Vimeo "Tip Jar" lets video creators monetise their work
Users of the Vimeo video hosting service can now monetise their clips thanks to a raft of new features being rolled out from today.
Kicking off with the “Tip Jar”, viewers will be able offer up some cash for a clip they like, or Vimeo “creator” they’d like to support. Available from today to Vimeo Plus and Pro subscribers, 85% of all gross revenue generated will go back to the owner of the video.
“Creators have asked us for quite some time to help them monetise their work, but we think it needed an approach that put the controls back into the hands of the creators themselves,” said Dae Mellencamp, President of Vimeo.
“We designed these tools to allow video creators to be as flexible as possible while providing the ability to financially succeed at various levels of viewership.”
Vimeo will follow up Tip Jar with a further “pay-to-view” paywall feature, letting video creators sell or rent their films directly through the platform, letting creators set pricing structures, distribution and rental lengths for each individual movie. Kicking off with a beta test of curated movies, the feature will roll out to all Vimeo Pro subscribers in early 2013.
Advertising in YouTube has let users of Google’s video uploading service monetise their work for some years now, but such advertisements can be intrusive, and undermine the artistic credibility of some videos. Vimeo’s approach covers both bases, letting users make a bit of cash from their clips, without getting in the way of the videos themselves.
For more on the new features, click here.
