Technology
From Excel Hell to Automation Heaven: How Aux Mode is Reshaping Content Monetization
“If you can automate a process, you’re going to be able to scale your company a bit quicker,” Adam Rumanek, founder & CEO of Aux Mode, tells Net Influencer during an in-depth discussion about how his company transformed from a digital rights management service into a content monetization technology provider.
Adam noticed a critical moment while watching his skilled developers reluctantly process endless Excel spreadsheets. This observation revealed a significant challenge holding back the entire creator economy: the increasing complexity of tracking and reporting revenue across multiple platforms and formats.
Since 2012, Aux Mode has grown from managing YouTubers’ digital rights to providing automated revenue reporting and content protection for major Hollywood studios, music companies, and content distributors. Adam shares how recognizing the growing complexity of content monetization sparked the company’s leap.
The Scale of the Problem
“Revenue reporting sounds pretty easy,” Adam explains. “You bring in $100; you have a hundred films. Hopefully, you will see which film made what money, and you will allocate your funds to the producers or the financiers.”
However, as platforms introduced additional monetization features – merchandise, super chats, subscription revenue – the complexity multiplied considerably. “The number of reports for revenue per film keeps multiplying. It became a bookkeeper’s nightmare.”
The data complexity has increased substantially with new monetization methods. “When I started, the reports were like megabytes, with two or three files,” Adam notes. “Now they’re terabytes; 1 million rows, 28 columns in 28 reports.”
This increase in data complexity mirrors the broader expansion of revenue streams in the creator economy, leading Adam to an important realization: if skilled developers found this work tedious and error-prone, content creators and their teams faced even greater challenges.
Building the Solution
Instead of accepting this challenge as unavoidable, Adam and his team developed automated solutions. “We started building these little tools at home, in my kitchen… I was just coding,” Adam recalls. The internal efficiency tools developed into a platform merging complex data streams into single, readable files for bookkeepers.
“We figured out how to merge all that data into one readable file for the bookkeeper, and that would be our responsibility,” Adam explains. This became their competitive advantage: “Our secret sauce that makes us stand out from the crowd is we’re able to do that type of revenue reporting for the Aux Mode customers really quick. It definitely gives us an advantage.”
Maximizing Content Value
The data from Aux Mode’s platform has revealed counter-intuitive insights about what drives revenue in digital content. “If you release a TV show like ‘Friends’ on YouTube, it would probably do better than any TV show made in the last four years,” Adam notes. “From a financial perspective, not audience reach, people watch the whole ‘Friends’ video, which creates more revenue. The longer the watch time, the more money you make. It’s not about views, but watch time.”
This insight has particularly significant implications for media companies with extensive back catalogs. Many have historically undervalued their older content on digital platforms. “We’ve seen that type of business model. People come with these archival libraries and like, ‘Oh, I think I’ll do okay.’ And then, how much money’s left on the table that they didn’t do this years ago?”
By tracking detailed performance metrics, Adam believes content owners can identify their most valuable assets – which often turn out to be their classic content libraries – and develop targeted strategies for different platforms and regions.
Protecting Content While Maximizing Revenue
The platform employs sophisticated content protection through what Adam calls a “fingerprint” system. “Say you only own the rights to content in the United States, Canada, or the United Kingdom,” he explains. “We can go public within those regions and block the other regions from seeing it.”
The system provides detailed control options: “We can protect audio only, video only, or audiovisual, which encompasses the entire video.” Yet Adam’s approach considers strategic benefits: “If you’re a marketing company trying to sell a new product and everybody’s stealing it and showing it online how good it is, then maybe you want the whole world to steal it… it’s free marketing as it goes viral.”
“The systems there are intended not to let theft happen. But you can let it happen,” Adam emphasizes. “If you have, maybe, a trailer to a movie and you want it on 50 different YouTube channels, why not let it go out for free? It’s good prior. Also, if it’s music and people are dancing to it, seeing people do different moves from around the world is inspirational. It’s good for the artist.”
Revenue Realities for Content Creators
Drawing from 15 years of experience, Adam provides a sobering perspective on content creation success rates. “It’s 1% of 1% that make money on these social media platforms. Don’t kid yourself,” he states frankly. “People like, ‘Oh, I have a great idea. I should create my own blog, vlog, or YouTube channel.’ It’s a grind. I know many social media influencers with 100k subscribers who make under $100 a month.”
This reality has led successful creators to diversify beyond traditional advertising revenue. “Revenue is not just about ads anymore, which initially was all ads and brand deals,” Adam explains. “You can sell merch… so many good entrepreneurs are social media influencers that have built side businesses that are probably more net profitable than their ad business because their ad business might gross $10 million a year. But after everybody takes their cut, their net’s probably not as high as their side merch.”
Adam suggests that sustainable success in content creation often comes not from platform monetization alone but from building multiple revenue streams and treating content as a foundation for broader business opportunities.
Lessons for Creators and Content Companies
As new platforms and features emerge, AI integration updates and revenue management grows more complex, Adam believes automation is becoming increasingly vital.
His first crucial insight focuses on a genuine interest in content creation. “You have to have a passion for it to do it… If you’re talking about cooking and you’re already cooking the greatest food in the world, make sure you love it because you’ll make nothing for the first couple of years.”
This connects to his perspective on long-term planning. “You will work very hard on your content, upload it to these platforms, and realize nobody’s going to find you,” he explains. “Success isn’t overnight; it takes years.”
Additionally, Adam advocates for strategic content protection, noting that “everybody has their own reasons for wanting to protect it or take it down or block it worldwide or by region.”
Despite these challenges, Adam maintains optimism for new content creators: “It’s evolving so fast. You’re not late… The boat is still at the dock. A lot of people are not online yet. And the ones that are, there’s still a chance they’re gonna find you,” he says, adding that while core success principles remain steady, opportunities continue emerging for those ready to adapt and learn.
The Road Ahead
Looking forward, Aux Mode prioritizes specialization over expansion. “For us as a company, we’re focusing more on being the best of the best on just the YouTube platform,” Adam explains. This approach relies on a broader principle: success comes from exceptional execution of core functions rather than attempting everything.
For professionals in content creation, the message becomes clear: as the industry adds complexity, automation and streamlined operations become essential for growth. As Adam states, “If I see somebody charging $20 a month for something I can code in 48 hours, I’m going to build it and give it away free.”
