Good morning. Maya Higa’s Alveus Sanctuary held a subathon on Twitch yesterday, becoming the second most subscribed-to channel on Twitch—surpassing creators like Hasan Piker and The Burnt Peanut.

With a total of 67K subscribers on 6/7, it doesn’t get more serendipitous than that.

P.S. If you missed out on Press Publish LA, we’re sharing session recaps from our title sponsor, Google Gemini. Keep scrolling for details.

— Hannah Doyle & Syd Cohen

Today’s lineup:

After a year of development, Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg recently launched Odysseus, a self-hosted AI workspace similar to Claude and ChatGPT’s UI—available for free.

Why it matters: Major creators are finding ways to innovate tech for their own professional goals, and instead of just documenting the process for their followers, they’re leveraging the audience as a tool to improve the product. 

Earlier this year, VFX creator group Corridor Crew released an open-sourced green screen tool, with over 13K likes on GitHub. The audience was a key source of its success, adjusting the product to take up less computer memory—opening the door for more people to use the tool. Now PewDiePie is employing the same tactic.  

How it works: Odysseus has chat, email assistance, and deep research features that run locally on the user’s device, without sharing data to a central company. Odysseus also allows the user to create a “groupchat” with different LLMs, comparing answers from other AI models with its own. So far, Odysseus has over 60K likes on GitHub and over 207 contributors to the project.

“I’m releasing it because I want you to help me keep building it,” Kjellberg said in the announcement video.

And it’s working: At launch, Kjellberg shared that the program couldn’t run on Mac or Windows yet—by the next day, contributors had fixed the issue, expanding availability to most operating systems.

Looking ahead: Although PewDiePie and Corridor Crew intend to keep their products free, this method could be used by creators looking to playtest and improve their own paid projects while in beta.

Hannah here, fresh off a YouTube-filled weekend. On Friday, I attended YouTube's For Your Consideration (FYC) event at the Television Academy in LA, where Emmy voters gathered to hear pitches from creators Cleo Abram, Brittany Broski, Kareem Rahma, and Julian Shapiro-Barnum for Primetime Emmy consideration.

Why it matters: YouTube has run FYC campaigns for a couple years now, but this cycle feels different—not just because there are more creators, but because of the openness from voters.

During screenings of Rahma’s Subway Takes and Broski’s Royal Court, many in the audience were hollering and laughing. It didn't feel like a room of skeptics. It felt like voters were already sold on the prospect of a creator winning.

What I heard from voters:

After the presentation, creators were sharing why now was their moment for traditional recognition. "What's changed is the quality has increased so much. It's hard to look at YouTube and say it's not meeting the quality you see on TV,” Cleo Abram said on stage.

Royal Court was a prime example. Broski launched the show three years ago with a producer and tables from Party City. Now she has a full crew with writers and set designers—and the show is a staple in the celebrity press tour. "I don't think there's ever been a successful late night show with a woman at the helm," Broski said. "I'm a product of fan culture. I'm a woman. I didn't see myself up there, so I made it."

Big picture: The night confirmed the themes we witnessed at Press Publish LA—audiences and voters are ready to be entertained, no matter the medium. Two weeks ago, Newpress won a News and Documentary Emmy. A creator's first Primetime Emmy might not be far off. 

“It’s not a new wave,” Abram said. “We’re part of a creative legacy and future, and we’re excited to be a part of an even bigger creative community.”

Sponsored by Dragonfruit

If you got into content to be creative and make an impact—not to spend your week juggling admin tasks and chasing views and revenue...

Then you need to know about Dragonfruit. They're basically building a 1920s Hollywood studio for educational YouTube: a 100+ person in-house production team, with billions of views and tens of millions of subscribers generated for clients like Ali Abdaal, Codie Sanchez, WHOOP, and Y Combinator.

Their mission? Advance humanity by changing the way we share and consume information.

Right now, they're looking for elite creatives and operators who want:

Care about making the internet smarter? See their open roles here.

Last week Minecraft launched a creator affiliate program, allowing gaming creators to earn revenue both by making content around the game, and promoting in-game products through an affiliate link.

Context: Affiliate marketing is exponentially growing in the creator economy, making up 52% of all YouTube brand deals—and it is estimated to drive over $250M in spending by 2027, according to Emarketer. Other gaming companies like EA and Epic Games have established affiliate programs.

Big picture: Up until now, marketing on Minecraft has been relatively limited. While Roblox lets creators partner with brands to sell experiences and in-game products, Minecraft’s brand opportunities were largely confined to its partner program—with little room for brands to drive in-game purchasing. The new affiliate program changes that, giving brands a more direct path to invest in Minecraft creators and potentially the game itself.

Missed Press Publish LA? Or want to relive the highlights? Our title partner Google Gemini put together notes from the main stage sessions so you can get the high-level takeaways. Check them out below 👇