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.
In the midst of a prolonged fight in court, the satire news site is officially relaunching under the creative direction of comedian Tim Heidecker.
The Firefly AI assistant can also now generate a brand logo and assemble video clips into draft cuts.
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.
The agency is looking to partner with filmmakers, musicians, writers, poets, and artists to help tell the story behind programs such as the Artemis Moon missions and the Space Reactor-1 Freedom mission to Mars. But get your proposals in ASAP, the window closes on Tuesday, June 30th.
A handful of supporters showed up to a pretrial hearing with New York City-issued press passes.
Randomized trial results of the experimental GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon drug shows that it may be too effective, while causing a whopping 11% of participants at the highest dose to drop out because of the severity of the side effects. In Optimizer, Victoria Song covered TikTok influencers pushing grey market knockoffs of “Ratatouille” and attempted to find out what was actually in them. (Please don’t buy shady “Retatrutide” from the internet.)
CapCut announced on X that users will “soon” be able to edit images and videos directly within the Gemini app using CapCut’s editing capabilities.
“As creative workflows become more connected and seamless, we believe the future of creation will be more conversational, intuitive, and intelligently integrated across tools and experiences.”
I was on Vox’s Today, Explained podcast to talk about why our feeds are just clips now — what we’re calling “the clippening” of content online. You’ve probably seen these videos of podcasts, musicians, TV shows, livestreams and more. Underneath it all is an economy of clipping companies pumping out mountains of paid content.
The new agent is initially available in Figma Design, and can be used to help with generated or editing design projects, and “automate busywork,” according to Figma’s announcement. This is the latest creative company to launch an AI assistant, following Canva and several examples from Adobe.
The soon-to-be-former CEO on AI, social media, and the end of an era
Open source tech creators Diolinux have released a free patch that rearranges the Gimp UI to resemble Adobe’s Photoshop editing software. That familiar layout should make it easier for long-time Photoshop users to make the switch. Installation instructions for Linux and Windows are available on GitHub.
A new investigation by the New York Times has discovered that social media influencers are collecting tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, to back candidates, endorse policies, and attack political enemies. But where that money is coming from isn’t clear, and campaigns are embracing the secrecy.
The Federal Trade Commission, which regulates deceptive business practices, requires influencers to disclose payments for promoting commercial products and services but, it says, does not regulate political advertisements.
NFL teams doing schedule release videos has become a little tradition — and while the Cardinals are getting ruthlessly dunked on for doing AI slop, the Packers are making it clear theirs was all hand-made. (An increasing trend in advertising overall.) Anyway, disclosure: I am from Wisconsin, and the Bears still suck.
