An interesting, edited Q&A with a YouTube creator, with 2 million subs, who talks with Brendan Gahan, founder of social media ageincy EpicSignal, abou  his no-nonsense approach toward making deals with brands, and his advice that YouTube stars spend more on marketing. 

Spotify is in the process of raising a fresh $500 million from investors in the form of convertible notes, TechCrunch reports, citing a story in Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. “This newest round of funding would come in the form of a loan, where Spotify will pay 4% on the borrowed money,” TC notes. “As this is not an equity round, those who contribute … will be able to convert that loan into Spotify shares down the line.”

The Binge On feature lets customers to watch “optimized” video from a number of streaming providers without cutting into their monthly data allotment. (The video quality? Not so great.) It works with 40 existing services, and as of today, that includes Amazon Video, WWE and more.

At the Sundance fest, YouTube Red showcased three of four programs it is set to debut  early next month. Content head Susanne Daniels said, “I want to use this opportunity to give everyone a clear sense of what YouTube Originals are—and what they aren’t."

The new TV effort, which will include ads on ESPN and a range of other networks, marks one of the few times a brand has put social-media influencers on broadcast TV. The ads are taken from DiGiorno's earlier online ad campaign.

Wall Street will be looking at ARPU, or average revenue per user, the metric the captures just how much money each Facebook user brings in for the company, when the social media giant reports earnings later on Wednesday

In the social video space, individual users greenlight their own no-budget projects, and they’re surfaced organically, without corporate sponsorship or promotion, by the fans. By the time the show business machinery gets its claws on the creators, they are already stars with fully-developed personas and massive followings. And its not just a black/white thing. YouTube has made stars out of all kinds of minorities, writes Todd Longwell. 

Bernie Sanders is running geofilter ads via Snapchat in Iowa that allow users to overlay a pro-Sanders graphic (reading "Feel the Bern") over videos they're sending out

Westmoreland County Prison thought there would be more interest in program allowing inmates to have online visits with family, friends. After a year, few use it. (Maybe they should have done focus groups?)

For the past few months, the social media company has stopped displaying ads, or has dramatically reduced the number of ads it displays, to a small group of some of its most prominent and active users.