MAT: I'm sitting on the couch and you know what that means: I got an issue I want to talk about. In the last six months, a bunch of YouTubers, viewers, heck! Even people who work at YouTube itself have been calling me an "OG" YouTuber. Saying things like, "I've been on the platform for 10 years, MatPat's been around forever!" Well, my friends, I'm here to set the record straight: Those are lies. I have been on YouTube for 8 years, thank you very much. A long cry from ten years. I'm not "old man MatPat." Don't send me out to pasture just yet! What? Is it the beard? Is it the beard that's making me look old? Is that it? (Imitation of an old man) Old man MatPat over the hill! Is this it? Facial hair? CHRIS (off-screen): dad bod MATT: Did you just say "dad bod"? CHRIS: Dad bods are beautiful, like all bods! (MatPat laughing) (Intro music) Hello Internet! Welcome to the couch. So in my apparently ... ... long, long, long... LONG ... ... history of YouTube, I've learned a lot ... Which is what today's video is about. The story I'm telling you today is about my quest to build a better YouTube. It starts as a bit of a downer, but it will end on a note of hope. This isn't just me shouting into the void about the problems of the Internet, It's about us here trying to make this place called YouTube a safer, more stable ... ... space for all its creators, large and small, brands, safe or otherwise. In an ideal world, creators wouldn't need help. All the extra stuff that I'm about to talk about just wouldn't matter because it'd be easy to work on YouTube ... ... and be a business and not get taken advantage of by sleazy people but, the reality is that if you've worked on this platform for any period of time You know that there are hundreds if not thousands of companies out there looking to screw you over just to make a quick buck So a little over a year ago, I uploaded these two videos where I talked candidly about me and 49 other channel creators losing over 1.7 million dollars of our earnings to a shady multi-channel network. My hair was pretty bad that purple streak did not age well AT ALL. Well, old MatPat certainly did nothing to help my credibility in those videos. But the message was important right? Shady companies are out there looking to exploit creators and we all have to be more careful! In the year since uploading those videos, Steph and I, and a legal team have learned more than I ever thought I would. And more than I care to know about! Shell corporations corrupt businessmen money Laundering and all those other crimes that people tend to commit in Batman movies now if it looks like I've aged a bit in that Amount of time. Well, that's probably because of the beard we already covered that but also Because in part, it's probably true There's nothing fun about people getting screwed over and having to come face-to-face with how crappy Mankind can be to itself because here's the tea spill my friends ever since YouTube started making money for its creators There have been a slew of slimy people looking to use us and lose us squeeze us for all we're worth Burn us burn you as the fan base and then just move on to do the same thing on the next channel profit again But leave us empty and ragged in their wake and you can see why Right. Most of us were kids when we got big on the platform Some of us still are and some of us are so young that they can't make money anymore But that's because of Coppa the long and short of it is that you have these sharks in the water right and they smell blood They smell people who are successful And just want to create content and don't know the first thing about business who don't want to be business owners And so they swim on in talk about how they can help talk about how experienced they are. But they lie and You as the content creator don't know what you don't know, you know, MC ends locking creators into lifelong contracts literally lifelong owning their content and careers like some kind of 1920s movie studio creators like Shane Dawson getting swindled by merch companies you get 17 So long and I'm literally like I think I cheated in my business relations beauty Influencers getting cheated nikkietutorials cloud of two-faced they gave her a flat fee of 50,000 and that was it She made no money from the pallets Brian went on to sell over ten million dollars The thing that happened to us and defy seems to be happening right now with the me too MCN Anyway, today's video isn't about any of that or at least not directly about any of that. Those deals are all in the past no, today's episode is about moving forward and making sure that something like that never happens again, because those Experiences made me want to change the system for the better and key someone's car but mostly change the system for the better And so we and other creators won't unfairly lose our money too shady business people ever again No, a lot of you are probably already aware of the long and proud history of this channel It's time for a racist Christmas story. We're fit to burst Baby yoda, doo doo doo doo-doo, dab to you too, sir The long and proud and cringy history of this channel, but what you might not know Is that over the past eight years? I've spent thousands of hour acting as an advocate for creators off-camera I've consulted hundreds of channels individually I've spent years talking at VidCon teaching creators about optimization strategies and analytics I've talked to media companies to educate them about the world