YouTube, Instagram, SoundCloud, and other online platforms are changing the way people create and consume media. The Verge’s Creators section covers the people using these platforms, what they’re making, and how those platforms are changing (for better and worse) in response to the vloggers, influencers, podcasters, photographers, musicians, educators, designers, and more who are using them.
The Verge’s Creators section also looks at the way creators are able to turn their projects into careers — from Patreons and merch sales, to ads and Kickstarters — and the ways they’re forced to adapt to changing circumstances as platforms crack down on bad actors and respond to pressure from users and advertisers. New platforms are constantly emerging, and existing ones are ever-changing — what creators have to do to succeed is always going to look different from one year to the next.
Congress seemed to think a scrolling video platform was a national security threat. What changed?
The Wall Street Journal interviewed several “clippers,” or the people who dice up longer videos into short, grabby clips that get posted to accounts across Instagram and TikTok. One person, whose clipping business earns $20,000 to $30,000 per month, told the WSJ that “the only way to be famous in today’s internet world is with clips.”
[The Wall Street Journal]
I love this description of falling into the rabbit hole of TikTok Live streams of farm workers and other manual laborers, calmly and quietly going about their work. It’s competence porn that highlights the divide between those of us making stuff, and those of us watching from our phones.
With platforms caving to pressure from payment processors, adult content creators are left to figure out what’s next.
If you’re Cassey Ho, AKA Blogilates, you get a few design patents and do some good old public shaming. I chatted with Ho about the world of online dupes for this Tuesday’s Vergecast episode.
In the second half of the show, I visit a textile recycling facility to learn about reusing leftover material from the fashion industry. It’s a fascinating look at the huge impact a small group of people can make.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly ignored the bipartisan law banning TikTok from operating in the US unless it’s separated from Chinese parent company ByteDance. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) is calling for a new way to avoid a ban without breaking the law. In a draft bill, Markey proposes letting TikTok operate in the US as long as it provides transparency into its content moderation and keeps US user data out of countries like China.
[markey.senate.gov]
Starting today in the US, “we’re giving all streamers access to some of our best monetization and community building tools including Bits, subs, emotes, badges, and Channel Points,” Twitch says. Twitch is also making it easier to reach Affiliate status, which opens up additional streaming features.
[blog.twitch.tv]
Thousands of games and media have been delisted from two major platforms. Here’s how that happened.
If you’re interested in a high-level overview of the state of deepfakes, I recommend checking out this blog post from Captions, a Capcut competitor and a software platform that enables creators to generate AI-generated videos from scratch.
What struck me the most is the company’s prediction that, “Very soon, most models will allow you to generate a person (real or synthetic) in any situation – without a duration constraint (longer than 12 seconds) and featuring multiple people in one shot.” Chat, are we cooked?
I’ll have Captions CEO Gaurav Misra on Decoder later this week to talk about this.
After inadvertently revealing his earnings on social media in June, podcaster Joe Budden told The New York Times that his network is on pace to earn $12 million this year in Patreon subscriptions alone. With other revenue streams, that number swells to more than $20 million. The Times piece is a rare look into the finances of big-name content creators — usually they’re cagey about money.
On The Vergecast: TV is on the decline, so celebrities are riding the subway and going to chicken shops. Plus, how Chicago became the epicenter of ‘Schedule A’ lawsuits against online storefronts.
Or would you? The weird little toys are a nightmare to buy so we took matters into our own hands.
In recent years the newsletter platform has tried to expand to micro-blogging, TikTokers, and full websites. Now the company is inching towards something its leadership has long criticized: advertising and social networks.
The New York Times reports that Substack is doubling down on its Notes feature, which is similar to X or Meta’s Threads. Substack raised $100 million in a recent funding round. In June, the company said it wasn’t planning to be profitable anytime soon.
We’re All Gonna Die director Freddie Wong uploaded the movie to torrent networks with an exclusive intro message, on the same day it was released for digital download. Wong hopes viewers will support future filmmaking efforts by buying a lousy JPEG that proudly proclaims their pirate nature. Yarrr.
Chipotle is hosting “one of the biggest and most unique listening parties in music history” tomorrow for You’ll Be Alright, Kid, a new album from TikTok Hype House member Alex Warren.
Judging from his current hit, “Ordinary,” Warren’s music has a lot in common with how Chipotle tastes, so the combo makes sense. The song will play at restaurants on Thursday night, and there’s a giveaway tied to the Chipotle app. Hopefully, it works out better than McDonald’s $1 million Flexi-Disc promotion in 1989.
