Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where in partnership with Collab, we feature up-and-coming creators whose content is beginning to flourish. Each week, we’ll chat with a creator about why they started making content, what caused their recent explosion of growth, and how they intend to keep that momentum going as they continue to build their audience, their channel, and their careers.
Gavin Magnus was just nine years old when he realized he wanted to be a content creator. Like literally millions of other kids these days, one of his main sources of entertainment was YouTube, but Magnus wasn’t content with just watching other creators’ videos. He wanted to make his own.
Now at a much older and wiser 12 years old, Magnus is one of the youngest creators we here at Tubefilter have featured in any of our columns. And over the past three years, he’s shifted his YouTube presence dramatically. It was once a simple repository for everyday vlogs and home movies featuring a variety of plush dolls enacting oddball scenarios and parodies of fellow YouTube star Super Mario Logan (who has over 7.8 million subscribers from videos featuring a variety of plush dolls enacting oddball scenarios and parodies of Super Mario Bros.) without the intent to implement much of a video strategy or cultivate an audience.
Now, however, Magnus’ YouTube channel uploads videos on a consistent at-least-weekly basis with programming that taps into some of the world’s largest video sharing site’s most-viewed trends. Challenges, cash giveaways for impressive feats, and more all bring in hundreds of thousands if not millions of views apiece.
The change in the upload schedule, content, and Magnus’ personal attitude toward his channel has had the kind of impact that’s pushed it up and to the right. That push was also orchestrated by digital talent network and entertainment studio Collab. (Yes, Collab is also the sponsor of this column, but it’s true, and stats don’t lie.) The company began its relationship with Magnus in October 2018, taking on the roles of channel management (including securing brand deals and executing collabs) channel optimization (like creating channel artwork and thumbnails), copyright claims, and promotion for the fledgling creator. At the time, Magnus’ YouTube destination was at around 34,000 subscribers and netting between 70,000 and 130,000 views a month.
Just eight months later, the channel hit one million subscribers and clocked over 16.7 million monthly views.
The biggest inflection point in the trajectory of the 12 year old’s thee-year-old channel occurred in January 2019, when he posted his first music video, Crushin. The video introduced YouTube to Magnus’ music, and a lot of viewers to Magnus himself. The video’s since amassed over 13.2 million views and kicked off the dramatic incline you can see in the graph above. It also kick-started Magnus’ budding musical career. He’s on the verge of signing a record deal that’ll see more of his music heading to YouTube in the coming months.
We had a quick convo with Magnus about the above, his recent rise to YouTube, and more. Check it out below:
Gavin Magnus: I’m from Yorba Linda, Calif. Outside of YouTube, I love skateboarding and extreme mountain biking, and I also am a gymnast. I’m a musical artist too, and have a bunch of exciting music coming.
GM: I started in 2016 with content like puppet videos. After I realized I’d started to build an audience, I bought a few cameras, and then from there, I started doing challenges and pranks — and now it’s taken off.
GM: Honestly, I knew from age nine that I just loved watching Logan Paul and SML, lol. I loved videography and anything to do with that realm.
GM: No, I wish in beginning I had come in with a strategy, but I was so young just having fun. Now, I definitely have a calendar and a schedule, and it’s my business.
GM: I made a music video for my song Crushin. That video helped launch my career big time. Now, it has almost 14 million views. It was a game-changer.
GM: WOW, so many, but I think everyone knows I’m a big fan of fellow Collab creator David Dobrik. I’m a fanatic, I literally was staying in the same hotel as him, both of us as guest creators, and I just couldn’t wait to meet that one person!
GM: I am signing with a record label and will have a big announcement with that. I also recently signed with a music manager, Andrew Balogh. In a year, my channel will definitely have more music and music videos. In a year, I hope to have my music on the big screen and do more collabs with big creators. I also hope to add more vlog-style content to my channel.
I think in a year, my fans will see a different side of Gavin Magnus.
In the meantime, you can check out my new cover of “Señorita” by Shawn Mendes here!
As one of the global leaders in Digital Rights Management (DRM) and a pioneer in short-form video DRM, Collab works with top content companies like Vin Di Bona Productions, as well as independent content creators and rightsholders, to maximize content owner revenue and protect content rights.
In 2019, Collab announced the launch of their ad sales group, expanding their ability to increase creators’ revenue and partner with brands. At Collab, weirdos are welcome, creators come first, and “funemployment” is promoted.
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