TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and Democratic VP pick Tim Waltz is leaning into his salt-of-the-earth vibe—and wooing Gen Z voters in the process. The strategy: releasing merch allegedly inspired by “Midwest Princess” Chappell Roan.

Today’s News

COURTING TROUBLE

Prime just got hit with another lawsuit. At $68 million, it’s the biggest one yet.

The context: KSI and Logan Paul’s sports drink brand is being sued—again. A lawsuit from bottling company Refresco Beverages US Inc. marks the third legal challenge Prime has faced this year. Here’s the gist of that $68 million suit:

• According to Refresco’s filing, the bottling company had a three-year contract with Prime that specified a built-in minimum purchase agreement of 90% (meaning Prime would have to pay for 90% of the product even if it didn’t sell). The deal also required Refresco to outfit one of its production lines with new equipment exclusively designed to produce Prime bottles.
  
  

• Those terms were all well and good—until, Refresco says, the initial fan fervor began to fade and sales of Prime “cooled markedly.” (Fortune, for instance, found that Prime sales have dropped 50% year-over-year in regions like the U.K.) Around the same time, Prime was facing two major lawsuits: 1) a $5 million class action suit for deceptive labeling/marketing and 2) another multimillion-dollar suit from the Olympic Committee for copyright infringement. According to Refresco, Prime responded to those challenges by refusing “to participate in the final test run” for completing factory updates or “submit initial orders to begin commercial production.”

The fallout: Prime eventually reneged on the agreement altogether—which is why the beverage company is suing for $68 million to cover its own costs and “the profits it would have earned” over the course of the three-year deal (per Refresco).

The big picture: $68 million is a large number, but the lawsuit itself isn’t unusual; competitors like Gatorade and Powerade have also faced numerous legal challenges. What is significant is the drop-off in sales motivating Refresco’s suit. The alleged decline demonstrates why creators can’t rely on maverick, fan-fueled marketing to keep a company going forever—instead, influencer-led brands eventually have to adapt to the demands of operating in major verticals with strict legal standards.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

The biggest breakthrough in AI video editing history has arrived

ClipAnything is here. After months of development, the world’s #1 AI video-clipping platform has unveiled its most revolutionary tool yet—one that can turn footage of any kind into Shorts, TikToks, and even long-form YouTube videos based on a single prompt.

Turn sports games into highlights, transform dialogue-free videos into teasers, and clip full livestreams into viral Shorts.

Here’s everything you should know about OpusClip’s latest innovation:

1. How does ClipAnything work?
The AI tech behind ClipAnything is designed to give creators full control over short-form video creation. Simply describe the scene or compilation you want clipped to generate Shorts based on your 3-10 word prompt.

2. What kind of prompts does ClipAnything understand?
ClipAnything can identify emotions, objects, people, actions, and more. Ask the AI to clip “the most exciting unboxing scene,” find the part where “Cristiano Ronaldo scores a touchdown,” or compile all footage showing “two people kissing.”

3. Who can use Clip Anything?
OpusClip subscribers will gain access to ClipAnything over the course of August—and since OpusClip is offering Tubefilter readers 30 days of free access, there’s no reason not to try it out.

Start your free month of OpusClip →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Twitch is celebrating the launch of its new DJ category with an August 8 live stream featuring a 24-hour lineup of acclaimed hitmakers. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Creators of professional Facebook accounts will now be able to avoid strikes for first-time policy violations by completing “educational training.” (Engadget)
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• According to CEO Steve Huffman, Reddit plans to “unlock the door” for paywalled subreddits while keeping the “existing, altruistic, free version” of the platform alive. (Dextero)
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• Meta has announced the immediate closure of Ready at Dawn Studios, a VR game developer it acquired in 2023. (Engadget)

FEELING FESTIVE

Kai Cenat is jumping back into live events

The big event: Kai Cenat fans have something big to look forward to. The record-breaking streamer has announced plans to host a “huge festival” appropriately called KC Fest.

Details about that event are still scarce, but Cenat did reveal a few minor aspects, including that the festival will be broadcast on a high-quality stream (“as if you’re watching on Amazon Prime”) and might take place at his hometown of NYC at Madison Square Garden (cost permitting).

The connections: The lineup for KC Fest has yet to be revealed, but Cenat definitely has the celebrity hookups needed to put on a star-studded show. His streams have become a go-to press tour destination for celebrities like Kevin Hart, Nicki Minaj, Lil Yachty, and 21 Savage. Now, the creator can add to his reputation as a promotional powerhouse by drawing fans to a major IRL event—preferably without being charged (and then getting those charges dropped) for inciting a riot for the second time in two years.

DO IT FOR THE ‘GRAM

Instagram is bringing the view back (and boosting transparency in the process)

The pivot: Instagram is getting transparent about creator analytics.

Rather than using different statistics to track activity across Reels, photo uploads, and Stories, the Meta-owned hub says it will install “views” as the primary measurement metric for all formats. The change will roll out in the “coming weeks,” at which point Instagram will record one view every time a piece of content starts to play or appears on a user’s screen.

The qualifier: Although views will become the “primary metric” across the app, Instagram head Adam Mosseri reminded creators in a recent video - and a recent interview with Colin & Samir - that they should continue to analyze other stats like sends-to-reach (which measures how frequently a post is shared via DM).

The context: Instagram’s new view-focused system isn’t revolutionary—especially given that the view is a standard metric across the industry—but it does signal a positive change in the way Meta approaches analytics. The company has historically struggled with transparency and even paid out a $40 million settlement after misleading creators by exaggerating Facebook’s video viewership in 2015.

WATCH THIS 📺

Can an agency bridge the gap between VTubers and IRL fans?

The mission: Hololive is making IRL events a reality for 15 of the 90 VTubers on its roster. On August 24 and 25, the Tokyo-based VTuber agency will host a live, in-person concert at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn featuring over a dozen virtual creators.

So, how will Hololive pull it off? The answer may lie in one of the agency’s previous events: a 2023 VTuber concert at the YouTube Theater in Los Angeles (check out video footage from that show here!).

Some eagle-eyed Redditors noticed that Hololive seems to have teamed up with augmented reality companies Lategra and Logic & Magic to make their 2022 concert a reality. Our guess: the agency likely had VTubers perform movements in a motion capture space before mapping the recorded songs and dances onto avatars projected onstage. Fans will have to stay tuned to see if that same approach facilitates this month’s big show.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Sam Gutelle, James Hale, and Josh Cohen. Drew Baldwin helped edit, too. It's a team effort.