I only know this because I put my own music in my videos and collect my ad money that way. So I was making money off Shorts before the creator fund. Copyright claim is my friend.
-
Guest - Earn a FREE TubeBuddy Upgrade for being active on the forums! Click Here to learn how you earn free upgrades for TubeBuddy!
YouTube News I hate to say "I Told you So", but oh well, "I DID!"
- Thread starter The Jungle Explorer
- Start date
I only know this because I put my own music in my videos and collect my ad money that way. So I was making money off Shorts before the creator fund. Copyright claim is my friend.
Wow, what a spirited discussion. As a latecomer, I actually see the perspective of every poster here in one form or another.
The way I see YT is that it is a platform. We all play and use it very differently. Of course, YT has their own agenda. Shorts is clearly very important to them. I have an ebb and flow attitude about Shorts. Some might call me naive, but I "generally" take public statements YT reps make at their word so I do seek "official" information where possible. However, their information is very much at a macro level. Most of us as creators work on a micro level. The "truths" of each channel is true in the context of that creators channel.
The one thing I do like about YT is that it has a wide canvas to play with. So wide, I cannot begin to tap into all of it. I just noticed the Podcast tab appear out of the blue. This was a follow-up that YT was seriously pursuing and promoting podcasts. But am I going to suddenly chase it because it appears? Part of me wants to but then I will fall victim to "shiny object" syndrome. I haven't done a real livestream either. But it is there for us to use if we want. There are Memberships which I haven't used. There are Community Posts which I have dabbled with. I like there are many tools in our toolbox. We get to pick and choose what we want based on our individual preferences and talents.
There are some long-time creators here who have each accomplished some fabulous things that make me envious. I quietly pick and choose the nuggets that I see applicable to me.
There is no question I have a personal bias. I am not a spring chicken, so my bias is towards long-form content. I see a place for Shorts but it appears based on my results, I stink at it. But others are doing fabulous. I only wish I could be better.
I think how we phrase our opinions and statements matters. I think there is room for differing opinions. But one thing I really do like about this thread. There appears to be few or no newbies here. We are not discussing sub4sub, launching our first videos, how to make a thumbnail, etc. It appears most of the participants here so far are reasonably established and experienced but with vastly different approaches, backgrounds, and genres.
The stuff being discussed here is much more interesting than the never-ending "Introduce Yourself" posts. This thread is really getting to meat and potatoes stuff here.
The way I see YT is that it is a platform. We all play and use it very differently. Of course, YT has their own agenda. Shorts is clearly very important to them. I have an ebb and flow attitude about Shorts. Some might call me naive, but I "generally" take public statements YT reps make at their word so I do seek "official" information where possible. However, their information is very much at a macro level. Most of us as creators work on a micro level. The "truths" of each channel is true in the context of that creators channel.
The one thing I do like about YT is that it has a wide canvas to play with. So wide, I cannot begin to tap into all of it. I just noticed the Podcast tab appear out of the blue. This was a follow-up that YT was seriously pursuing and promoting podcasts. But am I going to suddenly chase it because it appears? Part of me wants to but then I will fall victim to "shiny object" syndrome. I haven't done a real livestream either. But it is there for us to use if we want. There are Memberships which I haven't used. There are Community Posts which I have dabbled with. I like there are many tools in our toolbox. We get to pick and choose what we want based on our individual preferences and talents.
There are some long-time creators here who have each accomplished some fabulous things that make me envious. I quietly pick and choose the nuggets that I see applicable to me.
There is no question I have a personal bias. I am not a spring chicken, so my bias is towards long-form content. I see a place for Shorts but it appears based on my results, I stink at it. But others are doing fabulous. I only wish I could be better.
I think how we phrase our opinions and statements matters. I think there is room for differing opinions. But one thing I really do like about this thread. There appears to be few or no newbies here. We are not discussing sub4sub, launching our first videos, how to make a thumbnail, etc. It appears most of the participants here so far are reasonably established and experienced but with vastly different approaches, backgrounds, and genres.
The stuff being discussed here is much more interesting than the never-ending "Introduce Yourself" posts. This thread is really getting to meat and potatoes stuff here.
Last edited:
Wow - you've made some very interesting points here. Something I need to think about a little longer before arriving at a conclusion!
