Good morning. We’re excited for VidCon this week, the de facto summit for all things creator. Colin and Samir will be speaking on content monetization Friday—will you be there? Tell us with a reply.

–Hannah Doyle

Mark Rober Unveils New Business

Last Thursday, the engineering creator with 22 million subscribers revealed Crunch Labs, a new studio, channel, and subscription product.

The studio is the home base for building all the inventions for his YouTube videos, and also the HQ for the Crunch Labs channel and monthly subscription product Crunch Labs Build Box.

The Build Box averages $30/month and is geared towards 8–12 year olds. Each month a recipient gets materials for a new toy and a video that explains how to build it and why it works. There are 12 toys in total, and the first month’s build is a disc shooter that sends six mini frisbees rapid-fire through the air.

The supplemental YouTube channel will explain the why and how of each build, so viewers can follow along for free.

The 17-minute launch video held a high rank on YouTube’s trending page for two days. Most of the video’s runtime was spent touring his larger-than-life studio, which Rober’s been designing and building for the last year and a half and includes multiple secret entrances.

“My goal with Crunch Labs is to help you think like an engineer,” Rober said. “Thinking like an engineer makes you a better soccer player, piano practicer, or math studier because you’re resilient and know it’s not only ok, but important to fail a bunch in order to hit that big breakthrough.”

Our Take

Few creators are better at “hiding the vegetables”–packaging education in a fun and entertaining way–than Mark Rober. Crunch Labs deepens his roots in education, which has proven growth paths, as shown by the Green Brothers and Ali Abdaal. And creating a subscription product allows for monthly recurring revenue and a line of sight for Rober to generate revenue beyond his YouTube channel.

Woodworking Youtuber Turns Down Commissioned Work for Content

Cameron Anderson, the creator behind woodworking channel Blacktail Studio recently reached 1.7 million subscribers and just hired his first full-time videographer.

He started the channel in 2016 as a way to document his hobby creating wood–epoxy tables, and shared a how-to video that went viral, reaching 5 million views. That turned into viewers commissioning woodworking pieces, with Anderson initially charging $5,000 a table. Due to growing demand, he was able to raise that price to $20,000/table.

Now he’s shifting to being primarily a content studio, as income from ad revenue and brand deals are now surpassing his commissioned work. “I’m only one guy, I can only make so many tables in a year, but there’s no limit to how many views I can get,” Anderson recently told the business YouTube channel Upflip.

Our Take

Even if your content is about building one item for one person, telling a story about it could result in millions of eyeballs, which then creates a whole new revenue stream and an opportunity to scale beyond product and into community, education, and brand.

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YouTube Ups Channel Membership Prices

The video platform recently increased the maximum limit for channel membership subscriptions 5x from $99/month to $499/month.

Creators that utilize the feature run the gamut from art to tech, including Mayuko Inoue, Nerdforge, and Yogscast—and have membership plans from 99 cents/month to $40/month.

The increase is notably higher than Twitch’s current member pricing limit, which caps at $24.99/month. Twitch also has a higher minimum, with subscriptions starting at $4.99/month, while YouTube starts at 99 cents.

Our Take

While it’s unsure how many subscribers would be willing to pay $499/month to any one channel, the option for price flexibility is good as more creators lean on memberships—and it marks a play to attract more gaming streamers to YouTube.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Ali Abdaal is awarding $100 for video ideas.

• Charli D’Amelio launches a fragrance.

• Ryan Trahan just crossed 1 billion views.

• YouTube hosted its first shoppable online beauty festival.

• Turn your physical items into collectibles your audience can buy with Tingz.*

• Morgan Eckroth releases merch.

*This is sponsored advertising content.