming to their vertical feeds.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Meta is becoming the Oprah of social video: You’re getting a Reel, and you’re getting a Reel, and you’re getting a Reel, everyone’s getting Reels!

The company formerly known as Facebook has made the decision to turn all videos on its original platform into Reels. That change will allow Facebook to unite video creation flows that were previously kept separate.

In a blog post, Meta wrote that “all videos on Facebook will be shared as Reels.” To ensure that users can still upload videos of different lengths, Meta will remove all runtime restrictions from Reels. The resulting videos will “not have any length or format restrictions.”

The change sounds similar to a monetization update Facebook announced last October. In both cases, creators were frustrated and/or confused by an overabundance of options on a platform that has evolved many times across its two-decade existence. By choosing to simplify and consolidate its programs, Facebook is developing the sort of streamlined creator experience that users of other social platforms have come to expect.

“Facebook remains a home for all types of video – short, long, and Live,” reads the recent blog post. “We will gradually roll out these changes globally to profiles and Pages over the coming months to help you create, share, and discover reels more easily on Facebook.”

With Reels, Meta has found a reliable foothold that lets it keep pace with rivals like TikTok and YouTube in the world of vertically-oriented video. As Reels accounts for bigger and bigger pieces of Meta’s revenue while also bringing substantial creator earnings to both Facebook and Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg and co. are doing whatever they can to make the format more visible. There have been rumors regarding a standalone version of Instagram Reels, and as part of the latest update, Facebook’s Video tab will be renamed to reflect its focus on Reels.

When Meta chooses to go all-in on a particular type of video, the results aren’t always even for creators. Its ill-fated 2017 pivot to video led to a legal battle with videomakers who felt short-changed by the limited impact of their content. That dispute didn’t stop Facebook from refocusing on video in 2022, and it’s now making Reels into the be-all and end-all of that push. Here’s hoping this platform-wide initiative goes a little better for creators than some of Meta’s previous maneuvers.

Filed under: Articles, Facebook, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Last year, Theorist‘s fashion-savvy arm Style Theory put on the first Creators in Fashion show, drawing over 4 million views with a catwalk that featured looks from spring/summer ’24 collections designed by Critical Role, ZHC, Blogilates and POPFLEX creator Cassey Ho, Yes Theory, and more.

It was a novel event for our industry, where thousands of creators have made careers from their passion for fashion, but haven’t gotten the chance to take that passion onto the runway, either as a designer or as a model. Like Theorist founder and former on-camera host MatPat told us, creators have gotten big spots in sectors like food & bev, “but there’s so much great work being done in the apparel and fashion space” that deserves more recognition.

Which is exactly what Theorist plans to give it.

The creator media company (which started with flagship channel The Game Theorists in 2009, then launched The Film Theorists and The Food Theorists before putting out The Style Theorists in 2023) will host its second annual Creators in Fashion show at this year’s VidSummit.

VidSummit–a Tubefilter partner–has emerged as perhaps the most prominent professional gathering for creators, where the focus is on business development and the nuts-and-bolts of making content. It’ll take place Oct. 7-9 in Dallas, and Theorist’s Creators in Fashion show will close out the convention by taking over its mainstage.

Tobias Hoss, SVP of Operations at Theorist’s owner Lunar X, tells Tubefilter that “from a strategic point of view,” moving Creators in Fashion to VidSummit works because “we align in terms of values.”

“VidSummit is the primary platform and event in the States that celebrates greater entrepreneurship and also showcases how creators move beyond content and become businesspeople,” he says. “It’s aligned with our point of view celebrating creators as not just creators, but businesses–small, medium, and large businesses. It’s also aligned with our mission of showcasing that this is possible. We see VidSummit as the perfect stage that enables us to make this event bigger and bolder.”