Hear hear, Matt!
I've always had my own theory on that - give me 2 minutes to explain:
Here's a good analogy: as a starting real estate agent, there are a number of things you can do to get started ie go door knock, drop flyers, do open houses, cold call your entire database, shadow experienced agents etc.
Will you recommend door-knocking all day, every day? Dropping flyers all day, every day? Nope.
You're more than likely going to say to do a little bit of everything and things will start to pick up, AND then you are likely to focus more of your time in a certain direction or strategy.
LIKEWISE with YT, you have plenty of tools to keep yourself busy with ie long-form video, shorts videos, live streaming, community posts, text/image polls, stories etc.
Are you likely going to "make it" by doing just long-form videos on YT? Just shorts videos? Just live streaming?
I seriously doubt it. If YT spent billions on developing all these tools on their platform, why would you as a creator not take full advantage of it and dabble into ALL of it for an extended period of time and see how it works out? AND will YT not notice what you're doing there and reward you for using all their tools to be such a 'well-rounded YT-er'?!
Idem ditto for Instagram with stories, single pic posts, carousel posts, stories, IG live, highlights, guides, fundraisers, reel videos etc. Just focus on one of these forementioned tools and you're unlikely to 'crack it'. I've dabbled in ALL of these tools and I honestly believe it is at the basis of my success there (260,000 followers).
One more -- Google Plus about 5-10 years ago -- I loved it there and accumulated 25,000 followers on a platform which barely had any success by doing exactly what I mentioned above. Unfortunately, it never took off and they closed it down, but I can only imagine if it had taken off that my follower base would have been 50-100x in no time.
Bottom line: if/when YT comes up with another new 'shiny object' tool, I would highly suggest ANYONE to make 50-100 of those new unfamiliar content pieces before arriving at the conclusion that it didn't work for you, regardless of your industry niche or age.
FYI -- Take a few minutes and go have a look on IG at what those 'reel videos' (YT's short videos) are doing wrt educating people in just 10-15 seconds in industries which I NEVER would have picked as being interesting on those shorts, yet there they are!
No question we have seen big corporations make bad decisions. There are lots of big gambles no question about it.
The thing is that a lot of people value non-monetary currency. If you want sheer views, regardless if it is 10 seconds or 10 minutes, Shorts is the way to go. There are lots of stories where people are racking up huge views and subscribers and they are happy for it. Sometimes it is hard to compete for people willing to work hard for free (monetarily speaking) which is essentially what a lot of the Short Form videos are for most people. A lot of people are working for the dream of being an "influencer".
For a few of us in this thread, doing YT is part of a larger business and have different sensibilities. I've decided if I ever pursue memberships, it will probably be through Patreon, not YT although it might be "easier". The YT video infrastructure is not going away and well established. At the very least, we can leverage that.
The rest of it, we vote with our time and projects. Even if we believe YT is making a big mistake, not much any of us can do as a tiny group to change YT management. I agree that "YT University" is a strength and asset but there have been many reports that younger generation is going to "TikTok University and TT Search engine". Google and YT is scared to death that TT is gaining more and more of this younger mindshare. TT is slowly becoming the source of news, trends, culture, and even basic searches for the very young.
I think YT is afraid of becoming FB where younger folks entirely avoid FB. It is where all the "old" people are now. YT is scared that it will be a place for "old people". But a lot of us know on a micro level, that is where a lot of money and wealth is at, not the young people.
For the most part, this is why I tend to focus on 40 and older and my analytics bear that out. Nearly 70% of my viewers are over 35. But I am still stunned that 30% of my viewers are 25-34. Not sure why. My viewers are majority men at 77%. But there are LOTS of viewers under 25 which is supposedly a desirable demographic for ad purposes.
We live in interesting times. As you said, companies want to stay relevant and willing to do risky things in order to remain relevant.
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
I was I'm a hurry when I wrote this last night and made a bunch of typos and did not finish my thought. The point I was trying to make was this.
