How you can make money on TikTok, Twitter and punks… and other stories

Musicians can now make money on TikTok

TikTok has introduced SoundOn, its new program with a goal to promote and reward up-and-coming artists. During their first year on TikTok, musicians will receive 100% of royalties for their music, and 90% in the following years. They will also be provided with tools to help them understand the performance of their songs.?

TikTok’s new program is available in the US, the UK, Indonesia, and Brazil, and its aim is to promote young talents, as this group is a big part of TikTok’s community already.

TikTok be like:

Read more:?TikTok’s New Music Platform Will Pay Its Creators - Papermag

?The White House organizes briefing for tiktokers in an attempt to fight Russian disinformation?

The times of belittling influencers is long gone - or at least we wish it was. The White House decided that the US can fight Russian propaganda with its own weapon, and therefore organized a briefing on the war in Ukraine for 30 tiktokers.?

This move is seen as a response to the Russian government’s TikTok propaganda campaign. The campaign was allegedly coordinated via a secret Telegram channel since the beginning of the invasion and involved high-profile Russian tiktokers who were paid to create content that was in line with Vladimir Putin’s policy.?

And of course, Saturday Night Live couldn’t miss the chance to spoof the whole thing:

Read more: Biden is using TikTok to fight back against Russia’s reported use of influencers to spread propaganda - Fortune?

?Twitter launches its new shopping feature

We know Twitter as a text-heavy platform for breaking news, clashing opinions and heated discussions, but not quite a lifestyle medium. But this is changing, as Twitter leans towards eCommerce, testing and developing its online shopping features. The most recent one - Twitter Shopping is allowing companies to showcase up to 50 products in a mobile storefront. The shopping itself doesn’t happen on Twitter, but in a built-in browser.?Currently its beta version is being tested in the US.?

Read more: Twitter Shops - more place to shop - Twitter Blog?

Google launches Harassment Manager - and protects female activists and journalists on social media

With this new tool, journalists will be able to find abusive comments in bulk using a sentiment analysis that will rate the ‘toxicity’ of the message. Online harassment victims will be able to block the accounts and report them in bulk - which eliminates the need to go through the harrowing process of reading and reporting every single hateful comment.?

?For now, Harassment Manager is just an open-source code based on Perspective API, but by June it will be a fully functioning app, built in cooperation with the Thomas Reuters Foundation. The partner on Google’s side is Jigsaw - a technology incubator that explores threats to open societies (among other things).

Here is a footage of how this solution may work for women online:

Read more:?Google’s Jigsaw Team Open-Sources Harassment Manager Tool - Adweek?

Two important Google Games Development Summit takeaways

Amongst many interesting talks and news we saw on Google Games Developer Summit 2022, two particularly piqued?our interest.

First of all, Google introduces a new feature for gaming ads. Now developers can promote their games before they actually launch them - and attracting users before the launch is crucial for the success of the game. Google also provides an option to offer a free trial of the game, which allows the game developers to bait their gamers.?

Second - Google Stadia presented its Immersive Stream for Games - a B2B offer for game developers that will let them use Google’s tech to give a better user experience to the gamers.?

For those who may not be familiar with gaming - Google’s Stadia is a cloud gaming service launched by Google in late 2019 and followed by less than enthusiastic reviews. People like to compare it with Steam, but in fact it’s more like Xbox, and here goes the novelty: the whole tech happens in the cloud, and users don’t need expensive gaming equipment - just a stable Internet connection.?

COVID19 pandemic and consumers’ proclivity for in-house activities accelerated Google’s interest in gaming. According to research, mobile games make up a half of the gaming market, and the end of the pandemic doesn’t seem to impact this rapidly growing market.

Want to know more? Here is a Google Games Developer Summit 2022 Keynote:

Larva Labs sells CryptoPunks’ IP to Yuga Labs?

If you have ever read anything about NFTs, you probably saw these two iconic images: a Bored Ape and/or a piece from the vast CryptoPunks collection depicting a highly pixelated cartoon character. The first one was launched by Yuga Labs and became one of the most popular NFT collections out there. The second, almost equally successful collection was launched by Larva Labs.

Now, here comes a complication: buying an NFT doesn’t automatically mean buying its intellectual property rights or commercial rights. In other words - Larva’s CryptoPunk owners could give themselves a pat on the back for having the highly desired NFT, but they could not put the image on t-shirts and mugs in their store, as Larva Labs would just hold the commercial rights whispering my preciousss.?

And this was a source of controversy, as Yuga Labs - the Bored Ape people, generously gave the current NFT owners a full commercial right (hence the Bored Ape merch galore).

Now - Larva Labs decided to sell IP for CyberPunks to Yuga Labs, which, in turn, decided to grant CyberPunk owners the same licence as Bored Ape owners have. Now the owners of NFTs from both collections have the same rights to monetize their NFTs (Yuga Labs still holding the intellectual property rights though). The result? CryptoPunks sales spiked by 1200%.?

Read more: Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Yuga Labs Acquires CryptoPunks IP From Larva Labs - Decrypt?