What's up with YouTube

Bitching about ads on YouTube is kind of like listening to a street musician play a couple of songs and then say "What? I should pay him too?"

Hardly. More like before every song he gives a 30-sec promotion of some product or service because he is being paid by how many people in the crowd go check out the vendor's nearby booth as a result. And I don't mean a quick shoutout or "everyone give a round of applause to so-and-so who are sponsoring me right now" situation.

Trust me, if that crap was happening in real life, no one would waste their time listening to street musicians.

Youtube wasn't about "art" originally at all.. it was about easy, free personal video hosting. It was the video answer to sites like photobucket and imageshack. No (or loose) restrictions, unlimited hosting, easy uploading, etc. It was an answer to a growing need as more and more people had access to digital video recording devices. Naturally art entered the mix, but that doesn't make it primarily an artist's platform by any means.
 
Last edited:
Why should art be free? Artists need to pay for rent and groceries as well. They also have kids to send to school.

If I remember correctly, the reason the ads were added to YouTube in the first place was that it wasn't creating revenue. When a company isn't creating revenue it's leaking money. Before long, it dies.

Bitching about ads on YouTube is kind of like listening to a street musician play a couple of songs and then say "What? I should pay him too?"

Value of a product or service is not determined by the need of the producer, but the willingness of the consumer to purchase it at a going rate influenced by supply and demand.

In other words a movie made by a billionaire is worth no more or less than a movie made by a homeless person. You don't pay for the needs of the person, you are paying for the movie. The Billionaires movie is not worth ZERO because he or she doesn't need the money, and the homeless person's movie is not worth more because they really need money.

What if you don't need to pay rent and buy groceries because you're rich? Is your video now suddenly worthless?
 


I look at this like going to the movies or renting a DVD (for real or streaming) or watching TV.

You pay either way. You either pay in dollars or you pay by watching ads which produces revenue. Most people like BOTH methods.

People are willing to pay to see the Avengers, Spiderman, Superman, etc., without commerical interruption. We'd rather pay than see it on the big screen with 30 second ads every 10 minutes.

However, if you watch the news on TV most aren't willing to pay money for that, they'd rather just pay for it with advertisement.

Same will be true for Youtube. Some stuff you'll be fine with a banner or preloaded ad. Other stuff you'd rather pay for so you can watch it ad free.

I just downloaded adblocker because of youtube video ads that run DURING my video. Halfway through the music video I'm watching I start hearing some ad for detergent or something which is retarded.
 
Bitching about ads on YouTube is kind of like listening to a street musician play a couple of songs and then say "What? I should pay him too?"

My ***** wasn't about ads per se. I was bitching about the number of them. There most certainly has been a big surge as of late. I'm not expecting either Google/You Tube or any particular contributor to put up all this material on their own dime.

You Tube is an amazing resource for information and entertainment - and just plain weird 15 minutes of fame, tragedy, and on and on. From time to time I try to remember life before YouTube.

Just whining about the amount of it. It is moving toward overkill.

a
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure who doesn't use Adblock (available for most popular browsers)...if you don't like ads, don't watch them. I don't even know they're there.

Kegan

Never heard of adblock, but I doubt it's going to cut out an imbedded ad on a video ??

'Don't like it, don't watch it'. ?? First, seems several turn up the volume, not unlike television commercials. They know you just ran to the kitchen or bathroom, so they crank it up. Sitting down at the computer to watch a certain video/s is not the same as watching telelvision. And how does one 'not know they're there' when an ad plays before the material you selected?

In all fairness there a few ads that are done very well and worth a watch or two - one in particular is about a sketch artists who draws two portraits of a select group of women. One portrait is drawn by how the women see themselves, and the other by how another woman sees them. And they look like two different people. The point was how critical women are of themselves. It's a good ad. More often they are just irritating as hell. With all the dynamics now in film, it'd be nice if some of these companies step up to t the plate and make 'mini films' be it 5 seconds or 30, and engage the potential customer beyond 'Buy this crap, because you're a dufus without it'

This is a good ad ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Um9KsrH377A

Am I going to watch a 4 minute ad to get to my selected video? No, but the point is, make it interesting if not beautiful. All doable in 30 seconds or less.

And the one about the sketching, sponsored by Dove ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw72ECvuT5c
 
Last edited:
Hardly. More like before every song he gives a 30-sec promotion of some product or service because he is being paid by how many people in the crowd go check out the vendor's nearby booth as a result. And I don't mean a quick shoutout or "everyone give a round of applause to so-and-so who are sponsoring me right now" situation.
However you put it, everybody have bills to pay. The YouTube website costs a lot to maintain. All those servers dealing with all that content. All the people working there. It's a huge business. Money has to come in from somewhere, or else the business falls apart. Since most clips on YouTube are stuff that nobody would pay to see, ads is what we get.
 
Value of a product or service is not determined by the need of the producer, but the willingness of the consumer to purchase it at a going rate influenced by supply and demand.

In other words a movie made by a billionaire is worth no more or less than a movie made by a homeless person. You don't pay for the needs of the person, you are paying for the movie. The Billionaires movie is not worth ZERO because he or she doesn't need the money, and the homeless person's movie is not worth more because they really need money.

What if you don't need to pay rent and buy groceries because you're rich? Is your video now suddenly worthless?
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here.
 
Value of a product or service is not determined by the need of the producer, but the willingness of the consumer to purchase it at a going rate influenced by supply and demand.

In other words a movie made by a billionaire is worth no more or less than a movie made by a homeless person. You don't pay for the needs of the person, you are paying for the movie. The Billionaires movie is not worth ZERO because he or she doesn't need the money, and the homeless person's movie is not worth more because they really need money.

What if you don't need to pay rent and buy groceries because you're rich? Is your video now suddenly worthless?
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here.
Yes, supply and demand. Yes, people purchase goods and services, because it's not a charity.

Complaining about ads on a site that doesn't cost money to use is, what?
 
People are probably taking the wrong approach. If everyone clicked every ad then the advertising cost for advertisers would make them less likely to place the ads if those clicks don't result in sales. Therefore, I now declare Aug 1 to be World Ad Click Day. On Aug 1 don't let an ad go unclicked, wherever you see it. Help your favorite artists and hosts and make the world a better place.
 
Back
Top