I think YT leadership is making a big gamble on the idea that TikTok will eventually get banned in the US (it's already banned in India), and they want to be poised to fill that hole when it happens. Earlier this month, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas signed an order banning TikTok from all State agencies and State issued devices. Many other States are poised to follow suit and there are bills in US congress proposing do the same thing at the Federal level. It does seem possible that there will be an eventual nationwide ban of TikTok in the US, if not through law, threw function. The US government forced Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei out of the country by threatening Google, which owns the Android operating system. Google pulled Huawei, license to use Android and blocked Huawei devices from accessing the Google Play store. You can still buy a Huawei device in the US, but it now has its own proprietary operating system and it can't work with any Google systems. All the government would have to do is threaten Apple and Google, and they would remove support for TikTok on their devices in the US. Google especially, is very compliant with whatever the US government says. If they say jump, Google says, "How High".
I believe (I don't know) that YT is gambling that this will eventually happen, and this is why they are pushing so hard to get TikTok-style content on YT. But I also believe that even if it does happen, YT will not benefit from it. Why? Because the "People" do not want YT to be another TikTok. People love YouTube for what its primary function is. This is YouTube University. All polls and studies show this is what want from YT. If TikTok goes away, they will turn to Facebook and IG Reels for their mental crack junk food video needs. I believe the harder YT tries to become another TikTok and ram Shorts down the viewer's throats with both feet, the more people will become angry and leave YT. I am already hearing this and seeing this happen in my circles. I would bet real money that if there was a national poll held and people were asked if they wanted YT to become like TikTok, the result would be at minimum 75% Against it.
On a side note. I held a poll on my channel about Banning TikTok and here is the result.
Xavier,
I have a great deal of self-awareness. I tend to do poorly spreading myself too thin. As you point out, you try a lot of things and try to get traction. But how long do you stay there? For the longest time, the only option was long-form videos. Short-form is still relatively new. The truth of the matter is that different people have different strengths and aptitudes. Some people learn and adapt more than others.
A lot of your content is aspirational (luxury homes). In the U.S. there are YTubers who do the same thing and get some insane numbers choosing an aspirational topic. You are in real estate sales and have chosen the luxury niche so I get it. On the other side of genres, are gaming channels by young, broke people working from their bedrooms. The ads and opportunities on aspirational, financial, and business channels are far greater than those who choose genres that have poor ad rates, less interesting topics, etc.
For example, I don't think people are lining up to watch channels on how to cure poverty, hunger, climate change, drug addictions, etc. These are not aspirational and automatically crippled based on the topic alone.
This is why I keep preaching and ask for context. I want to know from where people speak from and when people don't post their channel names, it makes it hard. When Damon or Stanley posts, I understand the context from which he speaks regarding fishing channels. When you post, I understand your context from luxury real estate sales. When JE posts, I understand his context of his outdoor, how-to videos.
Even Mr. Beast, I don't think he does a lot of his own live-streaming or podcasts. He appears in other people's shows. He does charitable entertainment long-form very well. And truth be known, I think he (and many others) did Shorts only because he wants to be the lead Ytuber in the world, not because his heart was in it. Also, he has a ton of employees.
I tend to believe most people cannot be good in all things. We pick a couple things and go at it.
I am one of the lucky ones. I have life and business experience. I am educated, seasoned, and literate in English. I have I.T. and technical skills that allow me to do things without money that many other people have to pay hard earned money for. But I am a stiff despite these many advantages. I struggle with my online persona. From Day 1, I automatically had lots of winds at my back simply based on the choice to do real estate, business, and finance. But despite this, I am very much a work in progress.
If I was running a channel on how to cure hunger, poverty, climate change, etc. I would probably have to rethink certain things and challenge some assumptions.
Having said all that, you are absolutely correct that there are all kinds of people doing interesting things. Most YT educators talk about building up your skills and work towards a niche. Most do not say to do all the things you clearly are capable of doing (which is kudos to your high energy, instincts, marketing, sales, and entrepreneurial skills). I would say you are the rare bird.
There is also something about where you are at. That first 100 subscribers can be a bear. Or that first 1,000. Where I am at today is not the same as I was 2 years ago just twisting along. There is the real phenomena of compound success. Success breeds more success. This is why so much advice is about narrowing down and niching down then expand and extending your skills later.
Anyhow, these are all fabulous discussions.
It seems again, like we disagree. I don't think YouTube is thinking at all about TikTok. You said yourself, people goto YouTube to be educated and solve problems.
