Druski has signed two deals in less than a month that pay him as an owner instead of a hired face. Gopuff gave him an equity stake on Oct. 9 as part of a multiyear partnership.
On Monday, Netflix announced a multiyear deal with the comedian and his production company, 4LIFERS Entertainment, that includes licensing shows he made on YouTube.
Netflix will stream select titles from his catalog, including “Coulda Been Love,” “Coulda Been Daddy” and “Coulda Been Records Auditions,” along with some of his sketches. The first original under the deal is “Collect & Praise,” a semi-scripted comedy premiering Dec. 1 with Druski as a money-hungry megachurch pastor and Mike Epps as his deacon. Deadline reported the series was self-funded before Netflix acquired it.
Licensing is the detail creators should study, because it means Netflix is paying to stream work Druski’s company already made. His YouTube shows and sketches have collectively drawn more than 1 billion views, so Netflix is buying a track record instead of funding a pitch.
Druski has said the catalog exists because he reinvested his own money after streamers passed on his ideas, including Netflix, Amazon and FX. In an interview on Steven Bartlett’s podcast “The Diary of a CEO,” he said he chose production over buying a car or a house. “I’m going to do it on YouTube and spend my own money to invest into it,” he said.
The Gopuff partnership brings the same ownership logic to commerce, giving Druski equity in the Philadelphia-based delivery company and a hand in developing exclusive products for his audience. Gopuff didn’t disclose the size of the stake, and the deal runs through his Coulda Been Records and 4LIFERS properties. “We see this as a true creative and commercial partnership,” said Yakir Gola, Gopuff’s co-founder and co-CEO.
Druski still takes traditional sponsorships, including an extended PrizePicks partnership announced in September, so the brand deal check hasn’t gone anywhere. The difference is that his largest deals now run through companies and properties he controls, which leaves him with something to build on after any single contract ends.
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Netflix is pitching itself as the place where creators can scale what they own. “We want the best talent in the world to bring us their most ambitious work, reach new audiences and build their brands,” John Derderian, the Netflix vice president who oversees Next Gen Content, said in the announcement. The streamer has made similar moves with video podcasts from iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports, buying shows that arrived with audiences already built.
The timing puts Druski’s leverage on full display, with “Saturday Night Live” set to make him the first creator whose career started online to host the show on Nov. 7.
The lesson for working creators is in what Druski built before any of these offers arrived, a library of shows, recurring characters and a production company to sign deals through. That gave him something to license and a business partners wanted a piece of, instead of a single fee to negotiate.
Neither Netflix nor Druski has said whether the licensed shows will stay on YouTube, and the answer will show how much leverage owning a catalog really buys.
Expect more top creators to push for licenses and equity over flat fees. That push will work best for the ones who already own what they made.
