DO NOT join Maker Studios/RPM Networks/ParaMaker/TGS (The Game Station). Read this and know why!
Hi all,
I want to start this being super straightforward: I want to influence your decision. I want you to read this and think 'if they did it to him, they will do it to me'. This is because THEY CAN and THEY WILL do what they want. Maker Studios and all their subsidiaries (including RPM Networks, TGS - The Game Station, and Paramaker among others) have demonstrated in the past that they are not a company to be trusted. You can look up the issues that YouTube superstar RayWilliamJohnson had with them in regards to their bullying (holding his account on their CMS so they could keep taking money off his earnings, trying to force him to give them his content, etcetera, just Google it if you don't know it yet and you'll see what I mean). You will see how crazy Maker Studios can be.
It's never good or wise to accuse someone of being bad if you don't have any evidence or at least an explanation, so I will tell you exactly what the issue is, and you can make your own mind.
I joined RPM Networks on a 60/40 split where I would keep 60% of the revenue accrued through my videos and RPM (which I will call from now on Maker, because well, they are the same) would keep 40%. This is, of course, after YouTube takes their cut which some say is around 50%. So after signing I would keep 60% of the 50% left after YouTube took their cut. Fair enough... or was it? Well, I won't lie and say that I expected more out of what Maker offered in the contract. I didn't. I expected exactly, and ONLY what they offered, which was the royalty-free audio library and most importantly the promotion of my channel on the network.
I managed to use some of the royalty-free music, but in most videos I don't even have any of it because I think it is pointless for the kinds of videos that I make.
The worst issue is the fact that they didn't try to promote my channel even though I managed to get over 10k subscribers over 12 months. I will be honest again and say that I do not keep track of other channels on YouTube, I hardly have time to keep track of mine so I focus on mine 100%, therefore I have no idea if getting 10k subscribers over 12 months is good or average or bad. I just don't know, but I think it is quite a good number. I also have a very loyal fan base, I don't lose a lot of subscribers every month, which means that they don't just do an impulse subscribe, they actually like my content.
None of the subscribers I gained came from any sort of promotion that Maker did about my channel - first, my content is produced in Portuguese and Maker clearly only cares about content creators who make videos in English. They offered to move my channel to Paramaker, which is a Brazilian subsidiary of Maker so my channel could "have a chance" of being featured. They never said that it would be, but in the contract they clearly state that they give you all the support you need to grow your channel and audience. In my case, they never did. They would take 40% of my earnings for basically nothing. The first month that they took 40% already paid them for the 2 royalty-free songs I downloaded to use. After that first month, it was as if they were stealing from me, because if you take someone's cash and don't do anything in return, well, that's stealing isn't it? I know that I signed a contract, but on the basis that they would give me support, which they didn't.
Anyway... the most serious issue is below:
In March 2013, Maker activated my account on their dashboard for a feature called "Exchange". Basically, what this did was to give you some points to spend in things that would boost your views, subscribers, likes and comments. Basically, let's say that they gave you 100 points to start with. You could create "promotions" which ranged from posts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube options were to spend, for example, 8 points for each "like", or 10 points for each "subscriber". So with 100 points I could create a promotion in the dashboard that would let me get 10 new subscribers for 100 points, meaning that 10 points per subscriber. How this system worked was that other people had the same thing and they could set up promotions. So every time they created a promotion, say, to gain new subscribers, every time I clicked on subscribe WITHIN THE DASHBOARD, that user would get a subscriptions (duh) and I would gain some points for doing that too! So this is how you could accumulate points to create your own subscriptions. Remember, all of this happened through the Maker dashboard, it didn't take you to the video page to click on the features. It could track your clicks within the dashboard in order to validate the action to give you the points you were earning for completing each action. Basically, you were paying other people to click on your favorites, comments, likes and subscribes, and people were paying you to do the same. They were not using currency, they were using points, but that's irrelevant, because below I quote a portion of the YouTube Terms of Service that CLEARLY show that what Maker Studios was doing was FRAUDULENT:
Do not manipulate or incentivize others to click on video features, such as “Like” or “Favorite,” to improve your standing and visibility across the site. We consider these to be fraudulent clicks and/or queries.
YouTube then clearly stated that they could terminate your account at any time after you've committed this fraud.
