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It's Thursday and Elon Musk's new city (yes, really) is searching for a "Future Chief of Police." Could you be the first sheriff of Starbase? |
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Today's News |
🎵 TikTok teams up with Apple 📈 This week on the sponsored video charts… 🔍 YouTube cracks down on deepfakes 🛠️ Roblox debuts new dev programs 🎻 Violinists find a YouTube loophole
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PLATFORM UPDATES |
 | If you can't beat 'em, incorporate 'em into your app. |
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TikTok's new music streaming service is literally Apple Music |
The context: A few years back, TikTok attempted to expand its influence in the recording industry by launching its own music service. |
That effort ultimately failed to pan out, so it pivoted to a different strategy. Instead of building a music service, it integrated the ones that already exist. YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music were the initial partners for a feature called Add To Music App, which lets users locate and listen to the songs they find on TikTok. |
The partnership: Now, TikTok has found an even more efficient way to operate like a music service without incurring the expenses required to operate one. In a Newsroom post, the platform announced a deal that will integrate Apple Music into its app. |
When users discover a track on the For You Page, a new prompt will give them the ability to "Play Full Song" without leaving TikTok. That option is located within the Sound Detail Page, where users can also learn more information about the songs they find. |
TikTok developed Play Full Song via MusicKit, a tool that connects the Apple Music API to external apps. That means when a viewer plays a song, it's technically being streamed on Apple Music. Which, in turn, means the artists themselves will be compensated by Apple—not TikTok. |
TikTok's partnership with Apple Music doesn't end at Play Full Song, either. The integration also powers a feature called Listening Party, which generates collaborative spaces where friends can listen to music together. Long story short, TikTok is doing everything in its power to borrow music streaming credibility from other tech companies (and save a little money in the process). |
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GOSPEL STATS 📈 |
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Top Branded Videos of the Week: Who's up for a tiny car death match? |
Gospel Stats' latest ranking of most-viewed branded YouTube videos is dominated by alliances between top creators and large legacy companies like T-Mobile, Lowe's, and Zocdoc. |
Even after all these years, there's something special about Fortune 500s putting money into creator deals. Content creation may be a global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars now, but we still remember when companies were asking, "So what is a YouTuber anyway?" |
🥇 #1. MrBeast x Lowe's, T-Mobile: I Built 10 Schools Around The World (50.7M views)
To accomplish his latest philanthropic pursuit (building ten schools), MrBeast snagged funds from two Fortune 500s, both of which have their own charitable endeavors. Lowe's has promised to help "rebuild and revitalize communities" with "10 million square feet of impact," while T-Mobile's "Project 10Million" works to provide 10 million students with internet access.
🥈 #2. MrBeast 2 x Slack: Answer The Call, Win Super Bowl Tickets (18.4M views)
In addition to building schools, MrBeast recently helped Salesforce execute its Super Bowl ad, which promoted its workplace platform Slack. That gameday commercial dangled a $1 million carrot, but the Slack-sponsored video we're talking about this week follows MrBeast as he gives away Super Bowl tickets to random people. (And later finds their seats with a little help from Slack.) |
🎰 #2,673. Cinema Therapy x Zocdoc: Villain Therapy? Elphaba from WICKED (107.3K views)
Cinema Therapy is hosted by licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and professional filmmaker Alan Seawright, whose videos break down the production of films and the psychology of characters like Elphaba from Wicked. We won't give anything away, but if Elphie did need therapy, Decker and Seawright's latest analysis makes it clear that the telehealth company Zocdoc would be there to help. |
Check out the full branded ranking here and head over to Gospel Stats for more YouTube sponsorship insights. |
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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰 |
 | YouTube is fighting deepfakes. (Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Made on YouTube 2025) |
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METAVERSE MOVES |
 | A sampling of games on Roblox right now. |
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Roblox aims to cultivate more game devs with two new programs |
The programs: Roblox dropped a big announcement at this week's Game Developers Conference. The platform has unveiled two new programs that will provide invaluable support for creators who want to ideate, develop, and share their own games. |
The first of those programs—called Jumpstart—targets creators who lack game-making experience but want to get started. According to a video on the Roblox YouTube channel, a "great pitch" is "all you need" to be part of the Jumpstart cohort. |
Roblox is inviting Game Developers Conference attendees to share their pitches with its representatives at the event. Those conversations will help determine the inaugural Jumpstart class. |
The Incubator program, meanwhile, provides six months of hands-on support to help creators who already have experience with Roblox development devise and build their next games. One of the key perks for Incubator participants is guaranteed real estate on Roblox's homepage. That aspect of the program could establish more transparency between Roblox and its creator community, since devs have long asked for more details about the secret sauce behind homepage features. |
The context: Sandbox-style game development is a red-hot trend among brands and a billion-dollar monetization pipeline for creators. Both of those realities have brought major game studios like Rockstar and EA into the industry. |
Roblox's expanded support structure has the potential to help it stand out in that increasingly crowded field. We've already seen how supporting smaller creators can help platforms set themselves apart; Kick's incentives for new streamers, for instance, have helped it become a viable alternative to Twitch. |
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WATCH THIS 👀 |
 | Hacking YouTube's language tracks for fun and music. |
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Is this video two minutes long or 18 minutes long? |
The musical enigma: That headline is a trick question, because TwoSetViolin's latest video is actually both eighteen minutes long and two minutes long at the same time. To promote their European tour, the duo behind TwoSetViolin (aka Brett Yang and Eddy Chen) decided to cheat the system by offering viewers 18 minutes of musical content in a single two-minute YouTube video. |
Their secret: Yang and Chen uploaded nine distinct audio tracks, each one corresponding to a different song. They then showed all nine performance videos on screen at once—so depending on the audio track you choose, you can enjoy a song by French composer Maurice Ravel, Germany's own Johann Sebastian Bach, or another European musical legend. |
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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen. |
