Courtney Holt, Former MySpace Music President, Named COO of Maker Studios

3:27 PM PDT 10/31/2011 by Glenn Peoples

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The Venice, California-based media company makes original video content for YouTube and boasts more than 33 million subscribers across 250 channels.

Maker Studios announced Monday that Courtney Holt, the former president of MySpace Music, has joined as chief operating officer. In this newly created role, Holt will be responsible for overseeing the growth and development of the Maker Studios brand, advertising models, strategy and operations.

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Maker Studios is a Venice, California-based media company that makes original video content for YouTube. It boasts more than 33 million subscribers and 500 million views online per month on more than 250 channels. ComScore ranked Maker Studios at No. 4 on its list of top YouTube partners channels in September. The company's 9 million unique U.S. viewers ranked behind only Vevo, Warner Music Group and Machinima. The company has raised $4 million in funding from Greycroft Partners and GRP partners.

Holt takes over the COO role as Maker is partnering with YouTube to create a next generation of the television business. As a part of YouTube's push for original programming that was announced last week, Maker will be launching new channels focused on programming for music -- called the Maker Music Network -- Hispanic viewers and moms. Other professional programming will come from digital studios such as Electus and Vice, mainstream news brands The Wall Street Journal and Thomson Reuters, music promoter The Bowery Presents and wrestling company WWE.

Holt's departure from MySpace was announced in February. A transitional process was to begin in March and be completed by June. According to Holt's LinkedIn page, he began an advisory role at Mypsace parent company's News Corp.'s digital division since February. The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD blog reported in June that Holt was set to join Maker as an advisor over the summer.

Hours after the Halloween day announcement, a photo was posted on the Maker Facebook page captioned "Maker's new COO Courtney Holt (@Mootron) addresses the troops..."