back to article YouTube sharecroppers start world’s most useless trade union

YouTube stars have started a labour guild to represent low paid video producers for sites like YouTube. But it promises to be really, really polite and it won’t be asking Google for more money. Hank Green is a YouTube video producer, who describes himself as a “Internetainerpreneur” (which is all you need to know, really, but …

  1. Stevie

    Bah!

    I assume that "Internetainerpreneur" is hipsterspeek for "twat".

    It seems to me that all these complaints of minimal earnings would have more merit if the platform that enables the work in every way, shape and form were not free. That's not to suggest that the work has no merit or intrinsic worth of course. But it costs the interupperouterwosit nothing to host and deliver his content to the audience, who pay nothing to watch it.

    Welcome to Generation I, who can discuss the pros and cons ov IPv6 intelligently but expect everything to be free.

    Except their own labour of course.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge

      Re: Bah!

      Surely it's hipsterspik for "online media genius/god" and everyoneelsespik for "twat"?

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Bah!

        Hmm.. no more money. Nothing about creative rights. Nothing about Google's heavy handed tactics in dealing with creators. In other words, a union with no power. I'm wondering if it's Googlespeak for "hired shill?

        1. Chris King

          Re: Bah!

          Sounds more like an "employee association" rather than a union - you know the sort of thing, run by management shills to give a pretence of "representation" but neatly steps out of the way to push you under the bus when things go wrong.

          Been there, done that, almost ended up with a set of tyre marks on my back.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bah!

      I assume that "Internetainerpreneur" is hipsterspeek for "twat".

      When someone tosses out a term like "Internetainerpreneur", you know you can doze off and not miss anything.

      1. Chris King

        Re: Bah!

        I just assumed it was Hipsterese for "Somebody PLEASE give me a job". They're usually the same folks who describe themselves as "budding entrepreneurs" on LinkedIn, or just stick their Twitter handle in their bio with nothing else.

        1. Chris King
    3. BongoJoe

      Re: Bah!

      I just thought that Little Hank had a deprived childhood and missed his chance to follow his dream: to become a middle manager.

    4. The Man Who Fell To Earth Silver badge
      FAIL

      You are giving sharecropping a bad name

      In real sharecropping, the landlord & sharecropper share the risk and share the rewards, with the landlord taking on an additional risk if the crop fails. In real sharecropping, the landlord fronts the money for owning the property & for planting the next crop, the sharecropper does the work, and the landlord & sharecropper share in the proceeds of the crop sale. If the landlords proceeds from the crop sale does not cover the landlords costs, he absorbs the loss. The sharecropper does not incur any debt. Obviously the goal is for both the landlord & sharecropper to make money and this system has them co-invest in the crop, albeit in different "currencies", and share the investment risk.

      The digital sharecropper economy ah la Uber or Airbnb (or Youtube), is vastly more abusive to the "sharecropper" than in real sharecropping. In the digital sharecropper economy, the "digital landlord" takes on zero risk and simply skims cash of the cash flow. The "digital landlord" thus makes money regardless of the profit & loss of the "digital sharecropper". The "digital sharecropper" takes on 100% of the risk both in terms of capital investment (owning & maintaining a car or property) and in terms of operating profit/loss.

      The "digital sharecropper economy" is vastly more abusive to the sharecropper than in real sharecropping, and so the digital versions are giving the real version a bad name.

      1. Cris E

        Re: You are giving sharecropping a bad name

        What? Maybe for Uber or Airbnb, but our Youtube intrapenateur has no capital investment at all. The Goog is fronting everything and keeping almost all the revenue generated by the efforts of the sharecropper. He's hoping to trade some work for a little taste of the results, but his investment is far below that of actual sharecropping orgs that require him to provide real property. Very different.

  2. Just Enough

    where he is going with this

    Hank Green is actually a nice, genuine guy with his heart in the right place. He's a cut above most of the self-involved, talking-head, irritants that infests Youtube.

    But I don't know where he is going with this. Seems like he wants a union, but is afraid that just saying that will scare too many conservative Americans.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Devil

      Re: where he is going with this

      A proper guild or union's primary purpose is to threaten work-stoppage by the members.

      So let's say all the Youtube video guys with pretensions to anything do organize. Then later, when push comes to shove, that guild/union gives the word, and all work on free videos for Youtube comes to a screeching halt. What happens as a result?

