Is there a war brewing with youtubers?

[Diddums]

In recent months there has been a steady increase in the amount of whingefests from Youtubers about demonetization of their videos.

Youtube, and Google as a whole, is an incredibly nasty company to deal with as a creator. I know this because I used to have a few of their products and they will suddenly close your account with no warning, no appeal and no explanation. Just close the tap and that's that, game over. It is their right to do so, something I've always been aware of which is why I never put any eggs beyond beer tokens in that basket.

Others however have their entire livelihood revolve around Google and when someone decides to go through your channel and demonetize loads of your content you lose a huge chunk of your income overnight with no explanation and no backup, and people are getting fed up.

The two sides on this fight are the creators and Google. I can see it from both perspectives so it's going to be an interesting one. On one hand the money from Youtube, in my opinion, should never be considered more than a bonus, yet people have their entire lives dependent on it, and why not? Some people are making a good living out of it. Yet some have taken it a step further and are claiming it's their right to receive this money and that's where they screw up imo.

It might fizzle out completely, it might explode an make Google change their ways, only time will tell.

What a time to be alive eh?

EDIT: Removed the Sony thing as people are fixating on it. This video explains the problem rather well:

This is the part I removed:

Spoiler: Spoiler

Sony in particular has been copyright claiming videos with single digit seconds worth of their music in them which means that they get the revenue from that video and not the content creator who made it. I'm with the youtubers on this one, granted Sony should get a little slice as it is their music but the creators should get the majority.

 

[robfosters]

There’s plenty of royalty free sound and music libraries out there now. There’s no need to infringe any copyrights.

 

[AhhBisto]

There’s plenty of royalty free sound and music libraries out there now. There’s no need to infringe any copyrights.

Tell that to the you tubers that got copyright strikes for their own music

 

[Dup]

There’s plenty of royalty free sound and music libraries out there now. There’s no need to infringe any copyrights.

This pretty much. It's the same for all media outlets, so why should this be any different? Seek out appropriate permission or don't use it. It's just being lazy and trying tp spend nothing/little as possible. MCM guys produce their own music and re-use it often.

YouTube isn't just "content creators", anyone can upload something to distribute malitiously/illegally and therefore they have a duty to protect the interests of the genuine copyright owner who may or may not use the platform. If they don't, Google themselves could face huge fines and their site could legally be taken down then nobody has anything. They will be under huge pressure from bug publishers like Sony who obviously have only their own interest at heart. It's not Google who is the enemy here. Given the millions that use the platform, a human process is hardly ideal and so it's going to make mistakes but the rules are clear though, and I can't see why it's so difficult to follow.

 

[Diddums]

That was just an example, it's a hell of a lot more complicated than that.

 

[Diddums]

There’s plenty of royalty free sound and music libraries out there now. There’s no need to infringe any copyrights.

Tell that to the you tubers that got copyright strikes for their own music

This pretty much. It's the same for all media outlets, so why should this be any different? Seek out appropriate permission or don't use it. It's just being lazy and trying tp spend nothing/little as possible. MCM guys produce their own music and re-use it often.

YouTube isn't just "content creators", anyone can upload something to distribute malitiously/illegally and therefore they have a duty to protect the interests of the genuine copyright owner who may or may not use the platform. If they don't, Google themselves could face huge fines and their site could legally be taken down then nobody has anything. They will be under huge pressure from bug publishers like Sony who obviously have only their own interest at heart. It's not Google who is the enemy here. Given the millions that use the platform, a human process is hardly ideal and so it's going to make mistakes but the rules are clear though, and I can't see why it's so difficult to follow.

I removed the Sony bit from the post and spoilered it at the bottom as it was merely an example of a wider problem, not the reason for it, just to clarify this

 

[Semple]

Others however have their entire livelihood revolve around Google and when someone decides to go through your channel and demonetize loads of your content you lose a huge chunk of your income overnight with no explanation and no backup, and people are getting fed up.

Tough **** i say, or get a real job.

Frankly this happens in every part of our capitalist society.

Company decides they're either paying their workforce too much, or there's not enough demand for their product, cue up a load of redundancies.

Some youtubers have made a fortune out of producing videos, they must have realised they're unlikely to sustain that revenue stream for a long period of time. It's no different than a footballer really, those earning several £X00'000 a week know that they're not going to be earning that salary in their 40's and 50's. Ergo their agents line up other ways of making/investing their money to last for their lifetimes.

For the rest of us normal people, we've gotta work normal jobs until we can afford to retire, but in general you earn a steady income until you retire.

 

[Diddums]

Tough **** i say, or get a real job.

Frankly this happens in every part of our capitalist society.

Company decides they're either paying their workforce too much, or there's not enough demand for their product, cue up a load of redundancies.

Some youtubers have made a fortune out of producing videos, they must have realised they're unlikely to sustain that revenue stream for a long period of time. It's no different than a footballer really, those earning several £X00'000 a week know that they're not going to be earning that salary in their 40's and 50's. Ergo their agents line up other ways of making/investing their money to last for their lifetimes.

For the rest of us normal people, we've gotta work normal jobs until we can afford to retire, but in general you earn a steady income until you retire.

I agree, to a point. The way I see it as working is that you create a video, you hand it to Youtube who then reward you for it. It's no guaranteed income, there's no contract, it's literally charity. Except many youtubers do rely on it, and I can see why, it's a decent income. It's a rather tricky one as I can see both angles. That said, I became aware of this situation many years ago when I had an Adsense account banned with no reason, no explanation and no appeal. One day it was earning money, the next it was gone. It was barely loose change so it was of no consequence to me but it certainly showed me how relentless and uncooperative Google is, which is why I've since stopped making videos and creating content because that revenue simply can't be relied upon.

