And ‘Creator of the Year’ Goes to…

Issue #163 | August 29, 2023

On this week’s “Fear&” podcast Patreon exclusive episode with creators Will Neff, Hasan Piker, QTCinderella, and AustinShow, streamer QTCinderella (the founder of the Streamer Awards) loudly and proudly said, “Fuck the Streamys.”

Why? After creating her own awards show specifically targeting categories of creators left out by mainstream award shows, QTCinderella alleges that the Streamy Awards—which was hosted in Beverly Hills this Sunday and is primarily geared towards YouTube creators—copied five of the streaming award categories she created (for example, “just chatting,” “Vtuber,” etc.). She says other awards shows have worked with her to incorporate these elements of streaming she pioneered that were left out in years past, but she was “DonoWalled” by the Streamys after reaching out to them with a “strongly worded email.”

THE COMMENTS SECTION

“Their whole mantra is, ‘We’re here to support creators. No, you’re not. It just makes me sad because they have way more money than me. They have way more resources than me. Like, they could literally pay you to show up if they wanted to. I don’t have that.”
—Creator QTCinderella on the Streamys.

QTCinderella makes a fair point: The Streamys isn’t exactly the event for smaller creators. The Streamys is co-produced by video creator news site Tubefilter and Dick Clark Media Productions, a live TV company that produces the Academy of Country Music Awards, Golden Globe Awards, American Music Awards, and Billboard Music Awards. Fun fact, Dick Clark is actually owned by Penske Media Corporation, which also owns Rolling Stone, Billboard, Variety, and the Hollywood Reporter—all of which provided ample coverage of the Streamys.

It’s easy to see the Streamys have come a long, corporate way since their humble indie beginnings back in 2009. When you scroll through the list of winners for the Streamys, hardly any of the names are surprising: MrBeast, Kai Cenat, Dream, etc, etc.

But despite the event catering towards the rich and famous, it’s still clearly a fun event with some iconic moments—seeing podcaster Ethan Klein decked out in a Vivienne Westwood suit, witnessing a shady Toxic Gossip Train parody, and hearing this beautiful line from a seemingly impromptu speech, concluding that, “Editors are great.” Yes, indeed, they are. In another touching moment, TikTok group The Old Gays introduced the nominees for breakout creator—which was won by Dylan Mulvaney, who delivered a powerful speech about creator allyship with the LGBTQ community.

While the entertainment industry certainly had its Penske-branded foot in the door, with a Rolling Stone “Sound of the Year” award going to Meghan Trainor as the cherry on top, any creator event is bound to be a fun place with notable cultural moments. And for creators that like this sort of thing, it’s a good opportunity to network and rub shoulders. Even if you do have to sit through MrBeast winning his 12th Streamy Award and 4th award specifically for Creator of the Year. *eye roll*

Although, as we’ve learned this week, MrBeast wasn’t actually there—because he was too busy filming to step away for the festivities.

– Grace Stanley, Newsletter Editor

DEAR MRBEAST

**An Open Letter to MrBeast From Creators: Just Take a F*&!ing Vacation Already**

If the world’s most successful YouTuber can’t afford to take a break, what does that say to everyone else on YouTube?

By Drew Grant, Managing Editor

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IN THE BIZ

YouTube released updates to its community guidelines warning system. Now, if a creator receives a warning strike on a video, they can take an educational course on the platform’s community rules—which will then lift the warning from a creator’s channel, so long as they don’t violate the same policy for 90 days.
A rapidly ascending “Valorant” team known as the Guard was denied entry into the Valorant Champions Tour 2023 for “failing to meet a deadline” to sign an agreement. Streamers spoke out against the news arguing the Champions Tour was not giving up-and-coming teams a fair shot, and the Americas Valorant Players Association released a statement saying it was a shock.
Last week’s Podcast Movement four-day conference brought together creators, platforms, ad networks, and software dealers in Denver, Colorado—but as the Verge reported, the conference was ironically plagued by bleeding audio and fire alarms.
At the conference, YouTube announced it will support RSS feeds (aka, the web feeds that enable podcasters to quickly simul-post across various platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts) for creators in 2023.
Twitch is testing a TikTok-like “discovery” feed for clips of vertical video—joining the likes of Instagram, YouTube, Spotify, Amazon, and Reddit in the TikTok-ification of social media.