YouSaid · the spoken record

Camille Hearst

lines on the record: 70
first: 2023-08-20
most recent: 2023-08-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“So, those are two things. And then I do think in a world where all of this content continues to be a need and a space for the curator. And curators as creators kind of an interesting concept. But a curator is almost like what the role a book publishing company plays or a music, a record label plays or a radio station plays, right? There is a degree of having a brand, having something you stand for, having a vibe or an ethos. And that person being almost not a gatekeeper in a bad way, but like I, Camille can't consume anywhere near all this content. You, I trust your vibe, tell me what I should be listening to. And so that would be the third thing I would say is like figure out who are those curators who you really can associate your content with, who are on the same page as you, have an audience who you think would like your stuff and just try and get associated with them.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that was when I really think this whole thing kind of was just first getting going. And we used to put together these playbooks of what made a creator successful because a lot of the effort there was trying to support this burgeoning economy. I remember even back then in 2010, and to this day, that continues to be like one of the top pieces of advice. Another one is collaboration. So working with Other great creators sharing audience, exposing one another to those audiences. And this is something we tried to employ at my startup kit. We would actually host events for creators to get together to facilitate meeting and cross-pollination and in the hopes that it would just benefit their careers that they were doing YouTube videos with someone they met at the party, then it would be great for all parties all around.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One of the things that I've seen that I don't know people realize is consistency and predictability of content creation, which is where this idea that we were talking about earlier of a hamster wheel kind of comes on. But there was something to churning out consistent quality work and putting it out there for your audience to consume and respond and react to that goes a long way. It's almost like the 10,000 hours the, you know, you have to do 10,000 amount of hours if something in order to truly master it. But I've seen that time and again, you know, I started at YouTube in. Let's see how it must have been 2010.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Like how many millions of Michelle fans are we going to have seen? Look at what's happening in China. There's tons of creators like this. So whether or not the VCs have one or the startups have succeeded, there's no way that you can lower the cost of content creation and increase the scale of distribution and not see this emerge, this creator economy, I think emerge. But I just think that maybe there's still opportunity for more companies to blossom and to grow. And certainly for more individuals, maybe do those figure it out on their own and do it without too many big platforms getting paid off of their creative pursuit.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Teenagers who came for this one creator that probably no one listening to me right now has even heard of. So, I do think a lot of the predictions have come to bear. There are tons of people making money and making a living from creating content on the internet. There have been studies too where they ask young people what they want to do and what they want to be when they grow up. We quote these at Patreon. And over 60% want to create content for a living. So those trends I don't think are going anywhere. Maybe it'll be supplemental income. Maybe it'll be something you do for a period of your life. But I do think that this area continues to be untapped. I just don't see a world where I think of like Michelle Fan, right? She's basically a mini Disney. And when you think of it like that, she's created IP. What can you do with IP? Comic books, movies, TV shows, plushies, merch.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“New platforms? Are there specific vertical that maybe there's an opportunity to create vertical specific features and tooling? And actually, I think we saw a huge, massive creation there in Twitch, right? Twitch did not exist. And they are just a juggernaut. I think TikTok's an One that came out of this era. Maybe they weren't positioned as creator economy type startups, but effectively, did you see what happened in Union Square here with Kai, the gaming streamer? So I'm in New York. Last week, there was a mob and a riot because a Twitch streamer announced that he was going to be giving away PlayStations and computer gear in Union Square. And something like a million teenage boys showed up. I'm making this They had to shut down the center of New York City to clear what turned into protest riot mob.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it was probably predictable to some degree that platforms would win because just of the nature of aggregation, once you have either all of the supply or you've aggregated the demand, it's really a strong network effect. So investors love to invest in these types of businesses. It's hard to break out. I wouldn't underestimate the strategic ability either of some of the big platforms like they were definitely thinking ahead and building features and thinking about whether or not they saw it as a monetization opportunity. It certainly is a great strategic play to make sure that creators felt like they were on the platform that made the most sense for them and they weren't going to churn or leave or try too many other places out. So I think the rush and the funding was to figure out is there room for any other”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's more just like aggregating data, doing summaries, or maybe there's just other ideas that haven't been explored out there. But it's a real problem.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We call it internally the hamster wheel of content creation. I like to get on because you love it. And then how do you get off? So it's actually an interesting challenge again for platforms to think about where can they add value. Are there ways to either make the content creation process that much easier? And I don't want to say less of a burden. It's not a burden, but sometimes if you don't have time, you're just at a point in life where you can't do it. Are there services or things that can be offered? Are there things like financing that make sense for creators, that banks or traditional institutions wouldn't offer because of just the difference in the type of work that's being produced? Or another potential solution is, are there ways that platforms can create content? Maybe it's automated so that the creator can take a break. So maybe they're not AI necessarily.