Today's Creator Economy Pulse
Oner Active bets on creator workforce to drive $52M in sales
Founded in 2020 by fitness influencer Krissy Cela, Oner Active expects its creator‑driven team to generate $52 million in sales this year. Cela, who has 3.2 million Instagram followers and 1.2 million TikTok followers, leverages a network of creators to promote the brand’s apparel and accessories.
HarperCollins Is Turning Authors’ Books Into AI YouTube Shorts
HarperCollins has signed a multiyear agreement with AI‑powered studio Toonstar to convert the publisher’s top‑selling titles into short‑form animated videos for YouTube. The partnership will generate a pipeline of AI‑driven YouTube Shorts designed to capture the attention of younger viewers on mobile devices. By leveraging Toonstar’s proprietary generative tools, HarperCollins hopes to extend its literary properties into a new digital franchise format. The move reflects a broader industry push to monetize content through algorithm‑friendly platforms.
Replies Boost Followers: End Posts with a Question
We analyzed 21,864 Threads posts last month. Creators who got 500+ replies grew 10% in followers. Likes are nice. Replies move the needle. If your posts aren't getting replies, add a question at the end. Simple.
DualShot Captures Portrait and Landscape Simultaneously, but Framing Matters
I tested the DualShot app this weekend — it lets you capture content in portrait and landscape mode all at the same time It's pretty amazing if you're trying to record for both types of video but it does take some...
JomBoy Meets World
Major League Baseball has taken an equity stake in viral video creator James “JomBoy” O’Brien’s YouTube channel, allowing the 37‑year‑old to incorporate official MLB footage into his content. The partnership is part of MLB’s broader push to win over Gen Z...
Distribution Beats Product: Build Your Brand’s Delivery Engine
Build Scalable Distribution The best brand in the world dies in obscurity without distribution. Amazon didn't win with one great product. They built the engine to deliver everything, everywhere, consistently. Your personal brand needs the same infrastructure.
Instagram Looks to Grow Notes Engagement
Instagram is expanding its Notes feature so that any follower, not just mutual connections, can view a creator's brief comments. The change follows strong adoption among teens, who post ten times more Notes than older users. Earlier attempts to place...
YouTube Expands Media Kit Insights and Adds AI Tools
YouTube has upgraded its Media Kit, now including family‑status and household‑income metrics to give creators richer audience demographics. The enhanced kit helps creators produce data‑rich PDFs for brand‑sponsored deals. In parallel, YouTube’s Create app gains Google’s Nano Banana AI image‑generation, letting...
Podchaser Releases March “Power Score,” Measuring Post-Launch Succeses
Podchaser has launched its first Power Score, a numeric ranking that evaluates podcasts released in the past month based on audience growth, engagement and distribution reach. The March edition named "The Book Club" as the top‑scoring show with an 81...
YouTube’s New TV Tools, Prompted Playlist on Spotify, & More
YouTube unveiled a suite of TV‑focused tools, including the FAST‑style “Stations” channel launching with Coachella coverage and a “TV Companion” feature that links smartphones to smart‑TV playback and comments. The platform also extended its Ask chatbot to smart TVs, aiming...
YouTube, CBS Sports and The Walt Disney Company Are Among the 2026 Digiday Video and TV Award Winners
The Digiday Video & TV Awards 2026 honored brands that are reshaping video through technology, creator collaboration, and immersive storytelling. YouTube took home Best Digital Video Platform and Best UGC Integration, highlighting its global scale and community‑driven content. CBS Sports HQ...
Isabel Klee’s ‘Dogs, Boys and Other Things I’ve Cried About’ Lands At UCP
Isabel Klee, a social‑media star with roughly two million followers, is turning her debut memoir *Dogs, Boys and Other Things I’ve Cried About* into a television series after Universal Content Productions (UCP) secured the rights. The book, slated for an...
