YouTube, Instagram, SoundCloud, and other online platforms are changing the way people create and consume media. The Verge’s Creators section covers the people using these platforms, what they’re making, and how those platforms are changing (for better and worse) in response to the vloggers, influencers, podcasters, photographers, musicians, educators, designers, and more who are using them.
The Verge’s Creators section also looks at the way creators are able to turn their projects into careers — from Patreons and merch sales, to ads and Kickstarters — and the ways they’re forced to adapt to changing circumstances as platforms crack down on bad actors and respond to pressure from users and advertisers. New platforms are constantly emerging, and existing ones are ever-changing — what creators have to do to succeed is always going to look different from one year to the next.
Similar to TikTok’s ‘clear mode,’ a new ‘clear screen’ feature will remove the clutter from the video you’re watching.
In its desperate race to keep up with YouTube and microdrama platforms, Instagram is pivoting to TV.
After more than a year and a half in court, satirical news site The Onion is rebooting Alex Jones’ InfoWars — even as the conspiracy channel hangs in legal limbo. Comedian and writer Tim Heidecker has been tapped as creative director, and he came on the show to share his vision for the platform. Also mentioned: peptides, The Beatles, and the state of Tim’s vocal chords. Enjoy!
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If you’ve ever found yourself wondering how course-peddling hustlebros manage to convince their followers that they’re selling enough subscriptions to galavant around the world in private jets, you need to check out this excellent 404 piece that highlights one of the trade’s shadiest tricks: fake dashboards.
The Grammy-winning satirical musician told Syracuse.com that he’s “not a fan” of the generative technology, and that he turned down “a nice pile of money” after walking away from a commerical for business productivity software.
”A week before we’re supposed to shoot it, I find out, oh, this is, it’s AI. And I thought, ‘Oh no, I can’t be the poster boy for AI, forget it.’ So I felt bad about kind of pulling out at the last minute. But yeah, I’m not down with that.”
The AI audio platform has adopted Google’s invisible watermarking technology to help identify AI-generated content online. SynthID is now included in text-to-speech generations for free users, and will expand coverage to all ElevenLabs audio generations “over the coming weeks.” The watermarks can be detected using the ElevenLabs Audio Detector.
The company just announced its Canva Grow 2.0 update, which allows users to create ad campaigns and publish them to TikTok, LinkedIn, and Meta platforms without leaving the Canva app. It also introduces a new insights dashboard, and automatically analyzes ads with AI to make performance of certain themes and formats easier to track.
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If you’ve ever wondered why colors look different in digital photographs compared to the real world, then boy do I have a fun deep-dive for you. Read this article to find out why green traffic lights aren’t really green, and why it’s “totally implausible” for a T-Rex’s vision to be based on movement.
[Ryan Moulton's Articles]
Yup, that about sums up where we are right now in the world of AI editing tools and content authenticity.
Over the weekend, the DoorDash X account posted repeatedly about the World Cup, but instead of tagging New Zealand soccer player Tim Payne, the account tagged musician T-Pain — who responded accordingly. The posts had no indication that they were an ad (as the Federal Trade Commission requires).
I asked DoorDash if this was a coordinated effort and whether T-Pain was paid for his posts. Head of social Zaria Parvez said in an email that the company noticed Payne was a fan favorite and happened to share a nearly identical name with T-Pain. “So, in partnership with T-Pain, we executed a fun campaign to connect fans from around the world and remind people that DoorDash has whatever they need throughout the World Cup.”
Patreon’s Jack Conte on the future of the creator economy and why he doesn’t “want to make better cigarettes.”
The experimental composer has a new album, a new plugin, and strong feelings about mattresses.
A new dashboard will show a creator’s most popular AI characters, along with metrics including interactions, likes, and discoveries. Character.AI is also launching a feature that will notify followers when a creator launches a new chatbot.
A major case surrounding lookalike products (“dupes”) came to a close this week, in which Deckers, the maker of UGG boots, sued direct-to-consumer brand Quince, alleging it had knocked off its shearling ankle boot. A jury found that Quince’s version was indeed substantially similar to the design patent for the UGG boots — but also that the patent itself was invalid in the first place.
As I wrote last year, brands are increasingly using design patents to go after dupes. The Deckers decision stress-tests that tactic.
The R&D team at Walt Disney Imagineering has embraced Adobe’s Firefly Foundry platform to “accelerate the design and pre-production visualization pipeline” for Disney Parks and Experiences. The partnership will use AI models trained on Disney assets to turn sketches into fully rendered concept art, 2D images into 3D prototypes, and more.
The podcast host, YouTuber, musician, and audio engineer has a lot on his plate.
Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson said that today during a special event livestream for his YouTube channel becoming the first one to hit 500 million subscribers.
Who agrees with him?
The 2D animation software is currently limited to iPhones, iPads, and Android devices, but now a version for Windows and macOS is “coming soon.” A one-time purchase model will likely be available given Callipeg currently charges $14.99 for the mobile / tablet version. My animation buddies are justifiably buzzed.
The YouTube star has gone from reviewing synths to taking on the surveillance state.
Polymarket’s chief marketing officer Matthew Modabber used his personal PayPal account to send at least $350,000 to content creators who hyped the prediction market platform, Politico reports. Shirley and others who were paid promoted Polymarket on X with no paid content disclosures. Influencer content is a huge part of prediction markets’ media strategy — often hiding in plain sight.
Internal documents, which were disclosed as part of a wave of child safety lawsuits filed by school districts across the US, showed:
Snapchat sent phone alerts to adolescents during school hours, urging them to share what was going on in their classrooms.
Meta paid “teen ambassadors” to promote Instagram and hand out swag to their friends at school.
TikTok gave the National PTA millions of dollars, in part to throw school events about online safety and provide favorable comments to journalists.
Online platforms could prove whether AI labels work by giving us a filter option, but then they’d have to face reality.
iOS users now have the option to “React with Video” under the reposting symbol on the X app, allowing you to respond to clips and static images by recording yourself. You can choose between green screen, split screen, or picture-in-picture recording styles.
”This means that viewers on mobile will see a full screen vertical view optimized for mobile devices, and viewers watching on a desktop will see the classic horizontal format,” Twitch says.
The platform is also launching some updates to clips, including automatically-generated clips.
Can race, guilt, and empathy get you to pay $40 for this $9 belt buckle on TikTok?
After the Wikimedia Foundation abruptly dissolved a beloved team of engineers, Wikipedia’s volunteers are angry — and discussing how they can push back.
The Firefly AI Assistant isn’t as good as a professional human designer or photo editor, but it’s fun to watch it work.
Tap the scissors icon, trim your clip, and then save it to your library, where it can be shared from a dedicated “Your Clips” collection that houses all of your saved clips.
Clips for podcasts are now rolling out worldwide on mobile for free users and Premium subscribers, Spotify says.
