Dan & Phil Part 38: Everlasting as the Sun

[fancybum]

K well I don’t know how applicable this is considering D&P will obviously earn a fuckload more than Chris and they’re just in wildly different financial situations in general, but here’s some rambling from him on the subject of YT earnings and taxes (from his Jan 31 liveshow):

23:30 “If any of you are self-employed you have to do your tax by midnight tonight. I did it days ago, but I’m just always really concerned that I’ve done it wrong, because I’m always paying quite a lot of tax, if you know what I mean, to the point where you think, ‘Does anything I earn belong to me anymore?’ Like I get, ‘If I got 2M views on a YT channel video, I’d get 2K pounds’, but then when you’re taxed 2K pounds, it suddenly starts to feel like, ‘Well, why should I earn money then?’

This is only going to be interesting to those doing their tax at the moment, everybody else is going to find this boring, but I’ve started to find that I don’t want to earn anything anymore because it’ll make next year’s tax return easier. So rather than making YT videos, and making younows, and doing anything, writing a YT book, or vlogging every day of my life, or making other projects, I’m actually thinking to myself, 'Well, let’s not do too much, because we might have to do too much maths’”
[..]
But I do warn you, if you are wanting to be YTers out there, if you’re in high school/college/sixth form/whatever, do it now. Do it now. Because when you have to start paying tax on it, it basically becomes pointless. So if you can do it when you’re at home, not paying rent, not paying council tax, not paying for the elctricity and not paying for your water, and not paying for your heating and not paying for everything out your ass, then do YT. Be YTers now. Because in your 20s, YT isn’t fun anymore, so do it now."

Obviously I don't think D&P are paying back the majority of their earnings in tax, that would be crazy, but I really think people are overestimating their net worth and how far money can go, particularly in London. It's boggling my mind just a little bit.

[sentinel]

Average rates do not equal actual rates. If this was true channels with lower viewership wouldn't be able to sustain themselves (example - Hazel Hayes, Jack and Dean, Emma, TomSka, etc all get less views than D&P) when they clearly do. More than that, if they made six bucks a video they wouldn't be making videos at all because the time investment just wouldn't be worthy - if it takes, say 15 hours in total to create a dinof video that gets 3m views it works out to Dan getting $2.50 per hour. He doesn't look impoverished to me.

[sia]

Obviously I don't think D&P are paying back the majority of their earnings in tax, that would be crazy, but I really think people are overestimating their net worth and how far money can go, particularly in London. It's boggling my mind just a little bit.

Or maybe you're underestimating it, they make money from other stuff, not only ad revenue, it's boggling my mind how anyone can think they are not rich and with a lot of savings

[papierklemmen]

[fancybum]

I realize they're rich. I also realize it's insane to say they could live off what (you assume) they've saved up to this point for the rest of their lives plus occasional 'exotic vacations'. They're 25 and 30. The average expectancy for a UK male is +80. Math, it's a hell of a drug.

Seriously, get Adblock, you'll be fine.

[pilotlight]

Phil's new "fleurs" seem to be doing well, Hopefully he doesn't blind himself with their leafs.

[sia]

I realize they're rich. I also realize it's insane to say they could live off what (you assume) they've saved up to this point for the rest of their lives plus occasional 'exotic vacations'. They're 25 and 30. The average expectancy for a UK male is +80. Math, it's a hell of a drug.

Seriously, get Adblock, you'll be fine.

The math is only possible to do in this case if we know what their actual earnings are, (I would do it if I could; I love math) and we don't and I assumed much bigger number than you apparently (partially from looking at other youtubers that have similar audiences and how are they living) and you didn't provide anything so far to actually prove me wrong, show me the math, I would love to see it.

I'm sorry for spamming thread with this discussion about money, I wasn't aware it is something that makes some people so uncomfortable and aggressive I was just joking at first and I was just replying to an user that was also obviously joking about the same thing.

[lost686girl]

I realize they're rich. I also realize it's insane to say they could live off what (you assume) they've saved up to this point for the rest of their lives plus occasional 'exotic vacations'. They're 25 and 30. The average expectancy for a UK male is +80. Math, it's a hell of a drug.

Seriously, get Adblock, you'll be fine.

