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TOGETHER WITH
It's Wednesday and a new AI chatbot is under development. The catch: you’ll need permission from the CIA to take it for a spin.
DROP IT LIKE IT’S HOT
CollegeHumor is making a major change—and it’s not giving the corporate world a chance to “muck it up”
After 24 years, CollegeHumor is rebranding. The comedy-centric media company has surrendered its original handle in favor of the name Dropout, a moniker that previously applied to its five-year-old subscription service. Dropout CEO Sam Reich announced the name change yesterday, through a video posted to the original CollegeHumor YouTube channel. (That channel has since been rebranded, and now reaches 14.7 subscribers under the Dropout handle.)
“Five years ago, we ‘dropped out’ of traditional media and went direct to our fans. We could never have imagined how meaningfully it would transform our business…I stand shoulder to shoulder with our extraordinary talent, crew, and staff as we leave ‘college’ behind and continue to forge our own path. Turns out, this isn’t just a gap year.”
Dropout may be “leaving college behind,” but Reich isn’t forgetting the company’s roots. The CEO reportedly reached out to CollegeHumor founders Josh Abramson and Ricky Van Veen to receive their blessing for the rebranding effort, and is committed to carrying on the company’s people-driven approach “without any corporations, networks, or advertisers to muck it up.”
Art isn’t made by AI for algorithms. It’s made by people for people.
Dropout will support its people-first business model by leaning into its titular subscription service. The $5.99/month offering includes 75 shows, including popular Dropout originals like the roleplaying series Dimension 20 and the comedy competition Game Changer.
🔆 SPONSORED 🔆
The world’s #1 AI video clipping tool just got a major upgrade. Here’s what to expect from Opus Clip V2.0:
Back in June, creator experts like Ruben Hassid and Jon Youshaei joined forces with leading engineers to debut the world’s #1 AI video clipping tool: Opus Clip. Since then, 1 million users have signed up to create viral Shorts with Opus Clip—including top creators like Sean Kelly, Grant Cardone, and Scott Galloway.
Now, Opus Clip v2.0 is giving creators access to more features than ever before:
AI Reframe Upgrade: Sit back while AI tracks active speakers to perfectly reframe for interview videos and panel discussions with multiple speakers. 🙋♂️
Import Videos from Multiple Sources, including YouTube, Google Drive, Vimeo, Rumble, or even local files. 💻
Animated Captions: Try out an expanded range of fancier caption styles like karaoke, pop-line, pop, scale, slide left, and slide up. ✨
Middle-Section Clip Trimmer: Use Opus Clip’s advanced caption editor to select a specific section—even one in the middle of a clip—and make edits or trims with ease. 🔎
Faster Processing Speeds: 90% of Opus Clip projects can now be completed in under 20 minutes. 🚀
Ready to get started? Simply sign up for any essential plan to score a one-month 50% discount—and prepare to discover even more upcoming features.
HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰
Google will begin shuttering Google Podcasts in 2024, making YouTube Music its one and only podcast destination. (Tubefilter)
Netflix, Disney, Paramount Plus, Max, Peacock, and other streaming services have come together to form a “unified coalition” called the Streaming Innovation Alliance. (Axios)
A new update to YouTube’s ad guidelines will allow creators to “to earn more ad revenue on content discussing topics such as abortion and adult sexual abuse.” (TechCrunch)
The FTC and 17 state attorneys have filed a lawsuit against Amazon in an effort to "pry loose” the ecommerce giant’s “monopolistic control.” (Gizmodo)
DATA • U.S. TOP 50 📈
This creator can play songs on the piano (but making music with disco balls and bananas is more fun)
Landen Purifoy doesn’t need fancy instruments to wow viewers with his musical talent. In fact, he doesn’t need any instruments at all.
At least, not in the traditional sense.
Purifoy’s 7.6 million TikTok followers would be hard-pressed to find a video of him playing the violin or practicing the clarinet. But hand the creator a talkbox and a banana, and you can expect to hear some pretty incredible tunes. That ability to make music with household objects has earned Purifoy a loyal fanbase on TikTok—and now, he’s adapted his unique abilities to YouTube Shorts.
In order to appeal to Shorts viewers, Purifoy has added a challenge-style format to his content. Videos daring fans to “guess the song” have accumulated hundreds of millions of views over the past few months. Purifoy’s most popular Short of all time, for instance, has earned a whopping 142 million views—and that’s just one clip.
Purifoy’s monthly viewership hit a high note this month. Data from Gospel Stats.
That viral success is unlikely to slow down anytime soon.
During our last seven-day count, Purifoy picked up 127.4 million weekly views.
That total added up to a week-over-week increase of 43%.
The result: Purifoy’s channel now claims 5.4 million subscribers and a place at #43 in the U.S. Top 50.
CLIMBING THE CHARTS
Alex Cooper’s new media network has already claimed the #1 and #2 spots on Spotify’s podcast charts
It’s been just under two months since the launch of Alex Cooper’s Unwell Network, but the media company is already climbing the ranks. Back in August, Cooper pitched Unwell as “a platform for this generation’s unique voices that embrace social challenges and personal insecurities through honest conversation.”
Now, those voices have spoken—and fans are hooked.
As of this morning, two Unwell-produced shows are at the top of the Spotify podcast charts: Alix Earle‘s Hot Mess (#1) and Cooper’s Call Her Daddy (#2). Those rankings place both podcasts ahead of The Joe Rogan Experience—aka Spotify’s most popular show of 2021 and 2022.
Hot Mess’ chart-topping performance rounds out an eventful month for Earle, who launched her show under the Unwell banner as a way to keep fans up-to-date on her busy life. The TikTok ‘it’ girl made a guest appearance on the season four premiere of Cooper’s own Unwell podcast—Call Her Daddy—last week, just before earning a place on Forbes‘ Top Creators list.
Those successes spell good tidings for the Unwell Network’s other launch partner, TikToker Madeline Argy. The influencer is set to premiere her upcoming Unwell-produced podcast, Pretty Lonesome with Madeline Argy, on October 2.
WATCH THIS 📺
Travis Kelce just won over a lot of new fans (and we’re guessing most of them are Swifties)
Between a landslide win against the Chicago Bears and a gameday appearance from Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce is having a pretty incredible week. According to Sportskeeda and Rolling Stone, the NFL star’s Instagram following has increased by 276% since rumors began flying about his (alleged) romance with the Midnights singer, while sales of his jersey have risen by a whopping 400%.
ESPN is having a field day, too—especially after earning more than 80 million TikTok views with its (admittedly hilarious) coverage of the potential courtship. If that doesn’t demonstrate the earthshaking power of Swifties, we’re not sure what does.
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.