And pretty much anyone who doesn’t want to deal with extra steps to download YouTube but watches YouTube enough to care: “huh. $12 a month. That’s not bad for no ads and the ability to download videos. And there’s a student discount too, which is great since students don’t usually have lots of money and use YouTube for school and entertainment so they can get no ads to boot? Neat. That’s cheaper than Netflix and can be paid for with a couple less Starbucks coffees or one less McDonald’s meal a month. Plus since I watch YouTube so much and am downloading videos they host it helps keep a platform I like alive since it costs money to run all that hardware and to pay content from many of the top personalities that I might enjoy.”
Tis a fine sentiment and surely I agree that Google and YouTube both are shady. That said... how many hits do these creators content get on their own domains vs YouTube? If their domain is so popular why do they need YouTube? How much money does YouTube pay them? Is it more money than you or the average viewer of their videos have paid them? If YouTube is even paying a fraction of a penny per view they are paying the artist more than the viewer usually is. In fact- as a viewer not paying anything- YouTube is paying for you. If you think your ticket should cost more and you don’t want to pay YouTube- why don’t you pay the artist what they deserve?
Point being- many people often say: “this platform screws the artists so I don’t feel bad for them at all if I don’t pay...” but... if the platform is taking from the artist and you are taking from the platform... you’re just... also taking from the artist no? The artist says: “YouTube is evil! but... not so evil that it isn’t worth my while to work for them..”
Then the viewer says: “YouTube is evil! but not so evil that I am willing to live without what they are offering.” A “free” video sharing site is still making money off you even if you don’t pay them money. Either way you’re a willing participant in what you believe to be wrong.
Content creators are losing nothing by me not buying youtube premium, and youtube gains very little (but not nothing i agree) by me watching videos on their platform.
Their entire platform, long before they had tertiary revenue streams, was grown into a multi million dollar enterprise through leveraging passive consumption of media. Their product is “free videos.” When you take their product you support their business. By the same logic we could say that patronizing a company which uses slave labor , or an item made of fur- is not the consumer harming another since the company did the harm and you just took their product and increased their market share and profits.
That’s pretty much the point. There aren’t too many direct analogs- but more or less by using YouTube you are supporting, empowering, and generating profit for YouTube. It’s like voting a straight ticket for a political party and then saying “yeah. I don’t support this party or condone their actions. I do t support these candidates or their actions, but I was bored and wanted a sticker so...” YouTube’s primary business model just requires people to use YouTube.
I mean- if a dance company only pays the dancers $.020 from every $5 ticket sold, and you disapprove so you sneak in, you denied the company $4.80 but you also denied the dancer the .020 they would get. Is it better that they get nothing? We might call that a moral high road in the sense that if enough people do it the studio MIGHT change things. Then again though- they also might just kill off the show and then those dancers (who if they had other options likely would have done that before but now have NO income,) would get fired. And of course- the same effect could be had by you NOT stealing and just refusing to go, so that kinda takes away the moral high road when you directly benefit from the act.
depends like if i want to watch some thing i don't stream i download then i can watch with no pause for buffering, when ever i want even if storm knocked out internet. Second, years from now you might not be able to find it online but you will have it down loaded already. and third like a 2tb hard drive is under 100 dollars so not a big deal to take up space i just have a spare hard drive just for movies/shows and music also diy videos i do alot with gardening. but ill never give utube a dime they try to control free speech to much so i wont support them. Netflix is a different story.
“Nobody cares.”
Then the viewer says: “YouTube is evil! but not so evil that I am willing to live without what they are offering.” A “free” video sharing site is still making money off you even if you don’t pay them money. Either way you’re a willing participant in what you believe to be wrong.