"When did YouTuber become professional?" Topic

I am fascinated by the number of hobby YouTubers that now have a studio.

We're not talking about dedicated space in the basement but an actual rent paid for studio in a light industrial area. Clearly this pays too well.

"Money makes the world go around
The world go around, the world go around"

and its alot of work to do a 15 minite piece

Snarky Jay 😳 has a video where she goes into detail how much work goes into a video. It's all a one-girl production.
She splices in a lot of "relevant" clips and does a lot of editing. And she's gorgeous to boot.
You're welcome.

The democratization of entertainment

"The democratization of entertainment."
Oh definitely. It sure pokes a hole in the "I saw it on the internet, so it has to be true."
It has eliminated the need for professional editors and proofreading. For good or bad.

You mean like the Professional editior/proof readers at Smithsonian channel. Where I watched a documentory on the Pacific war and the said we had 7 Battleships at the Battle of Savo Island.

It's more that anyone can afford to do all of it, and by themselves. As with any marketplace, there's a whole lot of crud. But here and there, you can find quality.
Which really isn't any different from what the "professionals" have given us over the years.
"90% of everything is crud."— Sturgeon's Law.

Not sure it pays "too well "

If it pays enough to invest that heavily then I guess people are going give it a go. Most will likely not do great – an analogy would be that there are a 1000 bands you haven't heard of for every Rolling Stones (who are a huge business).

I like a few – ninjon is quite interesting but after a while painting one figure is much like painting another.

If we'd waited for main stream TV to do this then we'd probably still be waiting. Although presumably a wargaming version of "bake off" will eventually arrive -; there's a model railways version of that idea that ran for a couple of seasons in the UK

I've watched a few YouTuber's start out as hobbyists. They get some success, they make some money, and they become addicted (my opinion), they discover they must produce more videos to keep the money coming into their bank account. The quality of their videos improves, but the focus often changes, and not always for the better: it changes from a labor of love, to a necessity to make money by producing more videos, on a regular basis.

I've watched a few people turn it into a FT job. Some have produced real products as a result, beyond T-shirts, Mugs, and stickers. They go through a progression of stages of success, some greater, many lesser. Many wind up dropping off of YouTube entirely, after 5+ years -- either burnout, or failure to make money, and reality forces them to find a more mainstream job. It does seem to consume those who take it on as a full-time job. Two appear to have lost their marriages as a result of their channels -- their marriages likely would have ended for other reasons, but this seems to have been an active factor (again, my opinion).

YouTube often becomes like a drug addiction, often ending poorly for the majority of its users. YouTube has become very corporate, very legalistically demanding of its video producers -- it is not like it was 10 years ago.

I've thought about producing amateurish mini's gaming videos, but they would be irregular, sparse, and frankly, just not worth the effort for the amount of viewing they would receive. That is entirely my personal opinion -- worth every centavo you paid for it. LOL! Cheers!

It is a branch of entertainment – a hybrid of acting and documentary. It's possible to forge a career in Reality TV, there are plenty of people whose fame is based solely on having been on TV in one reality show after another. The YouTube personality channels are akin to this IMHO. If they have something valuable to add to my hobby then great, mostly they are background noise when I am doing something like painting or terrain making. If they can make it their job – and want to -then great, good for them.

Thanks to John the OFM for the Snarky Jay tip.

There are a few YouTube videos about the economics of YouTube. It can be a solid middle-class income for a lot of people. Basically, it's another small business.

I miss the old Youtube. Hobbyists made low quality videos but that was ok as it was all about the content. I grow tired of the nonstop commercials as I will not pay for a commercial free account, especally with all of the censorship on Youtube now.