Being a creator is cheap \u2014\u00a0until it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The growth of the creator economy has empowered individuals to get into the business of media and entertainment with relatively few start-up costs. A camera, laptop and YouTube account are all one needs to upload their first video. But as creators become mainstream celebrities and scale up their business accordingly, they\u2019ve started to incur more under-the-surface costs and fees, much like any media business.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs views and sponsors get bigger, you\u2019ll have more income \u2014\u00a0but then that also opens up more possibilities,\u201d said YouTuber Isaiah \u201cWendigoon<\/a>\u201d Nichols. \u201cMaybe you\u2019ll buy some studio lights; maybe you\u2019ll buy a high-tech camera. If you\u2019re like me, maybe you get some editors, or start a side channel. As long as you scale it properly, there\u2019s a lot of cool stuff you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2025, content creation is a growing sector of entertainment, with a range of unique costs \u2014\u00a0some obvious, but some not-so-obvious. These are the hidden costs of the creator business.<\/p>\n These days, creators are often more than just individuals \u2014\u00a0they are the front-facing side of full-fledged media businesses<\/a> with teams of employees. For example, podcaster Kate Mackz<\/a> employs a team of eight, while YouTuber Tyler \u201cJimmy Here<\/a>\u201d Collins said his six-person team accounts for a monthly payroll of roughly $15,000.<\/p>\n \u201cI have two main editors and a videographer that I work with on a regular basis; I also have a guy that was working with me on some side projects, and is also a stand-in PA for me,\u201d Collins said. \u201cI\u2019ve got my creative director, as well, and one more guy that lives with me and helps me with any other projects that I need, but he\u2019s also a creator.\u201d<\/p>\n As creators staff up, they are moving their operations out of their homes and into commercial spaces built specifically for content production. Mackz, whose running podcast Post Run High<\/a> is one of iHeart\u2019s most popular shows, pays \u201caround $3,500\u201d per month for a production studio space in New York City.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really our office; we\u2019ve had it for about two years now, and it\u2019s been great,\u201d Mackz said. \u201cWorking out of a small apartment in New York City is never ideal, so as soon as we were able to get an office space here in Brooklyn, it\u2019s been really good for productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to video editing, one production fee that can be surprisingly expensive for YouTubers is the creation of thumbnail images to accompany videos. Thumbnails are a unique art, with many thumbnail creators specifically dedicating themselves to the craft, and YouTubers who employ in-house editors or do their own video editing will often work with third-party thumbnail makers on a per-video basis. Nichols said that he started to pay thumbnail artists rather than making his own thumbnails when his channel reached 2 million subscribers, and that he typically pays $200 per thumbnail image, with some videos using multiple thumbnails.<\/p>\n \u201cYouTube is testing a feature now where you can put up to three thumbnails at one time, and it will see which one gets the most clicks,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I\u2019ll typically pay the thumbnail designer for two to three thumbnails per video.\u201d<\/p>\n Another potentially unexpected fee for some creators is the cost of subscriptions for premium software and platform tools. LinkedIn creator Kamya Marwah<\/a>, for example, said that paying for LinkedIn Premium was crucial for her to be able to use the platform to its fullest potential \u2014 but that she had to pay full price for the service, since she is not a member of LinkedIn\u2019s creator accelerator program<\/a>. Currently, LinkedIn Premium costs $29.99 per month, or roughly $240 per year<\/a>.<\/p>\n TikTok creator Millie Ford<\/a> said that her individual monthly fees for creator tools and services were low, but that the multitude of smaller subscriptions she pays for services like video editing, link-in-bio tools and payroll management still amount to a significant overall expense.<\/p>\n \u201cOften there\u2019ll be subscriptions to editing software, or even little things like having a link in your bio. To get access to all of the premium features, you often have to pay,\u201d she said. \u201cIt could be the smallest fee \u2014 like $4.99 [per month] \u2014 but all those little things are adding up.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the steepest start-up costs for creators is the technology required to build out a studio space, including cameras, lighting and computers. Mackz estimated that her studio setup, which includes six cameras and four aperture lights, cost about $50,000 to build; Nichols and Collins said that they had spent thousands of dollars on high-end computers, although they did not specify exact costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t believe how expensive SD cards are,\u201d said creator and creator talent manager Claudia Bish<\/a>, who is launching a podcast about the creator economy later this year. \u201cI had to order the SD cards for the podcast today, and it was \u00a3600.\u201d<\/p>\n Ford and Collins cited taxes as a surprise fee, with both creators saying they had hired accountants or financial advisors due to being shocked by their tax bills after going full-time. Ford\u2019s advisor helped her shift her approach from filing taxes as an individual freelancer to filing as the owner of her own business, which she said helped cut her annual tax bill from 40 percent to 25 percent of her overall revenue.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s different tax deductions and laws that apply if you\u2019re a sole trader, versus for companies, and I honestly don\u2019t even know half of them,\u201d she said. \u201cI just trust my accountant to work that out.\u201d<\/p>\n Perhaps the costliest investment required to become a successful creator doesn\u2019t come in the form of cash. Time is money, and being a content creator is an extremely time-intensive job, requiring creators to burn away hours of their lives, often without guaranteed returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes, when you prepare for a successful video, you budget maybe five hours to create something from scratch; by the end, you\u2019ve spent 30 hours. That\u2019s a huge cost for you, and it\u2019s not measurable,\u201d said AI video creator Tianyu Xu<\/a>. \u201cIf you compare the hours you spent with your hourly rate, then it\u2019s a huge cost \u2014\u00a0much higher than the actual money you spend on tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nHiring a team<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Renting studio space<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Thumbnail fees<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Lighting and tech<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Taxes<\/h2>\n
Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n