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Comment by mmastrac | Hacker News Reader

Why are you conflating the extremely broken tipping culture/minimum wage system in the US and a multi-billion-dollar company's revenue strategy?

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Why are people unwilling to pay creators (in attention or dollars) for making the content they watch? It’s the same with piracy. It was one thing when the content was simply unavailable, now most content is available via a streaming service for an incredibly cheap per monthly cost.

I pay the creators I care about, but I do it through Patreon, not Youtube. Of those $14 of Youtube subscription fees, approximately $0 would go to the creators I care about. If Youtube made some guarantee that the money I spent would only go to the creators I watch, I'd subscribe instantly.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6306276?hl=en#:~:t....

“Revenue from YouTube Premium membership fees is distributed to video creators based on how much members watch your content. As with our advertising business, the majority of the revenue will go to our partners.“

That sure sounds like they divvy up the money based on total viewership, not my individual viewership. I don't like the thought of a large chunk of my subscription money going to channels I don't personally watch.

> If Youtube made some guarantee that the money I spent would only go to the creators I watch, I'd subscribe instantly.

Do you mean that all $14 would go to creators you watch, or do you mean that whatever fraction of that $14 goes to creators after YouTube takes their cut only goes to creators you watch?

I meant the latter; I'm fine with Youtube getting a cut, I'm not fine with Mr. Beast getting a cut.

Youtube gives 55% of your sub to the creators whose videos you watch. It is not at all like spotify.

Because those creators I actually care about, I throw a few bucks on a platform that gives them a much better cut than youtube does.

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