“There’s Zero, and there’s Practically Zero. And the universe runs on Dunkin' and Practically Zero.” -Shangle
I did the graphics, but this concept is all Nyx.
We were talking about how much dedicated YouTube content creators make, and quickly agreed the answer was:
"Not much — except a permanent bed in the nuthouse, if they’re lucky. Safe and secure in the knowledge they have made their viewer's life a better place 2-4 hours at a time, at a cost of their soul."
I don't reference their soul as in it being an evil calling. Just that it is a -hard-job-.
Because it's high-volume, high-throughput, high-detail slough work tied to a persona/personality (them) that AI is still a ways[^2] from being able to fully replicate.
Sure, AI's good at some skills (e.g., basic editing; reading text while only butchering/mispronouncing/incorrectly emphasizing every dozenth word), but not the obsessive craftsmanship, the neurotic perfectionism, the soul.
The real kick in the ass? You have to market yourself through 10–15 channels just to pitch yourself, stay on people's faces and stay competitive.
And I don't think the platform that currently matters most — YouTube — even wants you to succeed.
Promoting top talent costs them more money (via payouts) and opens up liability. Admittedly, their very broad, very flat demonetization hammer, applied liberal-arbitrarily, is very good to limiting their risk.
It’s a system where your success is their problem in some ways. Because people are going to watch cat-into-wall and BMX fail videos no matter what consumer appetite currently is for learning the 10th, 11th and 12th Reason the Goblin Queen is Perhaps the X-Men's Most Deadly Foe.
Add the human factor: some of these creators are savants who live inside their subject matter.
They can’t separate it from life.
Hell, I can’t always separate one fantasy from another either, much less the baffling mystery of "reality" — I get it.
But there's no balance. Even at AAA-tier, it's still mostly a one-person show.
Rent help? Sure. But it’s still you — your face, your voice, your time.
So yeah, they can live off the gig.