YouTube Doesn’t Want You
Dear content creators, YouTube Doesn’t Care About You.
The “You” in YouTube actually used to mean something. I remember when most videos on the site were bizarre cartoon edits, annoying vlogs, complete with jump cuts and the quintessential cat videos. These things still exist on the site, but something has completely changed.
A few things have caused that change. One of them is that the site has grown so exponentially large in recent years, that it’s become nearly impossible to moderate efficiently. Another is the recent success of Netflix. YouTube doesn’t want to be a community driven website, they want to grab onto the coattails of Netflix and produce high production content behind a paywall. This has an upside and a downside. The upside is that some genuinely good content may be created, think Kobra Kai 2018. The downside is the lack of support and resources directed towards standard YouTube creators.
Even beyond YouTube turning into a wannabe Netflix, there’s the added problem that Youtube caters inordinately towards corporate channels and music videos. Even channels that seem like they’re independent, such as Brave Wilderness, belonged to the network “Animalist” which was under the now defunct “Discovery Digital Network” which was in turn owned by Discovery Inc. Do you really think a normal YouTuber is going to get the same kind of traction as someone who has the backing of a large enough company? It’s also become tiresome how many late night and other corporate videos end up in the trending list, repeatedly becoming suggestions, no matter how many times I click “not interested”.
Even big YouTubers like H3H3 are not being catered to. H3H3 received a community strike, allegedly for discussing Alex Jones. A community strike prevents a channel from streaming for 3 months, which removes streaming channels from making money through their primary source. The strike was later removed, but it was still put applied in the first place. Channels like H3H3 while huge in terms of subs and views, cannot compare to the insane amount of views videos such as music videos receive. Nearly every Taylor Swift video will generate hundreds of millions of views. There has been talk in recent months of content creators even banding together into a union for better representation.What good is a union if your combined views don’t even come to a quarter of some pop video? Hollywood actors, singers, talk show hosts, these are the types of “content creators” YouTube wants. Sorry folks.
24 Aug 2018
Nicholas Larkin is the senior editor for Nova Latte. Follow him on Twitter @kansailarkin