      Well, There happen to be a couple of bazillion others, one short step down the food chain, who have been kept down there by those same high-falootin' guild members and their stinking "better-than-average" videos.

      Ah, but now those jerks are out of the picture (so to speak), and the Young Turks can come out of the woodwork with their videos! Take that, you fatcat 22-percenters!

      1. Dadmin

        Re: where he is going with this

        You've hit the nail on the head; "A proper guild or union's primary purpose is to[...]"

        He's not creating a union, merely an advocacy group. Being top of the youtube "food chain" IS something to sneeze at. Has he heard of the YouTube Red Zone? That's where you go to fetch in some (tiny) bucks, the normal YouTube is just a bunch of nonsense, and once in a GREAT while an interesting cat video is posted. And we all have a jolly good laugh, don't we? My advice for Mr. Green; get a cat, or twelve, a cat suit and THEN you might have something fun to watch. It's free. Enjoy it.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is it tho?

    I don't think that it's meant to be a trade union. From what I gather in his article, it seemed more like their intention was to help individual youtube creators to get the legal benefits of being part of a network, such as the handling of disputes and claims, without actually being in a network. And YouTube pays FAR more than $2500 per year. If the blog I run already makes half a grand per month for just a few thousand readers, people with tens of thousands of viewers on YouTube won't make a measly $2500 per YEAR.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it tho?

      El Reg can't seemed to be bothered getting anyone to cover the online media space, doesn't highlight the differences in how a member of an MCN (and the kind of member, for example TotalBiscuit is protected ContentID while AngryJoe is not despite both being members of Polaris), being a partner (Like Jim Sterling, which means anyone can steal your content via contentID) or just being a normal person (you're doing it for fun).

      Though Jim did come up with a humorous way of dealing with revenue stealing by whenever he makes a video that uses one piece of material he's been contentID'd for he uses other samples from others that he's been contentID'd for there fore meaning nobody gets any money.

      The copyright deadlock Jim Sterling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK8i6aMG9VM

      Where's the fair use https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVqFAMOtwaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9mTOq6mP2I

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "If the blog I run already makes half a grand per month"

      That's ok money. I know friends that don't even make that....

      Do users stay longer on each clip on your YT Blog maybe?

      Or is the 'type' of content & links included the crucial factor?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "If the blog I run already makes half a grand per month"

        Think it's number of ads eyeballed, which is why most videos are around the 12 minute mark as you can run ads at the start and people watch all the way through and are likely to watch your videos again, also why most (high ranked) channels put out 2 videos a day, and why most networks have dozens of channels so people don't get fed up of people always uploading. For instance Yogscast have the main channel, a live channel, double dragon and a civilization channel (not to count individual member channels) so you don't have a single channel dumping 8 or so videos on you a day you can follow the specifics you want.

  4. DavCrav

    "Perhaps someone could buy him the Ladybird Book of Intellectual Property? It’s just a thought."

    He could put it next to the Ladybird Book of Getting Fucked over by Global Corporations Regardless of the Law?

  5. caffeine addict

    Internetainerpreneur

    Well, to be fair, the Americans aren't as familiar as we are with the term "wanker".

    1. Dadmin

      Re: Internetainerpreneur

      In the colonies we like to say "jerk off" which is a synonym. :)

      So, in our case we'd say; "Wow, this jerk off wants to unionize free video posting service members? Good luck with that!"

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Internetainerpreneur

      Well, to be fair, the Americans aren't as familiar as we are with the term "wanker".

      My thesaurus lists the synonym "twat", so we'll be able to figure it out.

      A little off topic: Twats use the men's room all the time, so I don't understand the fuss about dicks in the ladies room.

    3. AceRimmer1980
      Pint

      Re: Internetainerpreneur

      Self-facilitating media node? #nathanbarley

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I assume you know, but I suspect he is referring to the established industry and their habit of crop dusting everything despite fair use, claiming other peoples work and extracting profits from them illegally via the abuse of the Content ID system. The content producers have little defence as there aren't many that can afford to fight a case in the US legal system.

    Also the other common tactic of illegally using DMCA take down notices but never following them up so that they expire in order to suppress critical coverage of products. This means the creator a: loses the income of being out the door first and b: the consumer gets stuffed because they don't know about a horrible bug in a game for instance.

