We Went to SXSW (creator edition)

0:01Welcome to Creator Upload, your Creator Comedy Podcast. I'm Lauren Schnipper. And I'm Joshua Cohen. Hot off the streets of Texas. Hot off, hot off. You look a little bit moist right now. Ew, that word is terrible. I went to South by last year, you went to South by this year. I love how we tag team. I love how we tag team. Yeah. So I'd love to hear, like, when I went last year, it felt to me like the Creator sort of track wanted to be what the podcast track sort of had become, which was probably five or so years ago was like the little sort of new kind of kid in town that was trying to be a thing.

0:34Feels like it's a very established podcast track, whereas the creator economy track felt very kind of, I don't want to say hodgepodge, but still like early days. Curious what your experience was, Joshua, this year. Lauren, first of all, when you went there last year, I think the Austin Convention Center was still in operation. Going through like a$1.6 billion renovation. It's going to be done at the end of 2028 you needed it go on sure i've been i've been going to podcast to south by on and off for over a decade and like you needed it go on so that was closed down and all the official south by southwest events and unofficial south by southwest events happened at disparate locations near the convention center but not within it i liked it i like the disjointed disparate locations it made it feel more fluid like you were running into people more also getting navigating through that convention center, it's a lot of walking.

1:24It's a lot of walking. I mean, you walk into one side, you think I'm here. And you're like, no, you got another mile to go, buddy. A lot of walking. And so in terms of content, though, maybe because they have all these separate locations, it wasn't as easy to figure out what you were competing against in terms of programming. Oh, yeah. That makes sense. Because I was seeing the podcast track like right there last year. Right. And so I was mainly going to the creator track. I saw some great panels there. and also there was this co-located event by sounds profitable which is this professional organization for podcasters and entities in the podcast ecosystem they had their own conference going on called podcast evolution which was fantastic too so lots of the podcast people were hanging out there they had live podcasts that were going on at that venue and then throughout the city at different hotels you had pockets of again official south by southwest events and unofficial ones in terms of creator programming for the official south by southwest schedule i thought it was good it wasn't getting like deep dives into the ecosystem or idiosyncrasies was there like a trend that they were like highlight like what were people taught like what's like coming out like you know coming out of certain conventions you feel like there's like a vibe like people are talking about ai which everybody's talking about ai but like what are people talking about everybody's talking about ai but i think it was too our ecosystem's too big now to encapsulate into like one word takeaway from everything that was happening.

2:50Sounds lazy. Go on. Go on. Sounds like ill-prepared, but go on. So you had things like John Ushai gave a great keynote. Have you seen John Ushai give a keynote? Have I seen him actually give a keynote? I think that actually maybe I have not. I know, love, friend of ours, the pod, if you will. He's the best, but I don't know if I've actually seen him get the keynote but i'm sure it was fantastic and so john yushai who's a creator he used to be at youtube then at instagram and then started his creator journey and is a very successful creator has a docu-series coming out with mr beast this week which he showed a preview of um when he goes up on stage he just enters this other persona which lots of people do when the camera's on and this is how i am all the time go on lots of people they want to if they want to give off a better impression of themselves nope just sometimes when the camera's on or they go up on stage they might just elicit a different type of energy no not the case here what you see is what you get you're the genuine article yep keep going planes trains and automobiles was based on loran schnipper so he becomes like beyonce's alter ego sasha fierce or like kobe bryant's alter ego black mamba there you go okay so some version of that uh-huh and he talks about his creator journey a few interesting takeaways from that were one he says you should be able to distill down your brand into one word we're sensing a theme here already what's his theme is master class okay so that's his litmus test that he puts all of his different content against he mentioned that arax is mischief i like it i think it makes sense i like it also during his keynote he was also giving other hints tips and tricks how to become a creator and low-hanging fruit that you can do in order to elevate your game to the next level so we have things like that which feels like a very you can run the gamut but more of like an introductory class for people early on in their creator journey people who are farther on in their creator journey are going to get a lot out of it too but basically for people that are like kind of just getting started but i like i can i just take a double click on that for two seconds i actually really like that because i think it's like you know we've talked about this a lot but there's like actually very few people that like rise to the top in terms of like being a creator it's really really difficult for all the reasons that we've discussed a million times and so and but apparently every single person wants to be a creator but i think that like what that that sort of framework uh forces is like direction and a north star and treating this like a business from day one but in a very kind of call it not simple in a bad way but like just like you know if you don't know why you're doing this and you don't know why you're like you know um making content like it's always gonna feel weird like i had a buddy who like you know he was a comedian and he had like a very viral video like happen and he's like what do i do now and i was like more like more and he started just doing things that were like completely just weird and not like which is it's fine if that's the thing but like he didn't also like go off of what he actually was originally kind of becoming a little bit known for and it just was all over the map and then unsurprisingly, like didn't go anywhere.

