Tottrie wrote: ↑Mon Apr 22, 2019 1:27 pm
@stakhanov from what I can gather, you're not actually upset with Dan and Phil. You're upset with the fact that YouTubers as a whole make more money than nurses or other professions? Tell me if I'm wrong, but if it is that way here is my reapons.
I get it, I mean I'm studying engineering (a 5year program) and will never see the sums they are making. But the way I see it is that even though I have a education and will go and hopefully help people in some way, that doesn't make Dan and Phil's job less important. It doesn't make any youtuber or entertainer job less important. Because they help people, they make people happy, they bring people together. That is important. When I was at my lowest entertainers helped me through it. A society needs everyone.
Then, to the money. I will graduate in 3 years, then I will work until I'm 65 (the legal age to retire in Sweden). You can work more years than that if you want.
But entertainers, such as YouTubers or football players, when will their carriers end? They don't know, is very unstable. They can have 2 good years and then nothing. Maybe they have 20, you never know.
Also, if you made a song, or book, or painting and people love it, wouldn't you sell it to them? And if people really, really love it wouldn't you make merch? All of this is, in way, because of other people. Just like any other business they sell things to people. In this case (indirectly) videos and merch. Other businesses sell other things.
And as @liola wrote, they have employees, just like any business, that want a salary.
Dan and Phil have a business that make entertainment for people to enjoy. They want, and make, people happy. And one part of that business is merch that is completely optional for us to buy. Yes, they make a lot of money but that is because people support them. If they didn't have that they wouldn't make as much money. This is just like any other entertainer and any other business.
Yea upset wouldn't be the word but I do think he has a personal choice and social responsibility, and would be disappointed in Phil (and Dan for that matter) if they would just keep on "milking the fandom cow" so to speak, while they're sort of slowly disengaging from youtube.
Personally i couldn't care less about the merch itself, but I understand other people might really want it. Like i put in my first post, a lot comes down to personal tolerance and sensitivities. I think youtubers shouldn't just try to make as much money as they want. Especially Dan and Phil who aren't exactly struggling creators and don't have to worry how many good years they've got left. They already have amassed wealth far beyond almost everyone of us ever will with our jobs that are also important. This has nothing to do with the value of the job as "youtuber". I'm not saying an entertainer who makes people happy is
less important than a nurse, but I also don't think they are
more important or valuable, while the cold hard economic fact is that Dan and Phil as entertainers get so much more financially rewarded. I hope they are sensitive about this reality when they look at their own opportunities to look for revenue.
The employees of the Dan and Phil shop are people who I imagine like everybody wish for a stable job and salary. I hope for one that they have indefinite contracts (or however you call a work contract that's not limited in time in English).
I hope they have thought about their futures after the tour and are giving them a fair shake. I think the broader future of the hiatus and Dan and Phil content in general is just as crucial for their employment prospects as one merch launch (as well as whatever is happening now with other youtubers distributing through IRL).
Edit: argh this post was stuck in limbo I forgot to press submit.
To answers @scientia's question: I would have the same reservations regardless of hiatus or not. As @anna imo correctly points out, I guess there's some manipulation in all selling. That's what I think too and that's one of the reason's I don't think any sort of selling is "ok selling".
But I also don't think it's a black-and-white issues, and even if I were to be disappointed in some of Phil's methods, that doesn't take away that I generally like and respect him and think he does most things ok.
The one practice i really had more of an issue with is the paid meet&greets. I know some k-pop bands to them, idk if other entertainers do them but to me it's a very odd society indeed where we turning saying hi&bye + taking a pic into a commodity you have to pay a fancy amount of cash for. It's also means that that form of more personal interaction is now at least in part linked to your spending power and the economic status (of your parents) and reserved for the privileged who can shell out the money without to much problems.