Basically, Maker Studios broke the terms of service by activating this feature on their dashboard and offering you the feature. They also committed a crime because they didn't tell you that this was considered fraud, causing you to put your account at risk. For people like me who have more than a hundred videos and makes sure to never break copyright rules, and partly (or fully for the more successful ones) makes a living out of AdSense, having your account terminated because of Maker Studio's irresponsible actions is simply not acceptable. They have a fiduciary duty to all the users they have contracts with because AdSense is MONEY and they broke this duty towards me, they violated my contract with them, and therefore they should terminate our agreement and give my account back to me, RIGHT?
For Maker Studios, NOT SO! They claim that they did nothing wrong (that's only their clearly biased word against YouTube's TERMS OF SERVICE, WHICH IS A LEGAL DOCUMENT!
So I asked them to release my account from their CMS because the contract was broken, but they didn't. They are still holding my account and they are stating that they will continue to do so until my contract is due to end at the end of this month (July, 2013).
The issue is, what they are doing is illegal, because they are stealing my money. They have no right to 40% of my revenue any longer because they broke the contract, and they should give my account back to me by releasing my account from their CMS.
They just won't do it! I have no idea if they will release my account at the end of the month but this is not the reason why I am writing this. The reason is that they made me sign a contract where I had rights and obligations and so did they, but even after I kept to my obligations and they broke theirs rendering the contract invalid, they are keeping MY channel under their CMS, taking God knows how much of my money.
So I hope that after reading this, you decide NOT to join with Maker Studios or ANY of their subsidiaries like RPM Networks, TGS, Paramaker and others, because once you accept that email that YouTube sends you asking if you allow Maker to take control of your AdSense, you are basically giving them your earnings FOR EVER, until they decide to release you. There is absolutely NOTHING you can do, even if you contact YouTube, they will NOT release your account from Maker's CMS even if you clearly prove that Maker broke the contract that you thought had any validity.
Don't forget, if you are reading this it is because you probably are a small YouTuber without a lawyer or a legal team to defend you, while Maker Studios is a huge company that can use the contract against you while you cannot use the contract against them.
DO NOT sign up your channel to any of Maker Studio's networks especially if you are not living in the USA. It will be practically impossible to regain control of your channel from another country.
I hope that my super long post influences you and protects your channel and your interests, because Maker Studios and their subsidiaries are out simply to make money out of honest people without providing anything back and without honoring their own contract. Remember, once your account is under their CMS (a feature that YouTube gives networks to take control of channels), they can keep your account there forever. Unless you have a lawyer to fight for you (which will be extremely expensive), Maker could keep making money out of your hard work and they know this fully, that's why they don't care about people like me or you. If they didn't care about RayWilliamJohnson, do you think that they will care about a "nobody"? Do not fool yourself, be smart.
And if anybody here tries to attack me and defend Maker Studios because "it works for you", then great! That's just great! Until they do something wrong and you're the victim. Also, be aware that nothing stops Maker Studios employees from creating an account on this website to try to troll and make the opinions of people like me vanish, so they can abuse more people and make more money dishonestly.
Edit: please see how Maker Studios treated this user and stole his money:
The Rise and Fall of Maker Studios – A Tale of Love, Betrayal, and Money
(
http://theglobalmarketeer.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-maker-studios/)
Before We Start This Off: I am not under any NDA with Maker Studios regarding my contract, and have been “out” of their CMS since mid-May 2013. This is a factual account of my experience at Maker, and, to be honest, it wasn’t all bad. The purpose of this post isn’t to necessarily shame Makers’ employees or scrutinize its internal business practice of excommunicating its partners; but to shine a light at the hypocrisy of the company in general, as well as its increasing desperation for money, despite receiving venture capital from Time Warner only a few months earlier.
The Faces of Maker (Character List):
• Paul – one of the go-getting leads of Maker’s RPM division (a network for niche content-producers). As an employee of Maker, he was the one who signed the dotted line on behalf of his employer. He is a helpful entity with good intentions, and yet blinded by a force so misguided that it could leave him as an agent of a devious cause. Along with Jon, he served as my account handler over at Maker.
• Jon – Also my account handler at Maker. He was the go-to guy when I was attacked by ill-intentioned DMCA notices, and always stayed professional. He stood silent when I informed him that I was leaving the network.
