YouTube Cutting Off Smallest Channels

Small creators reeling from change in policy, but they shouldn’t be surprised. This was a long time coming…

Hear that? That’s the sound of the other shoe dropping.

It’s impossible to link any one particular channel or controversy to the recent announcement that YouTube intends to pull back monetization tools from many of its smallest channels. There have been so many incidents, so many negative think-pieces from publications outside the creator space, so many intrinsic, chronic problems, that this feels like a decision long in the making, as opposed to a knee-jerk reaction to negative press.

That the platform has problems is undeniable. There’s simply more content being created than there are human eyeballs to monitor it, and, no matter what system they put in place to stop bad actors from violating their guidelines, there will always be problematic material falling through the cracks. In that regard, requiring more substantial vetting of a channel before allowing them access to monetization tools should at least make a dent in the number of said bad actors infecting the platform. True, ads might still run on problematic videos, but without the financial incentive for the creator, there should also be less of those videos to deal with.

But the real issue here, I think, as is usually the case, is money. The smallest channels on YouTube hurt the company’s bottom line. There’s a certain cost to every video, to every view, for the site itself, and, when numbers are low, those costs overwhelm any potential gains from ad revenue. Simply put, YouTube is losing money, and small channels are the primary cause. It’s pretty much commonly accepted that the site itself has never made a profit. As time goes on, that position becomes less tenable, as more pressure mounts for the company to make changes and get themselves into the black.

If you ask me, that simply means they need to play the long game. I’m no expert, but I have to believe the value of owning the predominant video platform of the future outweighs whatever losses you take in the short term. But, it’s clear that Google is unwilling to give YouTube that kind of infinite runway. They want it to make money. Soon. That means fewer creators at the bottom, and more money at the top.

This is why this culling of smaller channels from the monetization tools is so discouraging. It’s not that this particular decision is, in and of itself, so awful. Yes, the goal posts have been moved, and many creators focused on developing an audience for short-form content, animators in particular, find themselves with new metrics on which to focus, but those metrics are still relatively attainable. It doesn’t, though, feel like this is the end. Instead, this feels like the first step in a piecemeal process that will slowly chip, chip, chip away at the bottom of the pyramid. From this point on, it would be surprising if any announcement YouTube makes ever brings more creators into the fold. It’s all going to be about thinning the herd, about raising the bar higher and higher, so they don’t have to deal with the problems such a huge stockpile of content creates.

And what does that mean for the creators themselves? It means it’s going to be even tougher to get started. Granted, it’s been a long time since the golden age where it seemed anyone could start a YouTube channel and, if they worked hard, expect returns in the foreseeable future, but it was still a place you could get noticed, and, if you went viral, could expect real rewards for that achievement. Now, it seems, you have to work even harder just to get to the starting line, and that means figuring out other ways to support yourself, and your craft, both when you begin and on an ongoing basis, as you grow. Diversify your monetization, and set realistic expectations, recognizing it could be a long time before you start seeing an income, even a small one, from ad revenue. And, most importantly, build a platform-agnostic brand that doesn’t rely on any one site to survive. Their priorities are not your priorities.