Once upon a time, a long time ago, I was a youtuber. I first joined YouTube in 2011 and began posting videos later that year. At first it was Roblox game plays that were viewed by 10 people in almost 10 cities, but later on I began vlogging my day to day life. I never was a big youtuber. I got 100 subscribers and several hundred to 1000 views per video, but I used to enjoy what I did. There came a point that I even started doing animated sketches on my channel in the style of Gulleyboy (go check his ass out). However, eventually I came to hate it. I always felt like I had to post videos on youtube and sometimes people were less than fans of certain videos I made. In fall of 2018, I privatized virtually all of my videos and have not uploaded to the channel since then.
I never intended to make YouTube a career. I never expected to be anywhere near what Markiplier or Blastphemous HD TV were, and I only did youtube for fun. Money never was involved. Until now. Recently a friend of mine who we will refer to as "DeMarcus Bowie" (that's not his real name but it's an alias he took up when I interviewed him once for a video on my YouTube channel) texted me and said he wanted to bring back "Troll Bros." My heart sank when I read the text. He continued by telling me that he wanted to redo the animated videos I made, but make them into actual "animes." He said he already hired an animator and a screenplay writer, and when I asked him how he paid them, he told me that he planned to get sponsors for the channel and told them he would pay them once money started rolling in. He also directed them to bring more people on and have those people bring more people onto the channel, which I pointed out was basically a pyramid scheme that was doomed to fail. However he has continued to beg me to join in on this YouTube channel revival in the form of an anime series.
I don't appreciate what he's doing for multiple reasons. Partially it's because he's promising people money that he currently doesn't have. Partially it's that he keeps having more people brought on because...reasons. But mostly it's because he's taking my intellectual property and trying to make a cash cow out of it. I made clear to him that money was never the reason I did YouTube and that even though I wasnt making videos anymore, I still took offense to him using my ideas for (potential) profit. He told me that we would have to "modify" the content to make it more "family friendly" so ads would run on the video and I really lost it then. I told him that this was how channels die. You start doing things for the sponsors and pretty soon they're telling you what to do with your content. You lose control of your own channel to corporate desire and eventually you're working for them. They've got control of you. He disagreed and said this would be how the channel got big, showing a clear lack of understanding as to what I was saying.
This is a problem that plagues many youtubers these days. When youtube becomes a job for someone and they need ad money, they often have to modify their message to please their corporate overlords. You have to make sure that your content cant possibly offend anyone, because big business doesn't want to be associated with the firestorm something you did started. Pretty soon you become devoted 100% to being an "unboxing" channel because anything else risks offending more than five people. Another issue with many youtubers is how they hire other people to produce their videos and soon they're basically working for them. Someone else wrote your script for you. Someone else chose the location you're gonna film in. Do you even have control over your channel anymore?
In my opinion, it is a bad idea to make a career out of your channel. Other people will take control of your intellectual property and will change it and edit it till it doesn't remotely resemble what you originally started out with. You may become famous, but the original reason you started being a youtuber is all but gone, that reason being you wanted to express yourself. What are your thoughts citizens of Nationstate? Is anyone else a youtuber? Does anyone know anybody who tried to make YouTube a job? If you're a youtube partner, do you rely on YouTube for income? Would you ever let a big company control a product of any sort that you created (youtube or not) in exchange for some money and recognition? Let me know your thoughts below.