of online creators and why we matter I've spoken to the head of pretty Much every department at YouTube who I'm sure by this point are just sick of me all beating the drum of why creators matter Why we're important why we deserve respect Because honestly, I like team Internet. I think that team Internet is awesome creators rock They're just so great most of the time and so over the last year when I wasn't writing scripts about the Infinity Gauntlet over on film theory I was Working on assembling my own Infinity Gauntlet here in real life an Infinity Gauntlet filled with companies that Youtubers could trust that would deliver on their promises deliver a good product and would be transparent and give fair deals it's a gauntlet that would allow me to snap a better YouTube into existence a Paradise where creators are protected and can trust the people that they're working with where channels of all different sizes and levels of brand Safety can monetize their video without fear of yellow buttons raining from the heavens where they don't have to fear unfair copyright claims and while all of these things aren't a hundred percent there a lot of them are close enough that I can start talking to you about them now and Maybe you can take advantage of some of them and actually feel a little bit of that better world for yourself Let's start with one of the biggest infinity stone number one copyright claiming on YouTube Maybe that's the reality stone since its trying to keep content ownership real Beholden to the proper rights owners. I don't know. This is a loose analogy. It's not perfect. Okay anyway unfair copyright claiming or copy striking has become this weapon that Youtuber is easy to gainst each other companies use when they're mad at us at best copyright issues are annoying at worst They can take down your whole channel And we realized a couple years ago that we needed to find a partner who could help us fight back and protect our footage online So thank you guys for that could have happened a little bit faster than two years, but still, you know Appreciate the effort there that being said there's just some things that legally they can't do on the creator's behalf There are hundreds of rips and reuploads of content out there people stealing a channels content and then profiting off of it There's also those instances where big media company acts just doesn't want to play by the rules and still unfairly claims things Well, that's why we took matters into our own hands. We started working with a company called super BAM about a year ago Which sadly isn't a DC Comics franchise? It's what's called a rights management company they started in 2018 after they like me realize that creators were getting eaten alive by MC ins and agencies who weren't helping them with their copyright issues when their owner Ryan started super BAM the first people he talked to or Steph and I in our kitchen where all our Employees worked because this is YouTube and that's where the business gets done Now fast forward two years later and they're working with some of the most massive channels on YouTube Allowing us to protect ourselves from unfair reuploads but also counter claiming our videos so that big media company X doesn't get a hundred percent of the revenue if we just you know, Accidentally use a fraction of their song maybe they're only claiming like 50% of the revenue or less this way there's someone out there looking out for our videos and it at least makes it a lot harder for people to just Unfairly strike us because they feel like it no longer are copyright strikes inevitable at the gauntlet infinity stone number two is the other thing that all this creators worry about Monetization let's make that one the green stone the time stone for all those dolla dolla dolla bill that YouTube creators are gonna start raking in you see Getting ads on your channel used to only be something you can do through an MCN Which is how the multi-channel networks got so much power in the early days of YouTube now ads are locked behind the YouTube Partner Program Where you have to have a specific number of watch hours and a specific number of videos and subscribers to qualify It's a good program. But I'm sure you've seen that it's not without its flaws, right? It's pretty easy to get out to the brand. Nono list decree, edgy content demonetised content that might target kids de monetize anything political or lgbtq+, or violent videogames yellow icon yellow icon yellow icon yellow icons for everyone's like the Oprah of D monetization, is that a reference that people get anymore? Is that old man? Matpat talking again? Damn it Chris. Am I really that old? The uncertainty about what is and isn't allowed every time you upload is just awful and the instability in your life that yellow buttons make is literally crippling I mean that is your paycheck every month and too many creators out there not knowing What that's gonna be and more importantly why that paycheck is slowly being eaten away I mean that's perhaps the single biggest contributor to creator depression and burnout here in 2020 and all of this is without even Mentioning how adhering to vague brand safety standards has watered-down content and ruined a lot of the authenticity that this platform was originally built on so Knowing that this is such a massive problem for creators Steph and I have been having discussions with YouTube for the last year trying to help them understand the scope of the problem Anyway, I