5:57You know what I mean? I think what you're talking about, Lauren, is authenticity. You know it's my favorite word. Go on. Yeah. That person was perhaps being inauthentic in a world that really rewards authenticity. In any case, so have those types of keynotes from John Ushai. Meanwhile, Agentio CEO Arthur Leopold along with Rhett and Link and Kaya Uria from Scalable were on stage talking about influencer marketing on YouTube and how there's an incredible opportunity there. Arthur came out with some great stats where creators command something like 50 % of entertainment attention, but only two cents on every dollar in terms of advertising towards that attention.

6:39Interesting. I wonder where that comes from, but sure. Okay. And how there's a huge opportunity for brands to get involved in this ecosystem because when they do, they see all of their like brand lift uh roas kpis uh average time viewed per their media that they're producing with creators etc all go upward in a positive direction when they're working with creators in some capacity and then i went to another panel with zach from the try guys max from creator camp and lauren schuyler who's a partner at creative ad agency oust where they we're talking about brand creator relationships as well. What I really like that Zach said, and I've been thinking about this a lot, is whether you like it or not, these creator key communities have become like the third space for people where it used to be like the park, libraries, bars, clubs, mason rooms, et cetera, used to be the third space for people to aggregate and congregate in.

7:40Roller derbies. Yeah, I totally, Totally. I think that's totally the wrong analogy. I could not hard disagree with that. I think third spaces are so important right now. I think people are stopping doing them. I don't think that that creator communities are replacing third spaces in this as much as like replacing entertainment in general. And there's actually this resurgence with third space third spaces. I have a friend who has a venture fund right now. That's I think it's called like third spaces. And so there's like a huge movement right now to like IRL South by South by itself could be considered like a third space versus like.

8:13I don't know. I don't know if I agree. I don't think I agree with that. I think it's replacing entertainment and not as much as replacing third spaces, but I don't know. So maybe the product that comes out of that, but he said the community that develops around it, whether we like it or not, and he was clear on saying that, has developed into these third space-like. I mean, this is what they, yeah, like, you know, temples and churches and stuff that were considered third spaces. Like, I actually, like, this is something I'm very interested in. Keep going. Me too. And it was just interesting to hear.

8:44This has been circulating in my brain a little bit, especially after our interview with Whatnot, where this online shopping community can take the place of an old school baseball card store. And you can interact with other people that are watching this programming. I've been thinking a lot about Third Spaces since then, so it's interesting to hear Zach bring it up. Yeah. And Lauren, I went to all these events around influencer marketing, especially on YouTube, because as you know, we have this platform, Gospel Stats, which is this YouTube sponsorship intelligence platform. It's fantastic. If you want to check it out, go to gospelstats.com.

9:19And I guess if I could encapsulate all of that into one word, it would be bullish. People are really bullish on YouTube, bullish on this ecosystem, bullish on more brands, getting involved with creators in bigger, more longer term ways. Zach said that he's starting to see brand deals coalesce in more meaningful, impactful, and longer-term ways than he has really in the history of doing the Try Guys. And there's more opportunities that are presenting themselves all the time. So I think we're bullish on this space. Did you go to any? I know there were a lot of creator events and not panels and stuff.

