The Sabrina Carpenter clip that helped a 22-year-old make £120,000 a year

Key points

• Eknoor Singh, a 22-year-old Londoner, earns over £120,000 a year as a professional clipper.
• Clippers make 30-60 second vertical videos from longer content and are paid up to $3 per 1,000 views.
• Experts say most clippers earn little, and success requires watching hours of content.

Eknoor Singh, a 22-year-old from London, earns more than £120,000 a year as a professional "clipper," creating short vertical videos for social media. He says he only needs a mobile phone and a decent internet connection to do the work.

Clippers are paid by clients such as clothing brands, record labels, movie studios, podcasters, and influencers to watch longer videos and turn the best parts into 30 to 60-second clips. These are uploaded to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, or other platforms, with the hope of going viral. Singh says, "The more views a clip gets, the more money I make."

How clipping works

Clippers, typically aged 16 to 25, are believed to understand what will connect with that demographic. They can earn up to $3 (£2.30) per 1,000 views across platforms. Singh got hooked last year after making $300 from a short video of popstar Dua Lipa on Instagram. He now earns at least £10,000 a month. In May last year, he made a clip of Sabrina Carpenter's reaction to having the tails of her dress stepped on at the Met Gala in New York, though he did not reveal the client.

Ethan Weems, a 24-year-old clipper from Wichita, Kansas, makes at least $1,000 a month as a side hustle. He creates short videos for YouTuber and podcaster Caleb Hammer, host of Financial Audit. Weems says clipping lets him work from home and spend time with his wife and one-year-old son, avoiding a typical office job.

I could be anywhere. I could go on holiday and make money.

— Eknoor Singh

Industry cautions and platforms

Social media consultant Lia Haberman cautions that very few clippers make good money. "It mirrors the creator economy more broadly. The vast majority make little to nothing," she says. Streaming analyst Devin Nash warns that success requires watching hours of content. Intermediary websites like Clipping Culture, Vyro, Whop, and Kick connect clippers with clients. Clipping Culture, founded last year by 21-year-old Evan Stanfield, links brands to over 340,000 clippers worldwide. Stanfield says short videos are popular because "People's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter."