B'awwwww. There be my tweet.
If you have a minute, it's definitely worth reading Hank's little spiel and also the responses from other youtubers. (Dodie argues for #whynotboth, while Anna Akana thinks growing your audience via higher production value can be positive.)
I know we've talked in circles about this topic, but like... I wanna talk about it more. I've had a think on the topic and I think I've come to understand why most youtubers do go for the bigger audience/less connection scheme and why D&P and H&J don't. The latter pairs meet the following requirements:
- Have made significant money such that it is no longer a major concern, whether via youtube initially or via other endeavors (see: authoring books, going on tours, building a merch empire.................... can you tell which pair I'm talking about? 'Cause I can't.)
- This is perhaps even more important: They climbed this youtube ladder with a partnership (and additional personality) already in place. There's no need to get a production team involved on-camera. There's also the added benefit that it's more natural and therefore more appealing to an audience. And neither is left alone to make the big decisions.
It boils down to the fact that Dan and Phil have each other and they have money, so like, while ambition is a great thing to have, if your ambition isn't filmmaking, then why bother getting fancy? Instead, they can cultivate a strong relationship with the people who already like them as they are. And I'm assuming that's the conclusion they've come to at this point.
I recognize that Dan's talked about upping the quality of his videos, but do we recall how recent that was? Do we think his POV on that has changed? Maybe dinof will be the channel where they experiment in this fancy production world without losing touch with who they are on the other channels.
I couldn't be happier to stan them tbh. Their comfort is my comfort.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.