TOGETHER WITH

It's Friday and we finally have a sneak peek at Instagram’s Twitter rival. Here’s what the upcoming app (allegedly) looks like so far.

ON YOUR MARKS

Tubefilter’s VidCon kickoff party is almost here. Are you ready for an epic night of racing, food trucks, and fun?

Tubefilter’s 11th annual VidCon kickoff party is less than two weeks away—and that means it’s almost time to hit the race track and take over the dance floor. Last year, 1,200 online video creators and industry members got together at K1 Speed Anaheim for a night of freewheeling fun before all the madness begins.

This year’s VidCon Pre-Party is shaping up to be just as epic—and it’s all courtesy of Spring by Amaze!

As the the largest and longest-standing independent creator event at VidCon, Tubefilter’s June 21st kickoff party has it all. RSVP now to spend an unforgettable night living it up—and get a sneak peek at these major perks:

• Free customized merch, a sponsored bar, and an exclusive VIP lounge hosted by the world’s leading creator commerce platform: Spring by Amaze 🍾

  
  

• Free electric kart racing all night long 🏎️
  (Click here to pre-register and skip the line!)

  
  

• An invite-only VIP Trackside Lounge featuring an open bar, a candy station, and karaoke 🎤
  
  

• Open Drum Session and Dance Party with DJ ∆WSUMØ and Macdrums 💃
  
  

• Plus, all the grub you can get your hands on at Food Truck City 🍔

It’s all going down on June 21 from 7-10 p.m. at K1 Speed Anaheim. Click here to RSVP before tickets run out!

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

The ultimate members-only creator community just launched. Have you joined Juice Club?

As a creator, you deserve financial tools and personalized support catered to your unique needs. That’s where Juice Club comes in. Juice Club is a members-only community that offers creators short-term funding, advanced bookkeeping tools, and priority support from a team of industry experts.

Here’s why you should level up your creator business with ​Juice Club​:

Juice Funds 
Personalized funding for creators without the long-term commitment. Supercharge your growth with short-term funding, AdSense Advances, or Brand Boosts.

Advanced Bookkeeping Tools
There’s a reason 90% of Juice creators say Juice resources are indispensable. As a Juice Club member, you can balance your books and get expert tax help with same business day support and live calls.

Exclusive Events & Community
Network with other Juice Club members and grow your brand through exclusive monthly creator sessions with experts like Forbes’ Jon Youshaei and YouTube strategist Paddy Galloway.

Plus ​more perks you won’t want to miss​!

Visit the Juice Club website today to level up your creator business.

​Join Juice Club today →​

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• YouTuber and Sidemen star KSI is now a topic of study in A-Level Media classes across the U.K. (Tubefilter)
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• BEUC (aka the European Consumer Organization) has published a report arguing that major platforms are profiting from crypto promotions “at the expense of consumers.” (Tubefilter)
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• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly informed employees that the tech giant plans to introduce generative AI to “every single one of our products.” (Engadget)
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• Three U.S. senators have sent a letter accusing TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew of “providing misleading, inaccurate, or false information” to Congress while under oath. (Gizmodo)

DATA • CREATORS ON THE RISE 📈

At Grumpy Kid Studio, pottery is more than an art—it’s an attitude

Garbo Zhu creates ceramics with a bad attitude—and that’s what fans love most about her social media-famous pottery studio. Of course, it’s not Zhu herself who has the attitude; she leaves that up to her chronically-grumpy art pieces.

The business behind those pieces (aka Grumpy Kid Studio) has evolved a lot since Zhu first began posting on TikTok in 2021, but her work has retained its signature sour-faced appeal:

That unique approach has earned Zhu more than 500,000 TikTok followers and helped Grumpy Kid Studio grow into a six-person company with its own workspace. In fact, Zhu says her business now sells between 400 and 500 pieces every month, and her videos—which show the BTS process of creating and packing Grumpy Kid pieces—routinely pull in 100,000+ views. That online visibility has been crucial to the company’s evolution. According to Zhu, Grumpy Kid Studio doesn’t actually “do any traditional marketing”—and that TikTok-focused approach seems to be working out just fine:

TWITCH’S BIG MISTAKE

Twitch screwed up (again). Is it enough to drive streamers to a rival platform?

The answer seems to be yes—if only for the 24-hour period after Twitch announced its now-revoked branded content restrictions. On June 6, the streaming platform quietly rolled out unprecedented rules barring creators from inserting their sponsors’ video or audio ads into streams, using sponsored banner ads and other overlays, and displaying sponsors’ logos over more than 3% of total screen space.

Obviously, those new rules didn’t go over so well. Within a day, Twitch had apologized on Twitter and claimed to have retracted its updated branded content restrictions. (Although someone on the site noted that the ban on “embedded advertisements or banner ads” was still in its terms of service after Twitch’s tweet went live).

That reversal was too little too late for many streamers.

Kick (a rival platform that’s been gunning for Twitch’s spot at the top of the food chain) jumped on the situation by offering to reimburse streamers for the $25 fee Twitch charges to break their contracts—as long as they agreed to start streaming on Kick instead. More than a few creators seem to have taken the platform up on its offer:

WATCH THIS 📺

Forget Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes: Keith and Zach are the real Shakespearean lovers

If you’ve been wondering about the Try Guys’ sudden interest in Shakespearean fashion, we have an explanation for you. The YouTube trio has announced the launch of their very own production of Romeo and Juliet, which will be available as a one-night performance on Kiswe.

Fans will be able to tune into the interactive show on August 10. If you need something to tide you over in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the guys’ introduction to sixteenth-century threads.

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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.