Graphic I made with images I took myself and images from Pexels
Video showing off what I do, and the categories of this post (Except podcast and I don’t play games)
Now more than ever it seems easier and harder to get money and make a living on the internet. It seems like the more you want to be a content creator the more roadblocks that come in the way. Recently, I have realized that there are more companies that want to monopolize their platforms and slim the chances of other content creators that want to make money.
For example, in the mid-late 2000s, YouTube was one of the best online platforms for video creation before Google took over. And after that, YouTube now owned by Google started to demonetize content creators for some of the stuff that used to be able to do before such as, show certain parts of gameplay, play copyrighted music in the background of their videos, showing explicit content in videos, being advertiser friendly, and more.
However, I know that’s just business, but when are content creators going to create their own platforms to promote themselves instead of trying to use major outlets such as, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and others to promote themselves? Because it seems like they are directly telling you that they want to get your data and you must pay them to promote yourself to make a profit.
However, in each of these industries (podcast, music, graphic design, video and TV, gaming, and blogs) there are issues that I would like to discuss because I feel that there is an clear sentiment that people are not understanding.
I will explain this in each of the categories below.
Podcast
A clip from our podcast (DZN Podcast)
As a beginning podcaster myself I understand how difficult it is to get a following. But the real question is, how is the rise of podcasting is going to grow the genre? Because I see a potential issue if it is not already an issue, which is how to get discovered. On some websites podcast is still not a category and podcasting is still something that you either do or do not know.
However, if an answer is not provided soon the podcast industry will become like every other industry when money gets involved, garbage. I don’t mean garbage as in unattainable, but garbage as a platform to get discovered and make a great profit off of being a creator that’s expressing your opinion. But it doesn’t matter because the goal is for the platform to get more money, not get more creators.
Dan LeFebvre writer of an article called “Yes, discoverability is an issues in podcast” has a similar opinion on this issue by saying, “And let’s not even get into how badly some search results suck. Searching for “tech” and “technology” can surface completely different results depending on the app you’re using. Which contains the shows you’ll like? Maybe there’s another phrase you need to search for to begin discovering new shows. That’s a lot of sifting to find something you define as a good podcast.”
Music
In my opinion, music is one of the most suffering mediums because there is an oversaturation of music out there right now. This would be fine if the music that was getting highlighted was better balanced, but since there is more music getting released, more artists get a chance to make money. But only the popular artist sells records; however these are streams, so they are not valued the same. And with this being the way that music is sold now artists and record labels must play the game of release as many songs as possible, so they can make the most out of their streams. The philosophy is the longest and shortest albums get the most streams, but the music suffers.
In my opinion, artists are sacrificing their creativity for a dollar and it’s ruining the music because of the current model of the music industry. Which is to get the most out of the artists without them making a dime and leave them in the cold when they are finished with them.
And to back this up I have a quote from Craig Harvest, a journalist, radio host, and music news producer from Medium with an article that explains how the music industry is suffering: “Those who care about the future of the music business ought to spend less time complaining about digital disruptions and expend more energy lifting up the public’s awareness of serious music, because we truly do devalue music when we reduce our most impactful art form to an artifact of celebrity and a lifestyle choice. Complex instrumental music has become marginalized to within an inch of its very existence, and that has a lot to do with industry folk defining “value” in only the way that affects their mailbox money.”
Graphic Design
Why are graphic designers trying to do the same designs and promote themselves just like everyone else on Instagram?
I just got into the graphic design side of Instagram, but I see a lot of the same stuff so far. I’m not saying that this is all that I have seen, so take these next points with a grain of salt. I think that graphic design is being mis-marketed because you either see people spamming your comment section with, “I’M A GRAPHIC DESIGNER. FOR LOGOS, MIXTAPE COVERS, ANIMATIED VIDEOS, AND MORE AT A GOOD RATE MESSAGE ME…”
Example of graphic designer’s commenting on my Instagram feed.
Or you only see some motion designs from different accounts with the same things on them like a hand smacking a pear like its a fat booty, an orange squeezing itself to death, or anything else people can come up with. But people do these things to get more attention which could lead to more likes, more engagement, and more sales, which means more money.
