Why Credit is Invaluable To Creative Talents

As a creative of any kind, what drives you? Is it money? Is it fame? Is it the satisfaction of growing and perfecting your craft over time? Is it to change the world? Whatever the motive may be of why you do what you do, one thing is for certain and that is how credit is invaluable. Let me explain why. Regardless of whatever field you may be in professionally, networking and connections are two of the most important ingredients when it comes to your recipe of landing a better job or for a creative, a better gig. This may mean working with a bigger name company or musical artist for example. But, along with those two crucial factors comes something else. Something that nowadays, especially for creative professionals, is the most important piece of your creative resume: credits.

Credits are the most vital part of a creative professionals career when it comes to getting bigger and bigger. Credits are invaluable in the aspect that they can take you places that no other piece of your resume can take you. Picture if you just a freelance videographer on YouTube and you made content for yourself and a few other small, local clients. When you go to look for a bigger gig, the first thing people look at, usually before they even look at your content, is who you’ve worked with aka credits. These credits are the “trust factor” before they even consider hiring you. If they’ve seen that you’ve worked with someone they trust or have worked with, it’s almost an instant gratification to allow them to work with you. On the other side of that, say you somehow land a commercial as the video producer for Pepsi, having Pepsi as a credit in your portfolio is something that will keep you getting jobs for months upon months to come because of the status of that one single credit.

By stating the obvious there, a lot of creatives should be putting themselves out there to bigger name companies, influencers, vloggers and musical artists to start creating content for free. “Hold up, did they say free?!” Yes, you heard us right. Picture if that creative in the above example with Pepsi did that one gig for free. That would have easily been the highest paid gig of their career to date, however the ripple effect of that one credit will far surpass the monetary value of that one gig by getting you future jobs in the months or years to come. Credits are invaluable in the fact that they speak for your work from voices bigger than even your content can portray.

There is one general problem that lies with credits in the creative world today. There is typically no good place for credits to be displayed for a creative or the client flat out just doesn't give them the proper credit they deserve. Take this music video for example. It has the most views on YouTube EVER.

Let's take a look at the description to see who they have listed as the contributors to the content.

Could you imagine what those credits would have done for those creatives on there being part of the BIGGEST video of all time?

We would love to hear your thoughts. What is your take on credit and would you work for free just to get the credits of some amazing clients? Keep bilding, everyone!

‍