YouTube Red to Creators: Join Us or Else?
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001134.html
The theme of queries in my inbox over the last 24 hours or so has
definitely been related to Google's new "YouTube Red" offering.
In case you've been living in a cave without Internet service, Red is a
new YouTube subscription tier aimed at providing ad-free videos and
music. It's obviously a very important project to Google. There have
been rumors about it for ages and it's been a long time coming.
There are a lot of questions and comments coming in, including from
people questioning the idea of paying for what used to be free relating
to the reportedly "exclusive content" aspect of Red, asking whether ad
blockers render the entire concept of Red largely moot, and lots of
other issues.
I'm not particularly concerned about the pricing right now, and as you
probably already know I view ad blockers as essentially unethical
(though I do agree that some Internet ad models have become incredibly
obnoxious and intrusive -- a problem I prefer to see addressed from the
ad creation and distribution side).
But the aspect of YouTube Red queries being sent to me that quickly
caught my attention relates to a subset of existing monetizing YouTube
creators -- specifically YouTube Partners -- who feel that they were not
adequately notified of this project and that they are being coerced into
participating in Red.
I don't have all the facts yet and I'm trying to better understand the
details.
The implication for now though seems to be that these loyal YouTube
creators are being told by Google that if they are uninterested or
unwilling to participate in the new Red program with its new terms,
their existing YouTube videos will be changed to private status (and
perhaps their entire YouTube channels as well) -- cutting them off from
public viewing or participation.
A further implication appears to be that to proceed without
participating in YouTube Red for whatever reasons, these creators would
have to start from scratch. In other words, apparently -- and I'm trying
confirm the accuracy of these claims I've received -- they cannot choose
to take their channels public on a non-monetized or ordinary non-Partner
monetized basis, and would have to start entirely new channels without
any of their existing subscribers.
Loss of subscribers would be a very, very big deal for some of these
creators who have spent years building up a following.
If this state of affairs is true, I do indeed find this aspect in
particular to be quite disturbing.
Looking at it from what I presume is Google's point of view, YouTube
wants to help ensure a reasonably uniform user experience, without
confusion over why particular material would or would not appear with
ads. I fully understand this.
On the other hand, if the situation actually does boil down to "agree to
Red terms or you lose most of the work you've put into your YouTube
channels up to now" -- well, that strikes me as fairly problematic both
in an ethical sense and perhaps in a business sense as well, given the
various competition to YouTube (especially from but not limited to
Facebook) that appears to be rapidly developing.
So overall, this is my sense of the situation at the moment, based on
what I know right now. As I noted above, I'm trying to get more details
and find out how much of what I'm hearing about this is accurate, and of
course I'll pass along what I find out.
As I've said many times, I'm a tremendous fan of YouTube. I consider it
to be arguably the most important entertainment and educational video
resource on the planet. I want it to continue succeeding.
But I really do hope that this can be done in a manner that is ethically
fair to everyone concerned.
Be seeing you.
--Lauren--
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently doing so.
All opinions expressed here are mine alone.
- - -
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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