Getting paid for a brand deal is still a mess for a lot of creators. Payments come through Venmo, tax forms get lost in DMs, and nobody is quite sure who owns the content once it runs. Now the company that pays most of the celebrities you see in ads wants to fix that. According to Tubefilter, Extreme Reach (XR) has launched XR Pay for Creators, a payroll platform built specifically for creator and brand partnerships.
The company behind celebrity ad paychecks
Tubefilter reports that XR’s payment platform, XR Pay, handles around 80% of all talent payments in the advertising industry, adding up to more than $1.5 billion a year. Founded in 2008, the company has spent close to two decades paying members of SAG-AFTRA and other entertainment unions for their ad work. The new product takes that same system and points it at influencers.
Why XR calls creator pay the “Wild West”
In its announcement posted on Adweek’s wire service, XR says creator ad spending in the U.S. topped $37 billion in 2025 and that 48% of brands now see creators as a “must have” in their marketing. The company argues the money moved faster than the paperwork: brands and agencies often juggle four or five tools, and creators frequently get paid through consumer apps that skip accounts payable, proper onboarding and tax documents.
Frank DeVito, XR Pay’s president and COO, told Tubefilter that agencies and brands kept describing the same problem. “The common theme is that it’s a Wild West in terms of how people get paid,” he said. XR’s CMO, Graham McKenna, added that many creator platforms are “built for discovery,” helping brands find talent, “but they’re not set up to process payments.”
What the platform actually does
XR says XR Pay for Creators puts onboarding, tax verification, contracts, payments, payment status and usage rights in one place. Brands and agencies get updates on deliverables, while creators get updates on incoming payments and a dashboard showing their overall earnings. Tubefilter reports the system can handle anything from a few hundred dollars for a basic social post up to multi-million-dollar union guarantees typical of A-list talent.
“Creators are the new celebrities in advertising, and they deserve the same professional payroll support Hollywood talent has had from their brand partners for decades,” DeVito said in the announcement. Tubefilter notes that XR is one of its partners.
The takeaway
This tool is aimed at brands and agencies, not at fan-subscription income from platforms like OnlyFans or Fansly. But the trend matters for every creator who takes sponsorships: the bigger the deals get, the more brands will expect proper contracts, tax forms and clear usage rights. Creators who already keep their paperwork in order will be the easiest ones to hire.
Image: AI-generated illustration.