Bobbie's Chief Brand Officer on the Cardi B Partnership that Sparked a Cultural Conversation
Bobbie teamed with Cardi B as its "Chief Confidence Officer," launching a bold campaign that lifted brand awareness 16% in the first week and drove a 195% surge in Net Promoter Score among Gen Z parents. The partnership sparked a cultural conversation...
50 Cent Documentary Series Set At Hulu
Hulu has green‑lit a three‑part documentary series on rapper‑entrepreneur Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, reportedly paying $75 million for the project. The series will trace his journey from Queens streets, through a near‑fatal shooting, to his record‑selling music career and expansion into television...
The First Podcast That Made Money Didn’t Look Successful at All
Most podcasters equate large audiences with success, but the first profitable show Liam Austin observed proved otherwise. Smaller, niche podcasts can generate consistent five‑figure monthly revenues through layered sponsorships, subscriptions, and merchandise, even without cultural buzz. The post argues that...
Influencer Collabs Account for 50% of an Indian Soundtrack’s Promotional Budget, Says Report
Indian film soundtrack promoters are allocating roughly half of their promotional budgets to influencer collaborations, according to a recent Economic Times report. Paid YouTube advertising has slipped to about 30% of spend, while the remaining budget supports audio‑streaming discoverability. Promotion...
NAB Show: Beeble Expands AI Production Workflow With Background Remover
Beeble announced the launch of Background Remover, an AI‑powered rotoscoping tool, ahead of its NAB Show appearance in Las Vegas. The web‑based service can generate clean alpha mattes in seconds, handling complex motion, hair and blur. Users may batch‑process up...
How Much Do Content Creators Really Make in 2026?
The Influencer Mastercourse Earnings Report reveals that creators of all sizes are generating real income in 2026, with user‑generated content (UGC) and brand partnerships driving the bulk of earnings. A creator with under 6,000 followers made more than $12,000 in...
ASUS Expands ProArt Ecosystem with High-Speed Router and Multi-Gig Switch
ASUS has expanded its ProArt line with the PRT‑BE5000 router and PQG‑U1080 switch, targeting creators who need high‑bandwidth, low‑latency networking. The router delivers dual‑band Wi‑Fi 7 with up to 5 Gbps throughput and dual 2.5 Gbps WAN/LAN ports, while the switch provides eight...
Amagi Launches New Tool to Help Stations Turn Newscasts Into Social Clips
Amagi introduced Newspulse, an AI‑driven platform that turns live and archived news broadcasts into ready‑to‑post social media clips. The system automatically identifies story segments, reformats video into multiple aspect ratios and adds captions and platform‑specific metadata. Human‑in‑the‑loop controls let editors...
Meteorologist Dylan Dreyer Debuts Parenting Podcast “The Parent Chat”
TODAY meteorologist Dylan Dreyer launched her new parenting podcast “The Parent Chat” on April 6, 2026, kicking off with model Ashley Graham as a guest. The show aims to give parents practical, emotion‑focused advice for raising boys, marking a high‑profile...
Spotify Adds AI Podcast Playlists for Premium Users
This will be interesting to test out. I listen to a lot of podcasts... I've used "Prompted playlists" for music but now it can work for podcasts -> Spotify expands Prompted Playlists, its AI feature for creating playlists, to ...
AI Influencers Will Outpace Humans, Dominating Brands by 2028
By the end of 2026, an AI character will have a more loyal fanbase than 99% of human influencers. By 2028, brands will spend more on AI influencers than on real ones. What shocks me the most is FanproStudio ability to...
The Campaign That Built 621 Superfans for Under $1,000
An independent artist leveraged a low‑budget "Fandom Funnel" to identify 621 superfans while spending less than $1,000. The effort produced a sold‑out listening‑party show in four hours, generated $1,100 in merchandise sales, and drove a 160% increase in the direct‑email...
Inside SXSW: Pop Trends, Marketing & Streaming Royalties
had a fun chat with @popsamcam at SXSW about all the latest trends in pop music, artist marketing, and streaming royalties. managed to get references to robyn, rosalia, charli, britney, & audrey hobert in there, too. https://open.spotify.com/episode/7xWxyeYptPs3LV9xuG1S9j
Two Low‑Cost Newsletter Platforms That Work With BookFunnel
I did a little research today to see what newsletter platforms integrate with bookfunnel and don’t require your left arm and right shoe to afford. I found 2. Now I don’t have experience with these companies but they are legit. Email...
AfroAnimation Summit Is Quickly Emerging As A Major Talent Pipeline
The AfroAnimation Summit, launched in 2021, has rapidly become a central hub for animation, gaming and digital media talent, especially for Black and Brown creators. Attendance surged from 1,700 in its first year to 4,700 by the second, prompting major...
AI Dismantles Agency Middlemen in Creator Economy
The creator economy just had its Uber moment. 30% agency cuts on a $5,000 brand deal = $1,500 gone to someone who forwarded three emails. An AI that knows your niche, pitches brands, and handles your inbox for free for a month...
Actor and Podcaster Michael Rosenbaum Relaunches Hit Show ‘Inside of You’ On Daylight Network With Brand New Look
Actor Michael Rosenbaum has partnered with Daylight Media to relaunch his interview podcast "Inside of You" under a fresh visual brand, adding the Smallville‑focused show "Talkville" to the creator network. The rebrand, featuring new cover art and a multi‑channel rollout,...
Let's Go Get You some Subscribers...
Substack has relaunched its Notes Boost program for 2026, a community‑focused initiative designed to help writers gain momentum on the Notes platform. The weekly boost appears every Tuesday in the Events section of paid‑subscriber and Premier member posts and remains...
Inside Walmart’s Creator-Driven Social Commerce Playbook
Walmart is building a creator‑driven social commerce engine that blends shoppable ads, influencer networks, and AI‑powered trend tools. The retailer treats social platforms as search venues, targeting Gen Z and millennial users who spend hours daily online. Its Walmart Creator program,...
Use Bonus Scenes to Grow Your Author Newsletter
How to build a newsletter when you’re just starting as an author… I will always suggest adding bonus scenes to the end of your books to newsletter build. It builds your list with organic, already invested readers… But what if...
Short‑Form Content Drives 15× Weekly View Surge
I simply decided to make short form content again and we are 15x the views week over week. Literally 10s of millions more Return of the King
SoundBetter's New Storefront Helps Music Creators Earn Beyond Freelance Work
SoundBetter has introduced Storefront, a unified hub that lets music creators sell beats, sample packs, plugins, courses, mentorship, and live sessions alongside its traditional freelance services. The marketplace, which has already facilitated more than $120 million in earnings since its 2012...
AI Empowers Solo Creators, Sparking Long‑Tail Product Boom
We're now seeing legitimately useful products launched almost daily by individuals or small teams using AI, not venture funded startups. Some recent examples: @MattHartman's Ghost Pepper @bensig and @MillaJovovich's MemPalace @garrytan's Gstack The explosion of the long tail feels imminent...
Claude + Pixa Auto‑Creates Ads, No Manual Work
Claude just added a creative team. If we connect it to Pixa, it can generate ad creatives whenever you need them. That means no more jumping between tools or doing manual work.
How to Start Print-on-Demand Store with Wix: The Easy Process for Total Beginners
Print‑on‑demand (POD) is projected to reach $33.6 billion by 2030, and Wix now offers a native Printful integration that streamlines product creation and order fulfillment. The platform bundles payments, hosting, email automation, and AI‑driven copy tools into a single dashboard, removing...
Pitch Spotify Playlists Correctly: Avoid Common Mistakes
Want your song on Spotify playlists? There's a right way to pitch — and most artists are doing it wrong. Here's the step-by-step breakdown. https://t.co/lPCJKuGHtP
Turn Top LinkedIn Posts Into Endless Scheduled Variations
Remixing your greatest hits has never been easier. https://t.co/kiPTom1dLi's Chrome Extension: 1) Pulls your successful posts from LinkedIn 2) Analyzes the bangers 3) Gives you 4-5 different alternatives in your voice 4) Lets you schedule them to go live in the future Create once. Distribute...
