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There’s a saying amongst stand up comedians:
“All comedians want to be rock stars, all rock stars want to be comedians.”
Or, for the internet generation:
“All Hollywood celebrities want to be social media stars, all social media stars want to be Hollywood celebrities.”
And now, it’s finally happening.
Just over the past month, there have been dozens of huge announcements of creators going Hollywood and vice-versa.
Everyone’s trading places.
If you’re a digital creator, what are you supposed to do with this life-swap trend?
Also in this edition:
🤔 The Attention Economy Will Be Literal (Thoughts Are My Own)
💸 Meta’s Not Free Anymore
💦 Sprinklr Gets Its ViralMoment
🏪 TikTok Shop Continues Spreading Globally
🎶 Spotify Goes Deep on Clipping
💪🏼 Jobs from WhatNot, Google, and Tinder
🎭 …and a dank meme from yours truly!
Let’s get into it.
NEWS:
Hollywood Goes Creators, and Vice Versa
TLDR:
Half of the big announcements from the creator economy seem to be one of two headlines: a famous person leans in on social media, or a social media star gets a Hollywood project.
Much like different platforms have done for years, business models are looking for platforms and initiatives that feed what they need: guaranteed revenue, biggers wins, more organic reach, more stable business models, driving more relevance, and/or enterprise value.
Don’t listen to the people that say, “It’s all becoming one thing.” It’s not. Media distribution outlets are a series of things, and each comes with their own benefits and challenges.
Creators don’t need Hollywood. They make their own money.
And, sorry to say creator economy nerds, but Hollywood doesn’t need social media.
It helps, sure. But they don’t need it.
Scarlett Johansson famously avoids social media and her career is fantastic.
So why does it seem like every headline recently has been about creators and Hollywood, and Hollywood being creators.
Stephen Colbert leaving his show and joining YouTube. Markiplier made a hit horror movie. Then Kane Parsons did it even bigger, beating Star Wars this weekend. The Sidemen are doing an Amazon cooking show. Hannah Stocking did a vertical microdrama. Guy Fieri is launching a YouTube show.
I guess the big question is: are we finally hitting the entertainment singularity, where everything is just ‘same stuff, different screens’?
Nope. Not even a little bit.
Take Markiplier for example. He’s been building an audience for 14 years. His Forbes list appearances generally puts him around $15 million per year. And that requires A LOT of content productions.
Now he’s made a hit movie. He could close that as an upfront deal with a studio. He could make $20m making the next Star Wars movie.
Simply put: he’s working within different, more profitable moment-by-moment revenue structures.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s true the other way around.
Stephen Colbert had three choices when his show ended: go back to cable, retire, or bring his content online. This is a guy whose clips from his CBS show went viral daily. He’s going to be more powerful than ever as an untethered social media star.
Less money? Absolutely. More relevance? Absolutely.
Simply put: each area of focus has super powers and super challenges.
Films = Higher market perception, more guaranteed revenue, less time for online relevance.
Television = Strong market perception, chance for super longterm fame and ongoing revenue, strong relevance (if done properly).
Streaming = Premium playground, less likely to make astronomical money but does put you in a higher ‘creative tier’ to the money-people.
Music = Plays well with social, digital marketing takes it a long way, diehard fan communities online, hard to get it right.
Vertical Dramas = Big swings for potential big payoff, most don’t pay off.
The Internet = Absolute grind for revenue, super strong fanbases if you get it right.
They all have strengths and weaknesses, and based on the goals of the star (and their skills) they have to find where they can survive and thrive.
Brad Pitt could probaby crush a Twitch stream, but it suits him to be more scarce.
Jynxzi can drive 60k CCVs per live stream, but I wouldn’t watch him act in a movie.
It’s not all the same. It’s all very, very different. And that’s a good thing for career trajectories.
Someone just spent $236,000,000 on a painting. Here’s why it matters for your wallet.
Late last year, a Klimt sold for the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction.