  7. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Coat

    But ...

    Has this guild been recognized by Lord Vetinari?

    Inquiring minds need to know

    We need a Discworld icon, we really do...

    Mine is the one with "The Fifth Elephant" in the pocket

    1. Woza
      Joke

      Re: But ...

      Well, they're only a mute button away from being the Guild of Mime Artists...

      Where's the scorpion pit when you need it?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes, well, err...

    Don't ever doubt a human's capacity for supidity.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Don't ever doubt a human's capacity for supidity.

      Shirley you need iddiocy? :-)

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can kind of understand...

    wanting to separate the issues of pay and fair treatment in other areas.

    If it is a bullying problem, DRM takedown etc, if those subjects are concentrated on, and the pay is left to other conversations.

    Oh, but as a job description "Internetainerpreneur” is no good for us dyslexics! :D

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Re: I can kind of understand...

      "To secure for the Internetainerpreneurs, by hand or by brain, the full fruits of their labours on the basis of common ownership of the most ridiculous nouns possible"

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: I can kind of understand...

        So they have worked at the same firms I have then?

  10. E net

    Not the most useless Union ever

    The Society of Telecom Executives (union) took decisive action against the cuts and poor working conditions by have multiple strikes on our BT campus..............................in their lunch hour!

  11. A Ghost
    Megaphone

    They sell the dream

    but it's really a lie.

    It saddens me to see young up and coming artists think that youtube is a viable platform for them.

    The game is so rigged against them it's not true. There are whole websites dedicated to explaining in great detail how youtube rips off its content creators. As soon as you start to make your way above the pack, then they rape you for what they can get away with.

    It is not possible to get ahead for this reason. The only people that do get ahead have massive pr firms and record companies behind them and they just use youtube as a marketing platform. Really, the practices from google/youtube are truly shocking when you bother to dig and see what's really going on.

    And of course, now that they have sold the dream, it becomes a self-perpetuating myth for them and all the young kids think that they too can be the next justin bieber or wtf. Some get lucky, true, but don't plan on it. Try it and see what you are dealing with. Google/youtube have teams of people that have this worked out to a fine art - how they can extract that last bit of talent while paying the least amount of money. Some get crumbs from the rich man's table, but most get nothing at all. Some get royally ripped off after making a name for themselves. They get the horse's head on the bed in the morning and, well, that's it then.

    The dream is a lie kids. Become a plumber or a nurse or a dentist or a chef. False hope is worse than no hope at all, but really there just is no hope.

    Let that cognitive dissonance wash over you for a bit, and with a bit of luck it will sink in, that the only people that gain are google/youtube. They are seen as sticking it to the man and making music available to all - who cares if a few minted artists get a bit less this year in their royalty cheque?

    But again, they sell the dream, which is a lie. Google/youtube are merciless and ruthless with dealing with up and coming talent. But they have the informatics of how this all works and they are gaming it to get content for free.

    These people are just making it known what is going on, as they see first hand the reality. Of course, they aren't actually in a position to do anything about it. This will not change.

    We've bred a generation of kids with stars in their eyes. To become musicians/producers/songwriters. To become top make-up artists, fashion gurus, etc. etc. and they think that dissemination of their talent will lead to distribution of their hard goods (records, make-up packs, books) and eventually hard cash. They target the kids at a younger and younger age, and by the time people realise they have been had, a whole new generation is ready to take their place.

    Life will kick them in the nuts soon enough, and the only people who will have really benefited from their time trying to hit the big time, will be you-know-who.

    But what do I know? Give it a crack kids and see how far you get. Don't forget to search for all those sites that explain in depth the game afoot here. Due diligence. These people aren't your friends, they are parasites. Despite the facade of the 'I'd like to teach the world to sing' persona, they are just money-hungry driven businessmen.

    Cynical and calculating, they don't care if they eventually kill their host, for they are legion and they will just find a new victim once the corpse has been bled dry. Or so it seems to have worked so far. There is of course a problem with that business model, but hey, today life is good, and they are getting rich off the fat of the land and the sweat of the eternally hopeful and naive.

    These kids are just a product of that, don't be too hard on them. But someone needs to start metaphorically slapping some sense into them soon, for their own sake if nothing else.

