YouTube Offering Ad-Free Paid Subscriptions

[FAST6191]

I see weatmod has upgraded to foil lined bunker.

I understand many others DO in fact use youtube to make a living. Some of the super popular youtubers actually make enough to live off of on youtube alone, but the very fact that their able to achieve this without the need for paid subscriptions tells me, that said subscriptions are completely unnecessary to support content creators.

There may be some that do but I see plenty more linking up an online patron type service, donate buttons or (they used to) have sponsored messages outside the youtube system. To that end there is scope for google to do something.

 

[Ericzander]

Youtube did this because even youtubers themselves suggest their audience to keep using ad-block but supporting them through patreon instead, which is better for them.

You mean a very small percentage of YouTubers say that. Like, not even enough to justify. I'm thinking about it and it seems like the people who would say that are one of three YouTubers. LPers who don't get ad revenue from some games (if you make a LP of many first party Nintendo games you don't get that ad revenue). People who don't get enough views to even justify monitizing their videos (Google only pays if you have more than $100 earned). Or other people who make videos that otherwise can't receive ad revenue from them... Like maybe Team Four Star with DBZ Abridged (as an example). So they say "use AdBlock and just support me via PayPal."

For nearly everyone else this won't work. Big or small. Lets take say Nigahiga for another example. He makes buttloads on YouTube (and pays a ton of taxes on it to boot). Whether or not you like him, he posts videos often that his fans enjoy. If you take away the ad revenue, his lifestyle is going to dramatically change. Yes he has a big following but how many of his fans do you think will willingly give him in donations. You're crazy if you think it'll even come close to what he's making now.

This next point isn't a humblebrag btw, but I'm going to use myself as an example. I have about 5.4k subscribers and 1.5m views across my 90 videos. I'm not too big, I'm not too small. Along with some of my bigger videos I put a link to my PayPal saying that if they want, they can throw any amount at it to support me. The videos that I post this on get at least 50k views. I started posting that link in I think May of 2014. Since then I've gotten 2 people to donate. One donated 20CAD and one donated $5. In both cases it was because I spent lots of time troubleshooting technical issues with them (I make tutorials). I'm not complaining, that's honestly $25 more than I expected and I made sure to reach out to both of them and I became pretty good friends with one. I don't care about the money made via donations. The point I'm trying to make is that if every single user used Ad Block, or Google remove ads altogether, my YouTube income drops down to $25 a year. See how that would affect some people?

And just one last point to prematurely defend myself from the backlash I'm probably going to get. I started uploading videos fairly regularly in May 2011. I didn't start monitizing until September 2013 and I forgot about it. It wasn't until March 2014 that I remembered and got my first payment. I didn't start my channel with the thoughts of making money and I don't want to come across as greedy and entitled. I'm an unemployed and engaged college student using this money entirely to pay off loans early. Would not being monitized stop me from making videos? Hell no. Would it severely cripple my life style? Certainly.

 

[Deleted User]

I can't wait to give some neckbeard playing nes games some of my cash that I earned doing something productive.

 

[Nightwish]

I can't wait to give some neckbeard playing nes games some of my cash that I earned doing something productive.

Right, because making entertainment is not productive, only doing boring mundane things everyday.

 

[DaFixer]

I don't want to pay, so I stick with AbBlock plus yep i'm a pirate

 

[Steena]

You mean a very small percentage of YouTubers say that. Like, not even enough to justify. I'm thinking about it and it seems like the people who would say that are one of three YouTubers. LPers who don't get ad revenue from some games (if you make a LP of many first party Nintendo games you don't get that ad revenue). People who don't get enough views to even justify monitizing their videos (Google only pays if you have more than $100 earned). Or other people who make videos that otherwise can't receive ad revenue from them... Like maybe Team Four Star with DBZ Abridged (as an example). So they say "use AdBlock and just support me via PayPal."

For nearly everyone else this won't work. Big or small. Lets take say Nigahiga for another example. He makes buttloads on YouTube (and pays a ton of taxes on it to boot). Whether or not you like him, he posts videos often that his fans enjoy. If you take away the ad revenue, his lifestyle is going to dramatically change. Yes he has a big following but how many of his fans do you think will willingly give him in donations. You're crazy if you think it'll even come close to what he's making now.