The math is only possible to do in this case if we know what their actual earnings are, (I would do it if I could; I love math) and we don't and I assumed much bigger number than you apparently (partially from looking at other youtubers that have similar audiences and how are they living) and you didn't provide anything so far to actually prove me wrong, show me the math, I would love to see it.

that's all fine and good but what 25 and 30 year old are gonna say, "okay i think i have enough money for all my basic needs, why reach for higher goals?" lol lets be fair here, dan and phil arent civil servants, working for non profits or in some other low wage field , they are in careers that make a lot of money and it seems like they enjoy that.

[fancybum]

they probably already have enough money to buy an enormous house in the countryside, and live there comfortably until the end of their lives including all utilities bills and occasional holidays in exotic locations, I do wonder what more do they want, I definitely heard about people who simply retired in that kind of situation very young and now spend time travelling. Of course this is ultimately their decision to make and they know best how much money they will need in the future, but well if they plan to have that expansive lifestyle it just doesn't speak the very best about their character, being wasteful is just not a very positive characteristic no matter how you look at it (at least that is how I look at it). I don't actually have any kind of impression they are more desperate for earnings this month, the ads thing is something that is on their videos for quite some time now.

The math is only possible to do in this case if we know what their actual earnings are, (I would do it if I could; I love math) and we don't and I assumed much bigger number than you apparently (partially from looking at other youtubers that have similar audiences and how are they living) and you didn't provide anything so far to actually prove me wrong, show me the math, I would love to see it.

Apparently common sense isn't enough.
You think in their savings right now they have enough money to:
1. buy a giant house somewhere
2. pay all utilities for 50-60 years
3. take 'occasional exotic holidays' for 50-60 years

That's nonsensical. But you're right, I don't have their actual earnings, so congrats. You win. Because I don't know how to rationally argue with that. My bad.

[sia]

I realize they're rich. I also realize it's insane to say they could live off what (you assume) they've saved up to this point for the rest of their lives plus occasional 'exotic vacations'. They're 25 and 30. The average expectancy for a UK male is +80. Math, it's a hell of a drug.

Seriously, get Adblock, you'll be fine.

The math is only possible to do in this case if we know what their actual earnings are, (I would do it if I could; I love math) and we don't and I assumed much bigger number than you apparently (partially from looking at other youtubers that have similar audiences and how are they living) and you didn't provide anything so far to actually prove me wrong, show me the math, I would love to see it.

that's all fine and good but what 25 and 30 year old are gonna say, "okay i think i have enough money for all my basic needs, why reach for higher goals?" lol lets be fair here, dan and phil arent civil servants, working for non profits or in some other low wage field , they are in careers that make a lot of money and it seems like they enjoy that.

Exactlly I already wrote that in my first reply to fancybum, but well I don't think they would be living on a minimum wage if they stopped right now, realistically speaking

[sia]

Apparently common sense isn't enough.
You think in their savings right now they have enough money to:
1. buy a giant house somewhere
2. pay all utilities for 50-60 years
3. take 'occasional exotic holidays' for 50-60 years

That's nonsensical. But you're right, I don't have their actual earnings, so congrats. You win. Because I don't know how to rationally argue with that. My bad.

I thought that prediction that Dan and Phil will retire to the countryside was kind of a running joke here on IDB, but why would that quoted thing be nonsensical I said probably, I was using that kind of language on purpose and you are saying it is definitely not possible, so who is here nonsensical when we don't have the actual numbers

[shoe]

Average rates do not equal actual rates. If this was true channels with lower viewership wouldn't be able to sustain themselves (example - Hazel Hayes, Jack and Dean, Emma, TomSka, etc all get less views than D&P) when they clearly do.

Spons, and other brand deals. Dodie is part of an ad campaign for Coke, which has been running 5min+ long preroles for months now. Jack and Dean's last sketch series was sponsored by a larger company. Daniel J Layton has a day job.

I don't know how much attention you pay to youtubers other than Dan and Phil, but the youtubers you just mentioned, particularly Dodie, regularly talk about how they don't make as much as most people think they do, and youtube is barely sustainable.

More than that, if they made six bucks a video they wouldn't be making videos at all because the time investment just wouldn't be worthy - if it takes, say 15 hours in total to create a dinof video that gets 3m views it works out to Dan getting $2.50 per hour.

