TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and #FoodTok is poppin’. In a recent survey, 97% of 406 TikTok users said they’ve followed a recipe they found on the app.

INDUSTRY BUZZ

The investigations: Does Kalshi’s recent report on insider trading foreshadow a troubling trend for the creator economy? In a blog post, the betting hub noted that it has opened 200 investigations into insider trading claims. From that group, Kalshi detailed two that went on to become active cases and have “recently closed.”

The first case concerned Kyle Langford, a California gubernatorial candidate who bet on himself to win the race. The second has closer ties to the creator economy. After noticing that a MrBeast editor (identified in legal documents as Artem Kaptur) had a “near-perfect trading success on markets with low odds,” Kalshi determined that he had used privileged info to place bets related to MrBeast videos.

Kalshi reported Kaptur to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, slapped him with a $20,000 fine, and suspended him from its platform for two years. Those penalties could be enough to discourage rule-breakers—or Kaptur’s case could be the first in a flood of similar incidents.

The context: The world of sports betting offers us a glimpse at what could be in store for the creator economy. In 2024, former Toronto Raptor Jontay Porter received a lifetime ban from the NBA after putting money on prop bets related to his in-game performance. As a lesser-known player struggling to hold onto a roster spot, Porter had more to gain from his illegal betting activity than from basketball.

That same logic could easily apply to the world of creators. Earlier this year, prediction market trading volume reached $3.7 billion in a single week. Individual MrBeast-related bets can hit six-digit volume all on their own—and with sports leagues like the NFL placing limits on prediction markets, betting hubs like Kalshi are likely to lean even harder into influencer marketing partnerships. As that happens, tracking the flow of creator-related bets will be more vital than ever.

Burnout doesn't happen because you run out of ideas. It happens because you run out of energy.

The relentless cycle of researching, editing, distributing, and engaging leaves very little room for the actual creation. The algorithm demands consistency, but your sanity demands a break.

Hustling doesn’t scale on its own, you need to hustle smarter. 

Made isn’t just a productivity tool, it’s your exit strategy from the endless grind

Made designed your expert team to surgically remove the friction points that lead to exhaustion:

Reclaim your time and well-being. Create because you want to, not because you have to.

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

LOOKING SNAPPY

The Snappy Awards: On March 31, Snapchat will celebrate some of the most popular stars on its platform by putting on a creator awards show at its Santa Monica HQ.

Snapchat-savvy comedian/actor Matt Friend is set to host the inaugural edition of The Snappy Awards. He will be joined by a litany of guests and nominees, including DJ Khaled, who will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for his long-term contributions to Snapchat. Other featured categories include honors for breakout creators, storytellers, collaborators, comedy stars, and individuals with outsized cultural impact (per The Hollywood Reporter).

The context: With the debut of the Snappy Awards, Snapchat joins the growing list of social media companies that have produced platform-specific award shows and trophies. TikTok recently executed a similar concept when it honored the likes of Keith Lee, Bretman Rock, and Alex Warren at the first U.S. TikTok Awards, and Twitch has thrown its support behind QTCinderella’s Streamer Awards.

YouTube, meanwhile, has long used play buttons to reward creators who hit certain subscriber milestones. Instagram’s more recent take on that concept is Rings, a juried award that will fete the app’s top creators.

Ironically, the increasing platform agnosticism in the creator world could be the catalyst for these company-specific awards. As creators go wide to limit their reliance on individual platforms, it’s becoming more important than ever for apps like Snapchat to highlight what sets them apart. The Snap Star monetization program has helped its namesake platform grow its creator ranks, and Snap recently pressed that advantage by launching a Subscriptions product.

Now, the Snappy Awards will showcase some of the platform's stars benefiting from those initiatives.

CREATOR CROSSOVER

The crossover: Over the last couple of years, creators and creator-led IPs have successfully carved out significant spaces in TV and film. While much of that movement has been self-financed and distributed, we’re seeing more and more creators snag development partnerships with traditional studios and streaming services.

But we haven’t seen anything like what Dropout is doing.

On March 2, Sam Reich’s comedy studio and the stars of its Game Changer series will appear in a special crossover episode of ABC‘s long-running cop show, The Rookie. According to Variety, the episode was filmed in part at Dropout’s Los Angeles studio (specifically the Game Changer set). It will put The Rookie stars Nathan Fillion, Mekia Cox, Lisseth Chavez, and Deric Augustine in the room with Dropout comedians Reich, Vic Michaelis, Jacob Wysocki, Zac Oyama, and Anna Garcia.

The response: Procedural dramas are known for featuring splashy crossovers between different network series—but Dropout’s episode represents the first time a major TV network has picked up a creator-founded and -fronted digital property for an integration of this scale.

That match might be unprecedented, but the numbers clearly add up. Dropout’s premium subscription service just hit 1 million paid subscribers, and its YouTube channel brings in ~10 million monthly views. (The studio is also cautiously expanding into things like content licensing; earlier this week Reich revealed the Dropout streaming service has licensed British comedy horror webseries Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared.) The Rookie, meanwhile, now attracts almost 10 million views per episode.

Numbers aside, some fans aren’t thrilled with Dropout’s decision to appear on a police procedural. Game Changer‘s announcement post drew negative responses from commenters, with one person screencapping their cancelled payment to Dropout’s service and captioning it, “Not subscribing to copaganda in the year 2026.”

WATCH THIS 👀

The musical urn: Spotify has its eye on a new target audience. In an effort to reach the dearly departed, the streaming platform has joined forces with Liquid Death to unveil the Eternal Playlist Urn (aka “the first-ever urn with a built-in wireless speaker”).

There are only 150 musical urns up for grabs, so if you’re worried about a silent afterlife, you might want to snatch one up now. Here’s hoping no one’s grandkid adds “Baby Shark” to the mix.

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