 

[LuckyBenski]

Haven't watched the videos yet but I believe LTT/Linus have started their own platform for the inevitable time when YouTube policies **** the bed and start screwing people over. They're encouraging other creators to join too.

Of course I haven't checked it out (it's called Floatplane) yet because YouTube is embedded into my TV, phones and internets

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

YouTube have to be careful, they are creating an undercurrent of discontent that will mean that there is an opportunity for a new platform to steal a lot of angry headline creators away from the old master and disrupt their lead in the market.
Look at twitch, Ninja just jumped ship to the MS platform and his following are heading over too.

 

[Jokester]

Is the big corporations trying to stifle legitimate review/critique of their product, or just stopping other people profiting directly from it?

 

[Kenai]

MCM guys produce their own music

They're music industry professionals though, their jobs are music production

 

[Diddums]

Is the big corporations trying to stifle legitimate review/critique of their product, or just stopping other people profiting directly from it?

I can only go on suspicion because they are ridiculously secretive about it all but I'm leaning more towards the latter.

 

[Diddums]

YouTube have to be careful, they are creating an undercurrent of discontent that will mean that there is an opportunity for a new platform to steal a lot of angry headline creators away from the old master and disrupt their lead in the market.
Look at twitch, Ninja just jumped ship to the MS platform and his following are heading over too.

Exactly. The problem they're creating is that the only reason people are using it is because there are no alternatives which offer the same amount of exposure, not because they want to use it. Once a good alternative is offered with similar revenue and ease of use people will flock to it. It won't take much, that's for sure. Youtube will collapse like a house of cards.

 

[Kenai]

They also seem to be demonetising a lot of 'content compilers' too, the people who dredge up content created by others and then 'react' to it. That I think is fair enough, as they're really contributing very little and depriving the original creators of potential views / revenue.

 

[Diddums]

They also seem to be demonetising a lot of 'content compilers' too, the people who dredge up content created by others and then 'react' to it. That I think is fair enough, as they're really contributing very little and depriving the original creators of potential views / revenue.

Reaction videos are the dumbest thing I've seen in ages, who the hell watches this claptrap? If you're over 12 years old and watch reaction videos then you need to have a rest and take stock of where it all went wrong in your life.

 

[dowie]

Reaction videos are the dumbest thing I've seen in ages, who the hell watches this claptrap? If you're over 12 years old and watch reaction videos then you need to have a rest and take stock of where it all went wrong in your life.

I remember seeing these things... stuff like "American watches British TV shows" or "Black guy watches Freddy Mercury for the first time" etc..

And the people had entire channels dedicated to it... the American guy just kept on posting videos of him watching UK TV shows and then making inane commentary about it....

 

[=XDC=FluphyBunny]

You seems determined to **** off a large number of their content creators. Anything gun related relies third party platforms. And yet some of content that breaks their policies just slips by and is never touched!

 

[Andrew_McP]

I think the problem for all 'creators' (so many create nothing more than attention seeking behaviour) is that as the algorithms and data mining improves, advertisers and Google/Facebook are going to be able to make more and more accurate measurements of the connection between advertising spend and revenue gained. I suspect this explains why things have started to get squeezed and will continue to do so. If your volunteer workforce is infinitely large (being a YouTuber appears to be a major life goal for many youngsters now) then wages will ultimately become infinitely low.

I strongly agree with...

Frankly this happens in every part of our capitalist society.

I'm not saying that I'm not jealous of anyone who's made a chunk out of Facebook/Google in recent years, but if I was one of them I'd have been salting away as much of that income as possible, because it was always possible that you'd wake up one morning and everything would have changed.

Reaction videos are the dumbest thing I've seen in ages

I really want to agree with you, because that's my natural reaction too. But isn't much of human interaction along the same lines? What we're doing here in this thread is pretty much watching each other react to a bit of news. We're looking to find people who agree with us, or make us think a bit differently (what, on the internet?) or just to disagree strongly and leave a shirty comment.

I hate myself for even making that point though. I'm hoping someone reacts with a good reason why I'm wrong.

 

[Diddums]

I think the problem for all 'creators' (so many create nothing more than attention seeking behaviour) is that as the algorithms and data mining improves, advertisers and Google/Facebook are going to be able to make more and more accurate measurements of the connection between advertising spend and revenue gained. I suspect this explains why things have started to get squeezed and will continue to do so. If your volunteer workforce is infinitely large (being a YouTuber appears to be a major life goal for many youngsters now) then wages will ultimately become infinitely low.

I strongly agree with...


I'm not saying that I'm not jealous of anyone who's made a chunk out of Facebook/Google in recent years, but if I was one of them I'd have been salting away as much of that income as possible, because it was always possible that you'd wake up one morning and everything would have changed.


I really want to agree with you, because that's my natural reaction too. But isn't much of human interaction along the same lines? What we're doing here in this thread is pretty much watching each other react to a bit of news. We're looking to find people who agree with us, or make us think a bit differently (what, on the internet?) or just to disagree strongly and leave a shirty comment.

I hate myself for even making that point though. I'm hoping someone reacts with a good reason why I'm wrong.

The difference is that we're discussing it, whereas reaction videos are one sided and offer no mental stimulation

(I hope that's done it!)