It’s Monday and after launching the shortest-lived streaming service of all time, CNN is reportedly mulling over a potential re-do. Will the channel’s next platform outlast CNN+’s month-long lifespan?

ROLLING THE DICE

Matthew Lillard’s liquor company is releasing a D&D-inspired bourbon for Critical Role fans

The collab: Find Familiar Spirits has something delicious in store for Dungeons & Dragons fans. The nerd-focused liquor company—which was founded last year by Scream actor Matthew Lillard and screenwriter Justin Ware—has partnered with content-based fandom Critical Role to release a limited-edition bourbon.

The bottle: Long-time CritRole viewers will already be familiar with the name of that collectible liquor. Sandkheg’s Hide was first mentioned in Episode 65 of the web series’ Vox Machina campaign, when the gang gets smashed after ingesting the insectoid-produced substance.

• Luckily for fans, no insectoids were involved in the development of Find Familiar Spirits’ version of Sandkheg’s Hide. The IRL brew was dreamed up by Beadle & Grimm’s employee Chris Daly and formulated by Find Familiar Spirits master blender Ale Ochoa, who created a bourbon with notes of baked apple, brown spice, shortbread cookies, oak, herbs, dried red fruit, and “a hint of smoke.”
  
  

• Fans who order a $99 bottle will also receive a 44-page booklet with a canon short story written by Jasmine Bhullar, original art by Tyler Walpole, and a new map from Critical Role cartographer Deven Rue.

The details: Since launching in 2015, Critical Role has grown into one of the world’s largest digital content-based fandoms—meaning viewers shouldn’t lollygag if they want to secure a bottle of Sandkheg’s Hide. The bourbon goes on presale for Find Familiar Spirits newsletter subscribers on April 30 and will only be on sale from May 2 to May 23.

Check out Tubefilter’s interview with Lillard and the Critical Role crew here to find out more about Sandkheg’s Hide.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Taylor Swift teamed up with TikTok to bring several new fan-focused features to the app on April 19—the same day she dropped her double LP, The Tortured Poets Department. (Tubefilter)
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• Netflix shares fell by as much as 8% last week after the company revealed that it would stop sharing quarterly subscriber gains. (Tubefilter)
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• TikTok Shop is gearing up to compete with thrifting apps across the pond by introducing a secondhand luxury category to users in the U.K. (TechCrunch)
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• The House of Representatives has passed a revised version of a bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if its parent company, Bytedance, does not divest within a year. (Engadget)

DATA • MILLIONAIRES 📈

This creator wields the power of true crime entertainment for good

How it started: For most people, a four-hour commute would be incredibly frustrating. For Haley Price, those daily drives were just another opportunity to listen to true crime podcasts.

• That hobby took a turn in 2021. After listening to a particularly fascinating podcast episode (which centered on the kidnapping of Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus), Price was determined to learn more. The problem: she couldn’t find another show that offered “in-depth” information.
  
  

• So, Price called up a friend (aka creator Andrea Shaenanigans) and asked if she’d be interested in hosting a podcast together. Together, the two gathered enough information to launch their own 12-episode investigation into the Knight, Berry, and DeJesus case. From there, Price says, “people were saying, ‘We want more. We want to hear more true crime stories.’”
  
  

• Four months later, Gabby Petito’s disappearance “captivated the nation.” Price “felt a pull” to the missing woman, so she began posting about the case on TikTok. When those videos went viral, the creator realized she could make a real difference by “posting about missing people and victims that don’t get enough attention.”

How it’s going: Fast forward three years, and Price’s TikTok account has grown to encompass over 1.3 million followers. Fans on that platform tune in for information on current cases, while listeners follow Price and Andrea Shaenanigans’ podcast—aka Inhuman—for deep dives into solved mysteries and cold cases.

What’s next: After co-hosting 300-odd episodes of Inhuman, Price is looking forward to “continuing to grow the podcast” and “posting more often” on TikTok in 2024.

• As for her long-term plan? In five years, Price’s fans might just be able to page through a thriller novel from their favorite creator.

FESTIVAL VIBES

Snapchat is hitting the festival circuit with new filters, challenges, and more

The features: BeReal isn’t the only app making an impression at this year’s biggest festivals. Over the last two weekends, Snapchat helped concertgoers bring Coachella into the digital realm with new Discover content, a curated collection of Stories, and geo-fenced filters.

• Some of those filters—which were designed to help attendees showcase the “fun,” “vibes,” and “fits” of Coachella—gave creators a chance to win cash prizes by participating in short-form Spotlight challenges.

The big names: Those Coachella-inspired features are only the beginning of Snapchat’s festival season campaign. In addition to other activations, the platform has tapped Top 40 stars like Ice Spice, Olivia Rodrigo, and Gwen Stefani and creators Alix Earle, Lele Pons, and David Dobrik to deliver live event coverage.

The official statement:

The context: From Latin Heritage Month to Coachella, Snapchat’s seasonal activations have become a significant revenue stream for top creators. Short-form stars like Hayley Thompson have earned thousands by participating in themed Spotlight Challenges, while others have tapped into monetization sources like Stories.

• As Snapchat continues to increase the payout pool for its competitions and loosen eligibility requirements for other monetization options, more and more creators will reap the benefits.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

This week on the podcast…

The father/daughter duo: Creator Upload has a new guest in the studio. For this week’s episode, hosts Josh Cohen and Lauren Schnipper sat down with Jordan Matter—aka one half of a father/daughter duo that’s consistently putting out long-form content on YouTube that gets tens of millions of views per video.

• Check out this week’s episode to find out how Matter and his mini-me, Salish, have amassed 20 million subscribers. It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts 

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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.