9:53Did you go to any of that stuff, Josh? Yes, Lauren. I went to a lot of those, and some of them did have their own programming set up. Monica Khan put on a great creator gold event I was a moderator for one of those panels had a fantastic time I didn't know he was moderating and he just threw I didn't realize we were okay all right I wasn't aware go on Lauren you weren't there yeah and I'll reluctantly pick up a microphone and say things into it in front of people reluctantly reluctantly Shira Lazar put on a creator palooza event with programming uh-huh Max and team from creator camp had their own panel and an amazing office building in Austin, which is a converted middle school.

10:33So cool. Like 25 foot ceilings. Incredible. Felt very Austin-y vibes. It took a Lime scooter there around two miles. Oh, he loves it. He loves to scoot everybody. He's a scoot scooter, but no helmet, just like free ball in it. Like just let's go. Did you have tacos and queso? Did you like get some barbecue in anything? I'm trying to lower my sodium intake. Oh God, this is so boring. It's so boring, right? It's so boring. No, and talk about it slowly. Let's really. Like who should be going to South by in the creator economy? Like obviously some of the conferences are industry. I think almost everybody should be going to South by who's in the creator economy.

11:08I answered that like it was a prompt in the fourth grade writing class. But I really do think that should happen because I think there's so much energy around this ecosystem. And there's so many parts to it that you don't know about. like I went to a dinner with a bunch of managers and sellers and people that run these influencer marketing agencies and these people were hustlers they're crushing it and I got home from the dinner and I realized my website is around like three to four years younger than everyone who was at that table so that means that they're that you're old like so doing that math backwards it's like they were born and then three years later you started to build yes exactly so like that's weird so like that was like probably like four or five years ago i get invited to this like creator brunch at the san vicente bungalows which is like super you know it's the new it's like what solo house used to be it's like a thing and i like you know put on a cute outfit right and i get up in there it's one of these places you have to cover your phone when you get there like it's a whole thing and i walk in and you've got like every celebrity there with like their kids because they're like having brunch like amy adams and like it was like all these people and like they're all just like in like basically sweats and i'm in like an outfit you know what i mean and i'm like feel so over like i wasn't like dressed up but i like look cute i wasn't wearing sweats and i sit at the table and like all these like and some of some a couple of these are like big you know founders of companies or whatever they were great people but i just felt like a i just felt like a mom who like hadn't which is all true who like hadn't left the house one time so there you go she was like oh my god when did this happen it just creeps up on you people anyway yeah that that wasn't how i felt at all um yeah no so it feels about exactly the same but being around that energy and looking at how these people that are new to this ecosystem but grew up in this ecosystem are approaching and interacting so thriving in this ecosystem is fundamentally different than how people who had jobs or have careers that existed before this are interacting with it I think it's really interesting to get exposed to those types of people and hearing about their journeys and then incorporating that into your own businesses.

13:20All right. I want to talk about just a couple other things this week. Big news coming out of sort of Netflix and YouTube. So Phil Rosenthal, who is one of the producers of Everybody Loves Raymond, which was like a huge, huge sitcom that was on from like 1986 to 2005, has had a show on Netflix called Somebody Feed Phil. He's like a big, big foodie. His daughter actually just opened a very popular diner in L.A. It's so funny. It's like literally like it's kind of like the fanciest diner you've ever been to called Max and Helen's, which is named after the grandparents. And he's like a big I think he's part owner.

13:48It's a whole thing. He's a big foodie. He's had this show on Netflix called Somebody Feed Phil since 2008. It's eight seasons deep. It's one of the longest running kind of shows unscripted on Netflix. And per The Hollywood Reporter, Somebody Feed Phil is going to be leaving Netflix and going to YouTube, which is just fascinating. It's part of a deal. It's not like a YouTube is doing this. It's part of a deal between his production company and Banajay Entertainment. And they're going to release probably do more. They said they're going to plan to release more unscripted content from Rosenthal across other YouTube and other platforms.

14:22Rosenthal pointed to Netflix subscription price as a reason for the move. He said one of the things I always loved about Everybody Loves Raymond was that it was free to watch everywhere. We are thrilled to announce that somebody feed Phil will move to YouTube where our message family, a family, friendship, food, travel and laughs can reach the most people. Ben Samick, who is the CEO of Banajay, said, YouTube is a huge part of that strategy. Our goal is to then build the rest of the digital ecosystem and distribution system with his content, both Somebody Feed Phil and his other content that we intend to produce.