If they stopped making videos entirely, they wouldn't be able to make money from other sources (younow bars, merch sales, meet and greets) either because their audience would get bored and leave. It is debatable whether it is worth it for them to keep the adds on the videos in terms of the contribution the add revenue makes to their overall income, but uploading to youtube is absolutely essential for them to attract and maintain an audience without which they would have no income at all.

He doesn't look impoverished to me.

Does your mind deal entirely in absolutes?
adsense revenue =/= total income
ansense revenue very small, total income larger but not as large as you might assume. Other income sources more highly paid but only available when accompanied by continued youtube uploads to maintain relevancy.

[Sakura Selfie]

That link in a previous post is for per thousand views not per million, if they were earning $3 per million views they wouldn't be living in London because London is bloody expensive and PINOF8 wouldn't have even bought them a celebratory bottle of wine yet. Also that's the reason why I don't blame them for getting as much money as they can, YouTube is quite fickle and popularity has a way of fading, no one is getting the same types of viewing rates they were, whether that's because of glitches or just different trends, they know they don't have 50 years to make, build and sustain a career like the vast majority of professional people do, so they have to fit a lot into a relatively short time.

[misakichan274]

Post Posted by pilotlight » Fri Feb 10, 2017 1:09 am

Phil's new "fleurs" seem to be doing well, Hopefully he doesn't blind himself with their leafs.

It might be a metaphor for 2017/ their future

I loved the ls show today, he seemed so relaxed, open and cheery. It seems that the recent tradition of each of them sharing domestic stories with us continues I can imagine Phil hiding behind his hands and mumbling to Dan about the man at the cinema

at Dan's present to Phil. First, there is literally no way I see that as something straight bros gift each other & secondly, I'm proud and happy that we are at a point where Dan felt comfortable enough to mention it to us (knowing that it would've created an explosion couple of years ago) and Phil chose to address it too, with no no-homo-y explanations or comments

He looked so beautiful in that coat and so cute when talking about animals (but some more pet baiting )

There were so many sweet moments but another memorable one was the image Phil graciously provided of them watching Stephen Universe in bed as their escape from the world

Lowkey worried about the gas leaks now though, god I hope they move out soon

[captainspacecoat]

Re: Phil's liveshow - super enjoyable, he seemed so bubbly and entertaining. The 'inappropriate' present is amazing and I'm glad he chose to share that with us, the cinema story was hilarious and domestic, and overall he was just super engaging. Loved it!

There were so many sweet moments but another memorable one was the image Phil graciously provided of them watching Stephen Universe in bed as their escape from the world

I thought the same thing!!

Re: Amplify/money talk - I will never understand why people insist that 'this is their job, they're allowed to make money!' is enough of an argument to just ... not allow for any critique at all. Obviously, capitalism means that we're all out here just desperately trying to earn a living, I get that. But at the same time, it means that (in my opinion, at least) certain professions earn an inordinate amount of money compared to others and this isn't based on the amount of effort put into the job.

Dan and Phil (and other youtubers/celebrities) earn a ridiculous amount of money for the work they do. I'm not saying they don't work hard - they do - but I also think we should recognise that they are incredibly lucky to be in the position they are and to be earning the kind of money they're earning. As somebody who will likely never be earning the amount of money they earn I think I'm entitled to question their motives for attending an event that charges teenagers an insane amount of money if you want to actually meet them.

The fact that it's so expensive means that it's only open to wealthy kids, and people are entitled to question the ethics of that. Again, I'm not saying they aren't allowed to try and earn money, of course they are and I don't blame them for it as this is the society we live in! But I can't help that something doesn't sit right with me when youtubers/celebrities get paid a shit-ton of money just to meet a kid for like 2 minutes. Meanwhile, the kid has had to fork out more money than they probably have just for those 2 minutes. Seems kind of unfair.

I actually think alittledizzy is onto something, and that attending Amplify may have been a condition of being able to make TATINOF Australia happen. That remains to be seen, I guess, but it makes sense to me.

Anyway, again I'm not claiming dnp are soulless, money-hungry, capitalist assholes - they're clearly not. Like someone else said, I truly believe they're lovely people who happily do things like donating $10,000 to charity in a spon-video and making someone's Make A Wish come true. I just think we shouldn't be so quick to shut down anyone who dares question the ethics of an event like Amplify. Dan and Phil are two very wealthy men who, in my opinion, don't really need defending here.

