|
TOGETHER WITH |
|
|
It's Thursday and Google is getting into the AI music biz by bringing song-generation capabilities to Gemini. |
|
Today's News |
💸 Snapchat announces Subscriptions 🧑⚖️ Mark Zuckerberg testifies 🎤 The Spotter Showcase returns 🖼️ YouTube's first video goes to the museum 🎭 TikTok stars hit Broadway
|
|
|
|
MONEY MOVES |
 | Snapchat gets into the subscription business. |
|
Snapchat pledges to "unlock scalable creator revenue" with Subscriptions |
The Subscriptions: Snapchat is testing out a new revenue stream for creators who want to engage with their biggest fans through a premium tier. With Creator Subscriptions, fans will be able to pay for access to exclusive content, have their replies prioritized, and browse their favorite creators' Stories ad-free. |
According to a blog post, alpha testing of Creator Subscriptions will begin on February 23, "with plans to expand to additional Snap Stars in Canada, the U.K., and France in the weeks ahead." Creators like Jeremiah Brown, Harry Jowsey, and Skai Jackson will be among the first test subjects for Subscriptions. |
"Creator Subscriptions give creators the freedom to experiment, reward their biggest supporters, and build a recurring income stream on Snapchat that grows with their audience." | | | | - Snap Newsroom |
|
|
The context: In recent years, Snapchat has launched several new revenue streams across its various formats. Spotlight Challenges boosted short-form creators, Stories monetization capitalized on Snap's most famous format, and a Lens program rewarded the originators of top AR effects. |
As Snapchat looks to generate even more revenue, Creator Subscriptions are a logical next step. A general shift toward engagement-based monetization has made creator-focused subscriptions more common (and more powerful) across social media. On some platforms—like Twitch—they serve as a crucial revenue stream for top stars. |
Subscription-based products like Snapchat+ and Lens+ have already been success stories for Evan Spiegel's company, so why not apply the same concept to creator monetization? |
|
|
|
Use Made to stop playing the content game on hard mode. |
The creator economy isn't just crowded; it's cutthroat. Millions of channels are fighting for the same limited attention, and most are still doing it the hard way: relying on gut instinct, grinding through manual edits, and burning out before they break through. |
If your workflow looks the same as it did in 2022, you are already falling behind. |
Made isn't just a productivity tool; it is your advantage in today's fast-changing landscape. |
We give you the speed and intelligence to outmaneuver the competition. |
While other creators guess, Milo equips you with viral concepts backed by deep data analysis. While they lose hours cutting footage, Remi instantly formats your content for every platform. While they let comments pile up, Zara turns your community into a growth engine by engaging top fans automatically. And while they leave money on the table, Lila secures rights and revenue streams other creators don't even know exist. |
Nobody said the market is fair. But you can use Made to tip the scales in your favor. |
|
|
HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
 | Mark Zuckerberg presumably contemplating how to get a bunch more utility into Instagram. |
|
|
|
SPOTTER SHOWCASE |
 | Jordan Matter will present at the 2026 Spotter Showcase. (Photo credit: our very own Joshua Cohen) |
|
Spotter is bringing its Showcase back to NYC to build buzz around "Creator TV" |
The Showcase: With upfronts season on the horizon, creator economy platform Spotter is once again inviting ad executives to hear programming pitches at a Spotter Showcase in New York City. |
The second edition of the Showcase will be held on March 4. Creators like Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, Jordan Matter, Airrack, and Michelle Khare are set to appear alongside Spotter Ads execs to discuss their long-form work and how brands can integrate themselves into those episodic programs. |
The focus: Spotter's first Showcase, which took place last March, featured creators like MrBeast, Ryan Trahan, Rebecca Zamolo, Deon, Matter, and Khare. Those presenters offered an alternative to the TV upfronts market that typically kicks off in early May—and some of the initiatives they discussed have already moved forward. |
Seven months after Deon presented details about her partnership with Kevin Hart and his company Hartbeat, for example, Tubi announced its intention to distribute the creator's project. |
For 2026, Spotter is shifting the focus of its Showcase to emphasize the concept of "Creator TV," which it describes as a "full-stack brand ecosystem built on long-form, episodic creator programming." |
"Last year we showed what creator programming looks like. This year, we're showing brands how to activate inside creator ecosystems and drive real business results." | | | | - Aaron DeBevoise, Spotter CEO & Founder |
|
|
According to Spotter CEO and Founder Aaron DeBevoise, Creator TV "combines the narrative depth of television with the cultural speed of creators, giving brands the premium, high-trust environments they need." In March, the Spotter Showcase will give advertisers an inside look at that ecosystem. |
|
IN THE ARCHIVES |
 | Throwback to the old YouTube UX on day one. |
|
YouTube's first video belongs in a museum. Now it's in one. |
The exhibit: As YouTube celebrates its 20th birthday, a 174-year-old museum is memorializing its role in the history of mass media. London's Victoria and Albert Museum has acquired the video file for YouTube's first-ever upload, "Me at the zoo," and placed it on display at the Design 1900-Now Gallery, which examines innovative artifacts from the past 120 years. |
To put the video in the proper context, the V&A used the Wayback Machine to dig up the front-end code for YouTube's original user interface. Curators also accented the exhibit with contemporaneous banner ads from 2006 and—as YouTube pointed out—took care to showcase iconography we now associate with the Web 2.0 era, including "badges, rating buttons, and sharing and recommendation features." |
"As a cultural and social phenomenon, the YouTube watch page is…a prescient sign of what would become the creator economy and platform capitalism. It reveals the ways in which early design decisions would become central to broader economic and cultural systems that define contemporary life." | | | | - Victoria and Albert Museum |
|
|
The video: YouTube Co-Founder Jawed Karim recorded "Me at the zoo" during a trip to the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo. The mundane 19-second clip is essentially the platform's first vlog, and has come to exemplify many of the cultural trends the YouTube era ushered in. Its grainy quality alone is the perfect representation of a platform that became a phenomenon by prioritizing personality and community over polished aesthetics. |
Karim's video and its surrounding interface may not be as old as the typical museum piece, but visitors can learn a lot about the internet age by experiencing the inflection point where the user-generated revolution began. |
|
WATCH THIS 👀 |
 | Dylan Mulvaney and Abigail Barlow star in SIX |
|
Two TikTok icons just made their Broadway debuts |
The Broadway queens: It's coronation week for Dylan Mulvaney and Abigail Barlow. The two TikTok influencers made their Broadway debuts on February 16 as Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard in SIX: The Musical. |
Taking on the roles of Henry VIII's two beheaded wives may be a first for Mulvaney and Barlow, but both creators have plenty of experience in the spotlight. |
Mulvaney first rose to fame in 2022 thanks to her viral "365 Days of Girlhood" video series, while "The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical" made Barlow and her collaborator, Emily Bear, into controversial social media icons and Grammy Award winners. |
|
Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe here. |
Want to introduce your brand to Tubefilter's audience? Sponsor the newsletter. |
|
Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
