Good morning. Better, faster, stronger—that seems to be the takeaway from DeepSeek, the new Chinese AI tech that created chaos for the internet and the stock market alike this week. 

DeepSeek said creating its AI required only a fraction of the resources it took to make ChatGPT, and DeepSeek has more computational power to boot. Who are you betting on in the global race to AI dominance?

— Hannah Doyle 

Spotify Targets Podcast Creators With Awards & Tools

This month, Spotify launched two major creator initiatives—streaming recognition plaques called Creator Milestone Awards and a creator monetization plan dubbed the Spotify Partner Program.

Quick breakdown:

• Similar to YouTube’s Play Button, the Milestone Awards are plaques given to creators for reaching certain streaming thresholds starting at 50 million streams. Worth noting: This is the first time Spotify has revealed podcast streaming numbers publicly.

• And on the Partner Program: Creators need to have published at least 12 episodes, plus gain 2,000 streams and 10,000 streamed hours on Spotify in the last 30 days to qualify for payouts. 

• Once in the Partner Program, creators can earn both 1) payouts based on listens from Spotify Premium users and 2) a share of revenue from ads that play on Spotify’s free tier and other listening platforms.

Why it matters: “As a creator on both YouTube and Spotify, knowing what success looks like to the platforms really matters,” Colin Rosenblum of The Colin and Samir Show told us. “The YouTube Play Buttons inspired us to grow and were some of the clearest signals we had of what mattered to them. Now we have a clearer picture of what success looks like on Spotify.”

Zoom out: This news comes as some of Spotify’s splashiest talent exclusivity contracts expire. For example, Alex Cooper recently moved her Call Her Daddy videos from Spotify to YouTube after signing a new contract with SiriusXM. 

While we’re here: With Spotify’s Partner Program in its early stages, some are raising potential pain points—namely, that Premium Video payouts may not be substantial unless Spotify starts allowing dynamic ad placement.

Demolition Ranch Retires After 15 Years

This week, longtime home restoration, firearms, and veterinary creator Matt Carriker shared that he’s retiring from YouTube to “slow down.”

How he got here → 

• Carriker started his main channel, Demolition Ranch, in 2011 and has received over 2.5 billion views across 700+ videos (with titles like Is Titanium Bulletproof? and tank vs. gun safes). 

• Including his other channels, Off The Ranch and Vet Ranch, Carriker has over 18 million subscribers. 

• He also runs a creator merch manufacturing company called Bunker Branding Co. and a handful of Airbnbs.

Now, Carriker, 38, is selling his 354-acre Texas ranch for $15 million and halting his video production. “I love YouTube, but I've surpassed every goal I’ve ever had with it,” Carriker said in the announcement video. “And I know when our kids leave the house soon, I’m not going to wish I made more YouTube videos. I’m going to say I'm glad I slowed down a little bit and looked around.”

His fans left heartfelt farewells. “I almost cried. I [started] watching Matt when I was 12 and now I’m 25...crazy how time flies,” one fan commented. “Your Abandoned Mansion series even led me to pursue Construction Management […] I’m grateful for the laughs and lessons over the years,” read another.

YouTube Tightens Its NFL Partnership

Plenty of ex-NFL players have parlayed their retirements into YouTube success—Tom Brady, Jason Kelce, Cam Newton, and Brandon Marshall, to name a few.

Now, a new initiative between YouTube and the NFL called Access Pass for Legends will allow select former NFL players to use official NFL footage to help build their YouTube presence. So far, Newton, Marshall, J.T. O’Sullivan, and Kurt Benkert are also participants.

The program is designed to help players transition into “media moguls,” Angela Courtin, YouTube’s vice president of connected TV and creative studios, told Fast Company.

While we’re here: YouTube is taking over TikTok’s role as the official sponsor for the NFL’s pre-Super Bowl Tailgate Concert—deepening the relationship between the league and the platform.

🔥 Press Worthy

• iDubbbz’s Creator Clash boxing event returns next week after a one-year hiatus.

• Instagram announces new metrics for creators including "view rates," which show what percentage of viewers watched more than three seconds of a creator’s Reel.

• Chamberlain Coffee opens a brick and mortar storefront in LA.

• Twitch is letting creators export short-form clips directly to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

• MrBeast is launching a resort experience in Las Vegas.

• Nickelodeon releases its first original show for YouTube, Kid Cowboy.

📚️ Thank You For Pressing Publish

The content we’re looking forward to reading, watching, and listening to this weekend.

• Read: Billboard’s Damien Scott explores the life and career of Kai Cenat, from living in a homeless shelter to becoming one of the most influential creators in music and streaming.

• Watch: Adventure creator Adam Does Not Exist shows the beauty (and logistics) of taking a train to camp at Yosemite.

• Listen: On Hyperfixed, newsletter writer Joe Rhodes shares a dispatch from a three-and-a-half-year-long cruise, Villa Vie Odyssey, and its plan to visit every continent.