TOGETHER WITH

It's Tuesday and TikTok Music might be dead, but TikTok’s dreams of pop stardom are still very much alive. A new job posting has revealed the platform’s goal to “become the most influential music platform for the next generation of music enthusiasts.”

Today’s News

AVOD UPDATES

Amazon enters the video advertising arena with $1.8 billion in upfront ad sales

The milestone: It’s been just under eight months since Amazon introduced ads to Prime Video (aka the streaming service that comes bundled with its $14.99/month Prime membership). At the time, the ecommerce giant set an internal goal to sell $1.8 billion in video marketing commitments this year.

Now, according to a person familiar with the matter, Amazon is primed to surpass that number. That information comes from The Information, which noted the ecommerce giant’s AVOD numbers have been boosted both by its first upfronts presentation and Prime’s “hefty programming budget.”

So, how does Amazon’s $1.8 billion haul stack up to the competition?

Amazon vs. YouTube: Amazon’s ad numbers seem less impressive when compared to YouTube’s ad revenue, which totaled over $31 billion in 2023 and $8.66 billion this past quarter. The Alphabet-owned platform also accounts for 10.4% of all watchtime on TV screens, while Amazon’s Prime Video claims only around 3.5%.

Amazon vs. Netflix: Netflix might be an easier rival for Amazon to set its sights on. The streaming service introduced its own AVOD tier within the last couple years, but initially tried to charge advertisers more upfront for ad spots—a strategy that reportedly caused advertisers to balk and limited Netflix’s 2023 ad revenue to $1 billion.

Amazon, on the other hand, dropped prices on ad slots to encourage brands to buy in. The ecommerce giant has also taken steps to show ads to as many subscribers as possible. While Netflix introduced a new lower-cost tier with ads, Amazon asked existing subscribers to pay $2.99 more to avoid seeing ads.

The question: Rivals like Netflix and YouTube aren’t Amazon’s only AVOD obstacles. In order to retain advertisers, the ecommerce giant will likely have to answer hard questions about its viewership numbers. Amazon has over 200 million Prime subscribers—all of whom get Prime Video included in the price of their subscription. But how many of those consumers actually watch Prime Video?

🔆 SPONSORED 🔆

Introducing Spotter Studio: The new home base for YouTube’s top creators

What if you could brainstorm new videos, plan thumbnail designs, and collaborate with team members—all in one centralized place? 

That’s the idea behind Spotter Studio, a full suite of ideation tools designed based on hundreds of conversations with YouTube’s top creators. Spotter Studio combines real-time data insights, cutting-edge AI models, and personalized video concepts to streamline workflow and increase engagement. 

Creators like Dude Perfect, Kinigra Deon, Kent Heckel, and The Oddity are already seeing incredible results. Watch Kent Heckel’s testimonial to find out why he considers Spotter Studio his “brainstorm and video execution partner”—or take a look at the stats for a snapshot of Spotter Studio’s beta test results:

So far, videos made with Spotter Studio earn 49% more views in the first 7 days compared to videos made without. Altogether, videos developed with Spotter Studio have reeled in 844M views. 

Ready to streamline your content creation process? Hit the link below to score 30 days of free access to Spotter Studio:

Get started with Spotter Studio →

HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• Google has begun explicitly classifying content creators as experts in “Knowledge Panels” that appear among related search results. (Tubefilter)
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• Arkansas has filed a lawsuit against YouTube over claims that the platform “amplifies harmful material” at the expense of young users’ mental health. (AP News)

• A content licensing startup called Calliope aims to make it “legal and simple” for AI companies to scrape YouTube content—with the express permission of creators compensated for their data. (Wired)
  
  

• A report from investment firm Fidelity estimates that X is now worth less than a quarter of the $44 billion Elon Musk paid to acquire the platform in 2022. (Gizmodo)

DATA • GOSPEL STATS 📈

Top 3 Branded Videos of the Week: Lunchly, luxury cars, and creator-made controversy

Creator products ruled the branded charts this week as YouTubers introduced viewers to their latest wares. Despite (or maybe because of) some consumer backlash, MrBeast, Logan Paul, and KSI‘s new kids’ lunch kits joined Marques Brownlee’s app, Panels, at the top of Gospel Stats’ latest Brand Report.

