Recently approached by an MCN. Got a few questions for you all

SkidRowTrash

SkidRowTrash

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,

I got a question for you folks.

I've recently been approached by an MCN that I've never heard of to join up. I replied saying I was somewhat interested and asked very specific questions. Anyone heard of

So far from what I've been told by their recruiter things look okay. ScaleLab?

I have been with an MCN before, BBTV / TGN and when they failed to live up to even their own promises I had them void the contract just a few months after signing up. Now they claim to be the 2nd largest of the MCN's, I'm not sure what ScaleLab is considered but if it is a lot smaller I imagine I would get more actual help from them than a massive MCN like TGN / BBTV.

I know a lot of big name YouTube (Examples Totalbiscuit) say never sign with an MCN because of contract issues and money expectations and whatnot, however, for me the money is the least important benefit. I am more interested in channel / video help and promotion. I find the inclusion of royalty free access to huge music / sound effects databases to be extremely valuable. Signing up for them alone would cost more than I would make from the MCN in a year so for that alone it's worth it for me I think, especially since I'm such a tiny channel. Once things get big (if ever) obviously this will no longer be a huge benefit.

One of the things the recruiter mentioned is they have no lock-in contract. You only need to tell them 30 days in advance and that actually sounds pretty impressive.

Unlike the big MCN, these guys actually also provide a managers name and email that I can contact for anything. Very helpful I think.

On the other hand,

I could just partner with YouTube and do the adsense thing. While the money would pay more, I would not have access to a huge library of music and sound effects. I would also not have any help on the channel / videos with promoting or improving, things like that. It would pretty much be the difference between 80 cents and a dollar except no extra perks or benefits.. I don't think it's worth doing the adsense thing myself at least at my current level.

What do you all say? Any thoughts?
 
The inclusion of a royalty free database is b******t. You can find all of them pretty much elsewhere. If that's one of your only reasons, I can give you a list. Those are useless. I promise, MCN will not help promote your channel, especially if you're a small YouTuber.
 
I have had access to the music databases before with previous MCN and it was by far the most useful part of the that partnership for me. Most of the music is not available pretty much elsewhere, I've looked and there is maybe 5% of it available to everyone. I'd love that list that you speak of though, I don't know all the music databases out there.

Seems you think it would be a better idea to just partner up with YouTube but I'm wondering.. what would be better about that than this MCN? Do you know if YouTube gives preference in their algorithm to people partnered with them over those partnered with MCN's? If that's the case I think it would make more sense to go with Youtube / Adsense. If that isn't the case I see it being less beneficial to go with YouTube / Adsense over an MCN.

What do you think?
 
SkidRowTrash said:
I have had access to the music databases before with previous MCN and it was by far the most useful part of the that partnership for me. Most of the music is not available pretty much elsewhere, I've looked and there is maybe 5% of it available to everyone. I'd love that list that you speak of though, I don't know all the music databases out there.

Seems you think it would be a better idea to just partner up with YouTube but I'm wondering.. what would be better about that than this MCN? Do you know if YouTube gives preference in their algorithm to people partnered with them over those partnered with MCN's? If that's the case I think it would make more sense to go with Youtube / Adsense. If that isn't the case I see it being less beneficial to go with YouTube / Adsense over an MCN.

What do you think?
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Under an MCN, you're essentially still under the Adsense program but under the MCN's account, so there's really no difference in how they treat your channel in the algorithms.

As for the royalty-free music: yes, the specific music they provide cannot be found anywhere else. But there are plenty of resources for royalty-free music nowadays. Places like Soundcloud and Freemusicarchive allow you to search for tracks with a Creative Commons license that allows for monetization. You also have plenty of YouTube channels that curate monetizable music tracks as well (e.g. Argofox, NoCopyrightMusic, etc.). Big YouTubers have even been relying on YouTube's very own music library.

If you really think that giving a cut of your revenue is worth the music that these MCNs provide even if there's tons of resources out there, then I say go ahead and join. Otherwise, from my experience with numerous MCNs, there's really no other benefit that you can get from them. Sure, you have a manager's name and contact info but at the end of the day, you're still the one working the hardest to grow your channel.
 
Honestly, MCNs are a scam. All that royalty-free music, and boosting your channel bullsh**? That's a scam. MCNs just want your money. Quite a few of my friends (ranging from 1,000-100,000 subs) have joined MCNs and they've proven to me how extremely deceitful MCNs could be. They promised them exposure to a wider range of people, trips to their headquarters, and other services. As you can probably tell, they failed to deliver, and my friends wasted several months trying to contact them before they rendered it useless and canceled. (They lost quite a lot of money to them)
 
That's true but in a case like mine I wouldn't be losing money because I am making no money right now. I am just doing this for free and for fun.

You've given me an idea though.. I wonder what would happen if I asked them to first prove it to me that they will do as they say and if they do then I'll join.
If they refuse it's obviously a scam and they are only in it for themselves. I might try this and see what they say, lol.
 
SkidRowTrash said:
That's true but in a case like mine I wouldn't be losing money because I am making no money right now. I am just doing this for free and for fun.

You've given me an idea though.. I wonder what would happen if I asked them to first prove it to me that they will do as they say and if they do then I'll join.
If they refuse it's obviously a scam and they are only in it for themselves. I might try this and see what they say, lol.
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Well, I mean it's possible they'll show you the more successful cases when you request something like that. If you're going to get a more accurate view of the network, it's best to get in touch with creators who are with them at present. You can try searching some of their partners on SocialBlade and private message them somewhere, hoping a couple will respond.

Regarding the argument of "I'm not making much anyway", that's a bit of a flawed way of looking at it in my opinion. Regardless of how much you're making, the fact is many of these networks are not delivering what they promise — which kind of breaks whatever agreement you make with them, since the implied terms are that they will deliver everything they state on their websites/promotional materials.

If many small creators take this mindset (which is already actually happening), networks like these will be accumulating all your pennies and cents, profiting thousands if not millions from an argument that's kind of besides the point of these networks not fulfilling their contractual agreements.

In a fair world, we'd be able to hold them accountable for not fulfilling contracts but since we small content creators have little to no power, it's largely fruitless to fight back. You can leave the network, but they'll still continue making easy money off of content creators like you. The only way we can immediately do something about it is to not join them in the first place, or at the very least find networks that actually fulfill their end of the deal.
 
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