[imglorp]

Okay, I'll hate the game. The game has existed since the first radio ad spot in 1922, the first TV ad spot in 1941, and the first banner ad in 1994.

I would far rather pay an honest few cents for a page view or a video roll than be subjected to in-content advertising and begging from the creators. Certainly, creators would prefer to do their thing instead of beg and scrape.

What can we do to accelerate micropayment tech and patronage communities for creators?

[fshbbdssbbgdd]

Let’s imagine the video wasn’t ad-supported, but instead viewers had to pay some money a la carte (and YouTube gets a cut of that). Creators would still want to get more viewers to make more money, and YouTube would still have a recommendation algorithm that used signals such as likes, comments, and subscribes to decide what to recommend. So I think the ad business model isn’t really at fault here. Or rather, it’s only at fault to the extent that it’s the only viable business model for a video service as large as YouTube.

[datavirtue]

The ad supported model made sense for newspapers and magazines but it doesn't scale. Anytime you obscure the price or separate the payer from the benefit you get distorted and unforseen consequences. It took scaling this model to facebook levels before the failure reared its head and it is indeed much worse than we had ever predicted.

[notahacker]

Indeed many YouTube creators already plug the opportunity to pay an honest few c̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ dollars for their content on Patreon or their private course website in exactly the same way they ask for likes other interactions, especially if the nature of their content means they don't see [much] ad revenue.

[Aerroon]

YouTube quite literally has a subscription service. With the service you don't see ads on videos and creators get a cut based on how much you watch different content. It's been around for years, but has remained rather unpopular.

You're not wrong though. Most creators probably hate asking for stuff.

[wisty]

There's a few creators who often have a block at the end who tell you that they won't ask you to like or subscribe because even though it's good for the channel they hate doing it and refuse to do it.

[snypher]

This seems like an anti-pattern and if they were sincere, wouldn't mention it at all.

[Tarsul]

well youtube has a premium service without ads that presumably brings money to the creators. One of the music subscription services actually is about to change their system so that the money of every subscriber actually goes to the artists that THEY listen to (sorry, forgot which service it was, not spotify). So, there actually is movement in this direction. And with ads becoming ever more obnoxious (and privacy threatening) it becomes more interesting for users, too.

[pjc50]

Surprisingly, tiktok is better at this: it surfaces new content to people based on factors other than existing popularity.

> far rather pay an honest few cents for a page view or a video roll

I don't think this holds true for most people. PPV TV has always been kind of a minor thing, and eclipsed now by all-you-can-stream services. The feeling of continually inserting coins, or the taxi meter running, is uncomfortable to many people.

[mbreese]

> PPV TV has always been kind of a minor thing

This is true, but I think fails to be a good counter-example. PPV has always been expensive and focused on single events. What we haven’t seen is AWS style small payments.

Imagine if instead of paying $100/mo for cable TV, we could pay $0.25/hr. If you watched TV 24x7, you’d pay more, but the vast majority of people would pay much less.

The main problem with smaller amount PPV and micro transactions in general is that it is hard to get the billing/accounting right. But this is something that could vendors get right. You only pay for what you use, and what you get is billed in small enough increments that it makes sense for everyone involved.

How this could be applied to online videos, I’m not sure.

[krapht]

AWS style small payments existed at coin-operated arcades. They're all dead, Jim.

Micropayment news services have existed (Blendle). Unpopular.

Pay-as-you-go prepaid cell phone service is also niche. So is the a-la-carte gym membership. It's not that billing/accounting is difficult. It's that it plain straight up makes less money. SAAS vs one-time upgrades, etc.

[thaumasiotes]

> Pay-as-you-go prepaid cell phone service is also niche.

The reason for that is that it's much more expensive than paying by the month. I wanted pay-as-you-go specifically because I have nearly zero need for cell service, but would prefer to be reachable even if I'm not at home.

But you can't get a pay-as-you-go plan with pay-as-you-go pricing. T-mobile's monthly plan now is "$15" (actually something like $16.60) per month. The pay-as-you-go plan would cost less than that, given usage rates, except that it also costs $1 for each day you use it to any degree. The incredibly high minimum fee overwhelms the already small advantage of not paying for service you don't use -- as soon as you use any service, you get charged for more than a full day of every service, and then you have to pay a usage rate on top of that!

[osmarks]

It might be somewhat irrational, but I prefer the fixed-cost-for-unlimited-use model, as it makes the cost of looking at a new thing zero. If I have to pay per use, I'll be discouraged from exploring new content I might like or might not and will look at things similar to what I already see.

[lillecarl]

One problem is that this would deter people from watching, as they would only be watching what they want to see. Bad for business.

[datavirtue]

What can we do? Deregulate the payments industry. Ain't gonna happen though. The regulators and the regulated like things just the way they are.

[CraneWorm]

Why should content creators (or anyone else) have to earn money to live?

[imglorp]

Ah, the Roddenberry universe. I think that will begin after the cost of clean, limitless energy approaches zero. At that point anyone can turn dirt into a house or a hamburger so compensation becomes much less of a concern.

[scollet]

Just have to avoid the preceding world war.

[imwillofficial]

For those downvoting Parents comment, in Star Trek canon, a 3rd world preceded the creation of a unified planet.

[CRConrad]

Turning dirt into hamburger exists already; it's called agriculture.

[pessimizer]

> What can we do to accelerate micropayment tech and patronage communities for creators?

Make them nonprofit foundations democratically run rather than middlemen biding their time until they can increase their margins or sell to a megacorp.

[watwut]

You are in minority I think. Most people dont want to micro pay for entertainment.