Good morning. After teasing it for years, Marques Brownlee finally told the story of when several FBI agents showed up at his studio and took a phone he’d reviewed as evidence in a fraud case against a tech founder.

“If this guy Olaf ever does get charged in the United States, then it’s very likely my videos would show up somewhere in those court documents, which is crazy,” Brownlee said in his Friday upload. Wonder how often YouTube uploads are introduced as evidence in court these days…

— Hannah Doyle & Nate Graber-Lipperman

The 2024 Olympic Games kicked off in Paris over the weekend—and Olympic athletes are taking over For You Pages everywhere with fresh twists on popular creator genres.

Tennis superstar Coco Gauff invited fans to “come with me to the Olympics,” posting a behind-the-scenes vlog on TikTok that showcased everything from her practice sessions in Paris to photo shoots with other athletes.

Gauff shared the moment she learned that she would be a flag bearer for Team USA along with basketball superstar LeBron James—who wound up cameoing in one of Gauff’s most viral TikToks.

Australian boxer Tina Rahimi and American rugby player Ilona Maher were among several athletes who showed off their gear “hauls” from brand sponsors, which included everything from SKIMS apparel to custom Samsung phones.

And over 3,000 TikToks feature #OlympicsVillage. Athletes have reviewed the dining hall meals, explained their dating methods, and jumped on the Olympic Village’s infamous cardboard beds, creating a modern-day reality TV show on TikTok.

Zoom out: The Olympics are a prime moment for athletes to tell their stories on an international stage—and with advertisers pouring billions of dollars into this year’s games, it’s no wonder we’re seeing Olympians turn to creator platforms to engage fans.

Plus, this is the first Olympics since the NCAA passed updated name, image, and likeness rules in 2021, meaning Olympic athletes currently competing in college are no longer considered amateurs and can partner with brands (which has driven additional ad spend to Paris).

Royalty-free music platform Splice recently retracted its copyright strike against music attorney creator Krystle Delgado. Here’s the backstory →

Two weeks ago, Delgado showed one of Splice’s license agreements during a livestream, explaining its terms of service. Splice then emailed Delgado a cease and desist and issued a copyright strike against her channel, which prompted YouTube to take the video down. 

Worth noting: Three strikes can put a creator’s channel at risk of being removed from YouTube.

So? Delgado made a response video dismantling the strike.

Which brings us to now: Splice retracted the strike last week. CEO Kakul Srivastava told The Verge, “We fundamentally support the rights of creators to express themselves—even if we disagree.”

Big picture: Copyright infringement can be a source of contention for creators. In Delgado’s case, the strike illustrates what creators might face when trying to share information that takes viewers down a legal path.

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Inventor and creator Simone Giertz kicked off a YouTube series detailing the ups and downs of her two-year-old product company, Yetch. 

Some big takeaways:

R&D costs are high. R&D makes up 38% of Giertz’s expenses each month. “I’ve not raised any capital. It’s all self-funded which means I own it fully and don’t have to answer to anyone,” Giertz said. “The part that’s not so great is if we ever had to do a product recall, then I’d probably have to take out a second mortgage on my house.”

Profits are slim. Giertz would have to sell products at 4x manufacturing costs to be profitable, but she sets prices at less than 2x. “I’ve just set prices according to what I think they should cost for the customer and not as to what they have to cost for my business to make sense,” Giertz said.

So why keep Yetch going? It’s a way to make money outside of content. “The Yetch store isn’t just a business to me, it’s the work life I wanna live,” Giertz said.

Looking to bring on new team members? You can post opportunities on our (free) job board here.

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