4 ms·

I love the idea of this project. But unfortunately there are economic reasons that make PeerTube unlikely to win. It's not even about the cost of video hosting,

I love the idea of this project. But unfortunately there are economic reasons that make PeerTube unlikely to win. It's not even about the cost of video hosting, it would apply even if hosting was free. Imagine yourself as a popular creator. You can put up your videos on an ad-free platform where users can watch them without distractions and be happy. Or you can put them on an ad-supported platform and get a cut of the sweet ad money. As your videos become more popular, the temptation to go for (2) will become stronger. So the free platform will experience a drain of the most popular content, and viewers will flock away accordingly too. The same argument applies more generally to free vs commercial platforms. It's basically the reason why the internet sucks so much today. If there's a way to square this circle, I don't know it.

seydor 3y ago
It doesn't have to be ad-free, just someone has to have a nice interface and set up the advertisement/payments platform. There s clearly a market for advertising outside google: all those companies that sponsor videos. In fact it seems youtubers make more money from that than they make from google So someone has to make the effort.
rakoo 3y ago
You can't seriously put out your 1-minute theory that goes against more than ample evidence to say this is going to happen to peertube. The premise itself is wrong: the conditions of "winning" are not the same, to the point that it's not even useful to use that word. The metric of success for Peertube, and Framasoft, is how free the society and its communities are. Seeing the trend of the fediverse and of Libre softwares being used more and more tells me they are on a very good trajectory.
zoogeny 3y ago
To combat your pessimism - I would point to podcasts. In general, these were distributed on free platforms. The content became profitable through sponsorships. That is, the content creator does a deal directly with a brand to include a spot within the content read out by the presenter. So, there is a clear and well-trodden path to monetization for content creators even on free distribution platforms. Of course, as anyone who watches enough YouTube knows content creators double-dip on commercial platforms by including sponsorships and getting a cut of AdSense - so there is still a major advantage to also publishing on YouTube. But for the sponsorship, the value of the deal is related to overall reach across all platforms. That might give incentive for creators to release on multiple platforms, as long as the main commercial platform doesn't enforce exclusivity.
- tshaddox 3y ago
  I don't have data about how common various podcast monetizing techniques are, but my impression is that it's quite common for the podcast hosting provider to inject ads into the audio file at download time, enabling them to target ads based on the downloader's IP address or whatever other information they have about the downloader.
  - pipo234 3y ago
    I don't have stats either, but working for a company that offers the shuffles for that kind of monetization for streaming media (jitm packaging and remix, drm, personalized ads, live2vod) and enthusiastic Podcast listener I tend to believe quite the opposite. (Jit ad insertion is popular in video (ie FAST) but we barely ever sell this to audio shops) Dominant (tech) podcasts seem to favour focus on production, not distribution. Spotify went in guns ablaze and mostly failed. Personally targeting outside walled gardens often misses basic stuff like ads in a matching language. Content catalogue is billboard-irrelevant class. Nothing remotely near classic product placement or creator curated ads.
  - stefandesu 3y ago
    > inject ads into the audio file at download time, enabling them to target ads based on the downloader's IP address I've only had this happen once. The experience was so irritating that I probably won't ever listen to a podcast that does this. It just cut off without notice and suddenly a German ad played during an English-speaking podcast. (I get why they do it, but I hate it. In that particular case, I actually signed up for their ad-free premium thing because I really want to listen to it and it's actually reasonably priced.)
- repelsteeltje 3y ago
  > Of course, as anyone who watches enough YouTube knows content creators double-dip on commercial platforms by including sponsorships and getting a cut of AdSense - so there is still a major advantage to also publishing on YouTube. Maybe add for the time being. I mean yes sure some creators double dip - they probably need the money. For the moment YouTube might allow that, but them being the platform, they might change the rules any time. It your viewers aren't yours, and the ads aren't either, you're not in a great position to profit from distribution ofyour content.
MiguelX413 3y ago
I don't want for-profit content anyways so Peertube is perfect for me.

seydor 3y ago

It doesn't have to be ad-free, just someone has to have a nice interface and set up the advertisement/payments platform. There s clearly a market for advertising outside google: all those companies that sponsor videos. In fact it seems youtubers make more money from that than they make from google So someone has to make the effort.

rakoo 3y ago

You can't seriously put out your 1-minute theory that goes against more than ample evidence to say this is going to happen to peertube. The premise itself is wrong: the conditions of "winning" are not the same, to the point that it's not even useful to use that word. The metric of success for Peertube, and Framasoft, is how free the society and its communities are. Seeing the trend of the fediverse and of Libre softwares being used more and more tells me they are on a very good trajectory.

zoogeny 3y ago

To combat your pessimism - I would point to podcasts. In general, these were distributed on free platforms. The content became profitable through sponsorships. That is, the content creator does a deal directly with a brand to include a spot within the content read out by the presenter. So, there is a clear and well-trodden path to monetization for content creators even on free distribution platforms. Of course, as anyone who watches enough YouTube knows content creators double-dip on commercial platforms by including sponsorships and getting a cut of AdSense - so there is still a major advantage to also publishing on YouTube. But for the sponsorship, the value of the deal is related to overall reach across all platforms. That might give incentive for creators to release on multiple platforms, as long as the main commercial platform doesn't enforce exclusivity.

tshaddox 3y ago
I don't have data about how common various podcast monetizing techniques are, but my impression is that it's quite common for the podcast hosting provider to inject ads into the audio file at download time, enabling them to target ads based on the downloader's IP address or whatever other information they have about the downloader.
- pipo234 3y ago
  I don't have stats either, but working for a company that offers the shuffles for that kind of monetization for streaming media (jitm packaging and remix, drm, personalized ads, live2vod) and enthusiastic Podcast listener I tend to believe quite the opposite. (Jit ad insertion is popular in video (ie FAST) but we barely ever sell this to audio shops) Dominant (tech) podcasts seem to favour focus on production, not distribution. Spotify went in guns ablaze and mostly failed. Personally targeting outside walled gardens often misses basic stuff like ads in a matching language. Content catalogue is billboard-irrelevant class. Nothing remotely near classic product placement or creator curated ads.
- stefandesu 3y ago
  > inject ads into the audio file at download time, enabling them to target ads based on the downloader's IP address I've only had this happen once. The experience was so irritating that I probably won't ever listen to a podcast that does this. It just cut off without notice and suddenly a German ad played during an English-speaking podcast. (I get why they do it, but I hate it. In that particular case, I actually signed up for their ad-free premium thing because I really want to listen to it and it's actually reasonably priced.)
repelsteeltje 3y ago
> Of course, as anyone who watches enough YouTube knows content creators double-dip on commercial platforms by including sponsorships and getting a cut of AdSense - so there is still a major advantage to also publishing on YouTube. Maybe add for the time being. I mean yes sure some creators double dip - they probably need the money. For the moment YouTube might allow that, but them being the platform, they might change the rules any time. It your viewers aren't yours, and the ads aren't either, you're not in a great position to profit from distribution ofyour content.

MiguelX413 3y ago

I don't want for-profit content anyways so Peertube is perfect for me.