It's Friday and YouTube’s latest Shorts feature is giving creators a brand-new way to “join in on the building hype” around their favorite songs and music videos.

FROM COAST TO COAST

YouTube will be the title sponsor for VidCon Anaheim and VidCon Baltimore

YouTube is taking “its support for VidCon” to the next level—and the other side of the county.

The announcement: After serving as VidCon Anaheim’s title sponsor for nine years (with a brief hiatus for COVID and TikTok’s one-year reign in 2022), YouTube is expanding its sponsorship to the East Coast. Vice President of YouTube Marketing Kate Stanford announced earlier this week that the platform is “excited to add VidCon Baltimore as one of our key creator moments this year.”

The big events: VidCon Anaheim 2024 will run from June 26-29 at the Anaheim Convention Center, while VidCon Baltimore is set to take place from Sept. 26-29.

• Fans eager to hear from the first event’s slate of 70+ featured creators—which includes VidCon co-founders John and Hank Green, MatPat, and Fifth Harmony’s Dinah Jane—should snag a ticket to VidCon Anaheim ASAP.
  
  

• East Coasters will have to wait a little longer for both programming details and event passes: ticket sales for the second-ever edition of VidCon Baltimore will open on April 2nd.
  
  

• VidCon will also return to Mexico City from Aug. 9-11. Tickets for that event (which isn’t sponsored by YouTube) go on sale March 5.

Why it matters: As Stanford noted in her announcement, VidCon is easily
“one of the most coveted creator events of the year.” By offering Industry, Creator, and Community tracks, the convention builds spaces where brands and creators can cement influencer marketing connections, share industry knowledge, and network with potential collaborators.

• VidCon’s expansion to cities like Baltimore and Mexico City has made those spaces more accessible to a broader range of creators—a venture that reflects YouTube’s mission to “amplify” the “voices and businesses” of its creator community (per Stanford).

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• As announced by Mayor Eric Adams, New York City is suing Meta, ByteDance, Google, and Snap over child safety concerns. (Tubefilter)
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• OpenAI’s application to trademark the term “GPT” (which stands for “generative pre-trained transformer”) has been denied by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (TechCrunch)

• Meta has reportedly informed advertisers on Facebook and Instagram’s IOS apps that they will be responsible for covering Apple’s 30% fee on boosted posts. (Engadget)
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• The SEC has signed off on a merger that will clear the way for Truth Social—a controversial social media platform founded by Donald Trump—to become a publicly traded company. (Gizmodo)

COLUMNS • STREAMERS ON THE RISE 📈

For this TikToker, it’s all about “embracing what makes you different and giggling”

How it started: Back in 2020, Sam Ramsdell was determined “to make it as a live performer.” She sang at weddings, performed comedy at open-mic nights, wrote her own music, and even released a single…and then COVID hit.

• With the outside world on a seemingly permanent hiatus, Ramsdell turned to TikTok. It wasn’t long before she figured out the one thing that set her apart from other creators: her “ginormous mouth.”
  
  

• Today, fans know Ramsdell as a multi-talented, animal-loving creator with a knack for everything from music to video editing. But back then, it was her mouth that made a big impact: Ramsdell’s very first video—a ten-second clip in which she made funny faces at the camera—garnered more than 7 million views. Two Guinness World Records followed soon after.

How it’s going: Ramsdell went full-time about 2 million followers ago, and has since doubled her TikTok fanbase. She’s also expanded into everything from podcasting to long-form YouTube content (and somehow still takes the time to respond to at least 50 DMs a day).

What’s up next: Ramsdell has big plans for 2024. In addition to growing the podcast she launched with her boyfriend, the creator plans to start investing more of her time into YouTube and “doing more live shows and continuing to grow that and improve that.”

• Fans can also look forward to the release of Ramsdell’s upcoming merch line. (But don’t worry: if you can’t wait for that launch, you can always pick up one of the creator’s existing mouth-themed masks or sweatshirts here.)

CASHING IN

Lizzy Capri has made $100K since shifting from YouTube Kids to OnlyFans

Lizzy Capri has been active on OnlyFans for less than a year, but her time on the platform has already proven to be lucrative.

The career change: In 2023, Capri took a major leap of faith. The YouTube Kids star—who rose to fame by sharing family-friendly content with nearly 7 million subscribers—launched an OnlyFans account.

• Capri told Tubefilter last year that she knew people would “be shocked since this is such a hard pivot for me.” Luckily, that shock factor doesn’t seem to have worked against her. (In fact, the opposite is more likely.) Since launching her risqué (but “safe-for-work”) OnlyFans account, Capri has already earned more than $100,000 on the platform.
  
  

• The creator’s strategy is simple yet effective: Capri charges between $5 and $10 for access to her “non-nude” content—which she describes as a form of “artistic expression”—while keeping some popular shots behind additional paywalls.
  
  

• Capri also maintains a presence on the SFW content hub OFTV—but that doesn’t mean she’s given up YouTube altogether. Although Capri’s posts are now intermittent, her channel still pulls in around 25 million views per month, according to data from Gospel Stats.

The context: Capri’s family-friendly background may be unusual, but she’s far from the only content creator to bring in hundreds of thousands (and even millions) per year on OnlyFans. Streamer Kaitlyn Siragusa (aka Amouranth) once estimated her lifetime OnlyFans earnings at more than $33 million.

• Those numbers make OnlyFans a lucrative revenue stream for creators who have built audiences on other platforms, as well as offering a way for niche stars (including family-friendly YouTubers) to break into new verticals.

WATCH THIS 📺

Joe Ando’s latest muse is none other than Madame Web

One of our favorite fashion TikTokers just scored a major collab.

The design: Joe Ando’s latest gown was tailor-made for the one and only Dakota Johnson. The designer—who has risen to fame on TikTok thanks to his signature dressmaking videos—linked up with the Madame Web star to promote her new movie through a special sewing project.

Fans will have to wait a bit longer to see that dress in action (hopefully on the red carpet!), but a sneak peek of the spidery gown can be found here.

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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.