Team hires, studio rental fees: The hidden costs of creators

Being a creator is cheap — until it isn’t.

The growth of the creator economy has empowered individuals to get into the business of media and entertainment with relatively few start-up costs. A camera, laptop and YouTube account are all one needs to upload their first video. But as creators become mainstream celebrities and scale up their business accordingly, they’ve started to incur more under-the-surface costs and fees, much like any media business.

“As views and sponsors get bigger, you’ll have more income — but then that also opens up more possibilities,” said YouTuber Isaiah “Wendigoon” Nichols. “Maybe you’ll buy some studio lights; maybe you’ll buy a high-tech camera. If you’re like me, maybe you get some editors, or start a side channel. As long as you scale it properly, there’s a lot of cool stuff you can do.”

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