    The other side of the coin is that not only are they part of the problem, they actually are the problem itself. And google are just exploiting that. Bit like you can't con an honest man line of reasoning/rationalisation. Are they one as bad as they other? Maybe, depends. One things for sure, youtube is not a get rich quick scheme, or a get rich next year scheme, except for those at the very top of the corporate heap and the drones that perpetuate this bullshit from the techs to the marketer. It's a massive machine.

    Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

    Where have you been? It's alright we know where you've been.

    You've been in the pipeline, filling in time,

    provided with toys and Scouting for Boys.

    You bought a guitar to punish your ma,

    And you didn't like school, and you know you're nobody's fool,

    So welcome to the machine.

    Welcome my son, welcome to the machine.

    What did you dream? It's alright we told you what to dream.

    You dreamed of a big star, he played a mean guitar,

    He always ate in the Steak Bar. He loved to drive in his Jaguar.

    So welcome to the machine.

    ...........................

    Meet the new boss, even worse than the old boss.

    They can't say they haven't been warned.

    1. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: They sell the dream

      Rips off? Look, there is nothing, NOT ONE DAMN thing that is stopping these people from making their own, personal website and posting their videos there.

      Domain names and hosting and throw-down website builders are pocket change these days.

      They don't have a leg to stand on and Google owes them nothing. Sorry, but that's reality.

      The Internet was created so everyone and anyone could created their own website and have their "voice" heard, not complain like little fucking babies about the free ride they are getting on someone else's website.

      Fuck them. Fuck them straight to hell. They ARE wankers. And shitty, lame, amateur video producers as well. The world does not need more stupid useless shit.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: They sell the dream

        Not much stopping them NOW, but back in the day you needed extra either media server type software to do video or you had to use Flash, plus it uses a shitload of bandwidth.

        It's easier with HTML5; but you have to serve each vid in 2 different flavours and you still have bandwidth to consider. It's not free, and chances are the ad revenue would be coming from Google anyway. Plus you need to know how to do it, which not everyone does.

        Plus, you can't compete too hard with Google, because that's where the lion's share of the traffic is coming from.

        1. ecofeco Silver badge

          Re: They sell the dream

          Technical issues and costs haven't been a barrier for almost 10 years and stupid people shouldn't expect anyone to pay attention to them. Unfortunately, they often do and then yell the loudest when they are ignored. Can't master your medium? Tough shit for you. Learn it. The entire Internet offers free lessons. At your fingertips. In the comfort of the surroundings of your choosing.

          As for traffic, if one is relying on someone else's audience, than one should not complain about free services created by that someone else.

          I am NOT pro Google. I AM anti-fucking-whining-wanker.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: They sell the dream

            Well HTML 5 (and built-in for-free video handling has only been around for a year or so in formal form); before that your choices were run/pay for a media server; Flash; or using HTML standards that hadn't been agreed on (and were therefore subject to change). If you're hosting your own, bandwidth is still likely to be a major concern if you're running a video site.

            None of that is the point though...the point is this: even if you devote time and resources to becoming independent and hosting your own it's probably not going to make a difference as the both the advertising revenue and the bulk of the traffic are likely to come from Google. Building your own site is not any sort of solution because Google still have you by the bollocks.

  12. Seajay#

    Sharecropping is (or at least can be) bad, because the poor tenant farmer with no land of his own is stuck with no bargaining power and has to acquiesce to the demands of the evil landowner, however unreasonable. The land he's spent so much time and effort cultivating isn't his.

    YouTube creators are nothing like that. The videos they create are theirs. Any time they want they can delete them all from YouTube and self host them. They can sell the advertising space on the resulting self-hosted website and keep 100% of the profit.

    The reason they won't do that because the cost of hosting their video is similar to (in many cases much higher than) its value to viewers and advertisers. If the nett value of your content is very small, you shouldn't be surprised if the amount of money you receive is very small.

    1. A Ghost
      Thumb Down

      YouTube creators are nothing like that. The videos they create are theirs. Any time they want they can delete them all from YouTube and self host them. They can sell the advertising space on the resulting self-hosted website and keep 100% of the profit.

      I think you fundamentally misunderstand what is going on here.

      It's all about 'reach'.