can't quite go into specifics here just yet because it is still so early in the process and honestly There's a lot of confidentiality tied to this but suffice it to say we've been having a lot of success working alongside YouTube to brainstorm and build potential solutions and it's important to call out to their credit YouTube has been incredibly receptive in all this I know a lot of times YouTube gets a bad rap from us in the Creator community Yes, including this channel, but in this case They understand the problem and all the teams that were working alongside care about finding solutions for it all of us all Of us both us and internally at YouTube We've all done a lot of championing internally to try and find something that everyone can agree on Like I said, I can't say a lot more than that right now But after a year coming up on like a year and a half It seems like things are finally moving in the Rye direction. The ball is rolling and things are starting to happen Which in turn might solve a lot of issues with monetization that creators have been having for like what the last three years or so thereby make YouTube a more stable and satisfying career choice for more of the content creators from more of the verticals that exist here on the platform Different content types heck even yueji creators great. There is still hope for you. I've not given up on you So fingers crossed that these initial tests go well if they do I'll probably be able to let you know more about all of this then it might be a bit premature to attitude gauntlet But you know what? I can't let spaces on this gauntlet be empty, right? Ad in the green speaking of ways to earn money Let's take a break from topics that are way too insider for viewers to care about and talk Merchandise what's known is this gonna be? Let's call it the blue space stone because it takes up space in your closet. I don't know This one's the hardest one to fit in. Alright, real talk most youtuber merch It's not great my love to say this as a youtuber it it's terrible. A lot of it is just bad I'm sorry. I have to say it. I'm ripping off the band-aid right here But a lot of it just isn't super thoughtfully made and it's not great quality and it's expensive I know cuz I've ordered a lot of y'all's merch I've talked to a lot of y'all's companies I'm not gonna be spilling tea on anyone here because a lot of the problem is with the merch company itself and not with the Youtuber we've talked to them all and we've seen a lot of their best samples It's just bad The whole point of being on YouTube is that you have your own unique Community with its own look and feel and you've created this valuable bram. That means something to you and to your audience So, why does every youtuber have merch that just boils down to a logo printed on the front of a hoodie? It's not even printed on all that. Well, well a lot of it is made by a couple of big merch companies It's just the same provider for the bulk of it and the way that these companies work is by buying a ton of wholesale fabric and I mean hundreds of thousands of yards of Wholesale fabric and then they just make cookie cutter pieces Dozens dozens hundreds thousands sweatshirt check t-shirt check check then they pressure their youtubers that they represent into selling that stuff because they make Zillions of the same black t-shirt and that's just sitting in a warehouse and they need to figure out a way to get rid of It so you slap on a new name a new logo something vaguely Trendy and relevant to that audience on the shirt and boom There you go youtuber merch and really historically that's been the only option that youtubers have it's very very rare to find a hundred percent custom clothing that is sourced by a youtuber you have stuff like Teddy Fresh and Sookie market that are semi custom lines that do a ton of work and Kathy hoes Blogilates lines are some of the only hundred percent custom source products. I've seen across this platform Most youtubers can't manage something like that on their own so they need some kind of third parties some kind of merch partner hence why they end up with so many bad deals with merch companies that are pressuring them into selling the same old stuff for The same old junky revenue splits. So instead of going with merch company that's already out there We took a chance on two guys who just wanted to create a solution for better youtuber merch We help them start creator Inc from the ground up we were literally their only client for almost a year the first time that we met with them they sat us down and reviewed merch vocabulary words because they knew that if we were educated we would then be empowered to make Smarter decisions about what we wanted to deliver to our audience and not get screwed over. They showed us their financials They explained exactly where the money was going and where the merch was coming from. We are really uptight .. I don't know if you can tell we're super tight bey. We are really really uptight though when it comes to our merch because I don't know it's it's it's like your fans are holding a physical representation of you and your brand in their hands and I've never really understood why people aren't more picky about what they're sending out to their fans But anyway crater Inc is the only company that we'll work with when it comes to March because they're the only one who doesn't have Just a giant warehouse full of sweatshirts somewhere waiting to get sold which means that