However Micheal Keesee highlights this as the best way to make a name for yourself, with a quote from his article here, “To make a name for yourself, the real way, requires tireless planning, exploring, developing, just to find a few concepts that might work, and paring them down to one final concept…”
Video and TV Creation
In my opinion, TV, film, and video creation are getting watered down. Film directors and TV producers are more focused on making remakes of old movies and reruns of old TV shows instead of creating new and intricately developed movies and TV shows that can push the culture forward. Instead it seems like very few people want to create a new film or TV show that can make everyone else around the industry follow suit and create the best film content that is possible. And video creators are suffering from not being able to certain content on major platforms, like YouTube.
For example, the YouTube demonetization policy that started around 2012 was a policy that started to take down peoples videos because they may be offensive, using content that they don’t own, using copyrighted music, being controversial, and more. But the question is why did YouTube start to demonetize certain offensive content? It could only mean one thing…
MONEY.
Medium writer and technology specialist Daniel Imbellino explain this from a quote in his article here, “Google executives have stooped to an all time low, censoring and demonetizing videos that are critical of Google, that feature fictional violence in video games, and in some cases even videos depicting harmless food reviews, as well as anyone who expresses political views they don’t personally agree with. So, Google says it’s perfectly ok with people making videos that threaten and harass others, and even allow them to be monetized. But, fictional violence in video games is a no go! Talk about irrational and illogical, not to mention incredibly unfair.”
Gaming
More games are coming out unfinished and undefined because they want to get all of the money out of everybody without caring about selling a complete product. I’ve seen that there is more of an emphasis on having the best microtransactions than improving the issues of past and present versions of a video game.
For example, here is a quote from The Playgroundz Team’s Medium article, talking about how this issue relating to a game called “Mighty №9” (a spiritual successor to the popular “Mega Man” franchise).
“Although the project was successful in terms of funding, an onslaught of problems followed. The project didn’t reach any of the promised milestones and was delayed numerous times. The development took almost double the time they guaranteed and eventually finished but launched to lackluster reviews. The fans accused the developers of quality issues and undelivered gameplay promises and were upset with the overall experience and end product.”
The sad thing about this is people paid their hard earned money for this game, and it didn’t perform well. And in my opinion the company did not even care. And this was because of, once again, MONEY.
Blogs
What is a blog in your opinion? Are blogs about passing information on the internet or doing whatever you want to get clicks? To many people are on one side and don’t look at things objectively. And it seems like ethical content gets less views than content that gets people in uproar or outraged.
We as bloggers have power with our words and our actions, but people can not always see or feel what we intend by reading what we type. There is a lot of misused and misguided information going around the internet and some blogs use these sources without fact checking just so they can get more clicks. And what do the clicks bring, say it with me, MONEY!
Author and Medium writer Rachel Toaslon explains in this soliloquy how important it is for us to use our words responsibly in our writing here, “We must also take great care with our words. Of course I’m not suggesting that we censor anything or that we don’t communicate in the way we want to communicate. But, as a writer, one of my goals is to create a force of good in the world. When I disagree with public opinion or I see something that’s disturbing to me, I will respond to it. But I will respond in love. I take great care with the words that I speak, because I want to make sure that even if people do not agree with the words I write, they at least hear me. When we are speaking from anger or frustration or any other potentially inflammatory emotion, we are much less likely to be heard. Same goes for writing.”
Final Thoughts
It seems like creativity in everything is getting washed and watered down for profit. There has to be new and more innovative ways to create and promote yourself, but it seems like everyone just wants to be like everyone else and get a quick dollar.
However, there may be a few solutions to this:
Be Yourself, it always works
Create the new space/platform that people can be creative (easier said than done)
Educate yourself (read books, research online, trial and error, watching successful people, and more.)
And lastly, Be DOPE! We all have an ability to be great in each of our fields, we just have to put our mind to it.
I appreciate the support that I have gotten so far for this blog and if you like, comment, follow, and subscribe to me on here, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. You will see and hear how I am going to change my content for 2020 and beyond.
I appreciate anyone and everyone for reading this.
Have a great day and have a great rest of the year.
“Capture The Sounds Of Everything.”
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