Famous YouTube stars are barely scraping by

[Thebarton_Gamer]

[Mister44]

@Seki

Reading the comments, I am getting so sick of the attitude that anyone who’s not actively curing cancer doesn’t have a right to complain about how hard it is to make a living. Who the fuck is allowed to dare expect money to live anymore? Much less gasp voice this expectation in the open.

Drew Carey Show - I Hate My Job

The world owes us nothing. For every creative out there making money as a creative, there are 9+ others barely living or said “fuck it” and got more production type jobs or a different career path.

[leebenningfield]

Does she have a patreon? $1/mo from 1% of those youtube subscribers might help…

[shenza]

I guess my issue here is that, for those who ply their trade as an internet person, the vast decentralized communications network that allows people to video chat from Ouagadougou if they want, they seem to have chosen terrible places to live given their level of income.

You know where $60k will get you a comfortable life, especially when you don’t have to worry about the many other expenses involved with a boring old 9-5 job? Not LA, not NYC, not DC, not Boston, not Chicago, not Seattle, but literally thousands of other places in the US alone.

Now, I’m sure there might be a counter-argument that these folks are possibly also trying their hand at music, getting publishing deals, script gigs, acting, et cetera, but then that means they’re actually not just making a living as someone who’s popular on the internet.

If Mr. Man-in-the-Grey-Flannel-Suit makes $60k as an accountant in LA and claims that he’s barely scraping, folks might ask, “Have you tried commuting from farther out?” And if the accountant replied, “Well, I’m also trying to be an actor / author / script writer / musician,” said imaginary folks would not be remiss in stating, “Perhaps you should decide what you really want to focus on in your life.”

[bexwhitt]

you fail at reading comprehension. There is zero mention of how much money she has made in that piece.

[longname]

Twice. She stated she has been working for ten years not five.

[clifyt]

@shenza

Now, I’m sure there might be a counter-argument that these folks are possibly also trying their hand at music, getting publishing deals, script gigs, acting, et cetera, but then that means they’re actually not just making a living as someone who’s popular on the internet.

The biggest secret in the industry is that you actually have to live there to make it. I quickly learned that I could live in the midwest, fly in for a day or two, get my shit done and fly back…weekly…and STILL be connected far more than most people that had to do 100 other things to live in Lalaland. Sure, it requires planning and forethought, however in your mythical Mr. Accountant…he should have that shit locked up. Now if your entire plan is to get noticed by mistake, by running into someone on the street, hand them a script, convince them to rep you, plug your itunes account…those myths turn out to be almost always myths. But it doesn’t stop kids from moving out there every year and trying.

So everytime someone uses this country-argument to me, I explain this. Usually goes right over their head and they look at me like I’m an idiot.

[hello_friends]

@Mister44

The world owes us nothing.

Maybe not the world, but there are promises exchanged as part of the social contract.

Zero interest loans, subsidies and preferential tax treatment for wealthy corporations are not winning policies for people who work hard.

[Jonathon_Clarke]

Americans believe that fortune should come with celebrity. They don’t understand that mediocrity does not necessarily mean fortune. She does not understand it she just one face lost in a sea of mediocrity.

[Richard_Gadsden]

To be fair, the main thing she was complaining about was that people expected her to be rich because she has a popular YouTube - and that made it very difficult for her to get any sort of “real world” job - people were laughing at her when she applied for things; she’d get a job at a restaurant and the customers would be asking her to sign things or taking selfies with her, which resulted in her getting fired.

IOW “don’t give up your day job”- didn’t work because she can’t get a day job.

[kthejoker]

Well now I’m totally speculating, but …

YouTube actually pays revenue based on “minutes watched” not just subs, so she may have 200,000 subs but maybe a large chunk of them are paid subs, zombies, “joiners” but not truefans, etc. So it may well be that her minutes watched is only … 3, 4 times what ours are ( or … who knows, really), because while I’m sure we have some of those types of subs too I can say pretty definitively our “fanbase” is loyal and real and consistent (and awesome!)

So she could easliy be in a scenario where she’s only clearing, say, $2,000 or $2,500 a month, which is definitely not great for LA living.

[anon34812172]

OK that makes more sense.

[anon33466019]

That is rough, and I am not one to judge (oh god no, I’m like the last). And I don’t cast aspersions or… What do people say now, ‘throw shade’? Creative arts and show biz have a tendency to kneecap people in a variety of unusual and destructive ways.

[woodfish]

Exactly. My Safeway grocery delivery guy was in 12 Monkeys and a bunch of other movies from 1990s to mid-2000s. Now he carries my frozen pizzas.

My advice is to try and do what you really love and make it work if you can. Otherwise, make a living the best way you can earn it.

[anon34812172]

There are lots of “sad stories” on this thread like the one you told about Safeway delivery guy. I’ll say this - my sympathy is limited for this kind of stuff. I worked full time and raised kids while I got a master’s degree, so that I could change careers. I’m not special. Motivated, maybe, but not special. Other people can do the same thing. You do not have to work at Safeway if your showbiz career never takes off.

[anon33466019]

Well, you do if your name is Jeff Safeway.

[anon34812172]

Says you, from the back office at the distillery.

[woodfish]

Indeed. My story was not meant to be sad. I worked my ass off through graduate school and have little sympathy for those who can’t sort out how to make life work. Or get the message that they may not be very good at their chosen career (hint, hint on these videos).

[anon33466019]

And not being good at something you love–or good enough–is great! How else would I have found out that I also enjoy writing software, met a bunch of amazing people, and been emotionally crushed again (wait, a pattern is emerging, and it’s called japhroaig :D)?

[anon15383236]

@popobawa4u

If so, then people could say so, rather than play annoying games. If instead they insist upon “Oh, you meant THIS”, “Oh, you meant THAT”, then I feel an obligation to clarify a remark I made, wasting too much verbiage.

Right, you consistently “clarify your remarks,” instead of actually engaging with what people say about them.

@popobawa4u

The first baby steps towards improving the situation I think is for people to know that exploitation is not inevitable. It can be changed. It is a sum of many choices made by people. Social structures are established by people, they don’t appear from nowhere. Where people seem to lose their cool is not dropping out, but rather, dropping in. Establishing new social structures can be necessary, but it is extremely risky. It is made risky by those who choose to perpetuate their status quo. People do not free themselves by avoiding social structures, but by using them, making them. It is only “irrelevant” for those resolved to inaction.

Seems to me that something you may not be seeing about yourself, or to be more precise, about the way you consistently communicate with others here, is that you don’t actually “communicate” with them. You basically lecture at them, and you do that by simply repeating the same basic (VERY basic) position, over and over again, after they’ve already acknowledged it, and pointed out as well it’s irrelevance to the topic at hand. And you insinuate all the while that if people would only work their brains harder, they could then make “baby steps” toward the higher plane of understanding at which you reside.

But you’re not implicitly claiming a genius or savant-like status, right? Oh no, not you!

ETA, as snowlark put it, you arrogantly attribute understanding to yourself, unilaterally:

@Snowlark

To me, though, communication is inherently relational, both interpersonally and culturally, and as such, is a process of mutual understanding. By this definition, the notion of ‘accuracy’ cannot be attributed unilaterally.