• Lawrence – The not-so-helpful general support employee for RPM partners. A victim of incorrect information: including flubbed contract specifics and fudged numbers forged to benefit his employer.
• Daria – The last employee of Maker I encountered personally. She was informative, but for all the wrong reasons after the fact.
Introduction
As a former partner of Maker Studios, I couldn’t help but feel ambivalence towards the people who helped give motivation (and money) to my pursuits of making videos on YouTube. I was invited to the network by the head of Maker Studios’ independent content network RPM, who offered me a very fair and very simple to read contract. I was given access to a royalty-free music collection a few months into my contract, instant monetization for my gaming content, and a private small member’s forum that other RPM/Maker partners frequented. Come around April, however, they decided to forego their prestige in the place of cutting corners (which would be rather ironic since they were given millions in venture capital), ultimately costing them their reputation.
Things weren’t always like this. I remember my CMS (network partner features) being turned on May of last year, and how awesome the feature was. I created a few shows, livestreamed a few times, and basked in the pretentiousness of having a channel banner in place of my channel name in text. Things weren’t all that great for me, though; my channel was going through the slump after the popularity of one of my videos subsided, and my average views per day were crashing down before me. The choice to get a partnership was an attempt to retain relevance, a motivation to continue making content, even if it was for a profit.
I had chosen Maker Studios because I thought I saw something fairer than what Machinima or TGN were doing. Both of those companies had shady legal and financial practices, respectively. With Maker, there was no outrageous subscriber/view quota I had to meet, and the guarantee of creative control assured me that my oft-controversial content wouldn’t be taken down just because some kid’s grandma found it offensive.
The contract Paul offered me was very fair. In it, I was promised a six-month term, access to royalty-free music, and a more immediate way of payment than what AdSense was offering. So, I accepted the deal, and with Paul’s signature began a business relationship that I had no thought would end up in the state it would be twelve months later.
Months 1-6 (April – October)
These were probably my best months over at Maker. With the financial incentive, I went back to making gaming content, and my views roughly doubled in size. I was getting paid by Maker and AdSense (via my other YouTube accounts), and life was good. I created my flagship series,Agent 47 – Obnoxious Assassin during this time, among with plenty of other videos to boot. Maker sent me a check every month, even for as little as it may have been, because they were good people and kept to their word.
So, like any partner happy with their network would, I decided to renew my contract with them in October.
Months 7-11 (November – March)
By the start of November, my Blood Money season for the series had been completed and I started anew with my Assassin’s Creed 2 Let’s Play, which I also completed. Then, I decided to work on my next season of Agent 47 – Obnoxious Assassin, which focused on gameplay of “Hitman: Absolution”.
In January, Maker changed the payments system to direct-deposit for all US talent, of course, giving me proper notice in advance. I was OK with it and my payment was sent direct to my bank monthly instead of having a check. This, I presume, was a cost-cutting measure due to the rising cost of postage, but since it didn’t change how I received my payment (in fact, I received my payment sooner) it wasn’t a big deal.
Still, I wasn’t getting paid as much as I used to with AdSense, in terms of CPM. Although my advetising reach became much wider as a direct result of partnering with Maker and thus being able to monetize gaming content, a 40% take of my earnings for overhead costs seemed too unreasonable for me. This 40% went to who-knows-where, although I had access to an AudioMicro account with a ridiculous amount of spending money. In addition, Maker had just been given 35 million dollars in venture funding by Time Warner last year, so what was the point in feeding the beast if it had already been well-fed? Were they hemorrhaging money as a result of an ostentatious spending record on sound effects and undisclosed operating costs?
Month 12 (April)
Apparently so. On April 1st, I got a disturbing notice from Maker saying that effective immediately, all accounts under $50 would automatically have their payments held in a deferred balance. It wasn’t the fact that there was a payment threshold that got me angry; it was the fact they didn’t give me any notice in advance of this draconian change, and that they never sought my approval as per the stipulations of my agreement with them.
It seemed like a cruel April Fools’ joke, but I knew that it was real. My balance was indeed deferred, and I would have to wait until my term ended to obtain my royalties.
Feeling utterly betrayed, I sent emails to Paul and Jon, requesting to terminate my agreement. No response. April 26th (my signing/renewal date) came and went without a change of my account. My money continued to be held onto by Maker, and I did not receive any emails back pertaining to the release of my account, despite Paul’s promise that they were working on it.
