Maker Studios is a “collaborative community empowering content creators in their work and allowing them to support themselves doing what they love” whose videos attract no less than 14 million monthly viewers living in the United States, who watch no less than 155 million videos per month. The well-funded, content-creator-founded startup lists online video notables like Ray William Johnson, KassemG, NicePeter and ShayCarl in its roster of amateur-turned-professional new media entertainers.
Mike Tompkins is an incredibly talented Canadian musician with a penchant for covering pop hits in wonderfully produced, visually appealing videos reminiscent of the Brady Bunch opening theme and without any musical instruments. By way of his voice, mouth, and video editing skills, Tompkins has amassed over 460,000 YouTube subscribers, 70 million views, an appearance on Ellen, a gig with Timbaland, and now, a deal with Maker.
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Tompkins is the first musician to partner with the Maker Music Network. The partnership will give the 24-year-old access to Maker’s video, marketing, advertising, and sales teams, as well as the company’s music and production studios and resources.
Former President of Myspace Music and current Maker COO, Courtney Holt told Glenn Peoples over at Billboard, he was attracted to Tompkins not only because of his massive fan base, but because he see him developing into a huge talent. “We’re looking at long-term artist development,” Holt said. “This isn’t just about who’s hot or something viral.”
For fans of Tompkins (and if you aren’t one, then you will be after you watch the video above), this is of course, great news. With Maker’s added support, his music video output should increase to be something more frequent than one or two songs every three or four months. I know he’s all about making originals (he recently wrote and produced the song and video for Stand Up for the movie Bully), but if Tompkins is taking any requests, I request something like this.
