Creator Weekly: Spotify Wrapped, Twitch Holiday Hoopla, Threads in the Fediverse

Author

Peggy K
December 07, 2024

InWe are finally in the home stretch of 2024! This week there are end-of-year recaps from Spotify and Google Photos, with an AI twist. Twitch’s holiday celebration pushes collabs and sharing Clips to YouTube & Tiktok. Threads takes another step closer to full federation. YouTube finishes rolling out Jewels & Gifts. And, of course, more.tro

Top news and updates this week

  • 2024 Recaps: Spotify with Google NotebookLM-powered “podcast” overviews, Google Photos with (optional) Gemini, and Flickr (with discounts), and Wikipedia promises a personal recap next year.

  • YouTube Partners outside the US should make sure they resubmit their US tax forms (if required) before December 10th.

  • Sign up for YouTube creator research studies. 

  • The previously announced updated YouTube Creator app has rolled out. 

  • YouTube’s Jewels to purchase Gifts for vertical live streamers is now available in the US. 

  • Twitch has Holiday Hoopla with Shared Chat collabs unlocking holiday emotes and a special badge for sharing Clips on TikTok or YouTube.

  • More TikTok features for creators running fundraisers. 

  • X added a larger live stream video player.

  • Create video clips in Google Photos with just a few taps.

  • It’s “Crawling December” at Google Search Central, with an article explaining how Googlebot crawling works.

  • Threads now lets you follow users in the Fediverse (with some limitations). They are also testing post insights and improving search.

  • Creators can now enable replies in Instagram Broadcast Channels

  • Bluesky is gaining journalists and beefing up its anti-impersonation policy.

  • X now has labels for parody and fan accounts, has more analytics (for subscribers), and Grok AI is available to everyone.

  • Cameo now lets anyone "monetize fan interactions".

  • Google Forms now lets you control who can respond and fill out the form. 

  • Get an eSignature on PDF files in Google Drive.

  • New Android features including Expressive Captions, improved Google Drive document scans, easier Quick Share, and more.

  • Plus more tips, news, and commentary.

Creator Weekly Live 🔴
What do you think about this week’s updates? Join the live Creator Weekly on Sunday, 10:30AM Pacific time (6:30PM UTC). 

Take this week’s quiz ✅
What do you know about the languages of Wikipedia?

Your Year-End Recaps

Last week you could get your YouTube Music recap. This week it’s Spotify, with some help from Google’s AI.

Spotify Wrapped for listeners shows your music evolution for the year, favorite artists and music videos, short video clips from artists and podcasters, and a “podcast” about your listening year powered by Google’s NotebookLM. Get your Wrapped AI Podcast for a limited time in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand. Spotify lets you share your Wrapped directly to your TikTok FYP and Stories. 

If you don’t have access to Wrapped’s AI Podcast, you can create your own by going to NotebookLM directly and copy-pasting in your recap details or uploading an image-only PDF of your recap, then generating an Audio Overview. NotebookLM is available in 180+ regions and more than 100 languages.

Spotify also creates recaps for creatives: Wrapped for Artists has insights about the artist or band’s biggest fans and most popular tracks. Wrapped for Authors - new this year! - has audiobook stats like top titles, listener geography and habits and more. And Wrapped for Creators is for podcasters, with details about fans, top episodes, and listener tastes.

Google Photos is also rolling out its year-end recap. When it’s ready, it will appear in the Memories carousel at the top of your photo library. You may have multiple topic recaps, including the year in smiles, top faces, your year in color, vibes, and longest photo upload streak. Each can be saved or exported as a short video. If you are in the US, and opt in to Gemini, you may see “captions generated by a Gemini model highlighting the two biggest moments from your year.”
Note that you must have face grouping turned on to get a recap. After the end of the year, your recaps will be added to your library.

My Flickr Year is ready at www.flickr.com/myflickryear/2024. There is a special deal on getting a print of your most faved photo.

Wikipedia shared their year in review, with the most viewed English articles each month (Indian Premier League and US politics not surprisingly led the pack). There were nearly 82 million changes in 300 languages. And if you install the Wikipedia mobile app, and use it, you should get your own personal recap next year. Top articles for the year.

To Do & Try

A reminder that if you submit US tax forms to Google through AdSense (or anywhere) as a non-US person, those forms expire after 3 years. US tax forms started being required for YouTube Partners in 2021, so those W-8 forms expire this year. Google recommends resubmitting your tax forms by December 10, at the latest, so they can be verified before December 31. The W-9 form for US citizens and US resident aliens does not expire.
You can find your forms by going to AdSense for YouTube > Payments > Manage Settings > United States Tax Info (under Payments Profile) > Manage Tax Info.

Help “Shape the future of YouTube” by signing up for creator research studies. You need to fill out a questionnaire, and when there is an available study, YouTube will email you. In some cases they may give a thank-you gift after completing a study. Sign up here: https://www.youtube.com/creators/research/ 

Video Creator and Live Streaming Updates

YouTube Studio app Content tab improvements, announced a month ago, have rolled out more widely. The update has separate sections for videos, Shorts and Live. It gives more focus on key metrics, clearer video status (when not public), icons indicating visibility & monetization issues. 

Jewels and Gifts have rolled out to all YouTube Partner Program creators and viewers in the US. This launched in November. Viewers can buy jewels to spend on gifts to give to creators who are vertical live streaming. More info for creators and viewers.

