Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry. This week, platforms are making monetization moves, creators are teeing off on YouTube, and TikTok has lost one of its top execs as ban talk ramps up.

Platform headlines

Press X for cash. As part of his quest to make X “the everything app,” Elon Musk partnered formerly-Twitter with Visa back in January to develop a digital wallet and peer-to-peer cash transfers that’ll all happen on X. Now some users are starting to see the functionality debut, and they’ll have to decide whether or not they want Musk in their money.

Snapchat is going local. With its multicity “Creator Connect” campaign, the app is diving into Indian communities and searching for up-and-coming content creators to provide with mentorship, networking opportunities, and growth tools.

Spotify’s Partner Program expands. After launching its new monetization program in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia earlier this year, Spotify is eyeing more territories. The program (which is aimed at rewarding creators making “premium” video content) will push out to creators in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland this April.

Meta’s DEI chopping block. In 2021, Meta committed $25 million to We the Culture, an in-house initiative designed to support and uplift Black creators. But after that initial investment, the money seems to have dried up–and now, as Mark Zuckerberg cozies up to the new Trump administration and Meta axes DEI programs, We the Culture’s landing pages have been erased from existence.

Roblox creators aren’t big on brand deals. There’s some contention currently over whether Roblox is hamstringing creators by keeping brand relationships for itself (and its year-old ad program). But creators told Digiday they’re not relying on brand deals to make money. Instead, individual players are filling their wallets.

Getting sporty

Grant Horvat goes pro. The million-subscriber golf YouTuber headed to the minor league Abacoa March Classic in Jupiter, Fla., and finished 25th out of 92 competitors. And, of course, he also vlogged what it’s like to get on the green.

Golf isn’t done yet. And neither is Horvat. On April 5, his YouTube channel will be the official broadcast partner for a LIV Golf tournament pairing six pros up against six content creators, including Horvat himself and Bob Does Sports‘ Fat Perez.

A quick 100K. While golf is arguably the sport having the biggest moment on YouTube right now, there are others successfully competing for audience attention, too. Like cricket and its star Irfan Pathan, who attracted over 100,000 subscribers within six days of launching his own channel.

Movers and shakers

Brat TV exec gets a new gig. The production company’s former Head of Talent, Shannon Martin-Resnick, has joined Proud Management as VP of Talent, and will spearhead creator partnerships. Proud is also promoting Kym Conley, its Director of Operations & Business Development, to COO, a move it says will “reinforce its commitment to authentic brand-creator collaborations.”

TikTok loses its ad chief. As ban talk continues, TikTok‘s President of Global Business Solutions, Blake Chandlee, is leaving the company after six years. He’ll remain an advisor, and said his exit was part of “streamlining” TikTok’s Global Business Solutions and Global Monetization Product Technology teams.

Money, money, money

Remix millions. Hook, a music-focused social media app that lets users (legally) remix songs by major artists, has raised a fresh $3 million round, bringing its total investments up to $6 million. “For too long, the industry has been stuck choosing between protecting artists’ rights and enabling creative expression. Hook creates a future where fans and creators can freely express themselves, artists and labels can properly monetize their work, and the entire music community thrives together,” founder and CEO Gaurav Sharma said.

Crowdsourced cash. Meanwhile, Connyct, a college-students-only social network, has raised $50,700 through crowdfunding investment platform Wefunder. The vast majority of that sum–$50,000–came from one lead investor, but Connyct is hoping others will chip in $200,000 to help it meet the round’s $250K goal.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by James Hale
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Make room, YouTube. There’s a new creator-focused Upfront in town.

The content industry has gotten used to seeing YouTube at the Television Upfronts, where it uses its annual advertiser presentation, Brandcast, to tell marketers why they should buy ads against its vast trove of creator-generated content. Now Spotter has joined the fray, too, with its own event before Upfronts season officially begins. The creator services and catalog licensing company hosted its own Upfront at The Glasshouse in New York City tonight, bringing together 150 creator industry and marketing executives to hear what Spotter-partnered creators are up to.

