颁翱搁搁贰颁罢滨翱狈:听The print version of this article incorrectly named PewDiePie as the YouTuber who visited Aokigahara,听the Japanese forest. The Courier regrets the error.听
Some of the most popular entertainers in the world create their work with little more than a laptop and a webcam 鈥� and many do so without ever leaving their bedrooms.
No, not amateur porn stars 鈥� YouTubers, those DIY entertainers who create all manner of videos for YouTube, including make-up tutorials, social commentaries, travel diaries, and narrated game-play.
While a certain ilk of viewer might scoff at YouTubers being lumped in with entertainers who have the backing of major studios and broadcasters, the fact remains that YouTubers are an increasingly influential force, especially among millennials.
The three YouTubers with the most subscribers account for more than 27 billion views: controversial gamer PewDiePie has garnered 17,765,087,403; comedian and musician has logged 3,492,585,815; and another gamer, , has 6,565,312,000 views, and counting.
In 2016, investment bank Piper Jaffrey released its annual survey of 10,000 teens and showed that, for the first time since YouTube鈥檚 launch in 2005, youth were consuming more YouTube than cable on a daily basis.
For top YouTubers, popularity can translate into an income derived from a combination of ad revenue, branded merchandise, sponsorships, live tours, and book deals (kid-friendly gamer is estimated to earn $16.5 million USD per year; Toronto-based YouTuber parlayed her superstar status into a sold-out live tour, a documentary and a bestselling book, 2017鈥檚 How to be a Bawse: A Guide to Conquering Life 鈥� all from a YouTube channel that began in a bedroom in her parents鈥� suburban home).
YouTubers are influential, which is fine when you鈥檙e talking about kid-friendly YouTubers such as DanTDM and Singh, but it becomes problematic when content creators actively court controversy to attract young viewers.
Consider Logan Paul, the popular YouTuber who earlier this year visited Japan鈥檚 鈥渟uicide forest,鈥� Aokigahara, and posted footage of a man who had died by suicide.
Closer to home, there鈥檚 the still-developing story of , an aggressive, foul-mouthed nine-year-old whose videos find her spewing obscenities, flashing wads of cash and purporting to live like a Kardashian in the Hollywood Hills, but who 鈥� according to a flurry of recent media reports 鈥� is actually the daughter of 麻豆传媒映画real estate agent Angela Tian. Lil Tay鈥檚 reach? 165,000 subscribers and more than 4.5 million views.
And even when they鈥檙e popular and producing positive content, YouTubers must contend with misconceptions about their work, according to Miri Lee, the Vancouver-based YouTuber behind . Lee鈥檚 channel has garnered more than 54 million views and 326,000 subscribers.
More than 1,000 people launch YouTube channels every day, but few are able to stay the course because making and posting videos on a regular basis is more difficult than they believed it would be, says Lee.
鈥淵ou can lose your motivation,鈥� notes Lee. 鈥淚 see YouTubers come and go. They鈥檙e passionate at some point, and then their passion fizzles down and they don鈥檛 do anything for a year, and then they come back and they post a lot. There鈥檚 a cycle, and it鈥檚 sometimes hard to overcome the cycle.
鈥淭hey should love what they do,鈥� adds Lee. 鈥淭hey have to be crazy about it, or otherwise don鈥檛 even go there.鈥�
Lee is an award-winning concert pianist. Her channel 鈥� which she launched in 2007 and populated with classical music performance videos in order to promote her wedding business 鈥� kicked into high gear in 2011 when she began posting videos wherein she performed her own interpretations of Top 40 hits.
Lee鈥檚 fans are located all over the world. Her most popular videos have logged more than one million views apiece.
Says Lee: 鈥淪ome classically trained musicians look down on pop songs and have asked me why I鈥檓 doing it, and they鈥檒l say it鈥檚 a waste of time, but I see them later trying to do what I do, and they鈥檒l ask me, 鈥榃hy is it so hard to get viewers?鈥欌��
Lee considers her YouTube channel a passion project as opposed to a career (the latter of which she uses to describe her work as an accompanist, teacher, and performer). 鈥淚 love it when people say, 鈥楾his video really made me feel something,鈥欌�� says Lee. 鈥淓ven if I touch just one person and they say, 鈥榊our video inspired me to pursue piano,鈥� or, 鈥榊our video has inspired me to continue with my lessons,鈥� that鈥檚 when I feel most appreciated.鈥�
Other 麻豆传媒映画YouTubers worth a watch:
and .
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