(also someone before (can't remember who and can't be bothered to go back and check now) said Nash Grier was probably just a stupid kid not worth boycotting over. This is true in that yeah, he's still pretty young (and v stupid) but he's infamous for being homophobic, Islamophobic and misogynistic. He may have changed, idk, but as far as I'm concerned he's not worth anyone's money)

[silverwinter]

does anyone know how much money dan and phil have approximately saved up (if that's even possible to find out)? bc this whole discussion would be less confusing and vague if we had a ballpark number for their earnings. it's just that some people think they make more money than others, and them doing things like amplify would be more easily understood (or not understood) if we knew how much money they actually have

edit: i agree with catallena and captainspacegoat on the ethics of all this tho. regardless of how much money they do or don't have, something like amplify is...disconcerting considering how much of a blatant money-grab it is from impressionable teens (and, like captainspacegoat said, wealthy ones). it almost feels like exploitation of people's money, expecting them to pay so much for very little gain (a couple minutes max with d&p)

[Catallena]

It's funny to me how D&P are always defended with the old 'they need make money somehow/popularity is fading/YouTube won't last forever/making as much as possible before it's over' narrative. It's not that all those things aren't true. It's just that the debate is mostly about D&P doing far more hustling than almost any other YouTuber in similar ranks. Are y'all suggesting that D&P are the only smart ones and that everyone else isn't thinking ahead? Do you then really believe yourself? The current generation of YouTubers were preceded by the original generation of whom a big part are no longer relevant or even active on the website.. They all know what can happen. D&P aren't special. So why is it that pretty much only they joined the Gleamers in their ways of getting all the money they can? Why is it such a taboo to discuss that? Why does it always end with stans getting defensive and pushing aforementioned narrative again? I'm not slamming them for making money, I'm questioning the ways they do it.

And I'll kinda repeat myself from a previous post, if they agreed to attendAmplify so that they could get the tour over in AUS.. then that just reminds me of the whole 7SC App and the absolute mess that was PopJam. Credibility lasts a whole lot longer than money and currently they're giving vibes that it is for sale if you come with a good enough price. Happy for all the Aussie people who got to see TATINOF because of it, I truly am, but indirectly it was still for money and it doesn't change much to my opinion.

On money more generally: adsense revenues are low, and falling. They make tiny tiny amounts per view per ad. They're probably adding more ad breaks to keep their income stable, rather than increase it. The ad breaks annoy me too, but if they went back to just pre-rolls they'd probably make so little it would feel like nothing. Maybe if you had a creative job you loved you'd be happy to work for free to spare your audience from advertisements, but Dan and Phil aren't you. They deserve to be paid for their work and their time. I don't think it's reasonable for us as strangers with no knowledge of their financial situation or priorities to demand that they work for free because they're already rich enough. Maybe their meet and greet rates are unreasonable, but $3 per million views (figure from 2015 source) isn't much, especially when you consider the time it takes to write film and edit.

Like sentinel said, those are just average rates and not actual ones. I hate these websites that just write articles like this, taking some vague guesses and presenting it as the truth. According to those websites either all Top 100 Creators belong on the Forbes list or only a fraction of Creators would be able to make a living. Neither is true. The cold hard truth is that no one knows what an individual YouTuber makes from ad revenue except Google and the Creators and Google sure as hell is gonna keep it that way. I watch enough YouTubers who average on 50,000 to 500,000 views per video and they don't overload quite as much on the ads as D&P do. Some do more sponsored content, but not everyone. No one is saying they need to do shit for free and the day stans stop countering debates like these with that bullshit is probably one I wont see. Last year or so Dan said he was in a fortunate enough position to not have to do spon (on DINOF I guess he meant), which means he makes BANK from ads and merch sales. I've heard many YouTube say over the years that merch is what makes them the most money anyway and D&P are really not lacking in that department. D&P are not in the bracket of YouTubers currently suffering under Google's policy.

I also agree with captainspacecoat like is 'well that's just capitalism ¯\_(ツ)_/¯' really going to be hill we're gonna die on here? You can't possibly come up with an excuse that makes me feel less sorry for rich people...

Anyway.

Phil knows how to play the audience, posting a cute couple selfie with a kangaroo. I mean part of my soul died actually seeing him link to that trash event that advertises human trash Nash Grier, but I'll continue to be dramatic in my corner of the room I guess.