Featured creators included some of YouTube’s top makers and execs from their companies: MrBeast, Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, Ryan Trahan, Rebecca Zamolo, Jordan Matter, The Try Guys, Sam & Colby, Pierson, Drew Binsky, Airrack, The Royalty Family, and Michelle Khare all took the stage (either in person, on camera, or via sizzle reels) to talk about upcoming projects.

As Spotter President Nic Paul put it, the idea here was to “[give] marketers a clear path to building authentic, impactful connections with audiences at scale.”

Creators were able to tell execs from companies like Amazon, Disney, Shopify, Uber, and Airbnb about their content, their audiences, and why developing long-term partnerships with them (not just one-off video sponsorships) is a smart move.

Here’s what some creators shared…

• MrBeast plans to relaunch his gaming channel MrBeast Games, and for his main channel is planning new adventure and competition series, celebrity collabs, athlete collabs for sports content (a burgeoning niche), and a new behind-the-scenes series (which debuted after his 100-people-in-circles video earlier this month)
• Kinigra Deon and her production company are partnering with Kevin Hart and his company Hartbeat to release Deon’s first feature-length film
• Jordan Matter and his daughter Salish have partnered with Sephora to launch their own skincare brand, Sincerely Yours
• Ryan Trahan is expanding his brand JOYRIDE (which is Target‘s #2 top-selling candy) to Whole Foods and Kroger locations across the U.S.
• Dude Perfect is filming content with WNBA star Caitlin Clark; is also filming a new series, Dude Perfect VS, with major sports all-stars and Olympians; is planning a new tour, the Dude Perfect Hero World Tour; and is planning Trick World Championship 2 (which, of course, is ripe with spots for sponsors)
• Rebecca Zamolo is launching back-to-school programming that’ll run across all seven of her channels from July through September
• The Try Guys are rolling out new seasons of Phoning It In and Without a Recipe, plus a new series, Try Every Day, debuting this summer
• Sam & Colby will drop a horror collab, We Took 10 YouTubers to a Haunted City, this summer
• and finally, Pierson plans to spend a month on an island with the world’s largest suitcase

This Upfront was Spotter’s very first external event featuring its partner creators. Nic Paul, Spotter’s President, said the goal was to “[give] marketers a clear path to building authentic, impactful connections with audiences at scale.”

To help with that, it shared some stats illustrating how engaged its partner creators’ audiences are:

• 53% of viewers who watch Spotter’s partner creators watch over two hours of YouTube content daily
• 49% of Spotter creator audience members start out viewing sessions by seeking out specific creators and/or new content from their favorite creators, versus 26% of YouTube general viewers (who instead start their viewing sessions from the homepage or from linked videos)
• 51% of Spotter creator watchers say YouTube is “a more influential touchpoint” in their purchase decisions than social media and streaming ads
• 66% of Spotter creator viewers said they’re more likely to support brands that support their favorite creators
• 70% of Spotter creator viewers discover new brands from those creators, versus 54% who discover new brands through TV/streaming and 42% who discover new brands from other websites

Basically, creators who work with Spotter are making a bunch of cool content, and their audiences are engaged with that content.

“This was our first external event with our Creator partners, and we’re thrilled by the overwhelmingly positive response,” Aaron DeBevoise, Spotter’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Our goal was to bring Creators and brands together—and we did that by showcasing how data, innovation, and engagement are shaping the entertainment industry. Creators are leading culture and changing how audiences engage with content. Spotter Showcase provided brands with a deeper understanding of what drives attention and how to create a meaningful, lasting impact in the creator space.”

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Spotter by James Hale
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Kick has launched a contest that will grant financial rewards to streamers who could really use the boost. Creators who average fewer than 100 concurrent viewers over a 30-day period are eligible to enter Kick Road, an initiative that boasts $50,000 in total prizes.

