TubeStart Launches Crowdfunded Channels for YouTube Creators

TubeStart (www.tubestart.com) announced today that its proprietary crowdfunding platform has officially launched and is open to the public, following a tremendous response to their pre-launch period of recruiting YouTube content creators to launch campaigns on their site. TubeStart will provide more than one million YouTube creators from all over the world with the opportunity to run both traditional rewards campaigns as well as create subscription-based crowdfunding campaigns for driving ongoing revenue. TubeStart founder and CEO Josef Holm created the site to give entertainers, producers and YouTube stars a viable alternative to the all-or-nothing traditional crowdfunding model.

Digital video is not only invading the world of entertainment, but is important to a variety of industries and small businesses trying to stand out in a sea of competition. In fact, even for traditional crowdfunding campaigns marketing a product or service, videos are so essential to fundraising that 50 percent of campaigns with videos succeed versus a 30 percent success rate for campaigns without videos.

"YouTube receives billions of monthly visits and comprises a substantial percentage of web traffic. Yet, the current ad-based monetization model is not serving content creators or their fans well," said Holm. "Especially for niche-genre content creators, subscription-based crowdfunding-where viewers can subscribe for as little as $5 per month-provides the best, most sustainable production and funding model available. With digital media already changing the traditional entertainment production and distribution processes, anyone with a little know-how and a good idea can become a YouTuber with subscription-based crowdfunding."

This new crowdfunding hybrid model allows creators to keep their primary content publicly available to maximize AdSense revenue while acquiring recurring monthly contributions for driving ongoing monthly revenue on TubeStart. In addition to ad revenue, some creators have attempted to launch campaigns on general interest crowdfunding portals, but planning and executing a one-time campaign takes an enormous amount of time-and does little to keep fans engaged for the long run.

"TubeStart is unique because it was developed specifically for YouTube and features an easy-to-use interface that is optimal for video content and delivering subscriber bonuses," added Holm, who most recently discussed his technology at the SXSW V2V conference. "Instead of being in a panic over meeting your crowdfunding campaign goal in 30 days-why not focus on growing your fan base over time and creating even better content? With YouTube reaching more 18-to-34 year-olds per month than cable, there has never been a better time to be a YouTuber."

TubeStart will be open and available to all creators in the U.S., Canada and Europe. Creators can conduct conventional crowdfunding campaigns between $500 and $500,000, or develop a subscription-based campaign with supporters paying between $5 and $150 monthly. Creators can register now at www.tubestart.com. Learn more about how TubeStart works by viewing TubeStart's educational YouTube video.