Source Media Group Launches YouTube Golf Network With Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat
Source Media Group has launched Source Golf, a YouTube‑based network that bundles existing content from top golf creators such as Bryson DeChambeau (2.6 million subscribers), Grant Horvat (1.6 million), and the Bryan Bros (800 k). The platform sells advertising against these pre‑existing videos, eliminating the...
Instagram Now Lets Creators Tag Affiliate Links Directly in Reels
Instagram is rolling out a new feature that lets creators tag shoppable products directly in Reels, supporting up to 30 items per video. Creators can add products by pasting affiliate URLs or selecting items from a brand’s Meta commerce catalog,...
When Fashion Influencer Campaigns Go Wrong: How Bad Briefs Break Influencer Collaborations (and How to Fix Them)
Fashion influencer campaigns often stumble not because of the wrong creator, but due to poorly crafted briefs. Vague prompts, over‑scripted captions, and conflicting instructions lead to off‑brand, inauthentic content that frustrates both brands and influencers. The article outlines common brief...
AI Generates 500+ UGC Videos Daily, No Camera
R.I.P. manual UGC creation. OpenCreator + OpenClaw = 500+ videos/day without touching a camera. One prompt and my bot cranked out multiple UGC videos. No filming, no actors, just done. https://t.co/1wYMz6Z76I
OpenAI Seems to Think It Can Acquire Authenticity and Trust
OpenAI announced the acquisition of the technology podcast network TBPN for a reported "hundreds of millions of dollars," aiming to integrate its editorial team into OpenAI's broader communications strategy. The company pledged to preserve TBPN's editorial independence, positioning the move...
CBS Sells Late‑Night Slot to Byron Allen’s ‘Comics Unleashed’, Ending Colbert’s Run
CBS has transferred its 11:35 p.m. late‑night hour to Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group, replacing Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show with back‑to‑back episodes of Comics Unleashed and the game‑show Funny You Should Ask. The move, framed as a $40 million cost‑saving measure,...
GridBank Raises $6-Million Seed Round to Monetize the Videos in Your Camera Roll
GridBank, a Montreal‑based startup, closed a $6 million seed round led by StandUp Ventures to build a marketplace for user‑generated video clips. The app lets smartphone owners upload authentic short videos, which brands and ad agencies purchase for organic‑looking marketing campaigns....
The Scandal of the Sharenting Economy
Family‑centered content creators, or “momfluencers,” monetize everyday childhood moments through brand partnerships, affiliate marketing, and ad revenue, often generating millions annually. The industry faces serious ethical concerns, including exposure to pedophiles, AI‑generated child sexual‑abuse material, and the exploitation of children’s...
AI Video Editing: Save Time and Create Better Videos
In this episode, host Michael Stelzner talks with AI educator Greg Priest about using artificial intelligence to streamline video editing rather than generate videos from scratch. Greg shares his journey from a marketing role to solo content creator, highlighting how...
Asmongold Gets Banned on Twitch for a Week over ‘Third Worlders’ Remark
Popular Twitch streamer Asmongold received a one‑week suspension after calling viewers “illiterate third worlders” during a livestream. He claimed Twitch applied a double standard, arguing similar remarks about Americans would not be punished. The ban sparked a divided response on...
Audience Size Matters Less than Conversion Efficiency
Honest question - how many of your followers actually became customers? I've seen people with 100k followers struggle to find clients. And I've seen people with 2k followers absolutely printing money. The difference was never audience size.
Trend‑jacking Boosts Visibility, but Kills Real Alpha
There’s this strategy called “trend jacking”, whereby influencers discuss whatever theme is popular at any given time. By discussing popular topics, you’ll show up on people’s timelines. But obsessing about the topic du jour is also a terrible strategy for generating...