Signups are currently open for Kick Road, which will kick off on April 2. From that date until May 23, Kick will track viewership for participating streamers via a leaderboard powered by Streams Charts. At the end of that period, the streamer with the most watch time across the IRL, Just Chatting, Grand Theft Auto roleplay, Call of Duty, Art, and Live Music categories will bag the $20,000 grand prize. In each of those categories, there will also be a separate winner who will take home $5,000.

Though Kick initially made headlines with its splashy streamer signings, it has not ignored smaller creators. Its Creator Incentive Program has provided creators with a flexible revenue sharing option that lets them keep the majority of their earnings on the platform.

With Twitch also looking to build up its middle class, Kick is doubling down. “Kick’s creator engagement initiatives affirm our creator-first approach to building an organic community,” said Kick Business Development Manager Andrew Santamaria in a statement. “The Kick Road campaign is an exciting opportunity for passionate, emerging streamers to showcase their diverse content and amplify their audience on the platform.”

In this case, the titular Road leads to Dallas for a Texas-sized installment of the esports event series DreamHack. Kick forged multiple partnerships with DreamHack in 2024 and was particularly active at the company’s Atlanta event. Given the complaints Kick received about its community’s behavior at TwitchCon, it makes sense that the platform is prioritizing a different venue for its meetups and initiatives.

DreamHack Dallas begins on May 23. The Kick Road winners will be announced the following day at the brand’s DreamHack booth.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, Kick, News by Sam Gutelle
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The creator industry has clinched another multimillion-dollar sports deal.

Livestreaming startup Playback wants to be “Twitch for sports,” and it just raised $22 million from investors like Alexis Ohanian‘s Seven Seven Six to make that happen.

As we’ve been tracking over the past year or so, sports are having a real moment on platforms like YouTube. Or, well, ‘a moment’ may be the wrong terminology, because we don’t think this phenomenon is likely to be brief. Sports have been a domineering force in human entertainment for as long as entertainment has existed; what’s changed now, thanks in part to things like NIL restrictions ending and the legalization of sports betting (with DraftKings, FanDuel, and more pouring millions into creator-led advertising), younger generations are taking their sports fandom online.

Sports leagues are recognizing their power. The PGA Tour has begun holding Creator Classic tournaments, the NBA and NFL have increasingly tapped creators for partnerships, and Formula 1 is counting on viewership from a digital-first Gen Z audience to fuel its future growth.

But there is one roadblock sports creators face on most platforms: copyright strikes for using official game footage. YouTube has a deal with the NFL that lets content creators use archived game footage legally–but with other leagues, and on other platforms, creators can struggle.

Playback, which was founded in 2023, aims to help livestreamers get over this roadblock. Just like Twitch, it allows streamers to broadcast content to live audiences, who can respond with text chats–but unlike Twitch, its platform is specifically sports-focused. And it knows streamers are often blocked from broadcasting any official matches.

Playback previously secured a deal with the NBA’s League Pass streaming service that would let creators stream full NBA and WNBA games to their audiences without worrying about copyright issues.

With this new round of investment, it’s also announcing a partnership with Major League Baseball, where creators can stream games from MLB.tv.

(There is a catch to both these deals: audience members will need their own subscriptions to League Pass and/or MLB.tv to see content broadcasted on Playback. That means any viewer can see the creator’s camera and commentary on Playback for free, but to see the actual content the creator is sharing, an independent subscription is required.)

RJ Halperin, Playback’s co-founder and CEO, told Business Insider he founded the platform because younger generations aren’t watching live sports as much as past generations did.

“Sports is best as a content category when you actually get to feel the community and the social activity that lives around it,” he said. “Sports thrive off the social energy.”

And interactive social energy abounds on digital platforms. Now it’s just whether Playback can build itself big enough. It doesn’t release user numbers, but we do know it’s backed by NBA Investments and that several NBA players have joined as users, including Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas, and Jeff Teague.

