TOGETHER WITH

It’s Friday and, someday soon, there could be an app all about your favorite creator—at least, if Unscreen’s $150 million mission goes according to plan.

Today’s News

HOWDY, PARTNER

One month in, Spotify’s Partner Program is paying off and raising video consumption by 20%

The program: Last year, Spotify announced that it would revamp its Partner Program to unlock more revenue for creators across the platform. That program has now been running for a month—and early results are promising for both creators and Spotify itself. Payouts to creators and networks across the platform have quadrupled year-over-year, with Spotify revealing that “hundreds” of creators have earned at least $10,000 per month from the program.

CEO Daniel Ek gave those encouraging results a shout-out on social media:

The stats: The Spotify Partner Program was revamped with video podcasters in mind, and that subset of creators has seen particularly strong results over the past month. Spotify has revealed that on-platform video podcast consumption is up 20% since the new Partner Program went live. The top 20 video podcasts eligible for the Spotify Partner Program alone have seen their consumption go up 24% on average since December of last year.

Individual creators are reaping the benefits of that growth. Chris Williamson‘s Modern Wisdom, for instance, saw its consumption go up 36% month-over-month, while Devorah Roloff’s We’re All Insane enjoyed an exponential surge in viewership after adding video, and the Kinda Funny Gamecast—a show led by veteran games journalists—pushed its consumption to an all-time high. Those returns provide evidence that Spotify can rustle up the “premium video revenue” it promised to deliver through its monetization framework.

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

YouTube Star Q&A: How Can Creators Stay Ahead with Spotter Studio?

Creators are always looking for ways to work faster and earn more revenue—without burning out. Getting into that kind of flow isn’t easy, so Spotter asked top creators how they up their game with Spotter Studio: a full suite of ideation tools designed by and for YouTubers.

So, how can you increase revenue with Spotter Studio? Here are 2 tips from top creators:

⏰ Saving time with Title and Thumbnail Generators: “Spotter Studio cuts through the noise…saving valuable time—especially when it comes to finding the perfect title.” (The Infographics Show, 14.7M Subscribers)

🗓️ Planning a cohesive content schedule in advance: "This is the first time in the last five years…I am going to take off for the holidays, both Thanksgiving and Christmas because I have time. Because I’m so far ahead.” (System Zee, 1.6M Subscribers)

💡 Brainstorming new ideas based on viral content: “Spotter Studio has made things a lot easier to find stories and to find ideas…we can just have everything at the click of a mouse button.” (Drew Binsky, 4.6M Subscribers)

From personalized thumbnails to comprehensive analytics, Spotter Studio has everything creators need to grow.

Explore Spotter Studio for free →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram celebrated Safer Internet Day by introducing new teen-focused safeguards. (Tubefilter)
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• Apple has restored TikTok’s place in the App Store in response to a letter from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• Former Meta employees have blasted the company over allegations that “dozens of people with pristine history and exceeds rating that took parental or medical leave” were laid off and labeled “low-performers.” (Fortune)
  
  

• Google announced yesterday that its Gemini chatbot can now “recall your past chats to provide more helpful responses.” (Google)

STORIES FROM CREATORS

Yahoo News is turning to creators for fresh content

The content hub: Yahoo might not be the behemoth it once was, but that doesn’t mean the web company is no longer relevant in the modern age. Some of its consumer-facing content aggregation services, like Yahoo News and Yahoo Finance, still draw close to 200 million readers per month.

Now, Yahoo is looking to inject fresh content into those services with the launch of Stories from Creators: a homepage section filled with articles written by social media influencers. Yahoo first announced Stories from Creators back in March 2024, when it went into beta with just 21 participating creators. Since then, Bloomberg reports that the company has signed up nearly 100 YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram creators. Participating influencers are paid by revenue share, receiving a 50/50 split on earnings from ads run against their articles.

Yahoo wouldn’t say how much it makes from advertising or how many views influencers’ articles receive—but some creators said the number of page views varies widely from article to article, with top-performing pieces bringing in more than 300,000 views. As for how much ad revenue that generates for creators, couple Brent and Michael told Bloomberg that they make around $3,000 a month by writing about travel. 

The context: Content creators are increasingly becoming a source of news for the general public—so much so that the Biden administration held the first-ever creator summit at the White House last summer. The launch of Stories from Creators is a clear product of that trend, although Yahoo itself isn’t turning to influencers for political content or hard news. Instead, the company aims to fill its creator section with noncontroversial articles in niches like lifestyle, travel, and parenting.

LOADING…

More than 100,000 Americans have used “sideloading” to circumvent the TikTok ban

The workaround: It’s been just under a day since TikTok returned to U.S. app stores—but for over 100,000 Americans, the platform’s weeks-long absence in official marketplaces wasn’t much of a barrier to begin with.

When TikTok became unavailable in the App Store and Google Play Store last month, many tech-savvy Americans simply turned to “sideloading” to circumvent the ban. That practice—which allows users to get around app restrictions by signing up for software developer accounts—presents additional security risks, so platforms like Signulous act as guides in exchange for an annual fee.

Those services have seen significant usage spikes over the last few weeks. Signulous exec Neil Pomperleau, for instance, told The BBC that the platform is now getting thousands of downloads per hour. So far, 120,000 people have used it to access TikTok in the United States.

TikTok is well aware of sideloading—and has evenly actively encouraged Americans to make use of the workarounds available to them. A tweet from an official TikTok account promoted Android Package Kits, which are used in the sideloading process.

The takeaway: Now that Donald Trump has temporarily pushed back a ban and assured app stores they won’t be penalized for hosting TikTok, sideloading likely won’t be a first resort for many U.S. users. Even so, the fact that the practice spiked in popularity at all points to an important fact: whether through a third-party download or a VPN, TikTok fans will find ways to get their eyes back on the For You Page. It’s one reason why the divest-or-ban law was flawed from the start—and why the rise of sideloading is merely a symptom of a larger issue.

WATCH THIS 📺

MrBeast “somehow talked Amazon” into posting the first episodes of Beast Game on YouTube

The YouTube drop: It’s been just under two months since Beast Games made its debut as Amazon Prime’s most-watched unscripted series of all time. The final episode of the season dropped yesterday, revealing the winner of a whopping $10 million.

To build hype for that big reveal, Donaldson told viewers that he “somehow talked Amazon into letting me post the first 3 episodes” for free on YouTube. Those installments hit the MrBeast 2 channel on February 12 (the day before Beast Games wrapped up on Prime), and quickly racked up a total of 10.5 million views.

Check out the first episode in its entirety here.

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