Monetizing passions, scaling marketplaces, and stories from a creator economy vet | Camille Hearst (Spotify, Patreon, Apple, YouTube)
Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career
Lenny Rachitsky
5.0 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2023
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Camille Hearst is Head of Fan Monetization at Spotify, where she finds new ways for fans to connect and for artists to monetize. Previously she was Head of Product for Creators at Patreon, Product Marketing Manager at YouTube, the second Product Manager at iTunes, and VP of Product at Hailo. She also co-founded a company called Kit, which was acquired by Patreon in 2018. In today’s podcast, we discuss:
• Advice on building a successful career as a creator
• Her take on the future of the creator economy
• The best and worst parts of building products for music artists
• What Apple product teams do differently
• The story of meeting Steve Jobs
• Advice for founders going through acquisitions
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/monetizing-passions-scaling-marketplaces-and-stories-from-a-creator-economy-vet-camille-hearst/
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Where to find Camille Hearst:
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/camillionz
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chearst/
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Camille’s background
(04:24) Camille’s role as Head of Fan Monetization at Spotify
(07:40) The best and worst parts of working with artists
(14:15) Trends in the content creation world
(19:29) Advice on building a successful career as a creator
(21:32) The importance of content curators
(22:30) Camille’s startup, Kit
(24:49) Advice on selling your startup
(28:28) The supply side of marketplaces
(34:37) How Camille became the second PM at iTunes
(35:43) The story of meeting Steve Jobs
(43:01) Apple’s style of product management
(45:54) Opportunities on the platform side of content creation
(48:34) Camille’s early years growing up in a creative tech family
(53:45) Favorite frameworks
(52:32) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Adam Fishman on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-build-a-high-performing-growth-team-adam-fishman-patreon-lyft-imperfect-foods/
• The Federal Reserve says Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour boosted the economy. One market research firm estimates she could add $5 billion: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/taylor-swift-eras-tour-boosted-economy-tourism-federal-reserve-how-much-money-made/
• Yelp coins the “Beyoncé bump” for the economic halo created by the pop star’s Renaissance Tour: https://fortune.com/2023/07/19/beyonce-renaissance-tour-economic-impact/
• Lenny Bot: https://www.lennybot.com/
• YouTube streamer faces riot charge after Union Square Park erupts in chaos: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/04/nyregion/union-square-kai-cenat-twitch-giveaway.html
• Michelle Phan on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MICHELLEPHA
• Rover: https://www.rover.com/
• Airbnb’s product management shift: the view from product leaders: https://www.mindtheproduct.com/airbnbs-product-management-shift-the-viewpoint-of-product-leaders/#
• Hiroki Asai on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiroki-asai-a44137110/
• The Really Good Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-really-good-podcast/id1697794816
• Nichiren Buddhism: https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/subdivisions/nichiren_1.shtml
• What’s Love Got to Do with It on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/movie/whats-love-got-to-do-with-it-f996a307-ee91-4550-8829-3694f55e0189
• Marty Cagan on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-nature-of-product-marty-cagan-silicon-valley-product-group/
• Why you should eat the frog first: https://asana.com/resources/eat-the-frog
• Draw the owl: https://review.firstround.com/draw-the-owl-and-other-company-values-you-didnt-know-you-should-have
• The Three-Body Problem: https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032
• Kindred: https://www.amazon.com/Kindred-Octavia-Butler/dp/0807083690
• A Wrinkle in Time: https://www.amazon.com/Wrinkle-Time-Quintet/dp/0312367546/
• Foundation on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/foundation/umc.cmc.5983fipzqbicvrve6jdfep4x3
• Battlestar Galactica on SyFy: https://www.syfy.com/battlestar-galactica
• Hijack on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/hijack/umc.cmc.1dg08zn0g3zx52hs8npoj5qe3
• Shadow and Bone on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80236319
• Afrobeats playlist on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37i9dQZF1EQqFPe2ux3rbj
• “Calm Down” by Rema on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/37iaWiKMa9YBbEDlw5c3Qh
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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | though Steve Jobs's lore was that if you were in an elevator with him, |
| 0:04.7 | you better be prepared to talk about what you do at the company |
| 0:08.0 | because he had a habit of getting an elevator and looking at you and saying, |
| 0:11.8 | what do you do? What do you do here? And there were also rumors that people had not given him a good answer that ended up being their last day at Apple. So there was someone I who I didn't know personally but worked in my |
| 0:27.2 | department before I got there who got in an elevator and looked up and Steve was approaching him and so he went to press the button to open the door and accidentally pressed the one to close the door and it's like doing this press you can't see me if you're listening |
| 0:46.7 | on podcast but like frantically pressing the button trying to open the door but |
| 0:50.6 | accidentally pressing the closed door button and the elevator going to its destination and apparently he got off and just bolted like straight up ran down the hallway. |
| 1:00.0 | I'll never remember my face. Yeah, exactly. |
| 1:03.0 | It disappear. |
| 1:04.0 | Welcome to Lenny's podcast where I interview world-class product leaders and growth experts |
| 1:11.0 | to learn from their hard-won experiences building and growing today's most successful products. |
| 1:15.5 | Today my guest is Camille Hurst. |
| 1:18.0 | Camille is head of fan monetization at Spotify. |
| 1:21.0 | Before that she was head of product product of product-of- product for creators of Patreon. She was |
| 1:23.9 | Product Marketing Manager at YouTube and the second PM on iTunes. She's also a former |
| 1:28.4 | founder. She started a company called Kit that she sold to Patreon. And this episode is for anyone who's curious about the |
| 1:34.4 | creator space, either from the creator side or the platform side. Or if you just like to |
| 1:39.3 | hear a bunch of fun stories from an awesome product leader. We chat about the future of Creator platforms, |
| 1:44.7 | how to be successful as a Creator and also |
| 1:46.8 | as a new Creator platform, the downsides of Creator life, |
| 1:50.3 | plus frameworks, stories from Steve Jobs, ways to monetize being a creator, and so much more. |
| 1:56.0 | Enjoy this episode with Camille Hurst after a short word from our sponsors. |
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