The splashy headline was YouTube’s $8 billion payout to the music industry. For many creators, however, the more important story isn’t the payout itself, but the machinery that produced it: a twin-engine revenue model of ads and subscriptions that consistently pays creators based on real, ongoing engagement rather than one-off incentives or viral wins.
We spoke with artist and talent manager Caleb Brown to unpack what’s actually behind the number. Now an Artist Manager at 1717 Management, Brown brings a practical, on-the-ground perspective shaped by years of artist development, including managing a 3x platinum, Grammy-nominated artist. He’s also founded a management agency, launched and sold a music festival, and worked across every stage of an artist’s growth, giving him a clear-eyed view of what it really takes to build a sustainable career in today’s market.
"YouTube has the best creator fund of any digital streaming platform, by a lot. Instagram isn't paying you for content. TikTok pays you, but not as well as YouTube does. No other platform takes better care of its creators," says Brown. He says there is a clear hierarchy in how the industry's power players approach creator compensation, with YouTube operating in a class of its own. He describes a "deep, deep wormhole of money to be made," driven by the platform's massive and constant user base—a level of passive consumption so deep, he admits to leaving it on for his dog. That endless stream of engagement creates a robust advertising machine that directly benefits creators.
- Momentum over milestones: In this creator economy, Brown argues against what he sees as a common strategic pitfall: chasing arbitrary, high-stakes goals. He warns that this "milestone thinking" can be counterproductive, defining success instead as a consistent, tangible pattern of growth, like playing a bigger venue this year than last. "An upward trajectory is really what I want. When you focus on chasing a specific goal, like getting 10 million views by the end of the month, you set yourself up for failure," he explains. "If you don't hit that number, you as a manager look incompetent, and your artist is discouraged."
- Tale of two formats: That momentum, Brown explains, is enabled by the specific mechanics of YouTube's platform. The platform’s layered strategy combines technical optimization with diverse content formats, creating multiple avenues for monetization where Shorts incentivize virality and long-form videos build a deeper, more resilient audience connection. "An artist can make a grand off a single Short because it went viral, which incentivizes them to use the platform more. But YouTube is almost immune to the short-form trend because using Shorts serves a different purpose than watching long-form videos," he says. "They are two different things."
Brown reframes the debate around AI in entertainment, suggesting AI should be viewed as an evolutionary tool, much like the internet's arrival, that allows for creative growth. He believes the business reality of marketing an artist is what makes a human story such a vital asset.
- All about artistry: "You can’t replace human creativity, but you can evolve within the AI space." For Brown, AI only works because it’s built on human input. "AI has to be fed human artistry. That viral Drake and The Weeknd song had to be fed their music to exist in the first place. Ultimately, it’s a lot harder to market a synthetic artist than it is to sell a real one like Sabrina Carpenter."
- Watermarks for the win: Brown isn’t worried about AI replacing artists. Instead, his focus is on a more practical concern: the potential for misuse. He makes the case for clear guardrails as a necessary tool to maintain trust. "I am concerned about AI scams, because those are easy to fall for. That's a lot different than buying a concert ticket. We need to be able to tell the difference between AI-generated content and human content, so I'm an advocate for watermarking. As the technology develops, it will become indistinguishable, and that's a hugely important thing to address."
Ultimately, Brown’s perspective returns to a simple but stubborn truth about entertainment: technology can amplify access, but it can’t manufacture meaning. Platforms, formats, and tools may change, but what holds attention over time is still narrative, personality, and the slow build of a human story. It’s why his management philosophy centers on growth and continuity rather than hype cycles, and why he’s skeptical of trends that promise scale without substance.
"Look at the NFT craze. The hype was all about digital art, but that excitement didn’t last. It’s the same situation here. People want a story and a narrative. They want to watch their entertainers grow and create, because that journey is part of the entertainment," Brown concludes. "It might be fun to watch a Fortnite concert, but it’s not nearly as fun as going to the actual thing and watching a person perform. You can’t replace that."