2021 | MotoAmerica | General Discussion

Gray did Kyle’s YouTube series too

 

most stuff you see on racers ig are done in his style, the ma videos included. f that they should offer him a job

 

Maybe he started selling the on track stuff, which I heard is a no no. I did see something other then MA on some of the videos if remember right. I don't think any other pro series allows that.

 

Possibly

 

His content is great for the sport. I don’t the specifics but MA would be wise to listen to their fans. Tons of us look forward to his in depth videos, backstage interviews and cool content. If it’s a branding situation, figure it out. WSBK and EWC figured it out..


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he shoots content for WSBK so MA should be thankful he's there to give them free promotion. Who cares if hes selling services to the racers.. they gonna go after superlex next?

 

Superlex is awesome. I've not seen his WSBK stuff other then from testing. Has he been doing race stuff too?

 

I don’t think he’s hired by WSBK or anything to make content, though. Not sure how his revenue stream really works, tbh.

 

Not sure what MotoAmerica’s policy is, but all series with tv deals, taking and selling video is prohibited from non spectator areas.

I’ve been in media pens where the deal is, you can take a video for personal use, but you can’t for commercial reasons. Other ones say you can take a video of yourself or of the track between sessions, but not of the cars / bikes moving on track. In IMSA, they have all sorts of rules on print media too (ie: you can’t freelance and then make posters to sell). American Flat Track they tell you if they see you taking video on your phone of the on track action, you’re gone. Most series say the same.

I think Gray was freelancing. So if he wasn’t working for someone, he was shooting video, editing, and hoping people buy it. His videos are cool, not really into the music, but MotoAmerica is about as loose as media gets, so he’s not going to have much luck doing what he does elsewhere.

My guess is:
1) One of their tv deals or w/e gives ownership of on track content to that entity. 2) Gray pissed / was annoying someone, either in MA’s staff, a sponsor, or a team
3) the music has copyrights, their owners came to MA, MA said he’s not our guy, copyright owners told them to pay up or make it disappear, and it forced their hand
4) a combination of the above


MA is one of the few, if only, professional series that they give some freedom to freelancers, but it’s still tread lightly (ie: try to stay out of Brian J’s way as he is the series photog) and don’t harass teams to buy your stuff. Everywhere else, you have to be there for a team or a media outlet, and there are restrictions on what you can share.

People have tried to get around these rules by creating their own media outlet via a website or blog, but most professional series have clamped down on that. Like you need a letter from a copy editor and the media outlet has to be verified as like a legitimate outlet, and that’s still not a guarantee.

The last thing is there is no money in motorsports photography, from motorcycles up through IMSA and beyond. You can get really great (and sometimes better) shots from spectator areas, no one wants to pay, tons of fans willing to give up their content for free, etc. Most race weekends in all series are money losers and break even at best for 98% of the photogs out there.

 

I honestly thought he had a deal with them for it to go on this long. Sanctioning bodies usually nip it immediately.

 

Most series charge for commercial video rights. I think Dorna it’s like $6k + for like a practice session and paddock, and there are all sorts of t’s & c’s, and they are still very picky who can even do that (like a local news station).

 

Like you said motoamerica is about as free and loose as possible, it's probably not a coincidence that once his followers numbers went up he got told to take it down.

 

Well, MotoAmerica has also been trying to score tv and corporate contracts left and right. Video is big $$$.
If he tried that at an IMSA race they would probably ban him for life.

 

Gray is my dude and I speak with him here and there about music and shooting film. I am guessing the culmination of this all was Michael Hill saying lets do this "Gray Pham style" as he hopped over a rope on live plus. Mongo is spot on, its their intellectual property and they can drop the ban hammer as they see fit. Honestly tho, this kid is an ex racer who is driving a different type of viewer/ consumer to MotoAmerica, they are just hurting themselves on this one. He is one of the best at this. I also feel bad for him, he is friends with 99% of the paddock and has a serious love for the sport.

 

If you look at Grays posts from last year compared to this year he didn't have his name plastered all over the videos like he does now. Most of MA video content is clean, aside from the MA logo. I wonder if that had anything to do with the issue they are having.

 

How dare he self promote his hard work and talent!

But really all sarcasm aside I can see both sides of this argument, however overall I think it’s a poor business move on their part. Hire him as a contractor and be easily done with it.

Vetting music is a pain but it’s 2021 and the artists themselves for the most part still can’t bless their own free usage. It’s an antiquated system.