It's a shame that nobody but Youtube can afford to host videos at a loss year after year. I could vent for an hour about why I dislike the company: they are a privacy abomination; their moderation is incompetent; the way they monetize is unethical. If there were a worse steward than Youtube to store the bulk of humanity's video, I can't think of who it would possibly be.
At some point in the future, YouTube competitors will probably become cost effective - probably 30-50 years in the future.
If you've ever imagined someone coming from the future with futuristic technology, it would probably look something like YouTube. It's a piece of technology we effectively can't replicate that we're entirely beholden to because removing our dependence on it would set us back decades socially, technologically, and functionally.
Are they so expensive to host yourself? Sure the picture quality won't be as great but with modern codecs it doesn't seem like it would be much worse than the average web page.
It’s not impossible, but I think it’s about 128 minute-views per GB and $0.01/GB? Which would make hosting e.g. Issac Arthur’s YouTube channel cost in the order of $200-$300 per video uploaded, which I would hope is small for him given how many volunteers he gets and the sponsor messages, but might discourage future versions of him from getting started.
Scott Manley’s channel looks like typically more views and shorter videos, so would probably be similar hosting costs. Would he still be able to do his thing without YouTube? Or Robert Miles (the AI researcher, not the famous one I’ve never heard of before updating this comment because I’m not into music)?
Oops, what I had in mind when I wrote the comment was the expense of hosting a vast repository of videos (eg: Youtube, Vimeo, Twitch, etc). I didn't mean the modest cost of an individual just serving their own content.
Even Google is giving up their free services. Soon YouTube will follow Apple and raise their walls around the Prison and lock people in through an aggressive TOS. With DMCA or newly lobbied legislation could Google own every video?
It will be an exodus for those on the cutting edge, and the late comers will be paying the price.
Google doesn't have the marketing department Apple has to successfully pull it off.
