I Thought Everybody Loved YouTube

I swear, I really did.

But now media are reporting that music and YouTube are not on good terms anymore. The New York Times, for instance, now claims that ‘[the] Music World is banding together against YouTube’. Also, and according to The Washington Post, ‘musicians are joining forces to change and create laws’ that protect artists against the abuses of the video-sharing website.

Irving Azoff is a man of experience. He is the manager of Eagles, Christina Aguilera and Van Halen among others, and one of the most dissatisfied with the way YouTube deals with artists. In the past, he has told The New York Times:

‘YouTube is an ongoing negotiation, but I’ve stepped out of it and allowed my team to handle it themselves because I’m too angry.’

He is a 68-year-old man, and really looks like a nice guy. Regardless, Mr Azoff is one of the most combative personalities in the industry. He looks after his clients’ interests with a discipline rarely seen on other agents. He was one of the first ones to point the finger at YouTube, mostly because every other player thought that promotion was better than money. ‘Who cares how much YouTube pays artists, as long as their songs hit a gazillion views.’ Azoff does not share this point of view, and it does not have to be with the fact that he is 68. Keep reading and you will see.

• The next bubble.

This is a wild theory of mine. And since I am taking Economy this semester, I feel all wise and stuff. No, really — this is all pure speculation.

We have already learned how people make money youtubing. By now we also know that many people are making millions out of this business that making Internet videos is. Many more are making, at least, a decent living.

The other day I was re-watching The Big Short, a film from last year which should be absolutely mandatory to watch. The movie covers 2008’s real estate bubble, from gestation to burst. It is not fiction, nor entirely a documentary. It depicts a tragic event, with both economic and social consequences, but it is not exactly a drama. Filmmaker Adam McKay succeeded at creating a comedy slash drama slash biopic that is as easy to follow as a talk show, but as accurate as a documentary.

A must-watch.

Okay, right about now YouTube is obscenely profitable. A billion views per day, 1,300,000,000 users, 300 hours worth of uploading per minute. Everybody who is anybody is on YouTube. Video is the format of choice. But what keeps this wheel rolling? The answer, my friends, is content. God knows content does not have to be good in order to be popular. But it has to be reasonably fresh.

There is a popular youtuber that keeps popping up in my feed as a suggestion. So there I was, clicking those links to see what the fuss was all about. First I watched a makeup tutorial, which was not very new, but nothing special either. Then I clicked on another one, a Q&A video. One of the questions was ‘do you do anything besides making videos?’ — which I thought was an ironic ask. The youtuber answered — ‘no, I only make videos’ — which I thought was a sardonic answer. Thing is, then I learned all that girl really does is indeed making videos. Has the world gone crazy.

How long can you do ‘tag videos’ for a living? How long before people realize that ’10 things you didn’t know about me’ is not interesting content? Especially, especially, when a gazillion other people are already making those exact same videos?

Because we totally needed one more.

If you look financial bubbles up on Investopedia.com, you will find that

‘a bubble is an economic cycle characterized by rapid expansion followed by a contraction.‘

I am also going to add that bubbles are usually built over nothing. Gambling and speculation are all that give value to something that has no value whatsoever: mortgages, web domains, ’10 things you didn’t know about me’ videos.

• Another theory.

Maybe artists also noticed that this YouTube bubble is bound to burst eventually. In that case, it only makes sense that they want to move on. There is no greater truth in the music industry than this: the early bird gets the worm. So, if you band against YouTube first, maybe you will get most of the public eye. The so called pioneers in the war against YouTube are Pharrell, who lost ‘the Tidal train’, and Katy Perry, who did not.

A few very-high-profile youtubers pay artists for using their songs. But truth is, the vast majority of youtubers cut five seconds from the chorus or just use generic, royalty-free music. Ergo, artists cannot make significant money out of the use of their songs youtubers make. And if YouTube does not pay a significant amount to artists for their music videos, what else is there left for the industry? More even so, what are they going to do when the trash-content-bubble bursts?

As of 2016, it is estimated that revenues from YouTube are even smaller than those coming from the sale of traditional formats. Yes, ye olde physical album is more profitable than your 1,000,000 views on your VEVO channel.

Why should artists put their catalogs on YouTube, then? Prince saw it all along — his music was never available on YouTube. You can find private recordings, TV performances or soundless images, but never official videos. It breaks my heart talking about Prince, His death is still too recent, but this is a memory totally worth mentioning — the official video for Musicology, the song from the album of the same name, was included in the actual disc. Problem was, when you tried to play the CD it would completely mess your computer up. The format was so strange! Anyways, Prince never let YouTube twist his arm. Or any other player in the industry, for that matter.

Is it wise to bite YouTube’s hand, the almighty publicity provider? That is yet to be elucidated. But one thing I know for sure: if artists en masse pull down their content, YouTube will not be able to keep 1,300,000,000 pairs of eyes interested with just ’10 things you didn’t know about me’.

So better start taking care of the artists, ’cause otherwise…it won’t suffice.