YouTube has mastered this. So it makes sense to expand to try and attract more people to your platform. You act as if videos over a minute long will just become obsolete altogether.
They clearly label shorts, so people don't end up there accidentally. I'm sure they'll add an option to where you can choose not to see shorts as a consumer.
It is clearly a move for YouTube to make more money. If adding shorts was hurting core audience as much as you claim, YouTube would end it. They are owned and operated by the largest corporation in the world with many business savvy people. They wouldn't risk pissing off the core audience, in attempts to be "cool".
It's okay to disagree but you might not have seen or read a lot of articles.
Rest assured YT, Instagram, FB, etc. are all watching TT. YT has openly acknowledged the competitive threat of TT. YT didn't just get bored and decided to enter short form videos. It was a direct response to the competitive threat of TT.
And YT, like all companies, want to stay relevant. They don't want to go the way of the declining platform. FB comes to mind.
And, YT does strive to be "cool" because they have enormous outreach to attract all kinds of creators. They have courted all kinds of Twitch creators to create exclusively on YT. Keeping creators happy is also why YPP members who get silver plaque and higher get individualized attention.
YT has gone out of their way to assuage long form creators to get onboard with Shorts. I don't think it is nefarious but it is happening. I know because I am getting a lot of their emails and press releases.
Lots of articles out there to corroborate my points.
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
You have too much blind faith in people you don't know being "Business Savvy". I have already demonstrated with undeniable evidence in a previous post that big companies make bad decisions and gambles all the time. But, as I cleary articulated, "This is what I BELIEVE YT is gambling on." I did not claim that I KNOW this is what they are doing. What I do know is that I have not heard a single viewer that was happy about the course YT has chosen to take.
This is not about whether YT should do Shorts. There have always been short YT videos from the very beginning. This is about YT slitting the throats of long-form content channels in order to artificially drive viewers towards shorts by tweaking the algorithm to favor them in the SUGGESTIONS. This is not an opinion, YT Leadership has said this point blank. Suggestions on YT are no longer organic, based on viewer preference. Suggestions are now engineered based on what YT wants viewers to watch, kind of like using a Carrot on a Stick to lead a donkey.
I am not saying what YT should do. They can do whatever the heck they want to. So far their decision-making has NOT helped them. Here is a quote from The Guardian:
ΓÇ£YouTube ad revenues shrank for the first time since Google started reporting YouTube earnings separately in Q4 2019, due in large part to persistent competition in streaming and short video.ΓÇ¥
One of the main contributing factors to this loss was the announcement that YT would start monetizing Shorts. The same week, close to 1 billion in add contracts for YT were canceled and redirected to other platforms. Coincidence? I think not.
From theGuardian:
"According to research from the market analysts data.ai (formerly AppAnnie), TikTok is number one worldwide for consumer spend, with YouTube in second place as of September 2022. But the discrepancy is far larger when it comes to active users. TikTok is in fifth place but YouTube does not make the top 10. YouTube still has the lead on consumer spending in the US, its largest market, but even there TikTok is hot on its heels.
TikTok was downloaded 74.5m times around the world in September 2022, while YouTube trailed it with 19.7m downloads, data.aiΓÇÖs analysis shows. In the UK, the figures are equally stark: 1.96m downloads in the last three months for TikTok, and 838,000 for YouTube.
The conflict is about more than the bottom line. YouTubeΓÇÖs format, with longer videos, more ad breaks and an older audience, is easier to monetise than TikTokΓÇÖs short-form infinite scroll. But TikTok is the star of the zeitgeist, forcing YouTube to play catchup."
You see, I am not the only one that thinks the way I do that YT is chasing TikTok to its own peril.
You got me curious about the ad situation. I never looked into it but I did notice a plunge in my ads during the fall. I chalked it up to inflationary times but that might be a bad assumption on my part. I only know about the macro that YT revenues declined recently. I might have to establish a new Google alert to better monitor this.
I like the quote with longer videos, ad breaks, and older audience being easier to monetize.
There is no arguing that TT has the mindshare of the short-form videos. Constantly in the press. Very few spotlight or embed YT Shorts. TT are almost always the videos that get embedded and shown in news stories.
Last edited:
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
I like the quote with longer videos, ad breaks, and older audience being easier to monetize.