The $22 million raise also included Khosla Ventures.

Over the next few months, Playback is looking at adding revenue and monetization features, including advertisements and sponsorship opportunities, BI reports. It also wants to onboard more leagues for official content deals, so creators can legally broadcast a diverse range of sports to their viewers. Halperin said it feels like a “race against time” to seal agreements with different leagues.

“We want to move as quickly as possible to try to build a bigger and bigger library of apps on our platform that allow fans to watch as much content as they want,” he said.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Playback by James Hale
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Creators are enjoying the robust monetization ecosystem on Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg believes that a return to the platform’s roots can bring earnings even higher. A star-studded episode of The Colin and Samir Show featured both Zuckerberg and MrBeast as guests: Zuckerberg discussed his company’s focus on reviving “O.G.” Facebook experiences, while MrBeast revealed that monetization for his short-form videos is two times higher on Facebook than it is on any other platform.

Midway through the episode, Zuckerberg asked MrBeast how his short-form uploads are performing on Facebook. The North Carolina-based creator said his results are “over twice as high” on the Meta-owned hub as they are anywhere else. “That’s not that abnormal of a result,” Zuckerberg added.

Meta’s united revenue streams have ushered in a prosperous era for Facebook’s top creators, but most of Zuckerberg’s conversation with Colin and Samir focused on other aspects of his business. In particular, Zuckerberg remarked on Meta’s recent revival of classic features. Instagram, for example, is rolling out upgrades for its long-popular DMs.

Zuckerberg has spoke about his desire to revive the vibe that defined Facebook in his early years, and he used his Colin and Samir Show appearance to announce an update that will advance that mission. The Friends feed, once the primary form of connection on Facbeook, is getting a makeover.

The new Friends feed will isolate uploads from personal acquaintances, sequestering them from algorithmically-sorted content. Users can find that feed by looking for the “Friends” label on the navigation bar in the Facebook app.

Zuckerberg explained that, although interactions with friends made Facebook a cultural force, that utility was eventually “outscaled” by the platform’s news feed. Facebook wasn’t the only platform that steered its focus away from interpersonal elements; Zuckerberg argued that shift is an industry-wide phenomenon

“A lot of the other fun and useful parts of the original experience we didn’t focus on as much…I look around the internet today and I realize that no one else actually recreated a lot of these things that used to be pretty magical about Facebook either,” Zuckerberg said. “So I actually think that there’s this whole opportunity that I think is going to be pretty fun to go after and build, which is to go one by one and build up a bunch of these things that used to be joyful experiences that people had as part of Facebook that don’t exist on the internet today.”

Meta is not the only company trying to bring back the vibe that characterized social media interactions during the industry’s early years. Nostalgia is as big as its always been on the internet, and cultural artifacts from Facebook’s heyday are currently en vogue. BuzzFeed has made a notable bet on a 2000s revival with an upcoming platform that will prioritize positive experiences.

Bringing back O.G. Facebook is more than just a nostalgia trip — it’s a move that’s related to the increased earnings creators like MrBeast are seeing. On The Colin and Samir Show, Zuckerberg drew a link between old-school, interpersonal communications (like Messenger threads and DMs) and audience engagement. He argued that creators who reach fans via humble text posts can then convert them to more lucrative destinations. “Businesses always want to be where people are organically,” Zuckerberg said. “If youre a creator i think it’s similar.”

The Meta CEO remarked that the ongoing developments are only “phase one” of the return to Facebook’s roots. More changes are coming, and MrBeast has a few ideas about some features that could be added. On The Colin and Samir Show, he cited overhauled language dubbing and frictionless purchases as two potential areas of improvement for Facebook.

Filed under: Articles, Facebook, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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YouTube wants its creators to engage with their subscribers via push notifications, but that tool can be counterproductive if the messages sent through it feel spammy. To strike the right balance for its notifications, YouTube is testing an update that would limit communications with subscribers who don’t engage with a channel’s uploads.

