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You can also make direct 'superchat' payments on YT (forget what they are called) which some generously make. I can confirm I receive these monies directly and in full, less the usual taxes.
Originally Posted by jazzloverfat
As a so-called 'YouTube Partner', the platform does provide me with numbers. If YouTube is being honest (!) about the advertiser side then I don't think that's entirely acrimonious. It's a vastly better rate even if they aren't being honest. I don't use Spotify for this reason - as a musician working within a small niche I don't see the point quite honestly. This isn't the case with YT.
It's a bit of a vicious cycle because people avoiding adverts mean YouTube puts more adverts on meaning the vanilla free platform has become less and less usable. In the end I had enough residual goodwill towards the platform to be up for paying for it. I haven't regretted this decision as the experience is a million times better.
It's a platform with many issues - and I do feel that content is slipping downhill somewhat compared to ten years or so ago, but a lot of these are second order effects or the influence of wider societal trends such as 'AI' and social media platforms like TikTok. I also feel the constant drive to professionalism and a narrow type of content is kind of encouraged by YouTube as well. Their 'research' tools suggest trending topics etc, so that may be why you see a lot of similar content appear at the same time. This IMO is having a negative effect on the content produced, see the Giacomo Turra thing recently which generated a lot of commentary even from people like Adam Neely. But it's complex.
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07-01-2025 07:06 AM
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"Tim Berners-Lee didn’t patent his invention or seek profit. Instead, he gave it to the world — for free. His vision of a free and open internet remains at the core of the web’s philosophy today."
Has everyone forgotten the original philosophy?
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Anyone with the requisite skills can still publish anything on the internet for free, or close. An internet connection isn't free, but it's not necessarily expensive. There are open source tools for setting up a website, and once that's done anything can be posted on that website. Getting anyone else to visit the site may not be the easiest thing in the world, though. Everybody knows about YouTube and other popular sites, but no one knows about most personal sites. If you want your efforts to be seen, you need to put it on a site that gets lots of visitors. YouTube provides an outlet for no upfront money, but it's not done for the benefit of mankind, rather for the benefit of Google's bottom line. If it doesn't make money, it doesn't get done. That's basic capitalism.
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" If it doesn't make money, it doesn't get done. That's basic capitalism."
it is not that simple anymore.
I can only assume that there is a huuuuuuge pile of stuff that I'd be interested in. That huge pile, hidden in a corner somewhere. Not even a pile. And not in a corner. Just some scattered heaps here and there.
YT seems to be considering that a targetted pile earns the most - nope! . I hope that they will figure it out - for everybody's sake.
Once this happens - the figuring out - we all will be swimming in honey. And money.
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YouTube has a usable search function, so it's not that hard to find what you're looking for. But presenting viewers with things similar to what they've been watching has proven to be a lucrative road to increased viewing. I think they've figured it out - they've had plenty of time. I'm pretty sure they know what earns the most.
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The Web has changed into very advanced Social Conditioning. Originally Posted by sgosnell
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The internet developed into what it is today because a great many people decided not to act like economically rational actors.
Which need not surprise us, because people by and large don't.
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Either that or our economic system is fundamentally irrational. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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Of course it's irrational. Originally Posted by James W
I mean I do sort of question whether or not it's a system.
That's a complicated subject lol.
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There are various economic philosophies, and some are more realistic than others. In the social sciences, where you're dealing with human nature, reasonable ideas can be quite difficult to put into practice. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times And Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers - Amazon.com
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True, economics is a social science that historically has liked to cosplay as a STEM subject. Originally Posted by Mick-7
That's created all sorts of issues, but for some it may be more a feature than a bug, if you catch my drift.Last edited by Christian Miller; 07-03-2025 at 07:18 AM.
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Maybe there isn't that much stuff you'd be interested in. Making content takes a lot of effort, and that's means only a small percentage of people in an already small field might be up for doing it. Also it takes time for most people to learn how to make good videos. Originally Posted by emanresu
OTOH someone who chooses YouTube as a career is going to want to get the views, so will probably become more mainstream over time in terms of the topics they choose, including hopping on the latest trend.
I'm told that it's a common misconception that YouTube only pushes content it wants to push. In fact it selects content based on your engagement with similar content. So if you watch a lot of wrestling content, for instance, you will be recommended more wrestling content. If I do a search for 'the semiotics of supermarkets' I'm gong to get some seriously small channels haha. This tracks because I am recommended channels that are small and extremely niche all the time.
In fact, it has a vested interest in matching viewers with content they like, because this drives longer watch times and consequently greater advertising revenue, and there's a lot of money to be made in the long tail, so to speak, of many small channels over many viewers as well as the few big channels (and for the smallest unmonetised channels they don’t have to pay).
In truth there aren't that many people in any given niche making content. Hardcore jazz guitar YouTube isn't very big for example, and to grow beyond a certain size (I make it about 50K-100K subs) you need to make content that has wider appeal. Of course many give up before they get that far. (The flip side is that making it into a job also invites burnout.)
So you can appeal to newbies to jazz (Jens Larsen, Sandra Sherman), make more general guitar content (Rotem Sivan), or maybe slip over a little into the Guthrie Govanoid instrumental rock sphere (like Robbie Barnby seems to be). Or the gear thing, which is the biggest sector of guitar YouTube.
There's just not that many channels because there's not really that much demand. But I value those who make niche content as a labour of love - Gil Evans Inside Out springs to mind (great channel.) Musicians love these types of channels, but they probably won't have much crossover appeal. Sometimes a niche hits a big audience unexpectedly (Chris Spargo recently did rather well out of the semiotics of supermarkets now that I think of it), but I think these sorts of channels will stay small.Last edited by Christian Miller; 07-03-2025 at 08:21 AM.
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The infamous "PageRank Algorithm" Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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It works I think. Originally Posted by GuyBoden
A lot of the people complaining about lack of views make crap, generic videos that imitate other stuff they’ve seen, to be brutally honest. I do think YT rewards people who appeal to like minds, at least at the outset.
So initially, be niche but engaging. Make videos about something you are passionate about.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Having had a little experience in the digital content space, I've never seen how it's all that different from traditional media from the creator's point of view. Work hard, be good, get lucky, and you might be able to make a living at it!
The big challenge right now is actually finding something "good" to do online - with respect to people whose videos I like, there exists no artistic tradition of social media posts, only a set of cliches taken from film, TV and (especially) advertising which tend to be applied by people who either know too little or too much about those fields to make something valuable within the medium. But we're only in like phase 8/30 in my opinion, so give it time!
Think of all the terrible terrible hour-long dish soap ads AKA "shows" that millions of people were watching when TV first came onto the scene. Think of the ugly, stained souls that had to write for the Bing Crosby Dairy Maid Super-ganza no. 1127
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At least if you dl something something you like, the ads don't appear on the dl.
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