TikTok’s Creator’s Cut Newsletter is a new Substack publication dedicated to the creators behind TikTok LIVE and the communities they have built. At first glance, it might seem like a relatively small move: another newsletter from another social platform. But for brands working in influencer marketing, it is worth paying attention to.
The launch gives us another indication of where TikTok sees value on its platform: not simply in short-form content and reach, but in the deeper relationships creators build with their communities.
The Creator’s Cut will feature stories, advice and insights directly from creators, alongside updates from TikTok about programming, people and moments across TikTok LIVE. Rather than TikTok simply telling creators how to succeed, the platform says it will “hand the mic” to different creators and let them share their experiences in their own words. That distinction is important.
Because for brands, the future of influencer marketing may be less about who can generate the most views and more about who can build the strongest relationship with an audience.
Why is TikTok investing in LIVE?
TikTok is clearly putting increasing emphasis on LIVE as a way for creators to build communities in real time. In its launch post, TikTok highlighted the fundamentally different nature of livestreaming: there is no second take, no playback and no certainty about what will happen next. The platform describes this unpredictability as part of the appeal, with creators inviting audiences into experiences as they happen.
The scale is significant, too. TikTok says that in 2025, more than 250 million creators went LIVE globally, with more than 150 million creators earning rewards for their content and expression. And TikTok has been actively building around this ecosystem. Its 2026 Community Fest included educational workshops, in-app competitions and community-building initiatives designed to help creators grow their LIVE audiences. TikTok describes LIVE as a space where creators and communities can come together, discover new things and build meaningful connections.
For brands, this points towards a broader shift. TikTok isn’t just a place where creators publish content. It’s increasingly a place where creators build communities. And those communities have significant value for influencer marketing.
From reach to relationships
For a long time, influencer marketing has been heavily focused on reach.
- How many followers does the creator have?
- How many views do they generate?
- What’s their engagement rate?
- What CPM can we achieve?
These metrics still matter. But LIVE introduces another dimension: relationship depth. A person watching a 20-second TikTok and scrolling to the next video has a very different relationship with a creator from someone who spends an hour watching them live, asking questions, commenting and participating in a shared experience.
That doesn’t make LIVE inherently better than short-form content. They serve different purposes. Short-form content is exceptionally powerful for discovery. LIVE can be powerful for connection.
And brands should start thinking about how those two layers can work together. A creator might use short-form TikToks to attract a new audience, then use LIVE to deepen the relationship with that audience. For a brand, that creates opportunities that go beyond a single sponsored post.
Instead of simply asking a creator to feature a product, a brand could become part of a longer-form experience: a live product demonstration, Q&A, launch event, behind-the-scenes session, tutorial, cooking experience, gaming stream or community conversation. The key is that the brand becomes part of an experience, rather than simply appearing in a piece of content.
The creator becomes the media channel
This is perhaps the most important implication for brands. When a creator goes LIVE, they aren’t simply distributing content to an audience. They are creating a space where that audience gathers. That’s a meaningful distinction. Traditional media gives brands access to an audience. Influencer marketing gives brands access to a person who has already earned that audience’s attention and trust.
LIVE potentially takes that one step further by allowing brands to participate in the relationship as it happens in real time. This makes creator selection even more important. If you’re choosing a creator purely because they have a large follower count, you’re missing a significant part of the equation.
Brands should increasingly be asking:
- Does this creator have a community?
- Do people actively participate in their content?
- Does their audience listen to them, or simply watch them?
- Can they hold attention beyond a 30-second video?
- Would their audience actually want to spend time with them in a live environment?
Those questions can reveal a very different set of creators from a conventional influencer shortlist.
TikTok is putting the creator's voice front and centre
There is another interesting element to The Creator’s Cut itself. TikTok could have launched a traditional editorial newsletter filled with platform updates, algorithm advice and best practices.
Instead, it has chosen to make creators the storytellers.
The newsletter will feature different creators sharing the unexpected paths that brought them to TikTok LIVE, the passions they have developed and the lessons they have learned. TikTok has already highlighted creators including Clejan, known as @thetrapviolinist, and Vanessa of @deliciousnessbakery, who built a business around baking on TikTok LIVE.
That is revealing.
TikTok isn’t simply positioning LIVE as a feature. It is positioning it as a creator ecosystem, with individual stories and communities at its centre. For brands, this reinforces a principle that should already be familiar from successful influencer campaigns: Creators are not just distribution channels. They are cultural voices. Their experiences, opinions and expertise can be the content itself.
What does this mean for influencer marketing?
The launch of The Creator’s Cut doesn’t mean that every brand suddenly needs to start investing in TikTok LIVE. But it does suggest that brands should broaden how they think about creator partnerships.
The traditional campaign model is relatively straightforward:
- Brand → Creator → Content → Audience
But the opportunity on LIVE can look more like:
- Brand + Creator → Experience → Community
That changes the role of the brand. Instead of interrupting a creator’s content with a product placement, the brand can help create something the community actually wants to participate in.
Imagine a beauty creator hosting a live makeup session around a new product launch. A food creator cooking with an audience in real time. A fitness creator answering questions during a live workout. A fashion creator taking viewers behind the scenes of a campaign. A musician sharing the creative process behind a new release.
The possibilities are much broader than simply putting a product on screen. And importantly, the creator should still lead. The most compelling LIVE experiences are unlikely to be those where the brand tries to control every minute. They will be the ones where the creator’s relationship with their community remains the centre of the experience.
The opportunity for brands: think beyond the sponsored post
Influencer marketing has matured significantly. The question is no longer simply whether brands should work with creators. It is increasingly about how deeply brands can participate in creator ecosystems without disrupting the relationship that made those ecosystems valuable in the first place. TikTok LIVE offers one potential answer.
- A sponsored TikTok can generate awareness.
- A creator’s LIVE community can generate participation.
And when those two things work together, brands have the opportunity to move audiences from seeing a creator to spending time with them. That is a fundamentally different form of influence. It also means that brands should stop viewing every creator partnership as an isolated piece of content.
Instead, consider the creator’s wider ecosystem:
- What do they post?
- How do they interact with followers?
- Do they have recurring formats?
- Do they go LIVE?
- What kinds of conversations happen in their comments?
- What does their community care about?
- And, most importantly, where does your brand genuinely belong?
Why TikTok's Creator's Cut Newsletter Matters for Brands
The Creator’s Cut is a newsletter. But the more interesting story is what TikTok has chosen to put inside it.
The platform is using its own editorial space to spotlight creators, their communities and the relationships they build through LIVE. At the same time, TikTok’s wider Community Fest initiatives are focused on helping creators develop those communities through education, tools and participation. That suggests a platform increasingly interested in the depth of creator-audience relationships, not just the volume of content being produced.
For brands, that’s an important signal.
The next stage of influencer marketing won’t necessarily be about finding the creator with the biggest audience and buying a post. It will be about finding the creator with the right community, understanding how that community behaves, and finding authentic ways for brands to participate. Because ultimately, influence isn’t just about how many people see you.
It’s about how many people care.
And TikTok’s latest move suggests that the platform believes the future of creator influence may be built around exactly that.
