In the ten years since Youtube launched the platform has revolutionised how we create, share and consume video content. It’s now rivalling TV and its young stars are among the most influential entertainers on the internet.
In October Forbes put together a list of the most highly paid Youtube stars. In order to be included on the list a channel had to pull in $2.5 million in pretax earnings in the year ending June 1, 2015. The figures are based on data from Nielsen, IMDB and other sources, as well as on interviews with agents, managers, lawyers, industry insiders and the stars themselves.
The top earner is Felix Kjellberg, also known as PewDiePie. With his 40 million subscribers he earns a nice $12 million before tax every year. He’s had a South Park episode dedicated to him and an NPR article compares Kjellberg to Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, someone capable of defining a generation.
Just below Kjellberg, sharing second place in the earnings league, are comedy act Smosh and The Fine Brothers, who film other people reacting to Youtube videos. Both earned around $8.5 million pre-tax. Then comes artist Lindsey Stirling, who brings in $6 million per year by playing a violin and dancing.
In fifth place are Rhett McLaughlin and Charles Lincoln Neal III, the duo behind Good Mythical Morning. The pair earn around $4.5 million per year hosting the Youtube version of a morning show. According to Forbes nearly half of their income comes from sponsored deals. British video game commentator KSI, Olajide Olatunji, brings in the same amount per year and has launched a rap career on the back of his Youtube fame.
Not all of the earnings above come from Youtube. According to Forbes:
Most of their earnings comes from advertisements—both sponsored, integrated content and the pesky, inescapable previews—but some of these stars are diversifying into the television, movie and music industries. The publishing industry has been especially welcoming to these stars: Four have books out or in the pipeline. A few have their own product lines, selling everything from beanies and underwear to eyeliner and lip-gloss.
In 2013, YouTube attracted all of Advertising Age’s 100 top spending brands. The company’s ad revenue for last year, according to eMarketer, totaled about $5.6 billion, up 51 percent from 2012. (By comparison, CBS, the most-watched network and three-quarters of a century old, reported $8.5 billion in ad revenue in 2012, the last full year for which data is available.)
A large audience
According to the BBC data analysed by video intelligence company Tubular Labs shows that 17,000 creators have more than 100,000 subscribers – and 1,275 of these creators are registered in the UK. As many as 1,477 YouTube creators have more than a million subscribers, and 147 of these creators are registered in the UK.
What drives the fame and success of these Youtube stars? According to Dominic Smales, who founded management company Gleam Futures and manages British Youtube stars like Zoe Suggs, it comes down to relatability.
“All of them have the ability to connect and entertain global audiences who feel like they have a real relationship with those guys, and they do,” he tells the BBC.
“They are who they are and there are no skeletons in the closet and I think people feel like these are people just like me.”
“I relate to them as my friend rather than being an untouchable character on a big screen.”
Many Youtubers – a few top earners
Just uploading a couple of videos to Youtube won’t lead to instant fame and success. According to Smales it’s “very hard work and all of our talent work very hard at making a career out of it. It’s not until you get a really big audience that you can start being able to pay the bills with it”.
David Burch, a TubeMogul spokesman, tells the New York Times in 2014 that most YouTube video makers do not sell an ad on every view of a video. “It varies a ton, but it wouldn’t usually be more than half, and for many partners it is more like two out of every 10 views will have a video ad,” he said. “It is an advertiser’s market.”
In such a situation, he said, ads for two out of every 10 views would amount to $2,000, based on a million views. And then YouTube takes 45 percent.
According to Youtube looking at what the platform can provide in terms of revenue is the wrong approach. Their view is that the platform gives content creators a chance to build a worldwide viewership that can lead to income from sources other than direct ads.
Will Youtube kill the TV star?
Television celebrities like Jamie Oliver and Ricky Gervais have spotted the potential in connecting with their own online audience via Youtube. Both have already created their own Youtube channels.
Dominic Smales thinks people will still watch television in future, but it won’t necessarily be transmitted live into people’s homes.
“Everything is heading towards coming down an internet pipe, even though it will still be your TV or your screen that’s in your living room that you might consume a lot of content on,” he says.
“This is only going to grow. It’s a seismic shift in the way that generations consume media and celebrity.”
On the 26th of January we’re hosting a seminar looking at video and the Youtube paradox – YouTube stars are creating both vast audiences and revenue while music artists and the music industry continue to see YouTube only as a marketing platform and just one of many revenue streams. Find out more about Music 4.5 Video: The YouTube Paradox and book your early bird ticket before the 30th of November.
Image of Lindsey Stirling via Wikipedia.
