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It's Thursday and that means Season 2 of NFL Tuesday Night Gaming is only a few days away. Who will emerge victorious in the video game battle between creators and football pros?

SARIAN SAYS

The “get ready with me” format has six billion views in 2023. Get ready to learn about its role in YouTube history:

From makeup and murder to date night diaries, “get ready with me” videos have been around since the early days of the YouTube beauty community. Now—as the GRWM format scoops up its 6 billionth view of 2023—YouTube is keeping its wider audience appraised of the format’s historical contributions.

And who better to lay out the facts than YouTube’s own true crime beauty queen?

In addition to compiling a playlist of iconic GRWM videos, YouTube has joined forces with beauty icon Bailey Sarian to deliver a history lesson to the masses. The resulting video highlights a few early GRWM pioneers—including Eva Gutkowski and Amanda Steele—while tracing the format’s evolution from 2010 to 2023.

Sarian herself entered the scene later in the 2010s, when GRWM videos had just begun developing a narrative edge. The time was ripe for Sarian’s signature blend of Murder, Mystery, and Makeup; since getting started, the true crime creator has accumulated 7 million subscribers.

Now, Sarian is looking towards the next era of GRWMs. Check out her take on the format’s future here.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

How far will two creators go for their craft? Follow a YouTuber and a sound artist’s epic filmmaking journey through Iceland to find out:

In April 2023, Artlist sent sound artist Kaśka Paluch and filmmaker Sjoerd Wess on a journey through the wild Icelandic landscape. Their mission: to collect high-quality SFX and footage for Artlist’s catalog.

For five days, the two creators trekked through fire and ice to discover the most mesmerizing sounds and scenes they could find. The result was a short film jam-packed with visuals so jaw-dropping they could be CGI—and an entire SFX collection dedicated to the unique sounds of Iceland.

Working in the land of ice and fire means that Kaśka is never short of inspiration: there’s always a volcano erupting, a river overflowing, or a new fjord to explore. Now, Artlist users can tap into that inspiration by using Kaśka and Sjoerd’s SFX and footage in their own videos.

Hit the link below to watch the full 5-minute documentary:

Discover the sounds of Iceland →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• The Calm app has debuted Once Upon a TikTok Tale, a story narrated by “voice of TikTok” Kat Callaghan. (Tubefilter)​
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• A new Instagram test reportedly increases the time limit of Reels from three minutes to 10 minutes. (TechCrunch)
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• ​As of August 29, Starz has dropped its annual subscription cost from $74.99 to $69.99. (The Verge)
  

• Google is reportedly bringing its AI-driven search feature to Japan and India. (TechCrunch)

STREAMERS ON THE RISE 📈

Ten years ago, this gamer didn’t know Twitch existed—and then everything changed

Two very important people kickstarted Friskk’s streaming career: her insanely cool grandmother and a random guy at an Xbox party. It was the former of those two influences that first got Friskk into gaming. As a child, the creator would “sit there for hours” playing Nintendo games with her grandmother—a bonding experience she says “changed my life and the trajectory of it.”

Those childhood games of Bubble Bobble eventually gave way to competitive gaming. Then, in 2014, a (shockingly high) stranger dropped into an Xbox party with Friskk’s friends and told her that she sounded like she could be a Twitch streamer.

The only problem: Friskk didn’t actually know what Twitch was.

She brushed off the stranger’s comment at first, but eventually decided to check out the platform—and quickly fell in love with streaming.

Friskk started off playing games like Minecraft and Call of Duty: Black Ops before deciding that variety streaming was more her thing. Nearly ten years later, the creator has fostered both a devoted fanbase and a flourishing voice-acting career—both of which you can learn more about here.

AUDIO ADVENTURES

After scoring 100 million YouTube subscribers, Vlad and Niki are launching a podcast

Vlad and Niki are moving into audio. The Russian-American brothers have already risen to become two of the most-viewed creators on YouTube, where their primary channel currently claims 100 million subscribers and more than 78 billion lifetime views.

Vlad and Niki’s Podcast Adventures aims to capitalize on that success by giving fans yet another way to enjoy the brothers’ kid-friendly content.

The podcast will feature characters inspired by Vlad (age 10) and Niki (age 8), as well as their parents, Victoria and Sergey. According to the show’s producer, Audacy, kiddos between the ages of three and six can expect to be entertained by “fun, games, and laughs,” educational STEM segments, and moralistic stories.

Parents will have a chance to relive their own childhoods, too.

The presenting sponsor of Podcast Adventures is Bayer’s Flintstones Vitamins—a brand that has been tricking kids into being healthy since the 1900s.

LISTEN UP 🎙️

Your favorite late night hosts are coming to Spotify with a strike-themed podcast

Vlad and Niki aren’t the only celebs launching a new podcast. Late night stars Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver have joined forces to host Strike Force Five, a Spotify Megaphone-produced podcast focused on “the complexities behind the ongoing Hollywood strikes.”

According to the trailer’s description, proceeds from Strike Force Five will go towards supporting the hosts’ “out of work staffs.”

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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.