14:51So, you know, and Samick also said, if you look at the numbers for Avod services, YouTube is only continuing to grow. This is just so fascinating because I think what we're seeing a lot of also is, you know, you see YouTubers like getting deals with Netflix, right? So like, you know, you've got the Mark Rovers of the world and on, you know, which I like for, as you know, people that listen to this podcast know that I'm pretty, you know, as my kids would call strict with what I allow them to watch TV. And it's not that I don't think there's some great content on YouTube, but I think there's a lot of really not great content for kids.

15:20So what I allow them to do mostly is watch YouTubers on other platforms. Huge Robor fans in this house is an example. this is this is very and I think this is like one of those I don't want to call it watershed but this is a huge moment for like a very very big producer it's not and again YouTube as far as I know has nothing to do with it they're not doing like original programming this isn't about this this is like about that probably you know Banajay is going to sell against this and like they're going to make a bunch of money like you would have made you know in some respects when you're putting a show on on, you know, a broadcast TV station.

15:54And I just think this is really a major, major move. Do you have thoughts about this? Can we just be real for a second, though? Like if Phil Rosenthal and the producers behind Somebody Feed Phil were getting significant dollars from Netflix, they wouldn't be doing this. Well, I think there's that. But I also think to sort of piggyback, but also maybe a little bit of a different perspective, if Phil Rosenthal weren't already super wealthy and successful, he probably wouldn't be doing this. But because he has the freedom like he doesn't I don't want to say need the money but you know what I mean like he's made he's made he's made his fortune and so he's done really well there and he I but I do think that it's unusual because most people like him would just be like Netflix pay me more and shop it around to other kind of subscription platforms right where he's not doing that he's actually doing a really innovative thing which is like all right Netflix you're not gonna pay I mean I can imagine right allegedly no um you know all right because you're not gonna pay me I'm gonna go partner with somebody else who's gonna find these major brand deals and we're gonna just like do what we want.

16:50I don't have to like be beholden to literally anybody kind of. So I think it takes a certain kind of person, but I also think that certain type of person like has to have made a kind of a lot of money. I don't know. You know what I'm saying? Like, but most people in this position would still not do it, though. At least I think he's I think he's setting a real precedent here. This is pretty huge. I think that's fair. I appreciate his sentiment, too, that he liked that Everybody Loves Raymond was free to watch on terrestrial television. That being said, he did It had eight seasons of his show on Netflix from 2018 to 2025.

17:21So he wasn't feeling that strongly about it during that time when he was making the money. Do you think this this motivates a Netflix to start thinking about an ad only option like a free ad only option? Lauren, I think that brings up a really interesting point where does Netflix in the future have to have an ad only option in order to compete with YouTube? Like YouTube have only long form programming and have to bring in shorts because everybody was going to TikTok and Instagram. and that's where creators were starting their journey. So they needed a bigger top of funnel to get creators into their ecosystem.

17:51Is Netflix going to have to do that in the future? I think 100%. I think 100%. I think the future, in my opinion, is going to be like a really high ad tier with, sorry, a really high subscription. I think the subscription is going to get even higher, no ads, and then it's just going to be ads free. I think definitely. There's no way. With some type of curated programming? There's no way. Yeah, probably like you probably get second. We won't get like as early access to stuff or whatever like that. There's no way because like this is I don't know. This is one of those things where everybody's like, it's a one off.

18:20It won't happen again. But then everybody's like, I mean, one of the main things that they touted was the reason they're seeing these numbers grow on YouTube. Like that's the bottom line. That's where people are watching content. Right. Every kind of content. It is fair to say that somebody feed Phil maybe didn't want to take this jump before because YouTube wasn't as top of mind, wasn't as dominating the space, etc. And I do think that this gives other people the opportunity to open their eyes and be like, oh, if it worked for Phil Rosenthal, maybe it'll work for us, too. Because Phil Rosenthal, like you said, if it does take someone who has a lot of dough and still likes what they're doing to make this kind of jump, there's still lots of people in Hollywood like that that can do the same thing.