This next point isn't a humblebrag btw, but I'm going to use myself as an example. I have about 5.4k subscribers and 1.5m views across my 90 videos. I'm not too big, I'm not too small. Along with some of my bigger videos I put a link to my PayPal saying that if they want, they can throw any amount at it to support me. The videos that I post this on get at least 50k views. I started posting that link in I think May of 2014. Since then I've gotten 2 people to donate. One donated 20CAD and one donated $5. In both cases it was because I spent lots of time troubleshooting technical issues with them (I make tutorials). I'm not complaining, that's honestly $25 more than I expected and I made sure to reach out to both of them and I became pretty good friends with one. I don't care about the money made via donations. The point I'm trying to make is that if every single user used Ad Block, or Google remove ads altogether, my YouTube income drops down to $25 a year. See how that would affect some people?

And just one last point to prematurely defend myself from the backlash I'm probably going to get. I started uploading videos fairly regularly in May 2011. I didn't start monitizing until September 2013 and I forgot about it. It wasn't until March 2014 that I remembered and got my first payment. I didn't start my channel with the thoughts of making money and I don't want to come across as greedy and entitled. I'm an unemployed and engaged college student using this money entirely to pay off loans early. Would not being monitized stop me from making videos? Hell no. Would it severely cripple my life style? Certainly.

Your whole WoT is based off the fact that having a subscription system would completely remove ads for any type of users. Why are you assuming this? It's just going to be an extra option so content creators will only be getting paid more if anything.

Also, no. Successful people like totalbiscuit or jim sterling make thousands and they openly state that they support someone donating/subbing and turning off ad-block. I mean, why the fuck not? As I said, you make much more money, as a single advertisement viewer you are worth a fraction of a cent to a content creator, whereas you'd be individually donating 1-5 dollars otherwise.

Having subs for those who pay still means you can have ads for those who don't, there is nothing you lose here, there's only money to gain.

 

[Ericzander]

Your whole WoT is based off the fact that having a subscription system would completely remove ads for any type of users. Why are you assuming this? It's just going to be an extra option so content creators will only be getting paid more if anything.

Also, no. Successful people like totalbiscuit or jim sterling make thousands and they openly state that they support someone donating/subbing and turning off ad-block. I mean, why the fuck not? As I said, you make much more money, as a single advertisement viewer you are worth a fraction of a cent to a content creator, whereas you'd be individually donating 1-5 dollars otherwise.

Having subs for those who pay still means you can have ads for those who don't, there is nothing you lose here, there's only money to gain.

I didn't mean to imply that I am against this new subscription program. I think it's a great idea actually. I know that YouTube won't be screwing YouTubers with this (they do screw us other ways ). I'm more attacking the people who are bragging about using adblock without a care in the world. Those who will not pay the subscription or watch the ads. Those guys are leeching off of the people they enjoy watching and I was using a hypothetical example about what would happen if everyone used adblock.

 

[Pluupy]

If they wanted to make money making videos, they're in the wrong direction.

 

[Ericzander]

If they wanted to make money making videos, they're in the wrong direction.

You know what... You're right. I didn't even think about that! You know what while we're at it neither should people who act in movies or TV. The fame alone should be enough. We shouldn't pay article writers because they are just sitting on their asses. We shouldn't pay game developers because games should be done for fun. Lets not pay firemen because they should be doing it to help others and not for a paycheck. You opened my eyes.

 

[Arras]

...to be completely honest, I'm not really surprised at people failing to grasp the concept of supporting someone whose videos you enjoy when most users here just pirate the shit out of everything anyway.
IMO it's a pretty good idea. It doesn't do anything to harm people who want to continue using Youtube like before, and it gives you an option to directly support the channels you like if you want to.

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

I use AdBlock so much that I literally forgot Youtube actually had ads.

This.

I will never forget the utter shock and confusion at seeing ads when my friend showed me a YouTube video on his computer.

 

[Pluupy]

You know what... You're right. I didn't even think about that! You know what while we're at it neither should people who act in movies or TV. The fame alone should be enough. We shouldn't pay article writers because they are just sitting on their asses. We shouldn't pay game developers because games should be done for fun. Lets not pay firemen because they should be doing it to help others and not for a paycheck. You opened my eyes.

...movies and TV is exactly what I meant by the correct way of making money via videos. My statement wasn't reallly hard to grasp.

 

[grossaffe]

...movies and TV is exactly what I meant by the correct way of making money via videos. My statement wasn't reallly hard to grasp.

Movies and TV are media with incredibly high barrier-to-entry costs. The Internet revolutionized this allowing people to enter the market without that barrier.