So, one thing is to provide such an extraordinary content to get noticed the other is to keep the audience interested and actually convince the affluent one to invest in the talent appearing from the pile of the wannabes. What seems to be a good idea is gathering as many supporters as possible to stress the talent, share the content and keep the buzz around it. Question is - how?
And here we come to the concept of crowd-funding. More and more 'sponsorship' websites come to the picture. Artists share content, gather fans who can support them by making a donation to help them fund for example studio rental. Sounds like a splendid opportunity to start a career, to become something more than just a 'guy with cool YouTube videos'.
There are a couple of issues there though. For starters, you've got to be really convincing to encourage people to give you money so you could kick off nicely. How to sole this problem? Well, it usually works as a two way stream - I give you my $10 you give me your signed picture because who knows, it might be worth a fortune if you actually make it into the fabulous world of flash lights and glitter. The more one donates the more personal prize the artist offers. It usually involves stuff from a personalized letter or a chat on Skype to a piece of art just for the donor. Simple enough, right? Still, try raising up enough to start...
The other thing, however, is that there's a large group of those who simply don't want to get signed or tackled by any wealthy sponsor. And here's the problem with that - can this stream become strong enough to push out labels? Is it possible that in a few decades we won't be worrying about how to stand out to kick off a career in artistic field but what to offer as a barter for funds? Might seem highly unlikely as the labels still hold the power and the fancy image - it's still the matter of how they see us and if they know us. This may be a great solution for the first few steps but in the long run it's still about the power, and since power is money... well, you get the gist.