For years, many creators have encouraged their subscribers to sign up for push notifications by clicking or tapping a bell icon that appears next to the subscribe button. Since YouTube implemented that system, it has published sporadic updates, including a 2020 announcement that brought notification analytics to creator dashboards.

Notifications have become one of the simplest growth tactics in use on YouTube, but there’s a catch. When a subscriber doesn’t engage with a channel’s videos for a while, they may see a flurry of notifications from that channel as an annoyance, which in turn causes them to unsubscribe.

At first, that may not seem like much of an issue. After all, if a subscriber is disengaged, what’s the harm in trying to win them back before they unsubscribe? The problem, as YouTube explained in a forum post, is that many of these aggrieved users respond to intrusive notifications by disabling the system entirely. That makes it harder for other creators to reach out to their fans.

In a test that is currently active among a limited group of creators, YouTube is seeing what happens when disengaged subscribers stop receiving push notifications from the channels they’ve lost interest in. Those subscribers are still able to see the muted notifications by tapping on the inbox in their YouTube app.

Creators who upload infrequently won’t have their notifications silenced. Subscribers who regularly engage with a channel’s content will still receive pushes as usual, so creators who are worried about notification delivery issues can put their pitchforks down.

“When viewers turn off all notifications from YouTube, all creators are unable to reach even their most engaged viewers outside the app,” reads the forum post. “The goal of this experiment is to help us find ways to reduce this problem.”

The inherent spamminess of push notifications has presented a problem that YouTube has been trying to solve for years. One solution has been to get rid of emails that notified subscribers when new uploads arrived on the channels they followed. For in-app notifications, a contextual solution is a more sound approach, so YouTube is adjusting its sliders to figure out the notification frequency that produces the best results for creators.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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A new report from Deloitte issues yet another warning to the legacy media industry: If traditional channels don’t find ways to keep up with creators, they might see their market share decline among younger generations. Deloitte’s latest Digital Media Trends report found that 56% of Gen Z respondents find creator content “more relevant” than premium movies and TV shows.

43% of Millennials agreed with their Gen Z juniors. Deloitte also found that Gen Z spends much more time on social media platforms compared to traditional media channels.

“With Gen Z, they spend 54 percent more time — think of it as about 50 minutes a day, on average — more on their social platforms, and they spend about 43 minutes a day less in traditional TV and media,” Deloitte exec China Widener told The Hollywood Reporter. “So when you just think about it in the context of where they’re spending their time, are they using both service types? Yes. But they are spending more time in the social media platforms than they are on the traditional platforms.”

One data point underscoring Gen Z’s shift is an old chestnut that has been repeated many times since the dawn of the creator era: Consumers of a certain age trust influencers more than traditional stars. Deloitte found that 52% of Gen Z prefers to take advice from creators over other sources in the entertainment industry. That preference drives advertiser interest which in turn begets more creator content.

That segues nicely into a second factor driving creator supremacy: volume. On platforms like YouTube, users simply have more options to choose from than they do on streaming subscription services.

The appealing qualities of creator hubs are easy to see, but perhaps legacy media players — and streaming hubs like Netflix in particular — dug a hole for themselves with shortsighted content development decisions. When Netflix first started airing originals more than a decade ago, it produced buzzy, award-winning fare like Orange is the New Black. These days, Netflix is still scoring Emmy nods, but its homepage is filled with pablum like Love Is Blind to go along with more high-minded fare.

As streaming hubs cater to the lowest common denominator, they are raising their prices, so it’s no wonder that Gen Z has “a level of frustration” with the whole industry, as Widener puts it. There’s a reason why TV reruns and creator-led events rank among Netflix’s most-watched offerings. Originals have been dumbed down to the point that free, on-demand creator uploads offer a more appealing proposition.