      To answer your case in point:

      There was a video blogger (vlogger wtf) who did a massive range of tutorials for the program Reason by Propellerheads. Hundreds of them. All, very high quality. He was a Dutch guy (probably still is :-)), and he wasn't affiliated with the company, but he made a name for himself at the time for being the best resource of non-paid (and paid) tutorials available on the web.

      The Props held a party. They didn't invite said Dutch boy, and said Dutch boy threw his toys out of the pram, deleting hundreds of his videos. It was a massive loss. As fits of pique go, it was monumental.

      I'm not sure if he ever got any kind of decent coin for his vidz, but that wasn't his intention. He wasn't a bread head. He was a true teacher. He loved to get deep and show others how to do it. And he did that better than everyone else.

      Do you think that he ever reappeared elsewhere? We knew his name. We knew lots about him (he was a programmer and did a lot of 3D stuff too). But he was gone. He no longer had the reach. He made some half-hearted attempt to go his own way. But he had burned his bridges and there was no way back.

      Now, someone like that deserves to have a bit of respect. He also deserves (if anyone does) to be reimbursed for his vast efforts that helped thousands of people gratis. I can almost understand why he did it. Treated like shit by the very company that he was promoting. Fuck, they should have at least invited him to the party. But he was a proper nerd/hacker/geek, and he had a little bit of a dribble and used to slurp his tea he drank half way through the vidz (best part if you ask me), so he wasn't good looking or cool enough, or famous enough to be part of the team.

      So he took it out on the only people he could (why do we hurt the ones we love?). And that was that.

      If you paid somebody to do what he did, you couldn't afford it. And even if you could afford it, it would not have been done half as well.

      Did he earn money? No.

      Did he earn respect? No. (except from the people he taught of course but not from Props or GooToob).

      Did he ever do anything else again? Who knows, he's disappeared into the mist.

      So, by all means, work your heart out for nothing, but don't take it as a kick in the boolux if you don't get invited to the party.

      I'm pretty sure if he was making money he wouldn't have done that all the same, but he was never heard from again and a massive part of musical culture disappeared when he pulled his passive aggressive bullshit.

      That case in point, at least, refutes your argument, I think.

      1. ecofeco Silver badge

        Respect? People who give their work away for free are fucking morons and make life harder for the rest of us punters trying to earn a living and pay the bills because they undermine EVERYONE's worth.

      2. Seajay#

        @Ghost

        None of what you're talking about has anything to do with YouTube.

        Seems like it might have been prudent of Propellerheads to invite your guy to their party but it has to be their decision. If they don't want the dribbly guy, why should anyone else care? Unless they were falsely encouraging him to make videos by promising him wild parties but that doesn't seem to have been the case.

        Surely you're not suggesting that if I make a video about your product I should have the right to demand money / recognition / party invites from you?

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Exactly Seejay#

  13. Andrew Jones 2

    I'd personally be OK if someone wanted to buy me a Ladybird book of <insert backward nonsensical laws / regulations>. I would say the for dummies range might be slightly more adept at dealing with more complicated topics, but really - I could look at the pictures in the Ladybird range......

  14. TeeCee Gold badge
    WTF?

    Look on the bright side.

    With a bit of luck they'll go on strike and the global index of good taste will undergo a temporary, but measurable, improvement as a result.

    1. Spoonguard
      Megaphone

      Re: Look on the bright side.

      With a bit of luck they'll go on strike and the global index of good taste will undergo a temporary, but measurable, improvement as a result.

      Like the Writer's Guild Strike of 2007?

    2. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: Look on the bright side.

      I was thinking the same thing, TeeCee.

    3. lowwall

      Re: Look on the bright side.

      Internetainerpreneur or Representative of the Amalgamated Union of Philosophers, Sages, Luminaries, and other professional thinking persons?

      MAJIKTHISE: We’ll go on strike!

      VROOMFONDEL: That’s right. You’ll have a national philosopher’s strike on your hands.

      DEEP THOUGHT: Who will that inconvenience?

  15. ecofeco Silver badge

    Internetainerpreneur?

    So he moved over from InstaFacebookTwitterGram, then?

    I have just a few words of advice for him: "Yo scrode! Yer shit's all fucked up and you talk like a fag!"

    Name that movie.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just to address a few misconceptions about Hank Green.

    1) He isn't new to Youtube. He started vlogging there in 2007.

