ChasNote

Several YouTube super stars (Ze Frank, HappySlip) expressed doubts about YouTube’s recently announced program to share revenue with top content creators. Exclusivity clauses, the loss of merchandise cross-selling opportunities, and sharing a big chunk of the ad dollars are the gripes. From Business Week:

“the ad revenue these sites share often can’t compare with the amount creators could get if they built their own sites into destinations complete with advertising and merchandise. Gambito [of HappySlip] wouldn’t disclose the financial details of the YouTube deal, which is in a testing phase and requires some of her new videos to appear exclusively for two weeks on the site. Revver evenly splits revenue it gets from clicks on ads appended to videos. Gambito’s own site sells t-shirts, bags, and other merchandise. She hopes eventually to sell ads as well.”