SAG-AFTRA is expanding its reach into the influencer economy.
In late April, the union’s board unanimously voted to establish a new influencer committee, appointing New York-based lifestyle influencer Patrick Janelle as chair.
SAG-AFTRA’s involvement with influencers isn’t new. In 2021, the union introduced an influencer agreement and waiver to cover branded content work—an initiative that thousands of members have used. While that agreement marked a major step forward, it notably excluded original creative content, which remains the core of many creators’ livelihoods.
“It really became clear that if we’re going to continue to expand, and especially outside of the branded content space, we needed to have a formal structure in the union so that members who do this work could come together and give us guidance and leadership,” SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told The Hollywood Reporter.
Online content creation is a fast-growing but still loosely regulated industry. Since 2020, the number of full-time content creators in the U.S. has surged from 200,000 to 1.5 million in 2024, according to Axios. Despite this growth, pay structures and content guidelines vary significantly across platforms—from Instagram Reels to long-form YouTube podcasts. To successfully advocate for creators across the board, the new committee plans to engage voices from all major platforms.
“The goal of this committee is to provide the union with necessary guidance and feedback from the creator’s perspective as SAG-AFTRA continues its efforts to assist creators in their pursuit of stable, safe, sustainable careers,” Janelle posted to LinkedIn. “As a SAG-AFTRA member, I’m honored and excited to be stepping up and representing my fellow creators and the industry at large.”
SAG-AFTRA doesn’t have a clear count of how many of its 160,000 members are influencers, but Crabtree-Ireland points to the 2023 actors strike as a moment of convergence. Influencers found themselves in a gray area, as the union warned that any nonmember who took work with struck companies during the strike would be barred from future membership. Many chose solidarity over a paycheck, something the union now wants to show in return.
“During the theatrical strike, creators of influencers stepped up in big ways to stand by our members on strike,” Crabtree-Ireland told The Hollywood Reporter. “I think that just really cemented for us the obvious connection and nexus there.”
Accedi per aggiungere un commento
Altri post in questo gruppo

Every so often, Microsoft design director Diego Baca boots up an old computer so he can play around with Windows 95 again.
Baca has made a hobby of assembling old PCs with new-in-box vin

Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey is back with a new app that tracks sun exposure and vitamin D levels.
Sun Day uses location-based data to show the current UV index, the day’s high, and add


AI chatbot therapists have made plenty of headlines in recent months—s

The latest version of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok is echoing the views of its

When an emergency happens in Collier County, Florida, the

A gleaming Belle from Beauty and the Beast glided along the exhibition floor at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con adorned in a yellow corseted gown with cascading satin folds. She could bare