Articles
The creator economy magazineAnalyses of the European creator economy from primary sources. Pick a topic and read.
Piers Morgan bought his own show
Piers Morgan bought his show, along with its YouTube channel, last year. Since then his own company has decided what it airs, and investors joined that company this year. They are interested in shows owned by the people who make them.
Spotify has extended its contract with Joe Rogan
Spotify is again paying for Joe Rogan's show, even though since 2024 it has not had it to itself. A Bloomberg reporter sees in this a market where the same shows have been at the top for six years and networks fight over the same names.
LinkedIn bets on creators because of a survey
LinkedIn is building tools for brands to find creators for B2B campaigns. It justifies its bet on creators with a survey about buyer trust. Only marketers answered it, though.
Mark Rober is giving schools a curriculum worth more than $60 million for free
Mark Rober is giving schools the Class CrunchLabs science curriculum for free and for good, a programme he says cost more than $60 million to produce. Alongside Netflix and Samsung, his content now has another channel in the classroom.
Tools label AI content. Creators must disclose deepfakes
The Commission’s AI Act guidelines count a realistic AI influencer trying out a sponsored product as a deepfake. From 2 August 2026, a creator who earns from content must disclose it themselves. Older tools must embed the marking from 2 December.
Creator Nation will buy management firms with Live Nation’s money
Live Nation is funding a new company, Creator Nation, which will buy creator management firms. It announced this on 1 October 2026.
Astel opens a free palace to creators, no subscriber bar
On 1 October the Paris-based Astel opened a city palace in the Marais to creators, free of charge and with no subscriber threshold. For entry it wants an application and a commitment to share experience with other members. The project was founded by YouTuber Sylvqin and Xavier Niel.
YouTube again offers creators millions for exclusivity
YouTube is again offering creators millions of dollars for exclusivity, Bloomberg reports, to stop Netflix going after its biggest stars. In 2024 it did not renew exclusive deals with TimTheTatman, DrLupo and other creators.
Two dozen firms measure ChatGPT Ads. OpenAI picked the numbers
OpenAI has connected AppsFlyer, Kantar, DoubleVerify and other measurement firms to ChatGPT ads. But the first campaign results were reported by partners that OpenAI itself selected, with no spend, dates or country where the campaign ran.
Motion Society hires an ex-Spotify executive as its head of USA
In four years, the Paris-based firm Motion Society has got more than 200 creators onto streaming TV and generates 8 billion views a month.
ElevenLabs is now worth $22 billion. But no new money came into the company
ElevenLabs reached a $22 billion valuation through a buyback of employee shares. It is not a new funding round. September's new money went an order of magnitude lower, into infrastructure.
Slow Ventures bet on a fisherman and a textile maker. It calls them cults
Slow Ventures bought stakes in a career coach, a textile maker and a commercial fisherman. Sam Lessin calls them cults and says mass-market creators have peaked.