I Love This For You!

Mr Beast’s new Vyro clipping service works for brands, but creators need it more!

Jim Louderback
October 27, 2025

This Week: And we’re back! Hope you had a great week last week, I did! Let’s jump into it. It’s a Beast of an idea – MrBeast launches a clipping service called Vyro that provides a new revenue stream FOR creators and a new way for creators to scale their own channels too. Oh it helps brands as well. But the Beast giveth… and also taketh. All that and more inside, including three eye-opening research studies at the end!

Hi, I’m Jim Louderback and this is my weekly creator economy newsletter. If you’ve received it, then you are either subscribed or someone forwarded it to you. 

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💡 TOP STORIES

The new service from Beast Enterprises, Vyro, helps microcreators earn through clipping… a smart move in a category popularized by Whop. Great for creators and brands alike, as it provides a fantastic new revenue stream and a cost-effective way to reach broad audience. But you know who should really use this new service? Other creators. I’m still shocked by how few creators use paid media to promote their videos. Time to step it up with this new cost-effective and hopefully simple to use service. Curious what clipping is? Check out Opus’ explainer. (NI, Opus)

Related: I’m building a 1BFS session on clipping—DM me if you’re an expert

METHINKS HE DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH

Speaking of MrBeast, Is it just me, or is it wildly ironic that Donaldson is bashing AI as an existential threat to creators while launching a crypto business? AI may be the trendy punching bag now, but crypto was even more toxic not long ago. Feels opportunistic to slam AI while embracing blockchain, especially with Logan Paul’s rug pulls and Hawk Tuah’s meltdown still fresh. (NBC)

WHY ARE WE STILL SCREWING UP CREATOR SECURITY in 2025

Another TwitchCon, another security failure. This time Emiru was assaulted at a meet-and-greet, echoing concerns long raised by Valkyrae, Pokimane, and QTCinderella. Protecting creators isn’t rocket science. We solved it at VidCon in 2016. Our security lead who built that system, @Wendi Ekblade, is freelancing now and lives in San Diego. Twitch, hire her before your next event and fix this problem once and for all! (Emi)

DETECTING DEEP FAKES

Congrats to YouTube for adding “Likeness Protection” to its content-ID suite, finally giving creators some control over their image and likeness. Huge step forward—but roll it out to everyone, everywhere. One question remains: will creators be allowed to claim ad revenue from their ripped NIL (like ContentID does), or only take videos down? YouTube, choose the money option. (Verge)

Also: @Vermillio already does this across multiple platforms. Hear @Kathleen Grace at 1 Billion Followers Summit explain how to protect yourself and leverage AI.

FOOL’S GOLD

@Natalie Jarvey exposes the pay-to-play rot inside the Golden Globes podcast awards. Penske Media’s “pay $75k for a trophy” model turns recognition into extortion. Not all award shows are scams, but when influence can be bought, credibility dies. A searing read. (Like and Subscribe)

GEN A TURNS 15 – WELCOME TO THE ALPHA DIVIDE

@Abby Ho’s latest newsletter explores how Gen Alpha blurs online and offline into one continuous reality. Her key insight: “Let your audience move seamlessly from watching to participating to belonging.” Abby’s become essential reading—and you can see her live at 1BFS Dubai in January with @Jo Burford and @Sara Wilson (It’s going to be epic!). (Fellow Kids)

Related: @Sara Wilson’s “Niche is the New Normal” shows how stacking niches builds scale. Great insight. (Community Catalysts)

Also: Proving Abby’s point, social media is just media now—and real community lives in gaming. (https://substack.com/@profgmedia/note/c-165005440)

😎 Party Time!

Headed to Web Summit?

Join me at a super exclusive meetup Tuesday night that I’m throwing in collaboration with Electrify, Epidemic Sound and Influencers.Club. Check out the newsletter next week for a link or DM me!

💡 PLATFORMS

YOUTUBE

One Man’s Meat: Not everyone loves the new YouTube redesign. But do they ever? It does signal the TV-ifiation of Big Red, though. (Creative Bloq)

Shopaholics: The YouTube Culture & Trends team’s Shopping report analyzed 5,000 top products purchased in H125, and the 1.000 transaction videos to show that shopping on YouTube is now an all-encompassing ecosystem: creators, communities and content formats work together to drive real results (YouTube)

The Day the Music Thrived: YouTube says it paid out $8B to music companies over the last 12 months. (TechCrunch)

More Brinkmanship: Disney threatens to pull its channels from YouTubeTV Thursday (CNBC)

TIKTOK

I’ll Believe It When I See It: Insiders predict that Trump, Xi will sign a TikTok Deal Thursday (TechCrunch)