In 2025, creators are capitalizing on their momentum with large-scale happenings that position bootstrapping shows as premium offerings to rival the best of Netflix, Hulu, or Max. It may be too late for legacy media to reclaim its hold on Gen Z, but a focus on quality of quantity would be a good start. Streamers are never going to be able to offer as much content as YouTube’s bottomless pit, but with an array of polished programming, they can regain trust.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Statistics by Sam Gutelle
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Earlier this year, when it looked certain that TikTok would be banned in the United States, many displaced users flocked to RedNote, an app often characterized as the “Chinese Instagram.” Two months later, RedNote’s momentum has stalled, but its leaders are seeing the spike in American interest as an opportunity for westward expansion.

Since the start of 2025, RedNote has ramped up its international services. As reported by Rest of World, the app has opened up shop in Hong Kong and has posted job listings for global business development roles. Its new worldwide ecommerce pilot program is designed to connect Chinese merchants with consumers in the United States, Hong Kong, and Macau, and business development events in New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles have connected RedNote to potential business partners in America.

RedNote, known in China as Xiaohongshu, evolved from a humble lifestyle app to a sprawling social network that stands as one of Asia’s most successful tech companies. Its ecommerce operation has led it to overall profits of more than $1 billion and has opened the door for a potential IPO that would solidify it as a serious TikTok competitor abroad.

That cash injection might be necessary if RedNote is going to confront the regulatory issues that stand in the way of a full-fledged U.S. expansion. Given Congressional animosity toward TikTok, RedNote would surely need to fight through regulations if became a go-to app in the U.S. A deeper war chest would also help build a user base and develop the global ecommerce pilot.

“An IPO could provide the capital required for the company to secure the right personnel in the U.S. and compete internationally,” research and strategy consultant Yaling Jiang told Rest of World. “The profit potential is enormous.”

Amid TikTok turmoil, Americans were initially curious about RedNote, but many of those so-called refugees sang a different tune when they realized they would still encounter government-ordered censorship and other cultural issues on the app. According to Sensor Tower data, RedNote averaged 800,000 daily active users in the U.S. in March. Its U.S. DAUs peaked at 1.3 million in January.

Though that’s a sharp decline — and RedNote was nowhere near TikTok’s U.S. numbers even at its peak — Chinese Instagram still has more U.S. users now than it did last December. It has serious potential as a global social media company, but first it needs to figure out how to get Americans to both sign up and stick around.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
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Something is happening to Napster.

If you were old enough to recognize yourself as a conscious being in the ’90s, you remember Napster as a free peer-to-peer music-sharing service where users uploaded millions of songs as MP3 files for others to download and enjoy. Of course, this practice was not exactly legal, so as Napster became more popular (especially with college students), topping out at over 80 million users, it caught the attention of bands and record labels. The subsequent copyright infringement lawsuits shut it down in 2001, and it later officially filed for bankruptcy.

But though Napster-as-a-service ended up dead, Napster-as-a-brand wasn’t quite in the ground. Instead, it ended up passed from hand to hand in several business deals, being snapped up by companies who thought they could slap the well-known name on their own services, to their advantage.

The timeline looks like this:

• Software company Roxio buys the rights to Napster’s brand and logos at bankruptcy auction in 2002, and rebrands the music service PressPlay as Napster 2.0 in 2003
• In 2008, Best Buy acquires Napster 2.0 for $121 million
• In 2011, rival music streamer Rhapsody acquires Napster. Financial details weren’t disclosed, but Best Buy got a minor stake in Rhapsody as part of the deal.
• Rhapsody rebrands as Napster in 2016 and continues operating as a music streaming service, growing to around 3 million users
• In 2020, Napster was sold to VR music/concerts platform MelodyVR for $70.6 million
• Just two years later, it was sold to New York City-based digital asset investor Hivemind Capital Partners and Algorand, a Singaporean blockchain company

And now, in its latest hand-pass, Napster has been bought by Infinite Reality for a whopping $207 million, and looks like it’ll be rejiggered as a metaverse-hopeful destination for musicians and fans.

