TOGETHER WITH

It’s Monday and Twitter’s old pal Larry—aka the 560-pound bird logo that once decorated the platform’s San Francisco office—has officially sold for $34,000.

Today’s News

MUPPET MOVES

After generating billions of monthly views, Toys and Colors has landed a Sesame Street collab

The collab: Toys and Colors is headed to Sesame Street. The YouTube empire—which is affiliated with media company pocket.watch—will link up with Muppets like Grover, Elmo, and Abby Cadabby for a series of collaborations across both brands’ respective channels. As of March 20, two of Toys and Colors’ on-screen personalities, Ellie and Maddy, have already appeared in content posted on the main Sesame Street YouTube channel. Those videos will drop on the Toys and Colors channel this Thursday.

The YouTube empire: Over the last seven years, Toys and Colors has become one of the most-watched channels on the web—to the point that it occasionally collects more than 850 million weekly views on YouTube alone. pocket.watch (which now describes Toys and Colors as “the biggest kids creator in the world”) recognized the brand’s potential way back in 2021, when it announced a franchise based around its thriving digital channels. The launch of that venture, called Kaleidoscope City, helped Toys and Colors push its YouTube traffic even higher. Now, with a Sesame Street partnership in progress, pocket.watch is further solidifying the multiplatform hub’s position as a trusted name in family entertainment.

The iconic brand: Sesame Street’s YouTube HQ may not generate quite as much weekly traffic as Toys and Colors, but its 26 million subscribers is nothing to sneeze at. The channel’s fans are regularly treated to collabs with creators; over the years, Pentatonix, Rosanna Pansino, and Blippi have all appeared in YouTube videos alongside the Muppets. Now, it’s Toys and Colors’ turn to enjoy a stroll down Sesame Street—one that could potentially bring the 56-year-old brand’s iconic characters into our Global Top 50 chart.

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A Golden Visa is your ticket to live, work, and grow in the heart of the creative world

A Golden Visa is more than just one of the buzziest phrases of the year—it’s your key to long-term residency in one of the most exciting creative hubs in the world: Dubai. 

In 2025, Creators HQ—an initiative from the organizers of the 1 Billion Followers Summit—is giving creators unprecedented access to applications for UAE Golden Visas. Whether you’re a filmmaker, influencer, photographer, writer, or other creative, this visa opens doors for endless growth opportunities and community connections.

Creators HQ’s support doesn’t end at the application phase. The initiative also plans to offer relocation support and advice for members looking to set up companies within the UAE, as well as sleek editing facilities, brand connections, speaking opportunities, and more.

Discover the UAE Golden Visa → 

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Perplexity AI wants to steer TikTok’s future in the U.S. According to the company, its proposal involves “not only developing a new algorithm” but also “making the TikTok For You feed open source.” (Perplexity AI)
  
  

• Senators Lindsey Graham and Dick Durbin reportedly plan to reintroduce a bill designed to revoke the Section 230 protections that prevent social media platforms from being held liable for user-created content. (The Verge) 
  
  

• Recent studies from OpenAI and MIT found that users who spend more time interacting with ChatGPT experience “heightened loneliness.” (Engadget)
  
  

• X has filed a lawsuit that accuses the Indian government of facilitating “unrestrained censorship” by allowing “countless” public officials to remove content at will. (TechCrunch)

POD PEOPLE

More than half of Americans over the age of 11 have watched a video podcast

The study: The podcast industry is still picking up speed. According to the latest edition of Edison Research‘s Infinite Dial (aka the longest-running annual report of digital media trends in the United States), over half of U.S. consumers above the age of 11 have now watched a video podcast.

To glean insights about American media consumption, Edison Research surveyed 5,020 people split across three age brackets: 12 to 34, 35 to 54, and 55 and up. 79% of respondents said they listen to online audio on a monthly basis. 34% of those listeners use Spotify most often, compared to 21% for YouTube Music.

The older crowd: The 12-34 age bracket is the most tuned-in on those platforms, with 90% of the cohort listening to audio online—but people 55 and up are getting in on the podcast wave, too:

• That age group’s audio consumption has risen 11% year-over-year to reach 63%.
  
  

• The 55+ crowd is also more likely to rely on YouTube, with 33% of that demographic saying they use the platform most often for digital listening (as compared to 26% for Spotify).
  
  

• In total, monthly podcast consumption among 55+ users on YouTube is up 11% year-over-year (from 27% to 38%).

In summary: It’s not just older folks, either: YouTube’s audio shows now reach more than a billion users—and that only accounts for one platform.

Overall, Infinite Dial’s data shows that 70% of the U.S. has listened to a podcast and nearly half (48%) of Americans have both listened to and watched a podcast. 55% of respondents said their podcast consumption comes on a monthly basis, and 48% of monthly consumers are watching video versions of their favorite shows. Those numbers are good news for the media companies and advertisers that are investing millions in the podcasting space—and for the creators behind the mics.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

“Bluey vs. Brainrot”: Creator Upload hosts Lauren Schnipper and Joshua Cohen are back in the studio to discuss the biggest beef in kids content today: Bluey vs. brainrot. With kids caught between wholesome shows and “low-quality” content, YouTube is determined to help the Blueys of the world come out on top—hence the launch of its Youth Digital Wellbeing Initiative. But with TikTokers determined to “colonize” Shorts by porting over as much brainrot as possible, the platform could have its work cut out for it.

Tune into the latest Creator Upload episode to find out more. It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.