This January may have felt like the longest month ever, but the creator economy news keeps coming. This week, among other things, we’ve reported on a couple of TikTok ban updates, MrBeast’s new Las Vegas event, and the fact that creators can now apply to cover the White House.
To learn more about what we’ve been up to this week, feel free to scroll down — but don’t forget to check out the original article!
We Could Get a TikTok Deal in 30 Days
As part of his election campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would “save TikTok.” Many assume that by getting the 75-day ban extension, Trump has kind of already done that, but there’s still a long way to go. If there isn’t a successful TikTok sale before those 75 days are up, we will be back to square one.
Still, Trump is clearly feeling optimistic. In conversation with journalists on Air Force One, he said he expects to close a deal within 30 days. “Numerous people are talking to me, very substantial people, about buying [TikTok] and I will make that decision probably over the next 30 days,” he said. “Congress has given 90 days. If we can save TikTok, I think it would be a good thing.”
To read more about this, check out the full article here.
The MrBeast Brand Is Coming to Las Vegas With The MrBeast Experience
On Tuesday, Jan. 27, Resorts World Casino announced the “MrBeast Experience.” The event is due to take place at their Las Vegas hotel between April 13 and 15. As well as enjoying the luxury of the hotel, guests will receive their very own MrBeast “money sack” — which, in essence, will be a goody bag of MrBeast merch and the chance to win $10,000.
Guests will also be able to participate in “activations” themed activities, although the scope of this remains unclear.
Steven Asarch spoke to Ronn Nicolli, CMO of Resorts World Las Vegas, and investigated how this event came to fruition. He also contextualizes the size of MrBeast’s ever-growing empire and explores just how much his fans will consume until they’re finally full of Beastly goodness.
You can read the full article here.
Creators Can Now Apply To Cover the White House
On Tuesday 28 Jan, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, announced that the White House was opening up the briefing room to creators. Leavitt, who is the youngest White House Press Secretary in history, said that a “new media seat” had been added to the briefing room specifically for “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators.”
This comes after Trump’s creator-first approach to his presidential campaign, which saw him join Adin Ross on a Kick stream and appear on the podcasts of controversial creators like Logan Paul and Joe Rogan.
Leavitt added: “It’s essential to our team that we share President Trump’s message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025.”
You can read the full article here.
How To Start (Or Move) a Podcast on Spotify
There’s a reason why Spotify has become synonymous with podcasts. If you want your podcast to succeed, Spotify will play an instrumental role. You’ll be able to reach an audience of 626 million regular monthly users, and will be in good company among the 6 million other diverse podcasts on offer.
But how exactly do you start a Spotify podcast? Moreover, if you already have one, how do you transfer it over? K Merritt answers these questions with detailed step-by-step guides, and as well as this, also shares other insights useful for creators. This includes advice on making money on Spotify, information on Spotify’s subscription model and how to get those all-important listeners for your podcast.
You can read the full piece here.
Should Youtubers Hold Themselves to Journalistic Ethics?
Linus Tech Tips and Gamers Nexus are fighting. Again. This time around, Stephen Burke of Gamers Nexus has called out Linus Tech Tips’ Linus Sebastian for his previous involvement with Honey: a browser extension currently embroiled in controversy for allegedly stealing users’ data. More specifically, Burke called out Sebastian for “not making a video on the way Honey worked years ago” before he stopped working for the company.
As Steven Asarch points out in this article, this scandal poses a very important question: should creators be held to the same journalistic standards as journalists? The answer is complicated, but for big creators like Sebastian with large audiences, it’s certainly starting to look that way.
Find out why in the full article here.
Is Microsoft Taking Over TikTok?
Things have gone full circle for Microsoft. Back in 2020, when President Donald Trump first floated the idea of a TikTok ban, there were reports that Microsoft was in talks with fellow tech company Oracle to buy the platform. This soon died down and the idea of a TikTok ban was largely forgotten until 2024. Fast-forward into 2025, we are starting to feel the effects of the “ban or sell” law.
Donald Trump has positioned himself as the one to “save” the app, and as he boasted about the current “bidding war” for TikTok, he confirmed that Microsoft was one of the companies in the running. Whether the company will actually go through with a deal remains to be seen, but we’ll probably find out in the near future.
Check out the full article here.
