🟤 Creators face ethnic pay gap based on skin color

Creators with “deep dark” skin earn 45% less than those with lighter skin

A recent study by a UK-based talent firm revealed the persistence of an ethnic pay gap. The findings indicate that creators from Black, Asian, and other minority backgrounds earn less compared to their counterparts. The report also highlighted that influencers with a "deep tan" complexion earned the least, while those with "light" skin tones made the most on average, resulting in a pay gap of 44.63%.

Hair type was another discriminating factor, with “wavy” hair creators earning nearly double those with “coily” hair! These disparities persist despite brands being called out for lack of inclusivity and customers engaging less with brands with inadequate diversity.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Human creators are doing better than AI influencers… but it’s just the beginning

Brands are testing AI influencers; for now, human creators are faring better. But the competition has just begun.

BMW, Nike, Fortnite, Patagonia, and Coach are among the brands trying out AI influencers like Aitana Lopez, Lil Miquela, Imma Gram, and others. Right now, their engagement rates are 1-3% lower than the human creator posts for the same brands.

There are a few things that AI influencers are going to win:

• 24×7 live shopping hosting - they don’t sleep, and they don’t need breaks; it’s hard to beat that.

• Matching skills with shapes - brands can put the personalities they want into the shape and skin tones they want, building inclusivity and diversity with the precise image they want to create for the brand.

• Dynamic or live a/b testing - the AI influencers can be given script changes dynamically with near-instant delivery on a/b test videos.

When the media and entertainment world were controlled by a small group of people, we had major ramifications on society in terms of conventional beauty and accepted standards. We’ve barely broken out of that shell with millions of creators having their content amplified by platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Yet again, we face a situation where AI influencers will be designed by a small group of people to be distributed to the masses.

It’s like we can’t catch a break here!

Human creativity will remain unmatched for a while - meanwhile, those who embrace AI for mundane and repetitive tasks will free up more time to sharpen their creative skills and keep getting better. This will help you stay ahead of the game.

Creator Spotlight: Andrew Schulz

Andrew Cameron Schulz is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and podcaster. He's well known for his stand-up performances and for appearing on MTV2's Guy Code and its spinoffs.

Andrew Schulz’s rise to comedic fame is far from a typical Hollywood story. He began performing at 18, receiving positive feedback from his first comedy short set at a local restaurant. From there, it's a tale of hustle, change, and a strategic shift towards YouTube. While he might have been relatively unknown a few years ago, he has been a notable figure in the New York comedy scene for over a decade.

There was a time when Andrew Schulz spent $25K on filming his own special, and no network gave him a shot. When he tried to look into why this was not working out, he realized that it might have been too long.

So, he strategically moved to YouTube, treating his channel like his own network. Once he realized he needed to take things into his own hands, he started posting his specials on YouTube for free.

Today, his channel ranks high amongst all comedy channels. With 2.88M subscribers and 755 videos, that’s a lot of comedy! There's something for everyone, from stand-up sketches to clips and podcast highlights. His videos have racked up a massive 671M views, with one of his videos hitting an impressive 19M!

Ever wonder why YouTube is pushing creators to make more Shorts while TikTok is pushing creators to make longer videos? Each platform is just trying to get more original content in areas they’re not leading yet.

But, when it comes to monetization, regular YouTube content wins every time.

Shorts and TikToks earn an RPM of ~$0.06 on average, whereas YouTube horizontal videos earn RPMs of $6-$22, depending on the geography and category of your videos.

While Shorts can bring you some visibility, the dollars are bigger in traditional long-form content. If you are not creating regular YouTube videos, you’re missing out! Don’t want to be on camera or don’t have the time to edit everything manually? Learn more about creating exceptional faceless YouTube videos.

In other news…

• It’s a tragic day for nosy people - likes on X have been officially made private. But looking up who liked a tweet is just a tad worse than looking up who liked a post on Instagram - so maybe this is okay.

• Adam Mosseri is always saying random things, but here’s one - apparently, TikTok’s rise hurt YouTube more than it hurt Instagram. Really? Granted, Instagram is making as much money as YouTube, but only by shoving ads after every couple of videos! And with unskippable ads coming, it’s not going to get better.

• Is attention still the right metric, or is it being replaced by trust? This article uses OpenAI as an example to argue trust is more important - but if you knew that OpenAI just doubled their revenue to $3.4B, would you still think that? It’s hard to make the case.

• Runway released Gen 3, their most advanced AI video model - the world of video foundational models is heating up with competition. In reality, these models won’t be ready for prime time until late 2025 and even then, will need wrappers for mass adoption in real videos.