Infinite Reality was founded in 2019 and recently raised a $3 billion round of funding from a private investor. It describes itself as a “media, ecommerce, and marketing company focused on 3D and AI-powered experiences” that’s currently making “branded 3D virtual spaces where fans can enjoy virtual concerts, social listening parties, and other immersive and community-based experiences.”

Infinite Reality says Napster reborn will also lean into gamification features (it wasn’t specific about what that will entail) and will let artists sell tickets to IRL concerts, physical merch, and exclusive digital content.

“I firmly believe that the artist-fan relationship is evolving, with fans craving hyper-personalized, intimate access to their favorite artists, while artists are searching for innovative ways to deepen connections with fans and access new streams of revenue,” John Acunto, Infinite Reality’s CEO, said in a statement.

While Infinity Reality didn’t give too many exact details about what people can expect from Napster Metaverse.0, it did post a video on X that shows a distinctly Horizon Worlds-esque environment with basic decor and avatars that look maybe slightly better than what Zuck’s team came up with (they do have legs!). But not by much.

“The most legendary collab?! Infinite Reality has acquired iconic online music brand @Napster.

With this acquisition, we’re expanding and reimagining Napster, empowering artists with new audience monetization and engagement capabilities, underpinned by iR’s #immersive… pic.twitter.com/L4Fig7QFct

— Infinite Reality (@Infinite_iR) March 25, 2025

So what’s the deal? Is this the next evolution of music disruption? Will artists actually want to use this–and actually benefit? Is the metaverse still a thing anyone (outside of Roblox and Fortnite, apparently) is capable of making work?

All that remains to be seen. For now, this whole shebang is giving us the same vibe as that time Tai Lopez bought RadioShack and LimeWire and turned them into NFTs.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, Metaverse, Napster by James Hale
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YouTube is going back to the Upfronts.

For the fourth year in a row, it’s hosting its annual advertiser-bait event, Brandcast, during the TV-focused spring Upfronts. It used to, like most digital platforms, present to marketers during the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s digital-focused NewFronts, but in 2022, it went all-in on a bid for TV dollars and moved to the Upfronts.

The move was a surprise when it happened–but now we expect to see YouTube at the Upfronts, especially considering the two key points of messaging it’s pushed since its last Brandcast:

1. YouTube has been the #1 most-watched streaming service on TVs in the United States for two years (per Nielsen)
2. Living room TV watch time has surpassed mobile and desktop viewing, making TVs the most frequent destination for YouTube viewers

CEO Neal Mohan has mentioned these stats at every opportunity, pitching YouTube as not only the top destination for digital content and the top streaming service (beating out competitors like Netflix), but also as the center of culture for the next generation. He argues YouTubers–and the production studios they’re increasingly founding–are the TV and Hollywood of tomorrow, and it looks like the 2025 Brandcast will tell advertisers why they should get in on the ground floor of this next era of entertainment.

(Also worth noting here that while YouTube was the first major creator industry participant to head to the Upfronts, it’s not the last: Creator marketing platform LTK just announced it’s making its own Upfronts debut this year.)

“Brandcast will showcase how YouTube has redefined entertainment by giving the reins over to a new class of performers and studios that are commanding every way viewers watch, fandoms and the entertainment industry, at large,” YouTube said in a company blog post.

To do that, it’s tapping in some of the most well-known names in digital and traditional media: MrBeast, Lady Gaga, and Brittany Broski (who, YouTube notes, just released her first song, a cover of Harry Styles‘ “Adore You.” Maybe a YouTube Music tie-in?).

All three will appear onstage at the Lincoln Center in New York City alongside Mohan himself, YouTube CBO Mary Ellen Coe, and Google President Sean Downey. Brandcast goes live Wednesday, May 14, at 5:30 p.m. EST.

