Are YouTubers entrepreneurs or artists?

Hi everyone. I have been thinking a lot about YouTube recently because it turns 20 this year. The first YouTube video (“Me at the Zoo”) was published on April 23, 2005. Since then, YouTube has given us iconic videos and eras that resonate with internet culture writers and commentators like me. I’ll talk more about the old videos that are core memories on Thursday, with the help of some friends. Subscribe to the Yapper tier so you don’t miss it. 

A lot has changed since 2005, and the online landscape continues to evolve. In the course of the past two decades, YouTube has been one of the most enduring forces in digital media.

I consider a lot of the videos that were made since then as art. Trisha Paytas is a performance artist! Old videos from Smosh, Fred, and Ryan Higa are snapshots of online humor in the late-aughts. There is so much value and cultural history in the content on YouTube.

However, with millions of videos being uploaded everyday, not everything has longevity. I saw a post from Dhar Mann, who has almost 25 million subscribers, that really got me thinking about this. More below.

Are creators making content or art?

There’s a difference. Everyone is making content, but not everyone is striving to create art. Content is great for right now, but good art has longevity.

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a LinkedIn post from Dhar Mann — a top scripted creator on YouTube — comparing his studio to traditional Hollywood studios and asking which one people would invest in. 

His post created a lot of interesting discussion in the comments, which I recommend checking out. The advantages of digital, according to Mann, really come down to speed and cost of production. Creativity seems to be an afterthought in this sort of process. As such, I think it’s hard to compare what he does with some of the television that’s on right now.

Digital is a unique medium of entertainment. Like TV or film, it has a distinct visual language compared to traditional media, which is often faster, brighter, and straight to the point. This doesn’t make it better or worse, just different. 

Mann is known for creating scripted videos with a moral lesson in them. The videos usually have a very obvious hero and villain. The teachings are pretty surface level, like “don’t be a bully” or “don’t judge a book by its cover.” I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, especially considering millions of people like his videos, but there’s not a ton of depth here. 

People in the comments of his post pointed out that television as a medium has produced lasting works of art. While there are a lot of digital videos that have stuck with viewers for years, a lot of viral content today will be forgotten tomorrow.

To be fair, Mann is a businessman, and like a lot of the top YouTube creators (see: MrBeast), his emphasis seems to be on becoming the biggest, best, and most profitable. They have a founder’s mentality, which makes sense for a lot of digital creators who sit at the intersection of entertainment and tech. But this approach dissuades people from complexity, which I believe limits creativity. 

Art requires a fair amount of complexity and risk. Good art makes you think, so it should challenge you a bit. Obviously, all studios want to make money and try to adjust productions to appeal to as many people as they can. But if people just made art to get as many views as possible, then the output would be very simplistic. If investors only focused on optimizing content, then it would be even harder for artists who deviate from the norm to get their ideas made — and that’s already difficult enough these days. 

Ultimately, it’s great that creators are building their own studios, have more autonomy, and have more creative control over their content without the need for Hollywood assistance. The beauty of YouTube is that you can make whatever you want and find an audience for it, even if it’s niche. One of the biggest tenet of the creator economy is that its about the quality of your audience — not the size.

I think this is why I felt so irked by Mann’s post. The emphasis is on the numbers, rather than the content itself. Dhar Mann videos are formulaic, so his approach works because this data is useful for him to perfect the formula. While thriving studios need a big following and high engagement, those things should also not discourage creators from making something new, ambitious, or out-of-the-box. Otherwise, the churn of the content mill can lead creators to hit a wall because they are constantly chasing trends, keeping up with audience demands, and putting their own creative interests on the back burner.

Many creators have shown that YouTube videos can have depth. Videos that take a lot of time and investment can pay off on YouTube. Longform creators who take months to create high quality videos have proven this. Audiences are willing to wait if they know a video is going to be well-researched and well-executed. 

I think that creator studios and traditional studios have a lot to learn from each other about production and audience. It's clear that digital is only growing as a force in entertainment, but it is still the Wild West in many ways.

Every Monday letter gets a playlist. Let’s listen to some online stars turned pop artists!

In this week’s playlist:

• Headphones On - Addison Rae

• Make You Mine - Madison Beer

• Cut - Tori Kelly

• SMH - Jae Stephens

• Got Me Started - Troye Sivan

• Sugar Water Cyanide - Rebecca Black

• Girl is a Gun - Halsey

• There’s Nothing Holding Me Back - Shawn Mendes

Other things I want to share with you.

• YouTuber JacksFilms released a much-needed newsletter for creators and consumers on the platform. Credit the Creators hopes to highlight smaller channels and give credit where it’s due in a landscape full of thieves. 

• Charli xcx has always been big on collaborating and spotlighting other artists. Her Coachella visuals deeming this summer one for a slate of different creatives is further proof of this.

• RIP Pope Francis! Conclave heads… it’s our time to shine. Did you know that people are betting on who will become the next pope? Please God in Heaven above, grant me — an ex-Catholic Filipino — the privilege of a Filipino pope!

• To the person who organized Variety’s Actors on Actors for Broadway stars, thank you for giving us a Succession reunion. Also, pairing Cole Escola and Darren Criss is CRAZY and I LOVE it.

• Love the Haim paparazzi covers.