Guys. We didn’t expect Colin and Samir to cross 1 million subs yesterday, but thanks to you they surpassed it live onstage at VidSummit while answering creator questions. It was nothing short of electric. Thank you for your support, 10 years in the making.

And keep an eye out for Sunday’s issue for top learnings from the event!

–Hannah Doyle

Breaking Down The Try Guys Saga

You know when Seth Rogen tweets about creator news, it’s officially eclipsed its niche.

The news of a scandal for the Try Guys, a comedy group known for testing things like cooking without a recipe and hypnosis, spread like wildfire on Twitter this week. Speculations that one of the founders, Ned Fulmer, had an extramarital affair with one of his subordinates were smattered across the internet by Monday. It was all but confirmed by Wednesday.

The timeline:

2 weeks ago: Ned disappears from Try Guys’ video uploads and Instagram posts.

Monday: The Try Guys’ Subreddit sparks claims of Ned’s alleged infidelity, linking screenshots of an anonymous DM to about the time he disappeared from the brand’s uploads.

Tuesday AM: The news starts trending on Twitter. 

Tuesday PM: The Try Guys and Ned release an official statement that Ned is no longer working with the Try Guys and they “do not see a way forward” with him.

As the news unfolded, creators including Hank Green, John Green, and Link Neal tweeted about the importance of privacy (before deleting said tweets). The rest of Twitter, including Buzzfeed employees from the 2010s (where the group got its start) weighed in, largely in disbelief that the internet’s favorite “nice guy” might be different in real life. 

On Thursday the Try Guys canceled their weekly podcast episode and shared they plan to return October 6th with a conversation addressing the scandal.

Our Take

Creators aren’t infallible, whether their failures are moral or otherwise. As such, Twitter days like these are a creator’s worst nightmare. 

In this case, the speculation (and ensuing memes and threads) ended up setting the table for the news to go viral—far beyond the creators' own audience—once the official statements were made. When the founders of a company are also the literal faces of the product, we see just how fragile a brand's reputation can be.

Ludwig Takes on the Burden of Music Licensing

Ludwig, an avid streamer whose had numerous videos taken down due to copyright issues, teamed up with fellow gamer Schlatt to launch Lud and Schlatt’s Musical Emporium, a channel with clips of copyright-free popular music that’s free for use. 

For each of the seven songs they’ve uploaded, they hired musicians and reserved a recording studio to execute the re-recordings.

Music licensing has long been an issue for YouTube creators. Between January and June 2021 there were over 2.2 million false copyright claims on the platform. 

YouTube recently announced a potential solution for copyrighted music in Shorts, taking 10% of all ad revenue made from Shorts to pay record labels so they don’t go for individual creators—however that hasn’t extended to longform or livestream videos. 

Our Take

Copyright is complicated and expensive—which is part of the reason why YouTube is forking over a portion of its Shorts revenue to labels. Will  creators of all sizes be able to use music freely or are they going to be filtered by the traditional gatekeepers of popular culture? If record labels won’t loosen their grip (and they have no incentive to) then it’ll be up to charitable acts like Ludwig’s, or working with other parts of the music industry to sidestep record labels.

Creators Get Their Own IMDb

Saw a cool TikTok recently? Wanted to know who edited it and what other videos they’ve worked on? Now there’s a way to find out. 

A new website called Gondola allows users to search and attribute videos to creators who work on them behind-the-scenes, like editors, writers, and videographers.

How it works: Users can search Gondola for specific videos and credits. Creators can upload their own content and credit collaborators.

Our Take

Attribution can be really difficult, especially with short-form content. And finding the origins of a trend, let alone who did the work on a video, is a key step forward for transparency and discoverability in the industry—unlocking the ability for advertisers, companies, and creators alike to find talent and job opportunities. 

🔥 Press Worthy

• Emma Chamberlain gives a tour of her LA home.

• Kai Cenat surpasses xQc as the most-subscribed to English-speaking Twitch streamer.

• Stanz and Ludwig start a creative studio called Offbrand.

• MrBallen signs an exclusive content deal with Amazon.

• Sign up here to be the first to access Creator Compass—the startup helping creators find the best tools to grow their business.* 

• Google updates its search features to counter TikTok.

• TikToker HelloTefi signs with UTA.

*This is sponsored advertising content.