[fancybum]

Dan and Misc Watch 2017
INAPPROPRIATE BIRTHDAY GIFT (Week 5)

Prompted Dan Mention

whoops nothing to see here

Unprompted Dan Mention

1:45 “A lot of you have been wondering, after Dan dropped a hint in his liveshow, he bought me an ‘inappropriate’ gift for my birthday- is that what he said? Did he say it was inappropriate?”
“Dan thought— I’m trying to [think] of the best way to tell this— Dan had the nice idea to get me some Buffy merch for my birthday. As many of you know, [I’m a huge obsessed fan], I wanted to be a vampire slayer- a male vampire slayer- and yeah. I was obsessed. So Dan thought it’d be a nice idea to get me a signed, autographed Sarah Michelle Gellar Buffy signature for my birthday [which would have been cool].”
“However [..] the only character I think they had from Buffy was a certain photograph. Oh, my voice is breaking, I’m so excited about this. A certain photograph of Angel, aka David Boreanaz.”
“It’s David Boreanaz in the bath!”
“I don’t know where to put this, I don’t know where to look. Where is his hand going? I don’t want to know.”
“It was not the signed Buffy picture I was expecting, but I kind of love it all the same.”
“That was the inappropriate gift Dan got me for my birthday.”

7:40 “We’ve had a few photoshoots where they’ve— if it’s been with Dan— they’ve wanted Dan just to smile and me to be the one with the crazy face.”
“I’m the one with the [crazy face] and Dan gets to do a nice smile. But that can change. I’ll make Dan do the crazy face next time, if we ever do another photoshoot.”

9:00 “I went to see - with Dan - Manchester by the Sea!”
“Story is, we went to a cinema which has foot stools and there was a guy with his wife” and he was freaking about where his seat was “so he decided to walk past me and Dan [..] so I helpfully lifted up my legs onto the seat, so did Dan” “but I forgot there was a footstool there, so he kind of tripped over my footstool, then he tripped over Dan’s footstool” “then the worst thing was, on his way down, he fell face-first into Dan’s bucket of popcorn.”
“Why does this happen to us? There was a whole cinema for him to fall over in, and he goes face first into Dan’s popcorn”
“The cinema were kind enough to give Dan a free popcorn”
“Why us? Why did we get the man in our popcorn? There’s so many people that could’ve had a man in their popcorn, but Dan and Phil— or is it just me? I think it’s me. I know I say I attract the weirdness in any situation, but I genuinely think it is me. I’ve got a curse.”

Neutral Dan Mention

20:35 “We just uploaded another Google Feud, we didn’t want to do it as a Dan vs Phil” like the last one, hence macaroon

Miscellaneous

15:20 “Another thing, which is one of the reasons we decided to leave the house, was [the gas leak is still there and gas men were over for hours fixing it again]"
“I don’t know how we’re not dead, let’s not think about it.”

16:50 (chat) Oh my gosh you need to move what is even happening
"I know!” “What’s gonna happen next, which is the scary thing, is that now this has been fixed, if it happens again, which is very likely, they will have to replace the entire gaswork of this house and outside on the street. And, if that happens, we won’t have any hot water or be able to cook anything for 3 weeks. So I’m just dreading that that’s gonna happen now, ‘cause if that happens it’s just going to ruin our lives.”
“If it does I think we’d have to like go home to our parents houses or something. Or go on holiday.”
(chat) Wow is Dan ok
“Yes, we’re fine. I mean, nothing exploded.”
(chat) Holiday!
“I’d love to go on holiday. So maybe. Maybe that’ll be an excuse. When the gas explodes, we’ll go on holiday.”
...

22:00 “If there’s slow breathing next to me, and I can really hear the saliva, it freaks me out.”
“Mouth noises are gross, why are mouths so gross. I mean, if you think about a mouth it’s just a big wet hole in our face that goes into our stomach”… etc
“I just don’t like thinking about mouths too much, they make me feel weird"

24:25 “I’ve watched so much Steven [Universe], it’s so good. It’s like my escape from the world”
“I like to watch it in the evening, or if I’ve just woken up”
“Watching it with breakfast is good”

26:30-28:25 Coat haul.