🥇 MrBeast x Feastables, PRIME Hydration, Lunchly: Running With Bigger And Bigger Lunchlys (114.5M views)
To promote the new lunch kits—each of which features a Feastables treat and a Prime drink—KSI, MrBeast, and Logan Paul joined forces to film a simple 17-second short. We’re not sure where they’re running in that clip (unless it’s away from critics like DanTDM), but the trio’s sprint didn’t need a set finish line to garner the attention of 114.5 million viewers.

🥈 Mat Armstrong x carVertical: Star Rail: MANSORY WANT BACK MY WRECKED ROLLS ROYCE I JUST REBUILT (7.4M views)
The #2 video in this week’s branded ranking features something bought (rather than sold) by a creator. Since claiming soccer star Marcus Rashford‘s wrecked Rolls Royce Wraith earlier this year, Mat Armstrong has posted a few videos sponsored by carVertical (which promises to let consumers know if a car has been in any crashes). The most recent of those clips features a souped-up version of Armstrong’s restored Wraith—and the luxury car modifier who customized it.

🥉 Marques Brownlee x dbrand: iPhone 16/16 Pro Unboxing: End of an Era! (6.2M views)
Marques Brownlee’s iPhone reviews always make a splash on YouTube, but his most recent breakdown included more than one reveal. The dbrand-sponsored video announced the launch of Brownlee’s new app (aka Panels), which costs $12 a month for a selection of device wallpapers that may or may not be made with AI. Fans quickly posted their concerns about everything from the app’s price point to its ad volume, triggering a social media statement from its creator.

Check out our full article here to learn about lucky video #4—or head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights.

INDUSTRY BEAT

YouTube is the latest platform to contend with music rights issues

The dispute: There’s a reason your favorite Adele music video is MIA. A dispute between YouTube and SESAC—a music rights organization that licenses more than 1.5 million tracks on behalf of 15,000 artists and publishers—recently led the platform to de-list some of the industry’s biggest hits.

YouTube and SESAC have since agreed to a deal, meaning the missing music should be restored “over the next day or two”—but for a while, things looked pretty dicey. Before the two reached an agreement, a YouTube spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter that SESAC’s contract with the platform expired, and because it takes “copyright very seriously” a large volume of “content represented by SESAC is no longer available on YouTube in the US.” That rights dispute impacted some of the most significant music videos in YouTube history, including Adele’s “Hello” (which broke viewership records upon its release in 2016) and Billion Views Club members like Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion.”

The context: YouTube’s SESAC snafu may have been short-lived, but it nevertheless serves as a poignant reminder that social media giants still rely on cooperation from the recording industry. Recent friction between TikTok and major record labels made headlines months before the app sidelined its namesake music service, and—despite the rapid growth of YouTube Music—YouTube itself hasn’t always had a copacetic relationship with labels and their ilk.

The takeaway: Even for platforms that define pop music trends, rights agreements aren’t guaranteed.

WATCH THIS 📺

Commentary channels are killing it on YouTube

The genre: Reaction content might be a controversial genre, but there’s no denying the success of YouTube’s hottest commentary channels. Hubs across the world regularly pull in hundreds of millions of views by adding voiceovers and dramatic responses to the internet’s most viral clips.

The channel: Antariksh Yatra is the latest channel to ride that strategy to the top of the charts. Like fellow reaction creators Zack D. Films and Dylan Anderson, the Hindi-language channel layers narration over slice-of-life clips featuring animals, kids, and bizarre situations (including this one). The result: Antariksh Yatra collected 303.8 million weekly views during the final week of September—a 70% traffic increase over the previous seven days.

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