Let’s Have a Little Grace

I understand that a couple weeks ago I wrote an article articulating how I will be on a three blog a week schedule, but this is something I have to write about before it happens. So I guess this may be the first of many special blogs that just need to be written before they are no longer relevant.

A couple of days ago I came across something HUGE on tumblr: Daily Grace is leaving My Damn Channel!

If you are not into Youtube or vloggers, then this means nothing to you. If you are into that, then this is a huge announcement!

To give some background: My Damn Channel is a web channel that focuses on different comedians or comedic shows and distributes their content. They are just like any other content owning business, but are focused more on the online market. Daily Grace, Grace Helbig, has been their biggest moneymakers and has a huge fan base. So to put it simply, a big face/voice for a web channel is leaving and take a different route in her career.

From the numerous amounts of articles online that I can find and from the My Damn Channel website, this leave was due to Helbig’s contract ending. This is not a bad thing; she had a contract, which means she was getting paid for what she loves to do. Also, having a contract for a short time can give you the opportunity to be able to think in advance as to whether she would want to continue with the company or try something new.

The biggest upset that I have seen from fans has been the concept that Grace did not own her Daily Grace content. That can be frustrating since she has to work at rebuilding her channel, but I believe she will have her subscribing base again before we know it.

Now this is not going to be entirely on Grace Helbig’s decision to move on from My Damn Channel. I believe we can learn something from this on both a business aspect and a content creator aspect. Things are changing and this is a perfect example on different aspects businesses and content creators must prepare for.

Having web channels like My Damn Channel (MDC) are great to have. They give people the opportunity of sharing their work and get their name out. These performers also don’t necessarily have to worry about creating a webpage, because the company already has the resources with that. Where some of the trouble may come in is with the owner of the content. A business, which is what MDC is, owns the content so they will be able to turn a profit. Sounds heartless, but it is how it is done to keep something open and running.

I have a theory or prediction, what ever you may want to call it, that some of these content creators may start creating their own production companies. Seriously, look at the Green brothers who created Brotherhood 2.0, Vlogbrothers, Crash Course, etc. and created a NPR type of funded web channel and Hank Green (1/2 of the Green brothers) has helped created a production company called Pemberley Digital. This change is already happening and it will only grow more prominent.

I believe a formula needs to be figured out that both content creators and the business world will be able to agree on, or a businessperson and content creators can find an agreement. There has to be a format where collaboration or more freedom in contracts can be granted because it is easy for content creators to take their business elsewhere or start something themselves. I will admit that I may have an idea of this, but not going to put it up on here, at least not yet.

But what I can say is this: the entertainment business online is changing and I believe the content creators will be able to gain some better leveraging ground than some of their business peers, since they know their audience and have that deep audience loyalty. I am excited to see Helbig’s new channel itsgrace (which may I add starts tomorrow) and am excited to see how quickly her fan base switches to this new channel.