28:30 (chat) It’s so hot in Australia
“I will not lend you my coat then ‘cause you’ll probably melt”
-That would have been the perfect segue into talking about them going to fucking Australia in a couple of months but okay sure

29:20 “I’m into the spice at the moment"

29:37 “So something cool that we did yesterday was for Make-A-Wish UK Foundation” fed meerkats with Zoe
“We weren’t allowed to stroke them which was really hard, because if you’ve got a cute soft animal on you and you can’t touch it, it’s a bit like, ‘I want to stroke them but can’t’ so that was tough, but we made it through”
“I did get a lot of the meerkat food in my crotch, so one of them started to like dig into my crotch, I was like, ‘Whoa, just calm down Mr. Meerkat, it’s a little bit painful’ so thankfully he stopped digging as that was not the best."

34:20 “If you’re ever bored, just combine dogs and Google it. It’s really fun. There’s so many combinations- it’s so weird that they’re all the same animal and you can just splice them together.”
-Phil will be Dr. Mephesto one day confirmed.

35:00 [while at the zoo, we] “saw some lions, which was great. It was so weird actually, like unexpectedly [on] the route to the meerkats, we went past the lions and then the llamas, we were like ‘What’s happening, it’s the zoo of 2010.’ So that was cool. The lions were very muscular and chasing each other, I don’t know if it’s breeding season or something. But they had some thicc abs. Do lions have abs? I don't know.”

45:05 Next gaming vid will be Dil and will be out “quite soon"

Phinal Tally: said ‘Dan’ 19 times

Dan and Phil Watch 2017 Week 5:

Dan mentioning Phil: 41/64.5 minutes = 0.64 per min.
Phil mentioning Dan: 19/51.5 minutes = 0.37 per min.

[Phantasy]

They are wealthy—very wealthy—even by London standards. Perhaps not "set for life" type of wealth, but with careful planning and modest living if YouTube disappeared overnight, they'd still be set for a very very long time. They have a diversified income stream, and their YouTube channels are most likely not even their top revenue source.

If I had to entertain an educated guess, I'd say that merch sales from the IRL Store is their biggest source of income. It's very lucrative of them to own the company and not go through a 3rd party like DistrictLines—they control the costs and overhead, have a minimal staff, and with distribution channels in 3 continents they maximize their margin by being able to ship and manufacture closer to the consumer. When you sell 10's of thousands of posters for $10 a pop (or double if signed) and they probably cost a few cents a piece to print in bulk, the profit potential is outrageous. I'd be surprised if their annual profits didn't exceed $1mil just from merch.

Their 2nd largest source of income (in 2016) was the likely TABINOF and DAPGO—books profits are of course split with the publishing company and retail sellers, making take home profit for the authors somewhat less than one would expect, but their books sold incredibly well, and even being 1st time authors, knowing how savvy they are I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't negotiate lucrative deals. They easily made several hundred thousand dollars, maybe even a cool mil from both books.

I would say that the next biggest earner is their YouTube channel, especially if you lump in #spon deals; sure ad revenue is supposedly down and D&P don't always tweak their videos for that algorithm g-spot, but they still make bank, even more so when they do sponsored content—just assume you don't see ad in the corner for anything less that $10k. They also have a ton of monthly views based on new and repeat visits to their extensive archive of vids. I'm going to low ball it here, but I'd say they each make very high 6 figures, maybe more.

Next I'd say was TATINOF—even though attended by thousand and thousands in dozens of cities, it's probably not as huge of a money maker as people might imagine. All the costs of the production, staff, logisticals, venue split, insurance, etc. all eat into the profit. They I'm sure still did very well for themselves, but I bet that on site merch sales brought in more or equal to ticket sales after all the costs are deducted.

And last are all their other miscellaneous income streams, like the 7 second challenge app, presenter work for the BBC and elsewhere, con appearances, and younow. The funny thing about younow is even though it falls at the bottom of their earning empire, it probably still pays most their bills, especially because they live pretty humbly, relative to their wealth. Their London flat is probably 3-5k a month in rent, and they likely make a grand or so for every live show, if you cut out the expensive vacations, they could probably live just on that!

2016 was by far their most lucrative year placing them squarely and inarguably in low digit millionaire status (if they weren't already). However, I don't think either of them are comfortable hanging their laurels on any of the above income sources or assume that YouTube will always be around or that their social media stardom will always translate into wealth. I imagine that they are busy planning or setting up schemes that don't necessarily rely on themselves as the brand—things like apps, or business ventures, or other investments, so one day they can retire young to a big house on the IOM, surrounded by nature, their kids, and a dozen shibes.

