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TOGETHER WITH
It's Monday and The Audio Game is here to shake up family game night. The new Apples to Apples-style title puts a spin on typical Q&A party games by letting players answer with soundbites from viral short-form videos.
BLOCKERS GET BLOCKED
If you use ad blockers on YouTube, then you should probably read about the platform’s new test policy:
YouTube isn’t messing around when it comes to ad blockers. The video platform has confirmed to The Verge that its latest global “experiment” involves “urging” viewers who use ad blockers to turn them off—unless they want to lose access to YouTube videos altogether.
YouTube’s new motto: three strikes and you’re out.
Some ad blocker-using viewers began seeing popups from YouTube this week, which warned that “Video playback will be blocked unless YouTube is allowlisted or the ad blocker is disabled.” Those popups come with three strikes: if forewarned viewers continue to watch three videos with ad blockers still on, playback will be disabled for their account.
“We take disabling playback very seriously, and will only disable playback if viewers ignore repeated requests to allow ads on YouTube.”
YouTube hasn’t confirmed yet whether afflicted viewers will be able to undo playback bans once they’re in place—but if there is a metaphorical undo button, we’re guessing it involves subscribing to YouTube Premium. The platform’s new anti-ad blocker popups remind viewers that they can subscribe to Premium if they want to keep watching YouTube ad-free.
Any users not willing to pay the monthly fee for that service will just have to play along with YouTube’s ad-supported model—because as the platform notes, its current model powers the monetization of a “diverse ecosystem of creators” and “provides billions of people globally access to content for free with ads.”
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰
TikTok says its new STEM feed has increased viewership on science-oriented hashtags by more than 30%. (Tubefilter)
Runway, a startup that equips creators with tools to produce AI-generated content, has raised $141 million through its Series C funding round. (Tubefilter)
Twitch streamer Amouranth has revealed that her so-called “sleep streams” can earn her up to $15,000 each. (Tubefilter)
After facing multiple outages during his latest record-breaking La Velada del Año event, streaming star Ibai Llanos has criticized Twitch for not being “capable of providing a good server.” (Gizmodo)
DATA • YOUTUBE MILLIONAIRES 📈
From “wine-crazy aunt” to Malibu royalty, this TikTok star is all about crafting the perfect persona
Hannah Montoya grew up as a bona fide theater kid, but it wasn’t until the pandemic hit that she began acting on TikTok. At first, the creator says she was mostly posting “random clips in character” to cure her quarantine boredom. She had a knack for creating characters that reminded viewers of their real-life friends and family—including personas like the wine-loving, New Jersey-based Aunt Jackie.
It wasn’t long before Montoya’s characters made her channel famous.
According to the creator, a video themed around Aunt Jackie’s Thanksgiving shenanigans “ended up going viral overnight.” Comments quickly flooded in asking Montoya to make videos of her quick-witted persona in other situations, from Christmas dinners to simple family get-togethers. That kind of character-based content—which has grown to include not only Jackie but a veritable “multiverse” of other personas—has allowed Montoya’s talents to shine over the last three years.
Montoya’s monthly YouTube views hit a major peak in February. Data from Gospel Stats.
In fact, the creator’s short-form skills have allowed her to build a dedicated fanbase of 5 million followers across YouTube and TikTok, and she’s active on Instagram and Snapchat as well. Fans will soon be able to find Montoya on their favorite listening platforms, too: the creator recently finished recording for The Royals of Malibu, and hopes to take on similar gigs in the future.
In the meantime, however, Montoya is still expanding her short-form multiverse. The creator says she has “a few new characters” in the works, and is developing “a few new sketches” that she’s “really excited to be posting.” For more details on Montoya’s blossoming audio career and her plans for the future, check out our full interview with her here.
DYLAN GETS DOWN TO BUSINESS
Here’s what Dylan Mulvaney said about her ill-fated partnership with Bud Light:
Dylan Mulvaney’s partnership with Bud Light should have been a simple sponsorship deal. (After all, as the influencer pointed out in a recent TikTok, “trans people like beer too.”)
Instead, Mulvaney was placed at the center of a national controversy. The social media star became a target for transphobic backlash from angry commenters and Republican senators alike. Disgruntled customers took action, too: Mulvaney’s sponsored video led to a Bud Light boycott that has had a significant effect on the beer brand’s sales and reputation.
But despite the severity of that firestorm, Mulvaney says, “the brand” never reached out to her. The 26-year-old transgender activist took to TikTok on June 29th to call out Anheuser-Busch for that passive reaction; in her video, Mulvaney claims that the Bud Light owner abandoned her to withstand the controversy over their partnership on her own:
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all. Because it gives customers permission to be as hateful and transphobic as they want.”
Anheuser-Busch’s resulting statement similarly skirted its involvement with Mulvaney. In a response provided to The Daily Beast, the Bud Light owner avoided mentioning the activist by name while noting that it remains “committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community.”
LISTEN UP 🎙️
This week on the podcast…
June’s a wrap and that means it’s time to delve into all the juicy details from VidCon Anaheim and beyond. There were unexpected YouTube announcements (say hello to A/B thumbnail testing!), big developments in the world of gaming, and new insights into TikTok’s stateside retail dreams.
Get the full breakdown from industry experts Joshua Cohen and Lauren Schnipper on this week’s episode of Creator Upload. It’s all right here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
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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.