Twitch is celebrating the holidays with Holiday Hoopla, encouraging holiday-themed content (shared on social media for the chance to be featured), a challenge to run a Shared Chat collab to unlock holiday emotes, and a badge for users who share a clip to TikTok or YouTube.
Defender833 points out that sharing Clips without explicit permission from the creator could be considered copyright infringing, and even with permission YouTube likely considers this “reused content”.

Glenn Gabe reports that the Google Search team is testing a “new Search format that provides people an easy to digest summary of YouTube videos based on their queries.”

Creators running a fundraiser on TikTok can now add a custom cover image, goal and space for people to share their stories.

X launched a bigger live stream video player that expands to fit larger screens. You can access that at x.com/{username}/live , where {username} is the handle of the live streamer.

StreamYard has improved audio (to prevent crackling and popping) and broadcast reliability (to prevent freezing on the destination platforms).

Google Search Central shared a deep dive into the “how and why of Googlebot crawling”. 

A tip from Ron Brown: Create polls and quizzes in Canva. Get started here. The polls live on Canva’s servers, so you would have to share that link. If only there was a way to embed them!

Photos and Image Design

You can use Google Photos to create “picture perfect” video clips. (YouTube)

Microsoft Designer now has a tool that lets you apply styling to text based on AI-detected word importance. 

Social Media

Threads has taken another step towards full Fediverse integration. If you have Fediverse integration enabled, you can follow any Fediverse user who engages with a Threads post (such as liking or replying). You can then view their profile from inside Threads, and enable notifications for new posts and comments. This is not full integration, however, as you won’t see those posts in your Threads feed.

Threads is testing post insights, with your top posts ranked by views and interactions during a selected time period. Check www.threads.net/insights to see if it’s available for your account.

Threads is improving search, with the option to refine search results by profile and date range.

Instagram broadcast channels let creators post a feed of mostly text posts, with followers liking and reacting. But the latest Instagram update is adding the option for follower Replies. Along with that are prompts to “kickstart” conversations and insights and best practices.

X now shows special labels for parody and fan accounts.

X’s AI chatbot, Grok, is now free (with limits) to most users.

X has added more analytics for paying subscribers.

The NYU Social Media Identity & Morality Lab explains how social norms get distorted online: How Social Media Warps Your Reality 

Communication and Collaboration

Features are available to free accounts unless otherwise noted.

Google Forms now lets you control who can respond. Previously the only options were to allow anyone with the link (or just your organization if you are using Google Workspace). Now you can limit responses to specific individuals, a Group, and (for Google Workspace) target audiences, similar to the way you can limit access to Google Drive files or Google Docs documents. This will roll out over the next month.

It is now possible to request an eSignature on PDF files stored in Google Drive. This is available to Workspace Individual subscribers, as well as Google Workspace business and education editions.

There is a new beta version of Google Drive for desktop for ARM-compatible Windows 11 computers powered by Snapdragon processors. It requires Microsoft WebView2, which is usually installed. Sign up for the beta. Learn more about Google Drive for desktop.

More on Generative AI

Columbia Journalism Review: How ChatGPT Search (Mis)represents Publisher Content. This looks at the ability of ChatGPT Search to identify the source of quotes. The result? Sometimes it’s totally right. Sometimes it’s totally wrong. “When we asked ChatGPT the same query multiple times, it typically returned a different answer each time.”

Elizabeth Lopatto @ The Verge: Stop using generative AI as a search engine. There isn’t any AI tool that gets information consistently correct. What’s shocking is that some journalists as AI for information, and then don’t confirm whether it’s true or not.

Shira Ovide @ The Washington Post: Sorry, Oxford dictionary nerds. This is the real word of the year. (tl;dr it’s “Slop”)

More Reading (and watching)

New Android features dropping in December: 

  • Live Captions is getting Expressive Captions, which describes the intensity of what someone is saying from [sighs] to SHOUTING.

  • Image Q&A in Lookout, designed for the vision impaired, now uses Gemini 1.5 Pro to improve photo descriptions. 

  • Gboard has new Emoji Kitchen emoji combinations, including potatoes and pizzas. Plus improved glide typing.

  • Quick Share of photos, videos and documents, now generates a QR code for easier transfer. 

  • Document scans using the Google Drive app are now “crisper and clearer”.

  • Gemini on Android can now connect to Spotify, call and send messages to contacts, set alarms, control device settings and use your camera. And soon it will be able to get more location information from Maps and control smart home devices.

  • Plus additional features for the latest Pixel phones and tablets.

Cameo now allows anyone to "monetize fan interactions", more in line with how YouTube or Twitch work. Previously you had to have a referral or apply.  Why the change? "Cameo was missing a new wave of emerging creators who could benefit from the platform but weren’t allowed on." All it now requires is filling out the paperwork and identity verification.

Tech journalist Sarah Jeong reported Six hours under martial law in Seoul:
I see the screencaps of Lee Jae-myung livestreaming himself climbing the wall at the National Assembly; I think about the GoPros and livestreamers; I think about the kids asking to have their picture taken, so they can tell their families that they were there on that important day. Politics is being intermediated so smoothly through technology that it has become almost unnoticeable, embedded into the fabric of life for the young and the old alike. It occurs to me that I still have yet to receive an emergency alert. I wonder who controls that system and who sends out those alerts. 
Yoon tried to take power with soldiers, police, and helicopters — to take the country back to the 1980s. But these aren’t the 1980s. He should have seized cell service first.

Jared Henderson on YouTube: Why we can't focus. 

Thanks for reading! 🌼