YouTube stars get Hollywood superagents
— -- Forget Variety.Michael Green has put down the bible of showbiz and is actively seeking the next big star among a wave of homegrown YouTube producers and performers attracting millions of viewers online.
Green, who represented stars such as Roseanne Barr and Martin Lawrence at the height of their TV careers, realized there was a new business to be had from the online audience.
"It's a seismic shift," says Green, the CEO of The Collective, a company he formed to manage careers and work with Internet creators to produce content.
Other Los Angeles-based firms — Big Frame, Maker Studios and Mighty Fresh lead the pack — are also looking to YouTubers as a major new source of potential income.
Why not? The popularity of some YouTube performers and their "channels" dwarfs many TV shows, and their videos have been seen more than a billion times. Ray William Johnson, Shane Dawson's ShaneDawsonTV, Dane Boedigheimer's Annoying Orange, Justine Ezarik's iJustine and Freddie Wong and Brandon Laatsch's Freddiew channels are among the biggest.
YouTube itself is on a major expansion kick this year, trying to keep viewers tuned in longer by shifting them from watching single videos to channels.
YouTube is investing $100 million to help launch 100 channels this year, from heavyweights such as Madonna and Ashton Kutcher to YouTube stars such as Mystery Guitar Man and Michelle Phan.
The idea is to have "channels that act like curators, that help you find the content you're passionate about," says Jamie Byrne, YouTube head of original programming.
On YouTube, anyone can become a star by signing up, making videos and posting them. They can even make a living doing so.
YouTube shares ad revenue with folks who sign up for Google's AdSense program, which places ads all over the Web. When the performers start making lots of videos and attracting audiences, they can sign up for the YouTube "partner" program, which will give them a larger portion of the revenue.
YouTube says it has 30,000 partners, and "hundreds" are making six figures a year.
You Tube's plan is "to create a parallel universe" where these celebrities and new channels exist, says James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research. The next step is to become a viable competitor to traditional television. He expects the channels strategy to be more of a factor by year's end.
YouTube wants to win over those consumers who'd like to ditch or cut back on cable, satellite and other pay-TV services in favor of set-top boxes and other devices that connect the Internet to the TV, a trend that is in its early stages..
The new channels give YouTube "the opportunity to be taken more seriously in Hollywood," says Richard Frias, founder of Mighty Fresh, a Los Angeles talent management com- pany that is producing two channels: the Warner Sound, featuring music produced by the Warner Music label; and Fawn, which showcases videos from his client, Michelle Phan.
Before joining forces with Frias, Phan did how-to-apply-makeup videos in her Florida bedroom. Now, he's signed her to Lancôme as a spokeswoman.
Dane Boedigheimer steps into his Los Angeles garage most days to churn out YouTube videos for his Annoying Orange series, about a high-pitched citrus that cracks bad jokes. This summer, the series makes its debut on cable TV's Cartoon Network, part of a deal Green put together.
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