This is what does not make sense about YT's obsession with Shorts. Everyone believes that YT is pushing Shorts because it is better for business. It is not. Long-form is where YT makes its money. It is literally losing money on Shorts right now (from a business perspective *). They only started running ads on them back in October, and immediately advertisers started pulling ads. This is why you saw an ad revenue drop. It is because the better-paying ads got pulled, or renegotiated for a lower price because advertisers are not going to pay a premium price to have their ads show on Shorts.
People automatically assume that YT leadership is pushing Shorts because it makes more money for them. That is not the case. They are doing it for two reasons (in my opinion).
1. They are afraid of TikTok (with good reason).
2. They are gambling that TikTok will eventually get banned in the US and they want to be poised to grab the TikTok viewer base when that happens.
The problem is, and I think this boils down to the TY staff being out of touch with its base, everyone knows what YT is, and they like it just the way it was. There is a thing in media called "Typecasting". It generally refers to an actor who plays a role so well that no one will accept them in another role. Kind of like John Wayne or Harrison Ford. In Hollywood, no one wants to play the role of Superman, because historically, anyone who has played that role and did a good job could pretty much never get any other role. Christopher Reeves is a great example. Many actors have tried to buck their typecast by playing other roles, but few have ever succeeded. In general, all they accomplished was to make their adoring public hate them and they pretty much never got any significant roles after that.
Typecasting is not about an actor's ability, it is about the public "Perception" of the actor and what role the public will accept that actor in. It is crystal clear from all polls and studies that YT has been typecasted by the public, whether YT staff wants to admit it or not. I believe that the YT leadership simply does not like the typecast that the public has for YT. They are trying to buck it because they want to be the " Young Hip New Kid in town." I believe it will backfire badly on them just like it has backfired for actors that have tried it.
The sad thing for me is that it is completely unnecessary. YT has a loyal fan base that makes it a ton of money. As the article said, " YouTubeΓÇÖs format, with longer videos, more ad breaks, and an older audience, is easier to monetise". But YT is ticking that fan base off by trying to force something down their throat that they did not ask for and do not want. It is not the first time a big company has tried to do this. Microsoft is a PC software company and they decided they wanted to be a Phone company. It did not go well for them. Imagine if McDondald's started trying to push Tofu Big Macs and fries on its' customers. Yeah, that would make a lot of people happy. LOL!
People know what YT is. People like what YT is. People do not want YT to become another TT.
On a side note. In the last few days the EU has banned TT on all government devices.
Last edited:
Why hasn't anyon here mentioned Mr Elon Musk & TWITTER in this saga....if/when TikTok gets banned, YT (shorts) might potentially step up as the new kid on the block by default. What if VINE 2.0 were to be reintroduced, allowing creators to upload videos AND getting paid for doing so...?
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
People are talking about it all over the place, it is just on here that people seem to not be in tune with what the wider world outside of YouTube is saying. Quote from another article on theGuardian
" With YouTube trying to chase TikTokΓÇÖs audience, TikTok has made its service more like YouTube. The company tripled its maximum video length to 10 minutes in February, and practically a feature film compared with the 15-second limit the service launched with. The app now has live-streaming features, a shopping service, and a music player in testing, all offerings that YouTube has had for years. TikTok is itself not immune to competition. With Mark ZuckerbergΓÇÖs Meta reworking Facebook and Instagram to mirror its vaunted For You page, and upstarts such as BeReal and Gas offering more ΓÇ£authenticΓÇ¥ versions of social media proving popular with teenagers, the upheaval in the sector is unlikely to end soon."
And herein is real danger I have been warning about that no one else seems to be to see. "TikTok has made its service more like YouTube." While YouTube is literally cutting revenues to its long-form content creators and commanding them, "Make SHORTS!", Other platforms like TT are circling back around behind YT and stealing the NICHE that YouTube used to own all to itself. Take me for example. I used to make content exclusively for YouTube before all this. Now, YT is not even in my top two. I guess I should be thanking YT because I am making way more money now on other platforms and I would have never even tried it if YouTube did not stab me in the back in their crazed obsession with Shorts and cut my earnings by 80%.