there's no reason to sell anything if it isn't Right for you guys watching for your audience for our audience If you've ever ordered merch from us, you know that almost everything we do is what's called cut And so it means that we are literally designing each item from scratch We are sourcing the fabric we're figuring out how to get it made and then we're figuring out how to get into everyone's hands this Is not a Mirchi head by the way, I don't even have a merch release ready right now Which come to think of it was pretty poor planning on my part should have Thought of that one a little bit better. Anyway kind of kicking myself but you know what one of the reasons why is that this kind of stuff takes time to make Especially when you're custom making things It just yields a better product and maybe that's the reason why people don't care as much We're just again. Type-a we care too much anyway Consider that space stone number three fill up the space in the closet Mixed up the Power Stone because knowledge is power and here on YouTube data is the knowledge that you need to succeed now I've been harping about YouTube analytics for years. I talked about it at VidCon every year I've done consulting with YouTube analytics since 2012 for a bunch of different creators back in the day I used to teach people about this crazy new idea wait for it called watch time and No one believed me back then and we see how important that metric is now now in their defense at the time I looked like a 12 year old who is dressed like a 40 year old stockbroker? So that might have hurt my credibility a little bit point is there were supposed to be all these Businesses out there that were helping creators understand their analytics and optimizing their channels But they never did so I created my own systems where I calculated ratios like subscribers 4,000 views and 30-day averages Engagement ratios all of this stuff all of which are standard data points that the agencies use now nowadays YouTube analytics is a lot better than it used to be but it still only lets you look at your own channel data, which Okay makes a ton of sense, you know share the data from a bunch of other people but what if I wanted to find a new channel to collab with that had roughly the same size as my channel or What if I wanted to know which creators are on the rise? What kind of content they're making what keywords they're using in their titles what if I want to know the hottest topics to cover so I can either ride those trends or Avoid them at all costs to try and create a new trend Well for that I helped develop gospel stats Starting back in 2016 Steph and I started advising two guys who? like us wanted to create a data tool for youtubers that people would actually use think Socialblade but with a lot more features and without the annoying layout or if you're an industry insider think tubular labs But you can actually afford it without mortgaging your house for the monthly subscription fees You probably haven't heard about gospel stats because it's not quite public yet, and it's not ready for primetime But it's getting close getting real close and I'll be talking about it more when it is and it's gonna be awesome. And yes Mr. Beast I know that you've requested access to it. And don't worry. You're on the wait list already twice I see you I know you're just as big of a data. Junkie as I am embrace it my friend Embrace the purple Power Stone and last but certainly not least the soul stone I think we can all agree that we've been disappointed to some extent that the quote unquote soul of YouTube The creators have been lost to some of the big media companies Right the Jimmy Fallon's the late-night shows the world used to be the ones that we would complain about But now it's just like anyone who does entertainment is here on YouTube And those channels are big big celebrities are here and that's great. It's good for the ecosystem But you know Some of the soul has been lost and a lot of this goes back to profitability and overall public perception you see this one is about how Youtubers are viewed by the larger entertainment universe up to now YouTube's first media companies companies like fearest Inc us Have been second-class citizen to marketers and brands out there who would be sponsoring us or working with us? We get brand deals absolutely but old school media companies think vogue or Disney Fox HBO Whatever have been doing way more than that. Why don't you tubers do more with the big advertisers of the world? Well, honestly, it's not that the advertisers are bad or ignoring YouTube or something one of the biggest reasons is because big media companies are just that they're big if you think about a company like Viacom they have Dozens of TV networks not just a couple of large YouTube channels when advertisers see those huge Audiences and people watching all over the world. They pay attention. They can use up their marketing budget in one place they can reach a ton of people and basically know what they're getting you tubers even some of the biggest in the world just aren't Big enough to make a dent like that and advertisers don't know most YouTube channels. There's just too many out there to know So how do creators compete how do you tubers make themselves big enough to win back the soul of the platform? Well last year, I started a group alongside three other big YouTube companies You know them because they have channels like good mythical morning binging with babish fve