Nathan Barry and entertainment attorney Tyler Chow discuss why creators who build on YouTube, TikTok, and Meta face massive legal and financial risk. Chow, who valued creator businesses at Disney and BuzzFeed, explains how studios are acquiring them and why creators should consider exit strategies like selling, taking a sabbatical, or launching products to reduce platform dependency.
We are all tenants on YouTube's land, on Meta's land, on TikTok's land, and, and they can kick us off at any time.
YouTubers are sitting on businesses worth far more than they realize. Many have built their entire enterprise on a platform they don't own.
If any of your channels goes down tomorrow, you have no way to reach your audience.
Tyler Chow has spent 20 years as an entertainment attorney at Disney, Skydance, and BuzzFeed, and she was lead counsel on 18 feature films. Now she represents some of the biggest channels on YouTube.
One thing I want to caution creators about is—
She explains what makes a business worth buying, but also why some creators don't need to sell at all. They actually just need to take a sabbatical.
The number one question I get from creators is, Tyler, is this it? Like, do I just make videos for the rest of my life? Because I'm getting really tired.
Investors and studios are buying up creator businesses, and Tyler is the person who runs those deals.
A lot of creators will say to me, well, like, what product should I launch? Like, I don't know. And this is my favorite strategy.
I love that.
