Not sure what to make of this. Is it legit or a possible "scam"?

Tropical365

Tropical365

I've Got It
I received an email this morning regarding my bird video which I posted almost 8 months which is getting tons if views (70,000 views a LOT more than my other videos that's for sure). I have pasted the email I received below. If anyone has dealt with these types of things before and have any input I would be very grateful for your advice. Thanks!

Hi,

My name is Jason and I'm an acquisitions editor for (I removed the URL but they said they are from Break dot com). We came across the AMAZING video of your cockatiel singing as you swing him back and forth and we LOVE it (Cockatiel singing as I swing him back and forth haha)! He sure knows how to show off. What talent! This funny clip would be a perfect fit for our TV partners worldwide so I'm excited to make you an offer.

What we do at Defy Media is specialize in 3rd party licensing. We have syndicate and standing agreements with a lot of the major players in mainstream media that use viral video content (which is bigger than ever now). We also feed content to our award-winning YouTube channels like Smosh, Screen Junkies, Awe Me, etc and news media outlets like and CNN, MSNBC, ABC, BBC, Fox, FujiTV, etc. And we're excellent at what we do.

Timing is crucial so I would love to make you a cash offer ASAP; and I'll beat ANY OFFER you may have received. That's how serious we are about representing the best content on the web...and this video is the BEST!

Please contact me before you sign anything or give permissions to anyone. I assure you, I can make it worth your while.

I look forward to hearing from you!
 
Hmm.. ask them questions. Are they trying to sign you onto their network or just trying to get rights to your video? I'd be careful since businesses like that always have a catch somewhere down the line. I'd ask them as many questions as possible, do some googling about their business & see if anyone else has signed anything with them & how they went etc.
 
I agree, ask them if they want to partner with you or if they just want rights to the video. I have heard of break com before and a quick search of defy media looks okay but make sure it has actually come from defy media before giving out any personal details. Maybe google the email address it came from and see if it is connected to one of defy medias members of staff.
 
It may not be, but it does sound like a scam. Notice how they say that they have lots of big channels and TV networks, working with them, something they would say to try and get you on board. If this was real it would also seem a little more professional, because the fact that they are capitalizing certain parts isn't professional at all, something a big network would do almost never. Also why would a network like them go to a small video. Not to be rude, but when a small channel is approached by a "network" for one viral video, they would probably add some things into the email like what they want to do so that you can see if you want to talk with them about it. I'm not sure if that would happen, but getting an email basically saying "We like your parrot. Join our company. RESPOND SOON." just seems too fishy. Keep in mind they could be legit, but I highly doubt that one "company" works with that many news outlets.
 
Thanks for the replies. I did try to google them and see that others have written about receiving same email I was sent by this company. I read online that this happens all the time... they buy the video (usually for a couple hundreds bucks or so I guess but I could be wrong), they get exclusive rights somehow they generate profit, I guess via ads. If my video becomes a viral smash, they make a ton of $$$ and I only get a couple hundred for selling them my video (that's a bad deal). My bird video is very small, I know that :) .. but it's huge "viral" compared to all my other videos and this bird video keeps growing and growing. It will be very interesting to see how long it grows before it finally dies.

Even if this company offered me $500 to buy the video I would not sell it because my channel is growing and I'm getting subs thanks to this "viral" bird video. I will email them that I accept $5,000 for it... haha
 
Tropical365 said:
Thanks for the replies. I did try to google them and see that others have written about receiving same email I was sent by this company. I read online that this happens all the time... they buy the video (usually for a couple hundreds bucks or so I guess but I could be wrong), they get exclusive rights somehow they generate profit, I guess via ads. If my video becomes a viral smash, they make a ton of $$$ and I only get a couple hundred for selling them my video (that's a bad deal). My bird video is very small, I know that :) .. but it's huge "viral" compared to all my other videos and this bird video keeps growing and growing. It will be very interesting to see how long it grows before it finally dies.

