Good morning. We’re packing our bags for SXSW. Tomorrow is our first Coffee With Creators in Austin, and we plan to attend a handful of creator speaker sessions while we’re at South By. Any creators you think we should interview? Events we should stop by? Barbecue joints we can’t miss? Hit reply and let us know.

— Hannah Doyle 

MrBallen Grows Scripted Podcast Empire

The black and red skies of Ryan “Nexpo” Cantu’s true crime YouTube video essays are coming to BallenStudios as a podcast: Late Nights with Nexpo.

Context: BallenStudios, founded by longtime YouTube creator John “MrBallen” Allen, launched in 2022 as a podcast studio and management company. It has since assembled a deep roster of narrative mystery creators including Rodney Barnes, Luke Lamana, and Nick Crowley. 

• BallenStudios’ seven shows regularly hit the podcast charts, and the company has a first-look exclusive and distribution deal with Amazon Music. 

• Despite the growth of video podcasts, BallenStudios’ narrative shows are primarily audio-first. Redacted: Declassified with Luke Lamana recently partnered with Amazon’s Wondery to make animated video episodes, though.

In Late Nights with Nexpo, Cantu will narrate weekly mysteries as an audio-only show to start. Cantu’s YouTube channel (with 3 million subscribers) will serve as a video companion to the episodes. 

Zoom out: Weekly listeners of true crime podcasts have tripled in the last five years, according to research company Edison. And the money appears to be following—Crime Junkie creator Ashley Flowers just received a $40 million investment to build out her true crime podcast network.

TikTok to Hit $77B in Annual Live Earnings

By 2027, TikTok predicts it will earn $77 billion a year from livestreams alone, according to a recently released court document. For scale, that’s about the GDP of Uruguay.

Context: In the past, TikTok hasn’t publicly disclosed 1) how much money creators generate from livestreams or 2) how much commission it takes from their earnings. 

But now we have more intel: As detailed in the court document, users can buy “coins,” which are then used to send digital gifts to creators during livestreams. The creators receive these gifts in the form of “diamonds,” from which TikTok takes up to a 50% commission. Creators can also earn from Live subscriptions—TikTok takes 35% commission, while Google or Apple take a further 30%, according to users. 

TikTok Live earnings, by the numbers:

• $1.7 billion → how much TikTok made in one quarter in 2023 from users’ coin purchases during livestreams

• $50,000 → how much makeup creator and YouTube veteran Jeffree Star claims to make in a single livestream on TikTok between both digital gifting and ecommerce

Looking ahead: Digital gifting is becoming more of a cornerstone for TikTok’s business strategy—20% of TikTok’s daily US users watched Live every day by 2022.

How Johnny and Iz Harris Scaled Their Media Company

Johnny and Iz Harris have steadily grown from one YouTube channel to a full-fledged news network over the last six years. In the latest episode of The Colin and Samir Show, Johnny and Iz shared their tips for scaling their NewPress network:

Have a bias toward action → “You don’t get the feel-good of talking about a problem or presenting the reasons it can't happen,” Johnny said. “You get the feel-good by solving the problem of ‘what is the first step toward solving this.’”

Create business structures that maximize creativity → "You have to find the places where you can put structure and template around your creativity, because you’re going to have to be doing this over and over [...] again,” Johnny said.

Care more about getting it right than being right → “We try really hard to create a culture that is allergic to posturing,” Iz said.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Nara Smith releases a smoothie at Erewhon.

• YouTube rolls out a “mostly” ad-free Premium Lite subscription in the US.

• Challenge streamer Norme breaks the world record for longest time standing still.

• Kai Cenat appears on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

• Comedy creator Manni Santamaria signs a partnership deal with Studio71.

• Unwell Hydration becomes an official sponsor of the National Women’s Soccer League.

📚️ Thank You For Pressing Publish

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

• Read: Party reporting is back. GQ’s Frazier Tharpe walks readers through a Timothée Chalamet game night with guests including Theo Von, Hailey Bieber, Nathan Fielder, and Kid Cudi.

• Watch: Jasper and Shadow, the eagles featured in a four-year-running livestream in Big Bear, California, just welcomed three baby eaglets to their nest. The livestream has become a comfort watch for our team—which livestreams are your go-tos?

• Listen: Given the sheer volume of TikToks paying homage to Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra” single, we’re excited to see what trends emerge from the full release of her new album, Mayhem.