Theorist founder and former host MatPat will emcee with current Style Theory host Amy Roberts. Just like last year, Creators in Fashion will feature looks and walks from a number of creators, including Cassey Ho, Mia Maples, Mary Allyson, Glam Girl Gabi, Esteffanie, and Sydney Morgan (with more to be announced). This year’s event is tapping even more creators off the catwalk, with Roberts echoing Hoss, telling Tubefilter that Theorist’s goal, “aside from featuring all the creators who are doing amazing things in the fashion space, is to be able to highlight as many creators as possible.”

That means bringing in the Try Guys for a video segment, The Stupendium as musical guests, and people like Samantha Zazz (who are in the fashion space but not yet at the point of making their own products) for guest spots.

These creators are “making cool things, doing cool things that are adjacent and that align with a wider Theorist audience, because people tuning into the event both love the fashion of it and the creators who are participating, but they also love Theorist,” Roberts says.

Just like last year, participating creators will have their looks for sale, so thanks to YouTube Shopping‘s tech, livestream viewers will be able to buy clothes in real-time, QVC-style, while models are walking.

Roberts says that sort of sale is an opportunity not just for creators, but for fans as well. “When it comes to the live sale portion of the event, which is something we’re insanely proud of, we pushed YouTube Shopping very far last year and we’re looking to do even more this year, with being able to shop the things you’re seeing on the runway as the runway is happening. It lets us really combine the audiences of all these different creators into one space, to hopefully let people see things that maybe they wouldn’t have otherwise,” she says. “And it gives the audience an opportunity to really expand their horizons to both creators and content, as well as the products they’re going to see.”

Hoss agrees, noting that major fashion events like New York Fashion Week are “very exclusive, and very inaccessible.”

“We are turning that upside down with a community-powered event,” he says. “We have passion without borders, if you will, which I think is very important nowadays. Obviously not everyone can be at VidSummit to enjoy that event, but that’s the reason why we livestream [Creators in Fashion] across various channels, so we can grow the reach beyond participants who will be there. Making it accessible to a much bigger audience is the way we crafted it.”

More details about this year’s show will be announced in the coming months.

Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature by James Hale
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MrBeast is trying to make the second season of his Amazon Prime Video original series even bigger than the first. To pull that off, he has gotten to work at a temporary soundstage in Las Vegas, which is serving as the new filming location for Beast Games.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal investigated a “mysterious building” alongside Interstate 15 and determined that the facility is a “soundstage for Beast Games.” MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, worked with Amazon MGM Studios to break ground on the building, which is located about six miles south of the Las Vegas Strip. Allegiant Stadium, the massive sports complex on the south end of the Strip, was the filming location for the first season of Beast Games.

According to the Review-Journal, which cited the permit for the temporary building, the Beast Games team moved in on May 1 and will be out by June 30. MrBeast and his collaborators are trying to take season two of their competition show to new heights, with a potential prize pool of $15 million.

Season one of Beast Games featured a $10 million prize and set viewership records for Amazon. Despite delivering strong numbers, the show was also the subject of controversy. During production, several contestants claimed that the set was a hostile work environment plagued by numerous issues. In an ensuing class-action lawsuit, a group of Beast Games cast members claimed they were “shamelessly exploited.”

Between the Beast Games filming issues and the poor execution of a MrBeast-themed Las Vegas Strip experience, Donaldson doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to Sin City. Moving production to a pop-up facility could give the creator a little more control over the proceedings. After all, operating out of massive production spaces is right in MrBeast’s wheelhouse.

Expansion hasn’t always come easy for the world’s most-subscribed YouTuber, but Donaldson’s core business remains wildly successful (if not wholly profitable). The man behind the MrBeast brand recently landed at the top of Forbes‘ list of the creators who generate the most revenue. The report pegged Donaldson’s annual earnings at $85 million.

Beast Games is one piece of that pie, and it is locked in for at least two more seasons. A renewal deal covering those installments was announced back in May.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, MrBeast, News by Sam Gutelle
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