18:58No, 100 percent. 100 percent. So I think it's I think it's very I think it's pretty fascinating. Let's see what it looks like like a year from now. All right, Josh, uploads and downloads. I'm going to start with one. TikTok and iHeart Media are launching a radio station and a podcast network. TikTok Radio from iHeart is what the official name will be. It will be available across digital and terrestrial airways. Listeners can tune in via the iHeart Radio app or one of 28 broadcast stations. Frequencies across many major cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta. It will include the usual top 40 fare as well as some segments that will make the station feel more TikTok-y, like, you know, life hacks and hot takes and all that kind of stuff.

19:39I just want to say this is this is what TikTok should be doing. Like, this is the shit that like they should be. This is like when people talk about the good part of the Internet, like the best part of TikTok, as we all know, is the dancing and the music. Like, that's the best part. Like, that's what it should be for full stop, period, nothing else. Like, this is where people will find the new music. This is where and that should there should be major collaborations happening between artists and tiktok which there are and radio like this is the part that makes me be like this is fine like this is good let's let's continue on this train i approve thank you so lauren this announcement came out during south by southwest and i will say i talked to some people from tiktok who were involved in the announcement and some people from iheart who were involved in the announcement they were both very excited about this and very bullish the people from iheart and i talked to some creators that were involved in this too um and you could feel that energy the people from were excited because the creators were excited.

20:35And I think creators were excited because this is another kind of like accolade or some not infinite real estate that they can occupy that other people can tune in and listen to in a way that's meaningful for them, but different from their regularly scheduled programming. Right. It's kind of like putting people on billboards in Los Angeles to promote whatever show they're on. Like maybe the billboard does something to get people to go to your channel or promote your product or whatever it is that the creator is doing. But it also just looks really cool to have a billboard in LA that you can take a picture of and then send to your parents.

21:11Similarly, I think having your own kind of like podcast, radio station, etc. It's this unique real estate that you have that your other friends on TikTok don't, but they want it now because there's a finite amount of it. Quick upload for you. Google is apparently making a play to get into the micro drama game. They, along with management from Range Media Partners, are launching a production initiative that will see both companies make a push into this growing vertical video format. The venture is called 100 Zeros, and it's announced a slate of scripted, non-scripted projects, along with some noted Hollywood talent.

21:46among them is the bachelor creator mike fleiss charlie angels director mick g american idol creator simon fuller and snl star keaman thompson via his production banner with john ryan jr are this for artists everybody's just trying to capitalize on this everybody's doing it man i feel like this is nfts is it gonna stay is it gonna go i don't know you heard your first micro drama is like i don't know i just think these are way more consumable and snackable people are already consuming it's not about content on their phone it's unclear if you can make any money right but it's unclear if you can make any money off this and if google in range can't make any money off of this and they're not going to keep doing it you know that's fair it's different to put a ton of time energy and resources into this and have it give you adsense revenue versus if you're a creator and your buddies and you're making something like correct making low six mid six figures a year for an individual channel is meaningful for some big initiative not so much it has to like it has to solve some sort of problem if not make a lot of money like if there's a funnel pro thing you know what i mean like it's it's really like upping their new user acquisition i don't know you know what i mean like it has there's a lot of things that have to like go right for them to continue but um we'll see all right dude uh i think we did it yep lauren i think that's it i'll see you threatening to make the jump from Netflix to YouTube?

23:06As my children say, I'm always threatening. So that feels right. And we're not there next week on Creator Upload. Today's show is produced by Lauren Schnipper, Joshua Cohen, that's me, and Adam Conner. It's edited by Adam Conner too. Original music is by London Bridge. You can check him out on Instagram at London Bridge Music. Make sure you subscribe to Creator Upload right here on YouTube, on Apple Podcasts, as well as Spotify, or wherever you're listening. While you're there, give us a rating and leave us a comment. If you want to talk, hit us up at info at creatorupload.com. If you like our show, recommend it to a friend if you love it just tell everyone thanks for listening to creator upload and we will be back next week