[pastelspectre]

i'm just gonna not say anything about the money discussion bc i don't feel really comfortable discussing that

but! phil's liveshow. it was cute, i enjoyed it. it wasn't one of my favorites but i still enjoyed it. he looks very snazzy and cute in his fuzzy winter coat! i found it funny how dan got that phil that birthday gift i find it even funnier bc i watch bones currently with my sister and now i have to live knowing that everytime i see david (or booth in the show) i'll be reminded of that picture dan got him lmao

[jesuisunèléve]

Average rates do not equal actual rates. If this was true channels with lower viewership wouldn't be able to sustain themselves (example - Hazel Hayes, Jack and Dean, Emma, TomSka, etc all get less views than D&P) when they clearly do.

Spons, and other brand deals. Dodie is part of an ad campaign for Coke, which has been running 5min+ long preroles for months now. Jack and Dean's last sketch series was sponsored by a larger company. Daniel J Layton has a day job.

I don't know how much attention you pay to youtubers other than Dan and Phil, but the youtubers you just mentioned, particularly Dodie, regularly talk about how they don't make as much as most people think they do, and youtube is barely sustainable.

More than that, if they made six bucks a video they wouldn't be making videos at all because the time investment just wouldn't be worthy - if it takes, say 15 hours in total to create a dinof video that gets 3m views it works out to Dan getting $2.50 per hour.

If they stopped making videos entirely, they wouldn't be able to make money from other sources (younow bars, merch sales, meet and greets) either because their audience would get bored and leave. It is debatable whether it is worth it for them to keep the adds on the videos in terms of the contribution the add revenue makes to their overall income, but uploading to youtube is absolutely essential for them to attract and maintain an audience without which they would have no income at all.

He doesn't look impoverished to me.

Does your mind deal entirely in absolutes?
adsense revenue =/= total income
ansense revenue very small, total income larger but not as large as you might assume. Other income sources more highly paid but only available when accompanied by continued youtube uploads to maintain relevancy.

I've had several friends in the UK assume Deppy made millions on their US tour. I had to assure them this probably wasn't the case, what with insurances, the cost of diesel fuel for that tour bus of theirs, venues, staff, et al. The worst thing was, it didn't matter, because the crime was they made a TON of money so they didn't need any other income streams.

With that being said, there was also a freak-out because of all of the YT videos they were putting out (were they planning some other big project?) and of course going back to OZ (there are more people pissed off about that in my world than anything else).

Bottom line? We don't know their financial information. They could be poor as church mice due to giving all of their money to charities or even offshore accounts to protect it from taxation (lol). We don't know and it's tacky to be discussing how much they may or may not have/been making/will be making. They are entertainers and their popularity could go down the tubes tomorrow, so yes they need to do what they can if they don't plan on working a 9-5 job with the rest of the peasants.

(Nash Grier makes my skin crawl. Just saying.)

[jesuisunèléve]

Phil looks adorable, the kangaroo gives 0 f*cks, and Dan is flashing that pained expressionless look along with a peace sign that needs to die in a fire.

[rizzo]

They are wealthy—very wealthy—even by London standards. Perhaps not "set for life" type of wealth, but with careful planning and modest living if YouTube disappeared overnight, they'd still be set for a very very long time. They have a diversified income stream, and their YouTube channels are most likely not even their top revenue source.

If I had to entertain an educated guess, I'd say that merch sales from the IRL Store is their biggest source of income. It's very lucrative of them to own the company and not go through a 3rd party like DistrictLines—they control the costs and overhead, have a minimal staff, and with distribution channels in 3 continents they maximize their margin by being able to ship and manufacture closer to the consumer. When you sell 10's of thousands of posters for $10 a pop (or double if signed) and they probably cost a few cents a piece to print in bulk, the profit potential is outrageous. I'd be surprised if their annual profits didn't exceed $1mil just from merch.

Their 2nd largest source of income (in 2016) was the likely TABINOF and DAPGO—books profits are of course split with the publishing company and retail sellers, making take home profit for the authors somewhat less than one would expect, but their books sold incredibly well, and even being 1st time authors, knowing how savvy they are I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't negotiate lucrative deals. They easily made several hundred thousand dollars, maybe even a cool mil from both books.