    2) He understands IP better than most of us. He has done long-form videos explaining how hard it is for smaller content providers to get larger platforms to respect their IP.

    3) He understands the Youtube creators space better than most of us. He founded Vidcon, the premier conference around the business and creative side of online original video.

    4) He is a serial entrepreneur, having started his vlog channel, Vidcon, DFTBA merchandising distributor, DFTBA Records, Nerdfighters online community, SciShow science news channel, Subbable creators subscription funding platform (since merged with Patreon), Project for Awesome crowd-sourced charity initiative, leads a band that occasionally goes on tour, and the Crash Course educational video channel (with his brother John) that produces series on advanced high school topics, including ... Intellectual Property.

    And he's a nerd. If he has an important but somewhat incoherent thought he's perfectly willing to share it and let others add and subtract to turn it into something better. He cares a lot more about fairness, sharing, and results than he does about credit and ego.

  17. Snow Wombat
    Alert

    Weasel words

    > "Foster diversity”

    DANGER WILL ROBINSON!!! DANGER!! DANGER!!

    Every time we see a platform try and "Foster Diversity" It really means " Kick off anyone who's views aren't inline with the current extreme SJW / PC crowd."

    That combined with the updated, extremely vague ToS update Youtube is pushing is leading me to believe that a bunch of smaller channels are about to get the shaft, in the name of "Diversity" and "Creating a safe space"

  18. Jack Decker

    What?! They're not slaves or serfs to anyone.

    What a completely misinformed or misleading reporter! Either he had no clue how online video works or is purposely making strawmen to slaughter.

    First, online video makers are not slaves or serfs to YouTube. FAR from it. Today, they have multiple platforms to post their videos to and ALL of them claim NO ... NADA ... ZERO rights to their videos. Right now today, you can post videos to YouTube, Facebook, and Amazon to name just the big three and other platforms as well (such as Vessel). The same video to all three. Yes, you can post it to one and link to it on the others, but only newbies do that. If you post it directly and separately to all three, they each will treat it as native content and promote it more to their viewers. They will EACH pay you for the views that video gets on their platform.

    Second, given #1, unlike slaves and serfs, you can generate multiple revenue streams from the different platforms. In business, single vendor dependency is a horrible thing. If that vendor drops you, you're out of business. Just as when an employee is fired. But with multiple vendors, you have a level of financial security and freedom. One can drop you but others won't. That is something that has LONG been needed in online video and now with Facebook and Amazon finally taking on YouTube, it is happening.

    Third, online creators aren't dumb. YouTube and Facebook don't share viewer contact information with creators. The reason is simple. If they did, the creators would be in control. Currently, YouTube can and does threaten to shut down channels it doesn't like ... and commonly does. But online video creators can and are easily gaining the contact information of their viewers by simply giving them some reward for doing so. It can be a one-time reward (a special video or PDF book) or a recurring one (like a monthly Q&A video that isn't publicly posted but posted as unlisted [you need a link to it to view it]). Once the creator has that contact email address, they can tell YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, or whatever other idiot platform tries to bully the creator to go to Hell. YouTube shuts down their channel and the creator simply sends out an email to their YouTube subscribers and gives them a link to their channel on another platform.

    Fourth and lastly, what the future holds for online video creators is a bidding war for their content. Right now, they're all paying the same. Even Amazon who is the newest kid on the block is only paying what YouTube pays. But how long will this last? I doubt it will last long. One of the platforms will start paying more and the others will need to follow or might not get posted to at all. If one platform pays so much more than the others that creators start ignoring or forgetting to post to the lesser-paying platform, that will cause a domino effect that the platform might not be able to reverse. They thus cannot let that happen. YouTube will likely not be the first to increase their revenue split. More likely Amazon and/or Facebook will. YouTube will have no choice to match their offers. The others will have no choice to then sweeten their deal more. The bidding war will begin and creators will lap up the money.

    Given the above, what Hank Green is doing may or may not really help online video creators. I think his heart is in the right place. I think he knows the above so isn't trying to strong arm the platforms for more money. No need to. The bidding war will soon begin. Instead, his "guild" is trying to help newbie creators better navigate the waters. The waters being multiple-channel networks, legal issues, etc. Good for him. Good for online creators. He definitely knows more about what is needed then the author of this article.

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