Lobster, the platform for licensing user-generated content on social networks, has today announced its biggest partnership to date by way of YouTube. Now, users can request a license to download and use YouTube videos from their contributors for a flat, one-time fee.
As it stands now, media, creative and advertising agencies are stuck using creative commons content (that, let’s face it, is always generic) or creating their own content, which can cost a pretty penny. Lobster allows these professionals (as well as general consumers) to find content they love on social media and request a license to use it.
The startup originally launched at Disrupt Europe last year with a way to let users license content from Instagram and Flickr, handling all the communication between the person requesting the license and the rights holder. With today’s launch on YouTube, the same system applies.
YouTube contributors can actively list their content on Lobster to be licensed by creative agencies. However, if a consumer stumbles upon a YouTube video they want (that isn’t listed on Lobster), they can simply send the video ID to Lobster, which will then handle the process of contacting the creator and setting up the licensing agreement.
Licensing videos on YouTube will cost £5, which translates to just over $7 in USD.
Lobster makes money by taking a small cut of the licensing transaction, and then passing the rest on to the content creator.
Thus far, the company has 700,000 pieces of content that are licensable across Instagram and Flickr alone, so the addition of YouTube should give the platform even more breadth entering 2016.
