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The Fediverse and Content Creation: Monetization (deadsuperhero.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
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I’ve been thinking a lot recently about PeerTube, Loops, Bandwagon, and other platforms in the Fediverse that are geared around artists. I might get flamed for this, and you’re welcome to disagree, but I think the network is in dire need of having support for commerce.

Not “Big Capitalism” commerce, but the ability for people to buy and sell things, support projects, and commission their favorite creators to keep making more stuff.

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[–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

Honestly the best YouTube alternative at the moment is Nebula. The problem is that it's a closed system. You can't just make an account and start uploading, you have to be invited. So the range of content is fairly limited compared to YouTube. But unlike many other platforms, it is designed to be fairly general-purpose. There are some excellent individual creators' platforms, like Dropout, Viva+, Club TWiT, etc. But you only get a single creator/team's videos on those. Dropout is improv comedy. Viva+ is sketch comedy. Club TWiT is tech news. Whereas Nebula is more of a coop owned by tens of different creators with content including news, media analysis (including film, games, and music), politics, science, short films, game shows, and more. It's not federated, but it's independent and worker owned-ish.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I often forget about nebula. I really do like their model. Personally, I think their biggest problem is lacking a free trial. They're curating, so I expect they'll have some pretty solid content. But every time I consider them I go and browse their catalog and I don't recognize most of it, and that what I do recognize is marginally interesting to me, but not worthy of payment.

    I suspect their closed model is because it's very expensive to host that data, and they want to make sure that whoever they put up there is worth spending the money on. Return on investment, yada, yada.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I think their biggest problem is lacking a free trial

    They have a 3 day free trial by default. And members can also give out a limited number of "guest passes" which act as a 1 week free trial.

    I suspect their closed model is because it’s very expensive to host that data, and they want to make sure that whoever they put up there is worth spending the money on

    That's probably part of it. It's also a marketing tactic. They're positioning themselves as a premium service. They want customers to know that if something is on Nebula it's going to be good. Similar to the way Apple positions themselves as premium by not selling a $200 smartphone, or Mercedez-Benz, or Louis-Vuitton.

    It's also about trust. One of the things they're trying to do with Nebula is to provide creators a space to safely discuss controversial topics without censorship. But with that, along with the fact that they have a coop-type structure, comes the need to be able to trust that the people uploading on their platform aren't gonna be Nazis.

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  • [–] 0 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Well look at that, last time I checked it was guest pass or nothing. good move on their part!

    I'll have to give them a shot after the holidays.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

    I'll be honest, if you've looked at their catalogue already and it didn't appeal to you, that's unlikely to change after a free trial. If you do end up signing up though, make sure to go through one of the creators' URLs. You get a much better price that way.

    For me, when I first signed up for it 2 or 3 years ago, the thing that finally made me pull the trigger was Tom Scott's Money, the social game show that was, at the time, Nebula-exclusive. But there were probably 5 or 6 other channels I already regularly watched on YouTube too, like Wendover/HAI, Lindsay Ellis (who has since basically left YouTube and exclusively uses Nebula), and Patrick H Willems. And in the time since, they've added like 10 or more channels that I already watched on YouTube, such as Not Just Bikes, Angela Collier, TLDR News, Legal Eagle, and Tantacrul. It's also helped me rediscover creators I once watched but stopped for no particular reason, like Cult Tennis (which is fantastic even though I have no real interest in the sport of tennis otherwise) and Medlife Crisis; and new channels I first discovered thanks to Nebula, like CityNerd, Linus Boman, and ReligionForBreakfast; and channels I had seen once or twice on YouTube but never regularly watched, but Nebula made me realise are regularly putting out good stuff, like People Make Games (if you haven't seen it already, I assume their two videos about the Rockstar union busting are on YouTube and highly recommend those) and Razbuten.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Thanks for the thorough write-up.

    It's not so much that it doesn't appeal; it's more like I'm looking at a menu in a foreign language.

    I'm middle-aged, I like science, tech, retro, gaming, and whatever VLDL is. I am open-minded to new things, but prefer substance over screaming and outrage. I've spent a lot of time sifting through Odysee and Peertube for anything redeeming, and while I've not come up empty-handed, I've also not found enough content to offset my YouTube habit enough to walk away from the platform (my goal). The service is half the monthly price of Netflix, and while I don't expect a production company full of quality entertainment, I'd like to be able to fill a couple of hours a day with vaguely interesting programming.

    I'll check em out post holidays pass and my finances recover.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    I like science, tech, retro, gaming

    You'll find a lot of that on Nebula. Though the "gaming" in particular is mostly limited to more video essays about gaming, analysis of gaming culture/game development, game design, etc. You're unlikely to find game tutorials, let's plays, etc. See channels like Extra Credits, People Make Games, and Razbuten for example. Or the gaming category. One thing I really like about Nebula as compared to Netflix-style "traditional" content streaming platforms is that you can browse their entire library without an account, exactly the same as you would with one.

    VLDL

    You'll find much less of that. Dropout might appeal to you though, if Viva does. Dropout is mostly improv comedy, often with a nerdy bent to it. "Um, Actually" is particularly good. I think there's probably some scripted content on Dropout too, more akin to Viva's stuff.

    but prefer substance over screaming and outrage

    You will definitely get this on Nebula. While some of their creators do use rather clickbaity titles and thumbnails, that's predominantly because they just use the same title & thumbnail that they have on YouTube, and the unfortunate reality is that that's necessary to get clicks to satisfy the YouTube algorithm. The actual content though is always more considered. It's one of the defining things about the platform, and it's part of why they're invite-only for creators.

    The service is half the monthly price of Netflix

    It's $60 annually for a naked sign-up, but $36 annually if you go through a creator's code. Any creator. There's literally no reason to ever pay the higher number. That's $3 per month, though at that price I find it easier to talk about the annual cost than monthly.

    Plus, when they last increased prices in September 2024, they also guaranteed existing customers could keep their older prices. They didn't guarantee that will be true for future new signups on future price increases, but that seems likely.

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