The Brilliant Strategy Top Creators Use to Bypass Platforms and Keep 100 Percent of Revenue

Cameo began in Chicago and used technology to let artists and musicians reach fans directly, reducing reliance on agents, managers, and other expensive layers. Snoop Dogg’s observation captured the shift toward unfiltered access to audiences. While direct messaging and easy connections were valuable, creators still faced an economic drawback because the platform took a significant share of each transaction. Dependence on resources the platform controls creates vulnerability to changing policies and algorithms. Co-founder Steven Galanis advises creators to own their audience by building monetization that does not rely on a single platform’s consistency. Later, bemyfriends emerged, leveraging BTS’s success to offer creators their own platform for direct, lasting fan relationships without intermediaries.

"There is no platform or middleman filtering my message anymore. The idea that artists and musicians could bypass many expensive and controlling layers of agents and managers and directly reach out to and connect with their fans wasn't exactly revolutionary, but Cameo and others were the earliest players to provide painless technology solutions and easy access to anyone and everyone who thought they had something important to say."

"However, the economic problem for the creators and content providers was still a sizable concern because Cameo as the platform provider took a healthy cut of the revenue earned in each transaction. It was a better deal, but not the right deal. A business that depends on resources it doesn't control isn't really a business; it's a hostage to the whims and vagaries of others."

"Even Steven Galanis, one of the co-founders of Cameo, advises creators to own their audience rather than rent it, which he defines as building monetization that does not depend on any single platform's algorithm or content policies remaining consistent. So, a few years later, along came bemyfriends, riding on the huge success of its first major customer, the South Korean pop group BTS, and offered musicians and other creators their own platform with all the basic features required to build direct and lasting connections to their own fans without any intermediaries."

Read at Inc