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Peter Kafka. That's me. It's powered by digital media that is a real company with an awkward name,

but they're really good. I'm here with Reza Izad, speaking of awkward names. Did I get it correct?

You did. Your company's name is now Studio 71. That's right. I'm going to guess that even some of the most ardent recode media listeners have not heard of Studio 71. So let's describe who you work with, first of all. Sure. In the old days, I would have said you work with YouTube stars. Correct. Like Lily Singh, Roman Atwood, Retton Link, and a number of others. If you are a young person or if you know a young people, you know who these people are, and they work with you, they work for you, you help distribute their videos. So I'll give you the, you want the narrative on how we got here? We'll get there in a second. I just want to set the stage. That's correct. We definitely help enable them to monetize and sort of grow their offering, whether it's with

advertisers, merchandising, and obviously IP has been a big part of our, and creating sort of

intellectual property. Intellectual property has been a big part of our business. When I first

met you, you ran a company called Collective. Correct. Gone through a couple different iterations now.

And I think at one point, we would have called you a MCN, a multi-channel network. That would have been part of your business, but you've expanded beyond that. You're not just YouTube. So we can really sort of talk about the evolution of video because it's kind of the evolution of your business, right? Good. Okay. Now we can begin at the beginning. All right. you, I think you're still in the talent. Very much so. Right. You were still, it was,

there was a company called Collective, and you guys were managing bands? Yeah, so the company started. We were managing a bunch of film and TV, comedians, and obviously, a bunch of musicians, like Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park was the big one. Big one. Enrique Iglesias was another one. We worked for Kanye West for a while. I like you say work for. We definitely work for. When you're a manager, you definitely work for and obviously alongside your clients. Do you want to tell me a good Kanye story? You do, don't you? I do, but I probably shouldn't. Tell me a medium Kanye's story. You can get away with. I don't know if I have like. Since you're no longer in the Kanye business or getting back in here. It would be such a breach because they're pretty inside baseball. But all the things that you guys witness on the public stage, the references to Steve Jobs and all that are definitely a part of what you, you experience

is working with them on a day to day basis. So this is great because on the one hand,

you get to work with the biggest stars in the world. Correct. Um, it's also demanding, right?

Service business and you are servicing them. Correct. And running around and taking care

of their needs. Here was the one difference between us,

I think, then, and our orientation. So our founder was a guy named Michael Green who started a company

called The Firm, which was a very, very large management company in the 90s and early 2000s.

And I think the thesis of the whole company and sort of how we ended up even up even in digital video, was that we believe that disintermediation, the idea that a talented individual could go direct to consumer, was going to allow people like us who built the right infrastructure to sort of step in alongside them and partner with them on their content and other offerings that they may have. Right. This is one of the ideas that people have been talking about. Censor of the internet showed up that stars could eventually create their own businesses and they wouldn't have to go through a record label or a TV network or wherever. And this was a thesis for a long time. It wasn't actually true. Well, now we're kind of getting there. We're definitely getting there. And the thesis may not be true in the recorded music business,

particularly for the large acts, because the majors provide a sense of the biggest value of them all,

which is cash. Right. Even Justin Bieber, who came up through YouTube. Correct. He's on a major label.

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