Welcome to Created, the newsletter that’s more essential than your phone on 1% battery. Here’s what we got for you today:
- Sidemen launch $1.2M reality show that's bigger than Love Island
- Spotify makes bigger bet on video by partnering with Nebula
- Outlier video of the week...and what you can learn
- Weekly roundup of top YT thumbnails
Sidemen Launch $1.2M Reality Show
The Sidemen (21M subscribers) launched their own reality show called Inside, which traps 10 influencers in a house to compete for £1M ($1.2M).
The show is similar to Love Island and debuted in same week as their new season.
Key Stat:
In 4 days, the Sidemen’s first episode has 8M+ views.
That beats the 1.3M viewers from Love Island‘s top episode. Easily. Hollywood, watch out.
Why It Matters:
- Creators are inching closer to Hollywood with higher production and prizes (Sidemen's £1M prize > Love Island's £50,000)
- Super long-form is on the rise. Episode 1 of Inside was 2+ hours. That's consistent with other top videos like Ryan Trahan’s 4-hour Penny Series recap (yes, 4 hours) with 4.6M views in 4 days.
Our Take
Don’t stretch yourself to make multi-hour content if it feels forced.
But with the rise of podcasts and 45% of YouTube viewing now on TV screens — there’s greater appetite for it than ever before.
Spotify Moves Deeper Into Video with Nebula Partnership
Creator streaming platform Nebula signed a deal with Spotify for an undisclosed amount.
This means a select group of Nebula’s creators will now have their videos available to Spotify’s 615M+ users.
Wait, what's Nebula?
Launched in 2019, Nebula is a paid streaming platform where creators make higher production shows than they put on YouTube. Those creators get revenue from views and equity in Nebula.
Bigger Picture:
- The move marks a growing trend of Spotify expanding into video.
- Quick timeline:
- November 2022: Spotify launches video podcasts for all creators
- March 2024: Spotify brings on video courses with Thinkific
- June 2024: Spotify brings even more video content via Nebula
- The first slate of Nebula creators headed to Spotify: CinemaWins (2M subs), Adam Neely (1.7M subs) and more.
Takeaway:
While not everyone can put their content on Nebula, this partnership speaks volumes for what Spotify is prioritizing when it comes to creators.
If you have a podcast, consider adding video for Spotify while others still think it’s an “audio-only” platform.
When platforms push into new formats, that’s the best time for growth.
🎯 Weekly Roundup: Thumbnails
Here’s why we love these YT thumbnails. Hopefully, they inspire your next one.
- Contrasting colors (blue, yellow) with mind-bending text (Veritasium)
- Bold colors and red lines over eyes captures attention instantly (Mattyballz)
- Thought-provoking concept displayed using “before & after” format (NileRed)
- Leading lines draw intrigue while text makes you wonder (Cleo Abram)
🚀 Weekly Outlier
In this section, we analyze the biggest videos from the smallest creators.
This video by Ramiroy earned 1.4M views though he only has 65k subscribers. That’s 360x the channel’s average, according to Viewstats.
Here’s why it took off so you can apply to your next video:
- Builds Off Notable Brand: Duolingo has 500M users so there's instant brand recognition in title, thumbnail, and concept.
- Questions Popular Myth: In the first 14 seconds, Ramiroy calls out skeptics who doubt if Duolingo actually works.
- Immediately Raises The Stakes: Within 28 seconds, we see Ramiroy travel to Russia to test Duolingo for himself.
🏆 The Created Referral Program
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Trust me, these books are packed with more tips than most paid courses.
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👋 See You Inside
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– Jon
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