Walking The Online Video Tightrope: Protecting Talent While Taking Ad Dollars

http://youtu.be/CCc1i2WBwo0
Walking The Online Video Tightrope: Protecting Talent While Taking Ad Dollars
Throughout the last two years the YouTube ecosystem has dramatically commercialized in new means for independent video creators. For digital talent to make meaningful upside in today's market requires new revenue streams outside of standard revenue splits on video ad devices. Things like iTunes sales, merchandise lines, and most of all, brand deals, are now the lifeblood of these artists.

With CPMs in decline across the board-- a trend that will not mellow out for a variety of reasons-- brand deals are, and will increasingly be, what lines these creators' pockets. However, as a talent manager I'm finding that the contracts that come along with brand dollars are in lots of cases too broad in scope, often to the point of exploitive. As an industry of artists, managers, agents, producers, sellers and executives, we need to strike a balance where both brands and talent win. Too often we forget that without talent, their stream of content and baked in distribution, there is nothing to sell against.