An outlier sure, but it wasn't a fluke. U.S. auction sales grew 23.1% in 2025. The $1-5mm segment even grew 40.8% YoY.
Meanwhile, Apollo’s chief economist Torsten Slok said to expect ‘zero in return in the S&P 500 over the coming decade.’
Each environment is unique, but after dot-com, post war and contemporary art grew about 24% annually for a decade. After 2008, about 11% for 12 years.
It’s also had near-zero correlation with the S&P 500 since ‘95.*
Now, Masterworks lets you invest in shares of artworks featuring legends like Banksy, Basquiat, and Picasso.
$1.3 billion invested across over 500 artworks.
28 sales to date.
Net annualized returns on sold works held 12 months+ like 14.6%, 17.6%, and 17.8%.
Shares can sell quickly, but my subscribers can skip the waitlist:
*Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.
THOUGHTS ARE MY OWN (TAMO):
The Attention Economy is an Economy
What happens when nobody has any money?
Seriously. In an AI future without a social safety net, this is a very real concern.
Will people starve on the street? Rise up against the rich? Will we have a real ‘Hunger Games’?
I don’t see that as likely. Sam Altman needs regular people to have juuuust enough money to pay for his service.
But, most importantly, there’s something everyone has that every company wants.
Your attention.
But you can’t eat attention. Attention doesn’t shield you from the rain.
So what is this going to look like in 5 years?
Everyone is going to get paid for their attention.
It’s already happening.
Have you seen those mobile games that pay you to play Solitaire?
They actually do pay!
And it’s equivalent to a fraction of the money they’re making from their users for the ads and upsells on the game itself. Boss gets a dollar, user gets a dime.
Get ready for more business models where the gig economy meets the attention economy.
Buy a product? Make a review and get paid $5.
Going on vacation? Get 10% off by watching a 30 minute documentary about Turkish Airlines before deciding where to go.
Driving an Uber? Listen to my brand’s podcast in the car and get double-paid.
Your attention will not even necessarily convert to dollars. Your attention will convert directly to value.
I mean, why deal with the complications of money when a coupon for essential living expenses will do?
We’re a few years away from the attention economy being an actual, transactional economy. So the big question:
What is your attention worth?
FAME & FORTUNE
What creators, brands, governments, and platforms are making waves this week in the name of fortune, fame, and fun?
💸 Want to pay to be part of Meta Plus? Verified was already a paid service, but now they’re expanding into custom profiles, super reactions, and story insights. Notice I didn’t say, “Ad Free.”
💦 Customer experience powerhouse Sprinklr purchased ViralMoment to beef up their audio and video analytics stack. Now that TikTok is selling vacations and customer service is on Instagram, it makes sense.
🏪 TikTok Shop is continuing their global takeover, launching in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Poland bringing their total to 17 countries. So get ready for all of those TikTok Shop spam gifting messages, creators in those countries!
🎶 Many of the largest podcasters spend a ridiculous amount of money on ‘clipping’, or paying meme pages money to take a clip of their content and share it on their page. Now Spotify made it easy for fans to get involved, allowing them to clip their favorite podcast moments. Free promotion? Sign me up!
JOB BOARD
A six figure salary to post about collectibles? Sounds like my high school dream! But WhatNot is no joke. A unicorn that’s leading in live auction-based shopping, and my favorite place to buy retro video games.
Social media geeks that actually like AI, rejoice! Gemini needs their social campaigns locked in by a real, honest-to-birth human being (for now). You’ll get all of the big tech benefits with the new hipness of AI.
Swipe right on this job post if you’re single, ready to mingle, and enjoys social media analytics! Tinder is still a cultural powerhouse, and has the benefit of an endless supply of content running through their platform. White cyc videos of swiping in real life? It’s been done. What’s next?
MEME ZONE
Who does he talk to at illuminati parties!?
Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this edition, give it a share and if you get someone to sign up, I’ll send you my ‘10 Rep-Friendly Ways to Monetize Today!’ deck!
Until next time, protect yo rep.