Bandcamp maintains a revenue model giving artists an average of 82% of sales (taking 15% on digital, 10% on physical goods), with payouts within 24-48 hours. Through Bandcamp Fridays (launched March 2020), the platform waives its cut entirely, pushing artist take to ~93%, generating $123 million for artists through these events alone. By May 2024, fans had paid artists and labels $1.3 billion total via the platform. In 2024 alone, fans spent $194 million on 14.1 million albums, 10.8 million tracks, and 1.7 million vinyl records.
On April 1, 2024, Spotify implemented a policy requiring tracks to have at least 1,000 streams in the prior 12 months from a minimum number of unique listeners to generate royalties. An estimated 87% of all tracks on Spotify (out of 202 million+) fall below this threshold. Disc Makers CEO Tony van Veen estimated indie musicians lost $46.9 million in royalties in 2024. Spotify argued the policy would deter artificial streaming and redirect ~$1 billion to emerging and professional artists.
YouTube introduced a revenue sharing model for Shorts creators, giving them 45% of revenue from the Creator Pool while YouTube retains 55% (largely to cover music licensing costs). Ad revenue from between Shorts in the feed is pooled monthly, then distributed based on each creator's share of total eligible views. While payout rates are modest ($0.03-$0.10 per 1,000 views), the model provides an actual revenue share rather than a fixed fund, aligning platform and creator incentives. Additional monetization options include Super Thanks tipping and affiliate product tagging.
By 2024, more than 50% of Netflix's approximately $15 billion content budget was allocated to markets outside North America. Since 2020, Netflix has commissioned 814 titles internationally - more than twice as many as Warner Bros Discovery and Amazon. The company pledged $2.5 billion in South Korea through 2027, nearly $6 billion in the UK by end of 2023, $200 million on Brazilian content, and $1.9 billion on Asia-Pacific local content in 2023. Non-English language titles accounted for 30% of viewing in the first half of 2023, with significant representation of Spanish-language and Korean content. Netflix also distributed more than $35 million to creative equity programs globally by 2024.
TikTok's original Creator Fund, launched in 2020 with $200M projected to reach $1B over three years, was widely criticized for extremely low payouts of $0.02-$0.04 per 1,000 views ($20-$40 per million views). Creator Hank Green reported earning 2.5 cents per 1,000 views. Creator SuperSaf earned ~$137 in 10 months for 25 million views. The fund was shut down on December 16, 2023, replaced by the Creator Rewards Program with reportedly higher rates of $0.40-$1.00 per 1,000 views, though creators have since reported sharp drops in income under the new program.
In 2023, YouTube significantly expanded creator monetization opportunities. In February, YouTube launched Shorts revenue sharing giving creators 45% of allocated ad revenue. In June 2023, YouTube lowered Partner Program eligibility thresholds from 1,000 to 500 subscribers and from 4,000 to 3,000 watch hours, enabling more emerging creators to earn money. The lower tier initially provided access to fan funding features (Super Chat, Super Thanks, channel memberships), with ad revenue sharing unlocking at the existing thresholds.
In November 2019, Adobe co-founded the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI) alongside The New York Times and Twitter to establish an industry standard for content provenance metadata. The initiative promotes Content Credentials, defined by the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA). By January 2026, the CAI had grown to over 6,000 members including BBC, Microsoft, Nikon, Qualcomm, and The Washington Post. In 2024, Adobe launched a free Content Authenticity web app allowing creators to add verifiable attribution details and opt-out of generative AI training.
negligent
In March 2017, the Times of London revealed that ads from major brands and the UK government were running alongside extremist and terrorist content on YouTube. Over 250 brands including AT&T, Walmart, PepsiCo, and Starbucks pulled their ads. YouTube's response—implementing broad demonetization categories and raising monetization thresholds—disproportionately harmed legitimate creators covering sensitive topics including news, women's issues, and LGBTQ+ content, while the underlying brand safety problem persisted. Creators reported 30-85% revenue drops.
negligent
In March 2017, LGBTQ+ creators discovered YouTube's Restricted Mode was systematically hiding their content—including wedding videos, coming-out stories, and queer-themed pop culture commentary—while allowing Mortal Kombat fatality compilations and marijuana growing tutorials. YouTube acknowledged the system 'sometimes make[s] mistakes' and claimed to fix it in April 2017 by unfiltering 12 million videos, but creators reported the problems persisted. By 2019, LGBTQ+ creators filed a class-action lawsuit alleging discriminatory censorship, with plaintiffs reporting 75% revenue drops.