I would say that the next biggest earner is their YouTube channel, especially if you lump in #spon deals; sure ad revenue is supposedly down and D&P don't always tweak their videos for that algorithm g-spot, but they still make bank, even more so when they do sponsored content—just assume you don't see ad in the corner for anything less that $10k. They also have a ton of monthly views based on new and repeat visits to their extensive archive of vids. I'm going to low ball it here, but I'd say they each make very high 6 figures, maybe more.

Next I'd say was TATINOF—even though attended by thousand and thousands in dozens of cities, it's probably not as huge of a money maker as people might imagine. All the costs of the production, staff, logisticals, venue split, insurance, etc. all eat into the profit. They I'm sure still did very well for themselves, but I bet that on site merch sales brought in more or equal to ticket sales after all the costs are deducted.

And last are all their other miscellaneous income streams, like the 7 second challenge app, presenter work for the BBC and elsewhere, con appearances, and younow. The funny thing about younow is even though it falls at the bottom of their earning empire, it probably still pays most their bills, especially because they live pretty humbly, relative to their wealth. Their London flat is probably 3-5k a month in rent, and they likely make a grand or so for every live show, if you cut out the expensive vacations, they could probably live just on that!

2016 was by far their most lucrative year placing them squarely and inarguably in low digit millionaire status (if they weren't already). However, I don't think either of them are comfortable hanging their laurels on any of the above income sources or assume that YouTube will always be around or that their social media stardom will always translate into wealth. I imagine that they are busy planning or setting up schemes that don't necessarily rely on themselves as the brand—things like apps, or business ventures, or other investments, so one day they can retire young to a big house on the IOM, surrounded by nature, their kids, and a dozen shibes.

I love your post, as it pretty succinctly expresses my exact thoughts on their monetary situation. The only thing I'd note is that, while I agree that merch is almost certainly their biggest source of income, the US shop still functions through District Lines. So there's a bit of a loss there, however minimal. Psssst. PROTIP: Ordering from the UK shop may likely cost less for US folks (and arrive quicker... weirdly). So check your totals in both shops before ordering.

I'd also note that I think they make 6 figures on #spon deals alone at minimum. So YouTube is def still a cash cow.

I realize this whole conversation evolved from their attendance at Amplify, so I'm gonna backtrack to that because I just want to say that money may not be the only reason they'd accept a trip to Australia. It may be a major influence and I can totally respect them choosing this over Playlist for that reason, but I'm sure Playlist (and the like) can get repetitive. An adventure, be it in Australia or a country on the way, is another perfectly good reason to make that choice. They are human beings after all and if I got offered a paid trip to Australia for a second time vs Orlando for the billionth, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Or they might go to both - but my point about adventure still stands.

Re: Phil's LS... This was brought up everywhere but here, but I find it hilarious @ 26:24, how BS'd the question from "Danielle" was. "What did you do on the way back from the cinema?" ...........What kind of perfect segue to bringing up the coat? Not smooth, Phil. Not smooth at all. Makes me wonder how many times this has actually worked on us.

And finally, brief mention of them (10:38) in Ricky Dillon's new video where he talks about genuinely nice YouTubers. It's nothing we don't already know, but heart-warming nonetheless

[dontpanic]

Phil looks adorable, the kangaroo gives 0 f*cks, and Dan is flashing that pained expressionless look along with a peace sign that needs to die in a fire.

They look like they're terrified the kangaroo is going to maul them at any moment. They still look adorable tho idk how they do it

[lefthandedism]

Re money: I think we don't know how much money DnP have, and can only estimate how much they make (though thanks Phantasy for the thoughtful breakdown), and at the end of the day it can feel kind of invasive and tacky to speculate about it (not to mention ultimately pointless).

However, what they choose to do or not do for money as part of their public behavior is something we can legitimately judge evaluate them on. It personally makes me sad to see them behave in ways that seem greedy.

So, to move onto something that makes me happy--Phil's liveshow. I used to find his liveshows and the AmazingPhil persona/angel bean in general really boring, and his focus on premium messages/top fans in the ls set my teeth on edge. But I found his ls today as engaging as I usually find Dan's! I even laughed out loud several times. I'm definitely finding Phil much more enjoyable than irritating these days (and please remember that I'm a huge fan of early Phil, so it's not like I've always hated everything about him or anything). More of 2017 Phil please!