It’s a Mystery: US advertisers rethinking their 2026 TikTok spend. (Digiday)

Related: TikTok tries to save Q4 (Digiday)

Misinformation Rampant: Limited new study finds more than half of cancer and autism videos are incorrect. (CBC)

💡 QUIBIS

OTHER CREATOR ECONOMY

Creators Deserve Equity: Twitch streamer TheSushiDragon takes an equity and ownership position in StreamerDap, a platform connecting streamers with brands. (PR Newswire)

Funding Events: Props to Billion Dollar Boy for expanding their creator fund to jumpstart IRL events. If accepted, they’ll grant you $3,500 to get your experience off the ground, along with production and planning help too. Apply here: (FiveTwoNine)

Professional Emcees Are Essential: Got an event coming up? @Phil Mershon lays out why you need a pro on stage, running the stage. I do this for a variety of events, including Web Summit and VidCon – and also hire them for events I produce, including 1 Billion Followers Summit. Money well spent! (LinkedIn)

Don’t Be Boring: LinkedIn shares tips on making a better B2B newsletter (points well-taken (LinkedIn)

Finally: Twitch debuts live shopping with ELF (Marketing Dive)

Investor Insight: @Megan Lightcap breaks down how Slow Ventures invests in creator-led companies in their annual fund recap. A must-read for anyone building a business investors can back. Favorite line: “Content is the predominant way to build a brand today.” (Slow Upload)

Notes from the Field: @Lia Haberman with a good recap of last week’s GenZ Con (ICYMI)

Brands Beware: Stop jumping on trends, and start creating them. (Lia)

Find Your Brand Advocates: Love the new LinkedIn Partnerships capabilities. I’m open for business! (LinkedIn)

Beasts with Benefits: The cycle of celebrity reciprocity – or how the rich get richer.

From Passive to Ownership: A look at the creator-led storefront revolution (BeautyMatter)

Official! Big congrats to Dan and Phil on their new “Best Phriends” announcement. (What’s Trending) Slop’s Up: As we overload slop with broader meaning it becomes useless – just like the term algorithm did 10 years ago. Aside, my surfer neighbors call choppy waves slop – and hang up their hang 10 until it passes. (Dirt)

TECH

Return of the Son of the Bride of Clippy: Open AI and Microsoft release new AI browsers. Important for creators because they will likely change how search and discovery happens: early testing and adoption will be essential. Also Clippy returns as “Mico”. (OpenAI, EuroNews)

AI Studio Advances: Open-AI aligned Wonder Studio raises, hopes to release AI-generated videos next year. (Deadline)

Lots of Worms Still Available: When it comes to AI, @rex Woodbury argues it’s 1995 all over again. (Digital Native)

Aside: ChatGPT doesn’t work in China, and my 15-hour United flight from SFO to Hong Kong had no WiFi. You never know how much you depend on something until it gets taken away. I’ve been using Grok instead, and it’s not bad. Plus, I got a lot of reading done on the plane – and had a chance to start playing Pokemon Z-A!

📊 RESEARCH

Brand Safety Ascendent: New research from CreatorIQ highlights how brand safety has become the new performance metric for influencer marketing. Eighty-one percent of marketers now say safety is as important as reach when choosing creators, yet nearly half admit they still can’t measure those risks. The rise of AI-generated content and an increasingly polarized political climate make “safe” harder to define than ever. Expect a wave of tools promising verified creator databases and standardized safety scores as brands scramble to keep their campaigns credible. As always, the devil’s in the details. (CreatorIQ)

It’s Gospel! Tubefilter releases new research on the state of YouTube’s sponsorship, and launches a long-promised data solution called Gospel Stats. The report finds that YouTube sponsorships were up 54% year-over-year, with 19 billion views driven by branded videos in the first half of 2025. The biggest growth? Mid-tier creators, proving that brands are spreading budgets beyond mega-stars. Lifestyle, commentary, and news channels are booming, while marketers shift from one-off “whale” deals to broad multi-creator campaigns across Shorts and podcasts. (Gospel)

Creator Education: A ThriveCart study predicts the creator economy will hit $600 B by 2030, with the biggest upside in niche expertise and skill teaching. Corporate training budgets are shrinking, but spending on individual experts is up 23%, fueling a wave of creator-led education businesses. They are in the education business, so take the results with a grain of salt. (ThriveCart)

📍 Where’s Jim?

In Macao today and tomorrow for Creator Week – looking forward to interviewing so many great creators and execs – and then back in the US to prepare for Web Summit!

100% written by me – no human or AI ghostwriters were involved in the production (except for the cover art!) and AI was very lightly used for editing.

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