Facebook vs Youtube (facebook could be winning)

First of all, this isnt a rant but an observation. There has recently been a paradigm shift at least from what I have experienced over the last year. Not sure if anyone else has. Facebook has doubled down as a video sharing and monetization platform and has recently proven much more effective than Youtube. I have similar number of followers on youtube and facebook however the response is much better on facebook, both in terms of revenue and engagement. People on facebook seem to easily engage with the videos compared to youtube. Could facebook covertly pass youtube as a video platform?

There could be several reasons for this, but the ones that stand out the most are the age group engagement. Facebook engagements are mostly from users in the 30+ bracket and engagements from users on youtube mostly in the 13-30 bracket. Either the folks who used to use youtube a few years ago have grown older and moved on to facebook more or simply the fact that an entire generation is more likely to share things than the newer one.

Around 2018 Youtube turned a blind eye towards the smaller creators and started favoring the big commercial entertainment brands in hopes to become the next big entertainment platform. This is largely evident from their changes to video suggestion and subscriber notification algorithm.

Youtube searches have also gone down drastically and suggestions from the sidebar are the major drivers of youtube views which are dominated by much larger entertainment brands. Effectively killing the smaller creators over time. Before 2018 it was possible for a small creator to have a good influx of viral videos, now that rate is very controlled by youtube which effectively limits the exposure of viral content. More and more channels are shutting down every day and content creators making their goodbye videos. This change has impacted musicians more than the “how to” , “reviews” or tutorial creators.

As for me, I refused to be dinosaured by Youtube and geared my production towards facebook instead and getting results. In terms of monetized video views, engagement and album sales. Sales arent super high or anything from either sources, we are talking comparing low hundreds over a month.
Yes there was a time Youtube was a major revenue source. You could generate over 2500$ a month in its golden period, but that period is now over and most youtubers (including me) struggle to get a paycheck of a 100$ a month from youtube. Facebook could have jumped in at the right time and maybe lending a hand to the disgruntled youtubers ditching youtube.

Here is a screen shot of a recent response from Youtube vs Facebook with similar number of followers and similar timing of videos. You can see drastic differences in engagement from your subscribers / followers. It used to be quite the opposite in the 2010 - 2016 era. But now the numbers have reversed. I have over 100k views on facebook compared to low thousands on youtube recently.

Facebook however makes it very hard to publish and monetize content. The quality control and requirements are quite monumental. You need 15,000 engagements on your page on a 60 day cycle , thousands of likes (which is very hard to do for new creators starting off) and a gritty approval process but it is a start. In case someone is interested these are the benchmarks to be a paid content creator on facebook.

I decided to share this because like most Musicians, I am extremely concerned regarding the well being and future of the music creators in the online world. Some things to think about.

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I have always thought of Facebook as more of a sharing site than YouTube.
Your contacts are a click away, and if your account has the correct settings, the content is automatically shared by the site.

YouTube has been to me at least, a loner site where I look for tutorials from interesting, but obscure contributors. I always avoid the “influencer” contributors because their followers seem downright obsessed with them. Any constructive comments posted appears to the followers as an attack on the contributor or themselves.

You mentioned “You need 15,000 engagements on your page on a 60 day cycle”; what is the definition of an engagement ? That seems like it would take so much effort, one wouldn’t have much time left to create content.

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Likes, shares and comments combined. Its a pretty steep requirement. Though it might get relaxed over time.

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Today feels like official Death of You Tube (DOYT) day. [cue “Funeral March” :musical_note:]

Capitalism … watcha gonna do?. :slightly_smiling_face: Like many things, YouTube has gone the way of neo-liberal corporatism. Remember that cool band you discovered and loved their first album … and then within a few albums they had “sold out” their integrity to the corporate machine?

So maybe YouTube started out as a Socialist worker co-op in a sense. You could own your brand and your content and compete on a level playing field. And get paid for it. Then Google bought it and made it a Capitalist cash cow for the baser forms of entertainment from “content creators”. I don’t have any direct evidence at this point, but it seems like many of those huge subscriber account content creators have business managers and maybe even corporate conglomerate sponsorship. Seeing how the massive advertising push got meshed in with content creation is a clue. :wink:

While YouTube might be called “social media”, it’s a different beast than the others. A different means of engagement. Less social in a sense, and more addictive, like Television (remember that dinosaur? :laughing:). In a sense, “You Tube is the new Television”. Isn’t human advancement wonderful? :smirk:
.
intelligence

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they should change their name from “You” tube to “Corp” tube /rant

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They demonetized my channel which had one video that was making me around $200/year. Dumbasses. lol

Humorously enough, I recently ditched cable TV for YouTube TV. Much less expensive and I can control the order in which my channels are listed AND can hide channels that do not interest me.

