TOGETHER WITH

It's Sunday and here’s a handpicked selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

But first, a Beatles lover is covering all of the band’s 213 songs to create a definitive ranking on YouTube.

BIG EVENTS

Summer 2025 is stacked with creator economy events and happenings

The festival: The revived Just For Laughs festival is getting an assist from Smosh. As the venerable comedy gathering looks to recover from a 2024 bankruptcy declaration, long-running YouTube brand Smosh is teaming up with JFL for a program that will reward social media creators with development deals, mentorship, and other perks.

The tour: The legends of West Coast hip-hop are so yesterday. Snoop Dogg has a new musical collaborator: Kidz Bop, which will join forces with Snoop’s Doggyland for a summertime swing.

The convention: VidCon has officially dropped the full agenda for its 2025 Anaheim convention. After inducting a group of groundbreaking creators into the “VidCon Hall of Fame,” the event series revealed the schedule for its June 19-21 return to SoCal.

The summit: YouTube exec Andreas Briese will deliver a keynote at NATPE. Budapest is playing host to this year’s edition of the annual TV marketplace, which figures to include some announcements related to YouTube’s global expansion (which includes a lot of growth on TV screens).

🔆 PRESENTED BY SPOTTER 🔆

Pro YouTubers don’t pull video ideas from thin air—they study what works. Here’s where they get the data: 

Between YouTube’s algorithm and rapid-fire internet trends, content creation has become a science just as much as an art. That’s why pro YouTubers consult cold hard data before committing to video concepts.

But where does that data actually come from? And how can you apply it to your channel?

To answer those questions (and solve the underlying problem), pro YouTubers like Dude Perfect teamed up with Spotter to create Spotter Studio. The result is a suite of brainstorming tools powered by real-time YouTube data and personalized channel insights—including Idea Bank.

Spotter Studio’s Idea Bank feature makes it easy to save, organize, and prioritize your video ideas in seconds. The best part: Idea Bank ranks concepts based on engagement trends with machine learning models built specifically for YouTube. 

(Pro tip: check out the Spotter Studio website to find out exactly how top creators engineer virality with Idea Bank.)

Ready to start ranking your big ideas? Sign up for Spotter Studio:

CREATOR COMMOTION

Creators are writing books, selling toys, and taking a step back

The playbook: Pattie Ehsaei wrote a book. After dispensing financial tips to more than one million TikTok followers, the social media-famous banker scored a book deal with Balance, which published her “financial freedom playbook.” The titular advice of her tome is straightforward: Never Date A Broke Dude.

The “unboxing video”: After feuding with h3h3productions, iDubbbz is stepping away from the Creator Clash. The one-time “Content Cop” doesn’t want his spat with Ethan Klein to spill over to the charitable influencer boxing event he founded. Therefore, he announced on his YouTube channel that the upcoming third edition of the Creator Clash will continue without him. One clever commenter described the upload as an “unboxing video.”

The toy deal: Moose Toys has already worked with MrBeast to turn fantastical designs into retail favorites. Now, Mark Rober’s STEM subscription box brand, Crunchlabs, is entering into a multi-year licensing agreement with the same toymaker. Specific product lines that will emerge from the deal will be announced at a later date.

AROUND THE WORLD

Politicians are embracing mukbangs and royals are earning play buttons. What’s next?

Politics in Korea: Can politicians win over young voters by eating a lot of food? Some candidates in Korea are embracing the mukbang by broadcasting from inside their kitchens. The guy who cooks the favorite foods of world leaders had better pay attention.

This month in Japan: Japan’s Imperial Household Agency only needed a month to earn a silver play button by going from zero YouTube subscribers to 100,000. The Japanese royals aren’t yet the most-followed world leaders on social media, but a spokesperson for the Agency said that “we would like to make more efforts.”

Tensions in South Asia: YouTube is becoming a battleground amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan. As the dispute over Kashmir becomes increasingly hostile, South Asia’s two biggest nations are banning news channels on social media. Those channels get billions of views per week, so limiting access to them will significantly impede the free flow of information.

WATCH THIS 📺

The Garrett Popcorn heiress is blowing up on TikTok

The popcorn princess: Chicagoans who are obsessed with their local popcorn brand can now watch videos created by Hannah Chody. The Garrett Popcorn heiress’ vibe falls about halfway between haul girl and travel influencer—but she doesn’t hesitate to chat about the family brand every once in awhile. (Especially when the pope is involved.)

Now that’s what we like to call “pop culture.”

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