Hey creator,

I’ve always said that the strongest fanbase you’ll ever come across is young, female girls.

A teenage YouTuber, Salish Matter, drew in a crowd of more than 87,000 young fans to celebrate the launch of her skincare brand at a US mall.

The crowd was so loud that the event had to be shut down.

I mean, look at these pictures!

While these pictures may look wild, YouTube stars have been attracting crowds like Salish’s for years now. It doesn’t look like it’s letting up anytime soon.

Let’s get into it 👇

—

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This issue will bring you up to speed on what’s happening in the creator economy:

• Quick Fire news headlines

• Worth The Read news stories

• Social Media Updates that you need to know about

• Check out my READ, LISTEN + WATCH recommendations for this week

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Quick Fire 🧨

• AI 'friend' chatbots probed over child protection

• Whistle-blower sues Meta over claims of WhatsApp security flaws

• Vimeo to be acquired for $1.38 billion in cash by Italian tech firm Bending Spoons

• Inside Sincerely Yours’ viral launch, and what it reveals about marketing to Gen Alpha

Worth The Read

Will AI-generated voices clog up my podcast feed?

How do you feel about AI-generated voices hosting your podcast?

An AI startup, Inception Point AI is putting podcasters into a headspin after coverage from The Hollywood Reporter forced it to the front of our minds.

The startup is co-founded by former Wondery COO Jeanine Wright, who says it costs $1 per episode and has, according to the founders, generated more than $10 million USD since 2023.

My take:

Producing an AI-generated podcast goes against the very definition of the format: capturing the imperfect edges of human life and connecting with other humans.

It makes sense that something like Inception Point AI would exist in the market. Many are trying to get ahead of the unknown future of AI by publishing AI-hosted podcasts like Steven Bartlett and his company, FlightStory.

But the podcast world is allergic to profit-hungry shows that rely purely on efficiency and speed, while forgetting about the whole point: to serve the listener.

What does this mean:

Can we expect AI-generated voices to saturate the podcast market? It’s weird to say that it will, because that defies the reason behind the growth in podcast downloads over the past 5 years.

What will likely happen is what we’ve seen in our social feeds: an oversaturation in AI-slop and ultimately making it harder for listeners to discover unique content.

But the solution is the same; there needs to be innovative discovery systems that make it easy for listeners to find shows so that they don’t get lost in the slop.

Socially Updated

Facebook

• now adjusts post distribution by increasing or decreasing reach based on content quality.

Instagram

• is working on the ability to add a link to posts, which means the ‘link-in-bio’ may soon become obsolete.

• You can now post more than one Instagram Story a day without affecting your reach.

• You can now create and manage tasks + reminders directly inside Instagram with the help of Meta AI.

• you can now pin comments on your own post. (Before, your commenters only had this ability.)

• has moved Story Highlights, which now appear in the main grid and have their own dedicated tab.

LinkedIn 

• now shows how often your posts are saved or shared via private messages (yes!)

YouTube 

• now shows ‘Likes’ on the surface of a Short

• will soon roll out multi-language audio to millions of creators in the coming weeks!

TikTok 

• and Spotify have partnered together to launch a new program called, ‘Big On BookTok’.

The Dig

READ: Emma Hemming Willis has trouble remembering a time when she enjoyed shared moments with her husband, Bruce Willis, before he was diagnosed with a rare form of dementia. I was crying reading this article from Vanity Fair. Life is just about shared moments with one another, and yet Emma can no longer do that with Bruce.

WATCH: Aussie filmmaker duo, Lucas and Curtis Nicotra, who are behind the channel Sticks, just released a ‘mini’ movie with Mr Beast for his latest product launch. This is really a cinematic commercial for Feastables. The boys didn’t mess around because they went all out for Mr Beast, and BTS of the making of the film is just as good.