Is making YouTube videos a real job? (article)

So, from what I gathered reading the piece. (I did skim read it a bit so sorry if I missed anything) It more or less asked the question on if Youtube is a more viable job/career than a career in traditional television/film. Which is not an easy question to answer, and really just depends on the person in question. And to that my answer for it would be yes and no. SOLELY for the reason that it just cannot be fully compared from a business stand point. Now this is coming from a dude that went out of his way to take classes for the film and TV industry since back then I wanted to be a TV/Film director and writer, but while the ACT of creating something is the same, the platform and audience you will gain from each side are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT and must be treated as such. Which offer pros and cons to each side in terms of career paths, and it is up to the individual to determine weather or not it is a viable career for them to take. Cause yes, youtube and even twitch are very much careers with long and hard roads to fight through.
 
It is as much a "real job" as being a musician or an artist in my opinion. You can put a lot of time and effort into it...but if nobody is prepared to pay you then it can't be considered as a job at all, and you would be better off going out and finding what most people consider to be a "real job".

If on the other hand you get some ad revenue from YouTube, work on finding sponsors, sell some merchandise, focus on building your channel's influence...then it most certainly IS a real job.

As @TheDutchTexan said, people don't realise how much work goes into creating videos. That is also the case for finding sponsors, creating a merchandise line, figuring out how to sell it etc etc.
 
I think it's just like deciding to become a football player. Of course for someone is a career... but 0.01% of all the kids aspiring to become rich and famous in the end can be a real major league player.
(sorry for my bad usage of tenses)
 
It is definitely a career path nowadays. In my mind though, the greatest value is using YouTube to promote your brand but I would never bet my future or my family's wellbeing on a platform like YouTube alone, too much risk, the truly successful YouTubers in different genres have different sources of income. It is a great outlet for creativity for sure though, it opened a lot of doors for a lot of people. :up2:
 
I think that being a Youtuber is a job nowadays, but people don't really view it as a job because it doesn't fit into any of our prior job categories, and because of that, I think that YouTube is a category of its own because of all the different aspects that go into it.
 
I call a youtube creator an entertainer. There are many entertainment jobs and careers out there. Magicians, singers, radio hosts, newspaper columnist, etc.,so I don’t see why YouTube Creator wouldn’t be any different except the price of admission is lower. A kids with a cell phone can be the next big entertainer but that doesn’t mean that they will be able to make a career out of it and what happens when they forgo traditional schooling for YouTube and fail?

We can’t all be Ninja, Linus, or Ryan. However I do expect traditional entertainment going away and being replaced by YouTube created shows. This is the next evolution of entertainment. But I fear it t is less educational and more reality show.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hmm for someone looking for a ‘media career’ other than tv then I’d say YouTube offers a level playing field rewarded by performance / talent only. Whereas to get into traditional media or tv means knowing the right people, having connected parents or going to the right fancy schools probably unfairly helps.
 
I disagree with the premise of the question. Who cares if someone else thinks it is or is not a 'real job' - that is completely irrelevant. If you're a content creator and are earning money from the videos you create then you are technically self-employed and therefore working. Life is too short to care about the judgment of others for matters such as this.
 
My only argument is the semantics. In my opinion, a 'job' is one where you report to somebody else to work. If they said, "Is making YouTube videos a business? The answer as everybody explained above is, well, duh!
 
For me a job is somewhere you can make money. Most channels start as a hobby and eventually turn into a job. Whether its a part time or full time job depends on how much you need to earn from the channel.

For me its a part time job that I control when and what I do with it. I think if I went at it full time (Over several channels) I could make a real job of it. But do I even want to do that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top