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-Hannah Doyle

Rhett and Link Launch Producer-Led Podcast

Rhett and Link founded their parent company Mythical in 2007 at the start of their YouTube career. 

Over the last few years, they’ve expanded beyond their variety show, with Mythical acquiring YouTube channels like SMOSH, and investing in other creator businesses via their Mythical Accelerator fund.

Mythical is now launching the podcast Trevor Talks Too Much, hosted by Trevor Evarts, a producer and cast member on its food show Mythical Kitchen.

Trevor Talks Too Much is the third podcast under the Mythical brand that doesn’t feature Rhett and Link as the focal point. The show will span a wide range of subject matter, with interviews including creators, streamers, actors, musicians, and athletes.

Mythical is taking a route similar to Conan O’Brien, putting members of its team in the spotlight to grow deeper brand affinity, and to bring more faces to the brand alongside Rhett and Link.

Our Take

While most media companies are structured like a pyramid, creator-led companies tend to operate as an inverted pyramid, with all the pressure on their founders as the face of the brand. To avoid the inevitable pitfalls, creator-led companies have to find ways to expand their universe beyond their founders.

Charlie Puth’s TikTok-Fueled Single Debuts at #1

The New Jersey falsetto has been teasing his single "Light Switch" on the platform for months, showing clips of him finding a melody, writing lyrics, and recording sounds. 

Last Thursday the song debuted at #1 on the Billboard and Spotify global charts, garnered 2 million streams in the first day, and the music video has over 12 million views on YouTube. 

In an interview with Vogue, Puth shared how TikTok has changed his songwriting process. “I love feeding my viewers a demo of a song, and them opening up and isolating the vocals and remixing it,” Puth said. “I’m pretty much making an entire album off TikTok.”

Our Take

TikTok is under scrutiny right now for failing to pay creators adequately. Its competitive advantage however is the ability to dictate cultural relevance. Creators like Puth are showing us how TikTok can be leveraged for distribution that leads to monetization outside of the platform.

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YouTube Hits 5 Trillion Views on Shorts

On Tuesday, CEO Susan Wojcicki addressed the platform’s priorities for 2022, including its intention to lean more into Shorts. Here’s what we found most notable:

• Over 40% of creators who received payment from the Shorts fund last year were not in the YouTube Partner Program previously.

• The number of channels making more than $10,000 a year are up 40% year-over-year.

• Last year, YouTube Channel Memberships and paid digital goods were purchased or renewed more than 110 million times.

Our Take

YouTube remains atop the list when it comes to helping creators earn a living. With TikTok facing criticism, now would be a good time to triple the Shorts fund and establish YouTube as the one-stop shop for creator compensation.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Markiplier makes a YouTube channel for his podcast Distractible.

• More creators continue to call out TikTok for underpaying creators.

• Twitter is working on a "close friends" feature.

• Emma Chamberlain gives her first sit-down interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast.

• MrBeast teases a new product.

• Mythical is hiring a culinary producer.