Month 13 (May)
After being effectively shooed away to a general support email by Paul (who apparently lost his capacity to handle RPM accounts), I finally received some correspondence by a person named Lawrence. Lawrence wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed; he confused my signup date with a day in May and said my contract was for a year when it wasn’t, and even dared to tease me by telling me I had just missed the 30 day deadline (when I hadn’t) and that I could always try again next year.
I could tell just by his mocking tone that this wasn’t going anywhere. I was struggling for a way out, yet since I lack the audience Ray William Johnson had when he dared to go up against these folks media sites like NewMediaRockstars and tubefilter refused to share my story. I had to do something drastic, and without violating my contract, I explained my side in video form on an alternative channel.
Laden with curses and ill-wishes, it certainly was a way to scold my misbehaving network, even if it was more crude than you could have possibly imagined. But it worked. In less than a week, I received a private message from RPM Network’s official channel asking if they could work things out, and I explained myself in a much more polite way.
The very next day, I received another email from (none other than) Lawrence, who promised to escalate the case to release my account but needed my personal info. Throwing more hoops and hurdles at me, he even had the nerve to ask a security question I was never asked to fill in during the registration process. Reluctantly, I replied with the information needed and waited for action.
Upon reflection, it was amazing to see the incompetence of Maker employees. Why did I have to go through support when I had my account manager? Was it standard procedure for managers to stop assisting partners when they want to transition out of the network?
These are questions I may never know the answers to. On May 16th, my YouTube account was restored to its former state, with CMS “claiming” replaced by monetization buttons. By doing this, I knew I wasn’t going to be making money from gaming content anymore, but I just didn’t care. The process of leaving the network took so much out of my motivation that I really didn’t give a **** about anything anymore, so I stopped making videos; inadvertently leaving my subscribers in the dark as a result.
Lawrence’s presumed superior, Daria, contacted me the same day informing me that my account was removed due to “inappropriate language”. Obviously this remark was payback for the video I posted, because I never used profanity in any of the emails or private messages to Maker (despite how angry I was at the time). But it was fine; they finally let me be in peace, even if it was about 3 weeks later than they were supposed to.
A week later they sent me another email changing the reason of my termination to copyright; struggling to find a valid reason to terminate me instead of just accepting that I chose to leave on my own. And, as of now, that was the last time I spoke to Maker.
Promises that I would eventually receive my royalties were not kept. Surprisingly, I still have access to their dashboard, but I still can’t access the funds because of the payment threshold I never consented to. Maybe I’ll send them a message, or maybe they’ll read this and settle their debt. It remains to be seen, just like their financial future.
Month 14 (June)
For me, I’ve been taking things on YouTube relatively easy. With no financial incentive, I had to re-evaluate myself as a content creator, and decided that, money or no money, I’ve going to push on and continue to make content with more integrity than Maker could ever dream of. In the end, they were just a medium for ad revenue, so why should it matter anyways? I just hope that more partners catch on to their gross unprofessionalism and jump ship, before they end up getting screwed over by them like I did.
I read that Maker is considering starting their own video-sharing site in an effort to make more money in advertising than they do with YouTube, and I still wish them the best of luck with that.
There’s just one last question I’d like to ask Maker on behalf of everyone reading this post:
What happened to the money?
I guess we’ll never know.
Also, note that after you leave any network, they may still be able to claim YOUR videos as theirs, because when you accept to join their CMS, they basically have all your videos linked to their account as if they owned them. This means that even after you leave, they retain the "ownership" in the CMS, so they can still put their ads on your videos and take all your money.
What happens if I remove a linked user account?
(
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/106935?hl=en&topic=24331&ctx=topic#)
When you remove a linked user account, you eliminate the link between that account and your Content Manager account. If you use the SFTP dropbox, you will no longer be able to submit content feeds that assign video ownership to the removed account. If you claim your videos by logging into your account at
www.youtube.com, you will no longer be able to claim the videos in your user account.
However, when you remove the account, you will not affect any existing claims already associated with the user account. In addition, you will not remove the user account from the YouTube website or delete any of the content (videos, comments, etc.) associated with that user account.
pm nó bảo sắp trả và giờ thì ko trả lời 