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Marketplace solution. But again, it's hard because if the supplier doesn't want to actually make money in some cases or shies away from optimizing For making money. And then, you know, there's the creative process, right? Like sometimes you're in a flow mode and you're producing a lot. And then other times you're in a drought spell. And that's kind of like the things ebb and flow, which is why I think companies like Patreon and SubStack are really cool because what they try to do is smooth out that revenue and make it so an artist can actually have a predictable, they're not even artist, a creator can have a predictable, sustainable paycheck so that they aren't, you know, bouncing around from job to job and like losing the ability to have that burst of creativity because they're worried about their bill.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it's funny because we live in a very capitalist and like market dictate the price kind of society, but on an individual level particularly when the commodity, so to speak, is art. There's so many emotions and feelings involved in that, that it's hard for someone who's the creator to kind of disassociate themselves from it and like see what the market will bear, which is why I actually think it's great that there's platforms who have stepped in and said, hey, we see an opportunity. Let us insert ourselves in the center. Let us aggregate and let us do the hard work of pricing and payment and tax and finance and actually create value where it would be really hard for an individual person who's a creator to do all of this work and facilitate that connection. It's almost like the perfect.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Pronounced with musicians, kind of this starving artist ethos, which makes what I'm trying to do actually quite difficult because a lot of the feedback we get is, oh, that's awesome. I want to have a listing party have everything be free and just have everyone show up and don't sell anything. And we're really looking at it as a way to fans want to support the artists they love. They want to open up their wallets. I mean, you see nothing else from a substack and a patrons that people are actually really happy to be a patron of the arts and they look at it as like a badge of honor. But musicians in particular, I think, kind of tend to shy away from that, which makes the kind of thing that I'm working on more difficult.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Real musicians have day jobs because he had to actually have a job with benefit to support the family and can just be gigging full-time, which actually brings me to the flip side of the question, which you ask, like, what is the hardest part? I do think we saw this a lot at Patreon and I think you see it especially with musicians and artists, this kind of feeling that you want to give your fans everything that you create and you want to do it for free because you're so like enamored with this idea that people really love you and want to support you and they're really responding to your creativity and everything that you're making. You don't want to charge them. But what comes with that is, well, how are you going to make a living? Like it's to some degree there has to be a value exchange that happens in order for a creative person to live from their art. And I've found that that's much more”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the best part is working with people who really lean into their creativity and their passion so much so that they do it for a living. And I think a lot of us have creative pursuits and passions and things we love to do. And like if we made millions of dollars and could retire, like what would you do full time? Usually it's one of these pursuits. I think it takes an element of bravery, not to mention talent, but you really have to go out on a limb. And so that's just a quality that exists in this group of people. And it's fun to be around and feel that rub off on you and think, oh, maybe I could take the dive one day. And I don't know, go do my calligraphy or learn my ukulele and then do it full time. But that's the best part. And the thing I'm really, I grew up in a musical household. My dad's a drummer, although his joke when we were growing up was.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we have all kinds of ideas of really interesting ways we can bring groups of people together and get the monetization going.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Giving artists more ways to offer that merch in the form of like a reward for fans. So things like an exclusive discount or an exclusive design or early access because you're a toplessener on Spotify. Really thinking about thank yous and rewards for your Spotify listenership and fandom. And then other things we've been looking at have been listening parties. We ran a few of those over the past year. I think I talked about it actually on a Spotify event a few years ago. We were like running, sorry, wasn't a few years ago last year. That listening parties is another way. And then we've got some new ideas we're exploring.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so one of the ones that most mature is merch, which is funny to say because most people probably don't realize that you can purchase merch on Spotify. That's one that's been around for a bit of time. And my team's recently been working on making it more prominent.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As head of fan monetization, I have a team of folks who are really passionate about figuring out new ways to help artists and fans connect and also figure out ways to make those connections result in new monetization opportunities for the artists. So one of the things that we all know and we've seen is how passionate fans are about the artists that they love. You've been following any of the latest bits about the Taylor Swift tour, the Beyonce tour that's been happening this summer and their effect on local economies. It's been pretty impressive. But one of the things we also know is it's not just the big huge superstars who have those kind of rabid and super engaged fan bases. People are really passionate and just about supporting the artists that they love in general. And on Spotify, we want to figure out ways we can.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He can't see me if you're listening on podcasts, but like frantically pressing the button, trying to open the door, but accidentally pressing the closed door button and the elevator going to its destination. And apparently he got off and just bolted, like right straight up, ran down the hall. I'll never remember.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Though Steve Jobs' lore was that if you were in an elevator with him, you better be prepared to talk about what you do at the company because he had a habit of getting in the elevator and looking at you and saying, what do you do? What do you do here? And there were also rumors that people had not given him a good answer. That ended up being their last day at Apple. So there was someone who I didn't know personally but worked in my department before I got there who got in an elevator and looked up and Steve was approaching him. And so he went to press the button to open the door and accidentally pressed the one to close the door.”
2023-08-20 · Lenny's Podcast · Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source