Special Edition: Twitter's Chaotic Takeover (but mostly Streaming News!)

Apologies for the lack of recap last week - my time off was more restful than I planned! But the world didn't stop during that time, so this covers two weeks of stories! Meanwhile, Elon Musk took over Twitter, which also deserves a special section. So, needless to say, if this is your first time reading this - it's a bit longer than usual! Pour a large cup of coffee or tea, and let's dive in!

Twitch News

• Two gifts or self-subs on Twitch will grant you 3-months of PC Game Pass if you've never subscribed. Several conditions apply.
• Trust and Safety completely rewrote the Community Guidelines. There is nothing NEW; however, it offers more precise language and examples for each point.
• Guest Star is now available to all streamers.
• Twitch hired Laura Lee as Chief Content Officer. She replaces Mike Aragon, who left the company in January.
• Creator Camp got a complete overhaul. If you're newer to streaming, it's a great place to start.
• The Amazon Music extension has been shut down and removed from Twitch.
• Sub Tokens appear to have returned to Twitch after being deprecated at the beginning of the year.
• Twitch killed off Anonymous Cheering, claiming it was for safety reasons.
• Amazon is expanding access to Twitch Display Ads. They are also testing new experimental in-game ads that only stream viewers see.
• If there was any question, it's now put to rest - Channel Points for VIP or Free subs are NOT against TOS.
• Twitch also followed nearly 200 people last week, a 24.1% increase! Something is afoot.

Usually this would be the point that you would HAVE to subscribe (for free) to see the rest - this week it's available to all! Signup here so you don't miss future newsletters!

Twitter News

In light of the chaotic takeover of Twitter, something many streamers use as part of their business, I felt it reasonable to offer a special edition covering all the key changes announced so far.

• Major Layoffs: 3700 Staff, roughly 50% of the company fired via Reuters.
• Verification: Twitter Blue's price increased to $8, includes a verified badge, priority replies, mentions, and search. Longer videos. It was delayed until after the Midterm elections. (PS. Parodying Elon comes with a permanent ban.)
• Moderation: A council will be formed to address moderation - no changes until they meet.
• Creator Monetization: Long-form tweets (which already exist) and later creator monetization for all content. Paywalled Video is an early plan for video content. Paid DMs are also being planned.
• Vine Reboot: According to Axios, a Vine reboot is in the cards.
• Edit Button: Apparently, the edit function might be available to all.
• Revue: Twitter's newsletter platform is being shut down by the end of the year.

Streaming Industry News

• YouTube is rolling out the split video tabs for Live, Shorts, and Videos.
• YouTube is launching "Go Live Together," a way to bring someone onto your live stream.
• Tiktok is testing "Series," a pay-per-view set of up to 80-videos.
• Aitum has hired the top developer of OBS plugins - Exeldro.
• Instagram has added NFTs.
• AMD has become a Diamond sponsor of the OBS Project.
• Deloitte's Creator Economy Report has excellent insight into what being a creator is and what to expect.
• Discord put out a report on Emojis.
• DrDisrespect has launched an AI voice and avatar service called Bonfire.
• Solar Stream launched version 2 of their service.
• Netflix launched a Discord bot to help communities find content to watch. It is NOT a watch party-like feature, just a discovery bot for content.

Creator News

This is a great parody song by UniqueGeese on being a streamer on Twitch!

• QTCinderella left TSM, and joined Misfits.
• GamerNetwork, a Brime-esque future streaming platform, went total hate and banned all LGBTQ. They have since claimed their social media manager went rogue. The hatred has spawned growth as their account grew by 2600 followers in October.

Creator Opportunities

Slashie (and a couple of other members of my community) have done an excellent job pulling together all the opportunities available for creators over the last couple of weeks! Here's my curation of that comprehensive list!

• Misfits Creator Fund has $20M to bring Creator Ideas to Life
• Chaotic Overcooked Style Game (Paid Campaign, UK, Germany, France)
• The Past Within (Key)
• Vampire Survivors (Key)
• Soulstone Survivors (Key)
• Ghost Song (Key)
• Entry Level Community Manager at Square Enix
• Community Manager / PR Manager at Radical Forge
• Social Content Specialist at Stray Gods (Contract)
• Community Managers at Deepsilver (Remote)
• Executive Producer at Nowwa Corp (Remote)
• Senior Producer at Armor Games (Remote)
• Artist/Designer and Data Analyst at Evolve PR (Remote, Canada)
• 2D Art Generalist at Wylde Flowers (Remote, Australia)
• PR/Marketing Coordinator at Popagenda (Remote, Canada)
• Social Media Marketing at Archiact (Remote, Canada)
• Tons of Jobs in Every Field at Splash Damage

And that's all for this week! Thanks all for reading, and have a great week of streaming!

Zach