How YouTube's Copyright System Created a $1B Opportunity

In this episode of The Future of Consumer Marketing, host Andres Figueira interviews Paul Sampson, CEO and Co-Founder of Lickd. Lickd revolutionized content creation by building the world's first mainstream music licensing platform for creators, solving a critical problem that forced millions of YouTube creators to choose between using popular music and monetizing their content. Starting without any major label partnerships in 2016, Paul navigated the complex music industry landscape to eventually secure deals with Universal, BMG, and the top six publishers globally. Through data-driven insights showing 30-150% engagement increases when creators use mainstream music versus stock alternatives, Lickd has grown to serve everyone from emerging creators to MrBeast, while expanding into B2B solutions for major brands like Nike and L'Oreal. Topics Discussed: Building a licensing platform that bypasses YouTube's copyright detection system Navigating the complex web of music rights holders and publishers Identifying the right customer segments in creator economy marketing Scaling from independent labels to major music industry partnerships Using engagement data to prove product-market fit Expanding from B2C creator tools to B2B brand solutions