In today’s newsletter:
The future of eduction is in the creator economy
How much revenue MrBeast is bringing in with YouTube
OpenAI’s latest AI model generates videos that look like real life simulations
Remix music videos on YouTube Shorts
The companies releasing apps on Apple Vision Pro
Exclusive WWE content on X
TikTokers give Biden’s campaign advice.
Share creator news with a friend.
The future of education is in the creator economy
Creators are not just entertainers, they’re also educators.
Professional creators fall into three categories:
Entertainer
Educator
Edutainer
What all professional creators have in common is that they earn money from creating and publishing content online.
Who is paying creators for this content?
Audiences - creators package their unique perspective and knowledge into courses, digital products, and communities for their social media followers.
Brands - creators sell sponsorships and ads to brands who want to get their message in front of a creator’s audience.
The audience of people who want to learn online is growing and they are paying creators to share their knowledge.
Who are these creator educators and how much are they making?
Kat Norton, aka “Miss Excel,” earns over $2M a year teaching Microsoft Excel1
Kieran Drew, a former dentist, makes $500,000 a year on courses about writing engaging content.2
Modern Millie brings in $400,000 a year coaching people on how to grow on Instagram and land brand collaborations.3
There’s been so much instability in the job market with recent layoffs4 that people will continue to want to learn new skills to create their own job security.
The demand for specific knowledge means the wave of creator educators is just starting.
MrBeast is trending
MrBeast, aka Jimmy Donaldson, was on the cover of TIME magazine.5
What we know about MrBeast’s business
Jimmy brings in about $600M to $700M in revenue a year
A recent MrBeast video got 52 million views in 24 hours.
→ 20x the number of people who watched the Succession finale
→ over 2x the number of people who saw Barbie or Oppenheimer during opening weekend
Brands pay $2.5M to $3M to get a shout-out in a MrBeast video
In 2022, Jimmy launched a snacks brand, Feastables. It will make $500M in annual revenue this year.
There are 300 employees working at MrBeast’s production company and 200 employees working at Feastables.
The production company was not profitable in 2023, and isn’t expected to be in 2024 either.
Jimmy is launched tools for aspiring creators, including:
Going behind the scenes of MrBeast
MrBeasts’ popularity and reach is undeniable, but his success might come at a price.
Former employees of MrBeast’s production company described a company culture of bullying, high standards for performance, and low regard for safety and labor practices.
Jimmy produces wild videos with risky stunts on impressive sets. These have given him a huge audience and tons of revenue (aka power).
With great power comes great responsibility. Jimmy will have to keep his employees’ wellbeing in mind to keep up with his new power.
AI content creation or simulation?
Are you still scarred from watching AI Will Smith eating spaghetti last year?7
The quality of AI generated videos has come a long way since that ^.
Last week, Open AI released Sora, a text to video generator, and the videos it makes are so convincing they feel more like simulations.
Have you seen the videos Sam Altman created from user requests?
The technology isn’t released to the public yet while OpenAI tests the new model and builds tools to help detect misleading content.8
Adobe has also released tools to determine the authenticity of content with its Content Authenticity Initiative.
The initiative promotes Content Credentials for AI generated work. Google, the BBC, Microsoft, Publicis Groupe, and Sony have all joined the initiative.9
Platform Trends
YouTube lets you remix a music video into Shorts.10
TikTok, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Red Bull TV launch apps on Apple Vision Pro.11
X is hosting an exclusive weekly video series of 5 minute WWE matches.12
Paging dark Brandon: the Biden campaign launched on TikTok13 and TikTokers offer advice for the campaign:14
“Don’t just post highly polished content the way you may on Instagram. Be a community member who comments on others’ videos as well….Maybe show us more behind the scenes at the White House.”
- V Spehar runs Under The Desk News, a TikTok account with 3M followers
“They need to make sure whatever they are doing doesn’t feel forced, because young people especially can see right through that.”
- Annie Wu Henry, a digital strategist, who ran Sen. John Fetterman’s TikTok account in 2022.
“Lose the traditional media polish…People are more likely to engage with content that feels like a FaceTime call instead of a newscast.”
- Olivia Julianna a Democratic activist, strategist and social media creator with 648.5K followers on TikTok.
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https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/26/this-29-year-olds-side-hustle-brings-in-2-million-a-year-i-work-4-hours-a-week.html
https://www.thinkific.com/blog/modern-millie-success-story/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/12/business/young-journalists-navigating-media-industry/
https://time.com/collection/time100-leadership-series/6693255/mrbeast-interview/
https://humanvoiceover.com/blog/mrbeast-leaps-into-the-dubbing-industry/
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ai-will-smith-eating-spaghetti
https://openai.com/sora
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/content-authenticity-initiative_c2pa-achieves-major-milestone-with-google-activity-7161360291753017346-wEaO?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/youtube-shorts-remix
https://deadline.com/2024/02/wwe-will-offer-five-minute-wrestling-matches-on-x-platform-1235820000/
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/12/biden-dark-brandon-meme/
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/14/tiktok-advice-joe-biden-00141412