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Was it a home video? I have been hearing similar stories from video makers, they are demonetizing funny home videos, random home pet videos etc from channels that dont regularly post videos. They want more “commercially viable content”. Meaning if you arent someone obsessed with cats and like to film them everyday, you arent considered a serious commercially viable video maker.

On the contrary they sent me some kind of youtube content creator appreciation letter to keep going but make content that is “long” … soo I will be making 30 min long music videos somehow :smiling_imp: (cough 1hr loops)

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A disciplined and managed approach is always helpful. :slightly_smiling_face:

I’m sure that they prefer content that can be used for advertising, and I believe there’s something to the length of a video that relates to number of plays or watching all the way through. I think I read that videos over 8-10 minutes are desirable from their standpoint, which is difficult for a music video in most contemporary formats. Longer videos are probably less likely to have full views IMO, depending on what the content is. We all pretty much have ADD at this point. :dizzy_face:

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You can say that again. I am going to change my youtube strategy to move towards soundscapes, they are timeless, can use a simple visualizer and dont require me to do makeup :nail_care:

on a positive note, I did get a small recognition for making top 5% channels on youtube globally but it was quickly overshadowed by their remarks and recent changes. I have mixed feelings, It is sad to see youtube die a slow commercial death… on the other hand I also feel a sense of relief

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Seems like they went from “YouTube” to "THEMTube… talk about spurning your core user-base when the big $$$ show up!

This is VERY noticeable of late…lately, when I’m trying to watch a video on music/audio, YT forces me to watch ads that go for 2-5 minutes with no option to skip. When I refresh, another one comes up. They’re mostly for idiot “beatmakers” and “prodoosers” nodding their head over-enthusiastically to some mundane, unadorned midi beat and telling me they can teach me “how do do dat”…yeah, right!.. Of absolutely no interest to me at all…

Perversely, just to see how ridiculous it had become, I kept hitting “refresh” in my browser as soon as I saw another ad. I stopped after 22(!) ads in a row. Then I experimented with how long I had to watch the ad for before YT deigned to let me watch my desired clip… I think the algorithm now makes you watch for at least a minute or more.

I wonder how long before there is a backlash… I tend to be far more patient with these things than most people…

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It was the video below. Their reason was that the video wasn’t getting enough traffic to sustain steady something. I don’t recall what exactly “something” was, but it a bullshit reason.

likely… too cool for ThemTube! :joy:

Another twist to the story though… on the original topic of FB vs YT
There is another level of checkpoint before getting paid of Facebook. Also looks like they have a gray area when it comes time to get paid. The check point is that they get to decide randomly which video is eligible and which isnt (unlike youtube) every video is manually reviewed before earnings are cashed out. At that point you may or may not get your money when the time comes. I hope this process gets smoother if they are to compete with Youtube’s smooth payout system

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Here’s my take for what it may be worth. Use YouTube as your MTV. It gets lots of traffic even though you will make next to nothing.

Use facebook to link videos or whatever and make sure you NEVER put product on YouTube.

The people posting their albums there while having them on iTunes etc don’t have a clue. Keep your songs on a pay server like tune core etc and video on YouTube or facebook.

Meaning, if you are playing your flute in real time to one of your songs or singing at a show, this is different than your album. Allow the video to sell your music on your media sites that sell them.

A major problem with YouTube is people can steal your stuff and listen indefinitely. Just load up Audacity, set it up for “what you hear” using a windows soundcard, and bam…never pay again for anything.

So, if you use it for live stuff or video presentations like the old MTV would while steering people to your media sales sites, you have a much better way to make a few bucks. YouTube is the worst. Didn’t poor Peter Frampton have 3.8 million plays and only made $1500? Use YouTube for anything video that people can’t buy from you. And if you want to actually create a video that you want to sell, don’t put it on YouTube.

As for the question at hand, facebook is probably the better place right now though YouTube will always have the most viewers. If you pay facebook and become one of the “sponsored” adds, you can make a few bucks more.

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Very educating, thank you Flute Cafe

I’m probably missing something here, but why don’t you share your YT videos to FB and get the best of both worlds?

Facebook doesn’t like anything that takes people away from facebook. They’ll hide posts from most people if you just link to a youtube video. If you want to post a link to an external site and have people see it, you have to give facebook money.

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Yes that is correct, and its true for YouTube as well. If your youtube video takes people away from YouTube it will be pushed down in priority.

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