The only reason I am still talking about this is that it just makes me sad to see such a wonderful platform kill itself off for no reason. What YouTube should be doing is bolstering support for its bread-and-butter creators, instead of throwing them under the bus to chase Shorts creators. Why? Because TikTok and other platforms are actively trying to take YT's niche platform away from them, and YT seems content to let them do so. What might happen is, one day YT may wake up from the "We want to be like TikTok fantasy" and find that they have not only lost the short video crowd, they have lost the YouTube University niche as well. Then what is gonna be left? YouTube Originals?
People think YouTube can't die. Google has killed off a lot of platforms that it owns. Take Panoramio for example. Google bought it and merged it with Google Earth and even made a movie about it to promote it. Within a year of that movie, Google completely killed it off and erased it. I was a Panoramio creator back then I was just as vocal about warning what was coming on the Panaormio forums as I am about what is going on now with YouTube. And just like on here, Panoramio creators argued with me and scoffed at me and said I did not know what I was tallking about. And then one day, Panoramio was GONE! Google never even issued an explaination as to why. It was dead silence. For months Panoramio creators screamed in disbelief and begged for explanation. None was ever issued. All of our content was completely gone and erased. No way to access it or get it back.
What about Google+? Gone! Picasa? Gone! The list of comnpanies Google has bought or created and later shutdown is very long. Do I think this will happen with YT? Not really, but it is not unrealistic to think that the service as it is today may come to end and be transformed into something else if YT leadership continues to make bad decisions and continues to lose ground in the market. Have you been irritated by the constant pestering of YT to get to sign of for YouTube Premium? The day may come when it may no longer be an option to NOT have a paid membership.
Last edited:
This is the most sensible, plausible explanation so far. YouTube really does want to be #1 in all things online video. Remember the old Ustream? No one really remembers them, but they were the TikTok of live streams. YouTube did they same thing they're doing with shorts. When you say live stream, people most often think of YouTube or Zoom.
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
I am not much in tune with the whole live stream thing. When I have seen it or do it myself, it is always on Facebook. I have tried it a couple of time on YT but never had anyone watch so. I know I don't watch YT live streams. Nobody is that interesting, that I have to watch something live. I am sure Gen Zers do that kind of stuff, but my niche is all older men, and we don't wet our pants in anticipation to watch someone "Live Stream". We want to watch things at our convenience, not the internet personality's convenience.
Reminiscence back to the days of Napster...my oh my we're getting old!
- 2,644
- 25
- Subscriber Goal
- 250000
I have to disagree with this one. Granted, there is a reduction in views of long-form content but that isn't YouTube's fault; that is what people want. People chose to watch Tik Tok and swamp that platform with viewership and YouTube only provided another outlet for this type of content on their own platform. What is more important, at least to the longform guys is that there is still value in longform content, there is still a viewership for that medium and of all the platforms who offer it who is still the reigning champ at providing it?
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
I don't disagree with you on the premise. Yes, YT is the current champ, but YT is hurting this sector by its actions, and while YT chases TikTok and bets all its chips on that sector, TiTok is circling back in behind YT to grab the niche that YT has completely decided to ignore and actual harm. My point is, YT is the champ NOW, but they may not be for long if they do not start showing some love for their Longform creators. As far as "Value", well only in the sense that it helps people. But helping people no longer pays the bills on YT. It used to, but it does no longer. Not on YT at least.
The bottom line is, good long-form content takes a lot of time and hard work to make. Even the Bible says that a worker is worthy of their hire. If someone wants to do YT as a hobby, okay that's fine. But it is no longer worth it if you are doing it to earn just compensation for work. That VALUE is no longer there, and it is 100% YT's. They have placed all their bets on Shorts, which all financial analysts have said are not good placements for quality ads. This is why so many top advertisers have pulled their ads from YT or renegotiated for a budget price. YT's decision to chase TikTok is hurting the long-form creators that built YT, plain and simple. Like myself, many have moved on to other platforms.
OP
OP
- 549
- 19
- Subscriber Goal
- 20000
Good ol' Napster. Yeah, I remember those days. I still have several hundred songs I downloaded with it. Before anyone gets all in a huff, I only download songs that I had actually bought at some point in time on vinyl, cassette or CD. My viewpoint of the whole copyright issue is that, when I pay for media, I am paying for the right to enjoy it on whichever medium I choose.