“These influential creators and their unique content have made seismic shifts in culture and have created passionate fans and engagement that manifests on YouTube, like nowhere else,” YouTube said. “After this year’s Brandcast, advertisers will walk away knowing how to harness the power of the entire platform to achieve their goals.”

Filed under: Homepage Feature, YouTube by James Hale
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YouTube is changing the way it counts views on Shorts, and the new policy could have significant ramifications for both brands and creators. After previously requiring users to watch for a few seconds before registering an official Shorts view, YouTube will now add to the tally when a Short plays for any amount of time.

In an email to Tubefilter, a YouTube rep explained that the statistical update will go into effect on March 31. From that point on, there will be no “minimum watch time requirement.” Any time a video loads in your Shorts feed — even if it only plays for a moment before you swipe past — YouTube will add a view.

A more liberal approach to accounting will bring YouTube in line with Instagram Reels and TikTok. Reels view counts show “the number of times your reel starts to play or replay,” according to Instagram. TikTok hasn’t been as forthcoming about its tabulation methods, but view counts on that app typically outpace numbers for similar videos on Shorts and Reels.

That data point gives a good explanation for YouTube’s change. Even though the platform previously sought to account for user intent when adding up views, it needs to be able to show advertisers that its Shorts are just as impactful as other vertical video uploads.

YouTube isn’t getting rid of its previously viewership metric, which it’s now calling “engaged views.” Creators will be able to see that count via their analytics dashboard, and engaged views will still be used when determining which channels are eligible for the YouTube Partner Program. So while Instagram attempts to standardize its metrics around its views, YouTube is offering a multifaceted approach to traffic measurement.

If the idea of cheapening what counts as a view sounds like a bad idea to you, then you may be old enough to remember when Facebook landed in hot water by overemphasizing how much traffic its videos were receiving. That loose accounting — and the ill-fated “pivots to video” that followed in its wake — led to a massive class action lawsuit from creators and media companies who felt that Facebook had “miscalculated” the popularity of its native videos.

Now, history is repeating itself. If a millisecond of viewership in a busy Shorts feed now counts as a view, creators and brands will have to be more vigilant to make sure they’re not misinterpreting the data at hand. It’s a trepidatious moment for the industry, but again, YouTube’s hands are pretty much tied. There’s no way around it: People like big numbers, and they like to see numbers go up at a rapid pace. YouTube is giving them what they want.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube, YouTube Shorts by Sam Gutelle
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YouTube is back on top of the TV world, and senior citizens are a big reason why. The latest edition of Nielsen‘s The Gauge report found that YouTube accounted for 11.6% of TV usage in February, with traffic from users ages 65 and up nearly doubling year-over-year.

The 11.6% share is the highest figure among the media platforms measured for Nielsen’s report. Disney, which had led the previous iteration of The Gauge, fell back to second place with a 10% share. Fox, driven by a multiplatform Super Bowl strategy that incorporated Tubi, ranked third at 8.3%.

YouTube’s dominance of The Gauge reached a new level last August, when it became the first streaming hub to account for 10% of all TV usage. Those statistics validate YouTube’s heavy investment in its TV app, which has allowed it to dethrone linear channels while staying ahead of its rivals.

Though YouTube is nearing peak saturation in the United States, it still has room to grow among older audiences — and that’s exactly what’s happening. Nielsen noted that 65-and-up viewers watched 96% more YouTube on TVs than they did a year ago. Thanks to that increase, seniors now watch nearly as much YouTube on TVs as kids between the ages of two and 11.

Podcasts account for a significant portion of that growth. More than half of Americans over the age of 11 have now watched a video podcast, and YouTube has put itself at the forefront of that format by bringing its podcast library to more than one billion users per month. Among American podcast consumers, the 55+ cohort is more like to use YouTube than Spotify, according to Edison Research.

YouTube’s ongoing refinement of its TV app gives it a rosy outlook for future installments of The Gauge. To check out the current edition of Nielsen’s report, head over to the measurement firm’s website.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Nielsen, Statistics, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
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