Significant monthly revenue growth in under a year.
A major personal-development publisher partnered with RightSet to manage rights for the catalog of an iconic motivational speaker, one of the most-quoted voices in the genre on YouTube. Here’s how RightSet drove substantial growth in recurring monthly revenue stream.
Keeping the reach while regaining control
Keeping the reach while regaining control
The speaker’s recordings are some of the most-used motivational audio on YouTube, quoted, clipped, and re-uploaded across thousands of channels. The rights holder was glad to see the work keep spreading, so taking it down was never the goal. They wanted to keep that reach while controlling how the content was used and earning from it.
Audio that visual detection misses
Much of the catalog is lectures and audio recordings. Standard visual detection misses these matches when the original footage has been replaced or covered.
Too much volume to manage by hand
With a growing number of unauthorized uses, the in-house team could not process claims at a sufficient rate. The publisher needed a system to match, claim, and monetize automatically.
Detection, licensing, library management, and visibility
Audio-only Content ID tool
We worked directly with YouTube to access and refine an audio-only Content ID tool. It detects the speaker’s content even when only the audio is used, including clips mixed with new footage and music. Standard Content ID can’t do this.
Licensing program for top creators
We set up a licensing program that gives top YouTube creators permission to keep using the catalog in exchange for royalties. Each license comes with content guidelines, so the work keeps spreading in ways the rights holder is happy with.
492-asset library build-out
We fingerprinted a large inventory of assets from the catalog into Content ID, building the reference library behind every claim, with numerous claims per asset and growing. The rights holder also gained an easy-to-search library with transcript and theme search, making the catalog more useful for other projects.
Custom rights-holder dashboard
Our dashboard is built for rights holders: a real-time view of every claim, every matched channel, and earnings in one place. It also shows who’s watching, including audience demographics that point to untapped potential with younger viewers that was unexpected by the rights holder.
A recurring revenue engine built from a working catalog
Inventory of assets in Content ID
A robust reference library built and maintained, covering the speaker’s most-used recordings across decades of material.
Claims filed
Every match becomes a claim. The catalog generated substantial claims in the first year, with payouts flowing back from YouTube ad and subscription revenue.
Monthly revenue growth
Recurring monthly revenue grew month over month across consecutive payout periods.
Views on licensed videos
Licensed creators keep posting under clear content guidelines, with view counts in the multimillions for multiple licensed videos, exactly the kind of high-reach, on-brand use the rights holder wanted.
Time to first payout
From a standing start, the first payout landed within 45 days of sign-on, followed by consecutive months of on-time payments.