even dead meat We teamed up to form a brand new group The Avengers of YouTube. Not really. I'm just caught up with a stupid gauntlet analogy No a coalition of channels that's now going out to big brands as a group directly in a way that's never been done before It's not an MCN. No one gets anyone's ads since no one owns any part of anyone else instead It's like the biggest YouTube collab that's ever been done at the company level at a time to help promote one another to promote what it means to be a YouTube creator to show that YouTube creators people who grew up on this platform are big enough and serious enough and Important enough to compete with the Viacom's and condé Nast's and yes Even the Disney's it's exciting for the first time ever YouTube companies can offer what's called enterprise-level solutions, which is like complete business school Jargon, but in plain English It just means that we're big enough to do the same things as vogue or Conde Nast or some of the other big media companies Out there who have had these huge advantages for years. Will it be successful? Will it change the way that YouTube companies are treated? I don't know but I've never seen this done before and as someone who is a big believer in the power of collaboration and a big believer in the power of YouTube creators I think that this has the potential to change the entire industry, which is luck and sorry It's not a service that you can just call up yet It's still too early in the game for anything like that but it is something that is so important and something that is so big that we've been working on in the background that I just needed to talk about it here and That's it for now in my quest to build a better YouTube for structuring out this Infinity Gauntlet Some of it like superb am and creator Inc They're already available for creators to start taking advantage of have those conversations with those guys These teams are great and they care first and foremost about helping out the creator ecosystem respecting who we are and what we do other stuff are still in the processes we run final tests and hopefully prove how valuable they are the point of all of this that's entire video today is that youtubers just deserve to work with people that they trust and they deserve to be able to talk about the business side of what they Do yes, sometimes we make videos where we hold weird soap hams in our kitchen. Sometimes we build robots in our kitchen Sometimes we're just sitting and crying on our kitchen floor We're doing a lot of things in the kitchen, by the way But we're all kind of going through the same stuff and through this video and through all of these behind-the-scenes efforts I just want to make it okay to talk about the stuff. We're going through and more importantly Do something about it over the last eight years? This channel has been working behind the scenes as a sort of Canary in the coal mine of sorts for a lot of new things in this industry, right? There's a new company to work with well, we'll talk to them see what they have to say new YouTube beta program out there Sure, turn on that wacky new product feature and we'll give it a whirl in the end It's always been with the goal to better ourselves and better this ecosystem for all of us creators and viewers alike We are The future of entertainment here on YouTube each and every person who runs a channel out there you are a business owner whether you realize it or not never anticipated being an entrepreneur never wanted to be an entrepreneur, but Here I am and you deserve partners who aren't gonna screw you over Someone who's gonna respect you and the work that you're doing and as someone who's been there old man matt has been there for a long time and as a result has seen a lot of things both the good and the bad the point of all of this is that just trying to help and By the way, sorry. if you're a viewer of this channel and you're hoping for anything remotely video game related in this video that was not the day for you to tune in I'm afraid, so no scrubbing out of that one for me, but hopefully you found it interesting. Behind the scenes business of YouTube is always pretty scandalous. Pretty pretty edgy. Right. Let's face it. You're probably not even watching at this point. If you are watching, then comment squeegee(FYI, this is how you spell it) in the comments below because it's a funny word and I want to see the different spellings of squeegee that exist out there. Later this week, don't worry about it; We're back to regularly scheduled Game Theory programming. In the meantime. . . Remember, this was not a theory. This was me trying to do my part to make YouTube just a little bit better! Thanks for watching!
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Watched the entire video and it was pretty good.
But... Who was that bearded man, and what did he do with Mattpat?
He didn’t mention the mind stone
Can we get a couch pat channel? we'd get less people complaining about this kinda content being OT and stuff like that
OMG facial hair.
Wow, first Pewdiepie and now Matpat. I wonder who's the next youtuber that will go bald.
The beard. The beard. The beardddddddd...
This sounded like a really long ad to promote services he's part of.
I think the most interesting part of the whole thing was the large group effort from multiple channels/creators to band together better negotiate marketing deals. Saw a lot of big names on there, representing a diverse viewing audience.