Good morning. MKBHD’s reaction video to Apple’s latest tech is currently trending higher than the brand’s own keynote. Sometimes the commentary of an event is better than the actual thing—I think the same goes for any award show, The Bachelor, and even the Super Bowl.

–Hannah Doyle

Daniel Thrasher Produces a Live Show

“I’m most excited to meet all the weirdos who watch me on the internet. We’re gonna get along swimmingly and I can’t wait,” creator Daniel Thrasher told us this week.

He’s been prepping for nearly half a year for Daniel Thrasher: Live, which kicks off June 15th. The five-show tour, which runs throughout the midwest, will be his first live musical production outside of LA, with new songs, characters, and improv.

The 29 year old creator has amassed 3 million subscribers over his 10 years on YouTube, uploading piano-based comedy sketches and characters.

When asked about his preparation for the show, Thrasher told us “I’ve been doing more improvised music streams on Twitch to work my songwriting muscles before I get on the road. But overall, my goal has been to bring the style and feel of my channel into real life on stage.”

He recently joined the Mythical Accelerator program, a $5 million equity fund spearheaded by Rhett and Link that’s dedicated to backing creator-owned and led media companies. He’s the second creator to receive investment from the fund following commentary creator Jarvis Johnson.

Thrasher shared more content and production details in our exclusive Q&A at the end of this newsletter.👇

Our Take

A live show is one of the hardest things a YouTuber can do—and the only way to manage that with a regular upload schedule is to hire a team and find lower-lift ways to create. For Daniel, Twitch offers a format where it's easier to test live content and Mythical is where he's found a team. As he told us “I’m losing less hair than I once was. Seriously, if you have the means, hire a team. At least an assistant. Trust me.”

Physics Education Creator Raises $100 Million in Series A Funding

YouTube channel and Indian edtech startup Physics Wallah (PW) has been edging ahead of its competitors in the Indian education market thanks to its popular online courses, which teach students how to pass competitive engineering and medical exams.

PW, founded by Alakh Pandey, has nearly 7 million subscribers and over 1,900 employees, including 500 teachers and over 200 associate professors who answer student questions.

They run both online and offline courses for as low as $4 a course, which has gained them a large and loyal fan base compared to competitors like BYJU’S and Unacademy, which charge in the thousands per course.

PW plans to use the funds for branding and introducing more course offerings, as well as to launch educational content in nine Indian languages, aiming to reach 250 million students by 2025.

Our Take

Offering free or ad-supported courses on YouTube is a proven road map for making money via paid education. Colin and Samir did it with their course, Ali Abdaal is doing it, and it's clearly working at a large and investible scale with Physics Walla.

Sponsored by Epidemic Sound

Here’s How Colin and Samir Soundtrack Their Videos

Colin and Samir here 👋🏻 👋🏽 . When we started our channel in 2016, our first purchase was a music license from Epidemic Sound. The first video we made was actually inspired by a song we found on their library, and it’s been an incredible tool for us ever since. (Feel free to search the oldest video in our channel to check it out…)

Why we use Epidemic Sound:

• Extensive, high-quality selection. Every video we make gets elevated by the music in their premium library of over 35,000+ tracks and 160+ genres.

• No stress over licensing. It’s simple. One license = freedom to use the music anywhere and everywhere.

• It’s a creator-friendly platform. They provide the artists behind the music with compensation, education and distribution opportunities and enable smaller creators to get discovered and grow.

Find the soundtrack to your next video on Epidemic Sound.

Ex-YouTube Exec Starts His Own Channel

Matt Koval, who spent the last 10 years advising creators at YouTube as its Creator Liaison, is now serving up creator entrepreneurial tips on a new channel called Creator Dynamics.

The first topic he tackles is the average lifespan of a creator’s career—he maps out how it typically lasts 5–7 years across all generations, and that recently it’s gotten even shorter across YouTube and TikTok.

“Fame is fleeting, show formats can get stale, creators become exhausted, it's an emotional rollercoaster, and algorithms prioritize viewers,” Koval said. “The problem here is what are many of the 50 million creators going to do when the fame fades and they haven't created a sustainable business around it.”

Our Take

Creator retirement is a real thing that's often not talked about. Koval noted in his video that while at YouTube he spoke to many creators in tears and helped them transition out of creating as a career. We'd love to see him use his channel to workshop these dilemmas with creators to help normalize and ease the transition when the time comes to exit the career.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Hasan Piker appears on the BBC.

• LinkedIn adds a link-in-bio tool and audio event hosting to its Creator Mode features.

• YouTube debuts Shoppable Shorts.

• Merch is made easy with Spreadshop.*

• Nadeshot is hiring a full-time producer and videographer.

• JT Barnett is hiring a day-to-day manager to the CEO.

• Chess streamer Hikaru Nakamura signs with talent agency WME.

*This is sponsored advertising content.

Q&A: Daniel Thrasher

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You developed your live show over the course of a month without stopping production on your YouTube channel. What was the hardest part of that process? Is there anything you would do differently in retrospect? Why or why not?

It was tough to find time to write and rehearse the show because I also had to put out a video every week to meet sponsor deadlines.

But now I’ve started block shooting–which means each month I spend one week shooting all the main videos and sponsored portions, then three weeks writing and planning for the next month—so I’m way more organized now.

How will this show be different from your previous live show last December in LA? What kinds of things have you refined?

This run will have a lot more room for improvising songs and audience interaction, which I’m thrilled about. I also wrote some more moments to feature my looper pedal, since it’s been such a hit in my Twitch streams.

My team and I watched the recording of the December show and improved the script based on the audience’s reaction, so this is going to be even better than the original.

You’ve been creating on YouTube for 10 years. What advice would you give to an aspiring creator who wants to grow a career on the platform?

Practice uploading instead of trying to make every little thing perfect. Most of my videos come from a note on my phone where I store my ideas—that’s been invaluable to me. So catch your ideas as they come. Also, read The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield! Life-changing stuff.