Even if this company offered me $500 to buy the video I would not sell it because my channel is growing and I'm getting subs thanks to this "viral" bird video. I will email them that I accept $5,000 for it... haha
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Good choice haha
 
Yeh they're sort of scammers. basically what he's trying to do is get the rights to use your bird clip to sell to bigger companies, youtube channels ect for promotional material. he'll have sent about 300+ emails out to various people with videos in your view range and what he'll do is buy maybe 2 dozen "Viral" clips off youtubers for cash then bundle them together into a package to sell for a massive mark up to bigger companies to use as stock footage or royalty free materials. whatever he offered you, times it by 15 and that'll be what he makes back off your clip when its bundled in with other clips...I've worked with these people before (I was young and naive xD Gotta love the freelance industry) but yeh keep doing what your doing :)
 
TYTD said:
Yeh they're sort of scammers. basically what he's trying to do is get the rights to use your bird clip to sell to bigger companies, youtube channels ect for promotional material. he'll have sent about 300+ emails out to various people with videos in your view range and what he'll do is buy maybe 2 dozen "Viral" clips off youtubers for cash then bundle them together into a package to sell for a massive mark up to bigger companies to use as stock footage or royalty free materials. whatever he offered you, times it by 15 and that'll be what he makes back off your clip when its bundled in with other clips...I've worked with these people before (I was young and naive xD Gotta love the freelance industry) but yeh keep doing what your doing :)
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They are in the business of buying content and then licensing it. Obviously they want to pay less than what they hope to make from it. Isn't that how all businesses operate? I fail to see how that's a scam or even "sort of a scam"? That's like saying Walmart are scammers because they sell things to their customers at a higher price than they pay their suppliers.


@Tropical365
Break.com are legit. The cash offers they make are real and they pay what they promise you. Obv it's up to you to decide if you think the dollar amount is worth it and want to do it or not but they're not out to scam you. The only way it could be a scam is if the email doesn't in fact come from break.com and it's someone impersonating them.
 
Crown said:
They are in the business of buying content and then licensing it. Obviously they want to pay less than what they hope to make from it. Isn't that how all businesses operate? I fail to see how that's a scam or even "sort of a scam"? That's like saying Walmart are scammers because they sell things to their customers at a higher price than they pay their suppliers.
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I suppose I would say its a bit of a scam purely based on my experiences of working with people who've done this kind of thing before and that the mark up is usually extortionate in terms when compared to what they pay the people who create the content for there licensing. For example; if I was a farmer and I produced milk and a supermarket came up to me and said we'll pay you 3p per pint of milk you sell to us, I'd feel pretty robbed if they then went on to sell that milk for £4.50 a pint...Obviously I understand that everyone wants to turn a profit on the things they produce and also I dont know what cash has been offered in this scenario but in the 3-4 experiences i've had with these kind of companies it's normally been the equivilent of "Here's £350 for your clip thats made 60,000 views we're now going to sell that on for 2-3 grand" I'd say its a scam from an ethical standpoint because the company is buying the clips up for less than there actual worth and selling them on for an extortionate fee (Buying low and selling high) though ultimately its at the discretion of the owners of the footage, the buyers of the footage and the marketplace to dictate the worth of something I suppose :)
 
TYTD said:
I suppose I would say its a bit of a scam purely based on my experiences of working with people who've done this kind of thing before and that the mark up is usually extortionate in terms when compared to what they pay the people who create the content for there licensing. For example; if I was a farmer and I produced milk and a supermarket came up to me and said we'll pay you 3p per pint of milk you sell to us, I'd feel pretty robbed if they then went on to sell that milk for £4.50 a pint...Obviously I understand that everyone wants to turn a profit on the things they produce and also I dont know what cash has been offered in this scenario but in the 3-4 experiences i've had with these kind of companies it's normally been the equivilent of "Here's £350 for your clip thats made 60,000 views we're now going to sell that on for 2-3 grand" I'd say its a scam from an ethical standpoint because the company is buying the clips up for less than there actual worth and selling them on for an extortionate fee (Buying low and selling high) though ultimately its at the discretion of the owners of the footage, the buyers of the footage and the marketplace to dictate the worth of something I suppose :)
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Well if a YouTuber doesn't think he's been offered a fair price, he/she has 2 choices. 1) Turn the offer down. Or 2) Try selling their videos themselves directly to the buyers and cut out the middleman of break.com - But yeah good luck with that. They wouldn't even know where to start. The buyers (huge media companies and TV stations) wouldn't even take their call. They're not to going to waste their time dealing directly with the (literally) millions of Youtubers trying to sell their cat videos or Minecraft lets plays or whatever. They'd be inundated with calls. That's where companies like break.com come in. They filter out the crap and they have the contacts and are able to aggregate content in bundles and so save everyone time and money. That's their added value. Plus they bear all the risk. Sure sometimes, they'll be getting good margins on the videos they manage to sell, but that'll be offset by all the content that no-one wants.

It'd be a scam if they offered someone $350 and then only paid them $100 but that's not what's going on.
 
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