The power of technology allows us to share our creativity with people all over the world, and most of us get nothing for it. We record songs that we post to SoundCloud, film reaction videos and fan theories for YouTube, and take incredible pictures from all over the world for Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. If we’re fortunate, that picture video or song generates traction and gets likes and shares and retweets and ends up being seen by thousands of people, or maybe more. And with few exceptions, we still don’t see a cent for what we create. We take part in an economy that is generating billions of dollars, and we get nothing for it.

The blockchain revolution that RightsLedger is bringing to rights management returns the power to the everyday creator. Users are able to upload and identify their work to prove ownership and get fair value for what they create. Most importantly, they are able to preserve and control their work on the blockchain to distribute and monetize as they want without worrying about theft or lost value.

We’re creating valuable content every day for free; why not get what it’s worth?

The idea of sharing what we capture on our phones and other devices has been ingrained into our daily lives. Seemingly everyone we know uses at least one, if not all, social platforms and shares their photos and videos with their followers. And almost none of us give a second thought to what we’re posting and any value that content might have; we’re not celebrities that garner views and likes in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. But what if we’re missing opportunities to take advantage of the valuable work all of us are creating everyday and saving to our phones or cloud storage?

Part of what makes social media so exciting is the ability for the best artistic works to catch our collective imagination, regardless of who created it. It gives everyone a seat at the table and the opportunity for everyone to show what they’ve made to the world and allows the best and most creative to gain a following they wouldn’t otherwise have. The process of being a director, actor, photographer or musician is suddenly at the fingertips of anyone with ambition and passion. But for the vast majority of those creators distributing their works on social media, they aren’t getting the value and protection they deserve for their art.

We’re Giving Our Work Away

The giant social media platforms are generating value from the work that we so readily share with them on a daily basis. While we might think that we’re using them to gain followers and visibility without having to pay a monthly fee for the service, the truth is that they can use us and the millions of users and billions of views to generate advertising revenue and add to their company valuation. Users are being cut out of the revenue process while doing the work to create the value — but how?

What separates social media platforms and the entertainment industry from those who just take pictures or video as part of their everyday life is professionalism. Those who create or host content for a living have a system in place to not only protect their rights, but to distribute that work across different devices and channels to reach as many eyeballs as possible. And while they might be in an ongoing fight against piracy, there isn’t anyone who can comfortably make money off of the work owned by these corporations without their consent.

For the masses, there’s no process to protect what we create, or to take advantage of its value. We reflexively upload pictures and videos and songs to social media without a thought to what it’s worth or what we might do if someone were to exploit it. And we certainly don’t consider the idea of preserving our body of work should our accounts or the platforms we have them on disappear tomorrow. For the amateur photographer, director, actor, or other creatives, there isn’t a platform that offers the process and control available to studios.

Take Back the Power Over Your Creativity with RightsLedger!

Any lessons learned or horror stories about losing rights or revenue to your content? Share them with us in the comments or on our Twitter or Telegram.