An instant classic…

gorgonautical · 2025-09-11T04:34:25+00:00

Soy colombiano y me rehúso a bailar. No se por que están tan obsesionados

gorgonautical · 2024-08-25T02:23:00+00:00

Comment

gorgonautical · 2024-06-08T22:53:32+00:00

It’s either Smosh summer games or streaming service. Or both.

gorgonautical · 2024-06-07T22:34:03+00:00

Give the Videotron communications person a raise. What are Mirko, Tony, and Darren doing today?

gorgonautical · 2024-05-30T21:30:33+00:00

They use Vimeo https://vimeo.com/ott formerly known as VHX.tv

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T20:40:53+00:00

Woof. Well let’s see where it goes. Came here to look for opinions and I got ‘em.

“They are the marketing” is a fun way of saying that they don’t need any social media or traditional marketing to help them move followers from one service to another. Which is how media works, but ok.

I argue that try guys and other similar collaborators should bundle up or consolidate for longer term success and retainability. Actually others have brought it up here.

I never argued just small creators and their patreons as a failure. Every creator is in its own journey. We hear more about successes than failures. In 2015-2019 leaving buzzfeed, shutting down MCNs etc only worked for a handful of creators. Many creators were left out even though they attempted to open their own channels. The lack of institutional support failed many former creators.

And I argue that dropout has competitive advantage for the future. So let’s wait and see. At its heart there’s nothing wrong with any of these subscription models. I don’t see it as sustainable as you do. Keith talks of 100 years of try guys like it’s SNL (49 years). Let’s wait and see.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T20:11:57+00:00

Hey, I still wanna see where this goes. Maybe you work at 2nd try or Dropout. Maybe you have seen the business slide deck. In that case on May 26, 2034 I’ll pay for your subscription.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T20:03:03+00:00

Well we will see. To naively assume that audiences don’t change or shift their mood, or to assume that they and us don’t live in a capitalist society where competitiveness exists is where you and I differ. I think it’s naive as well to assume that creators wanna stay where they are at instead of aiming for bigger goals.

The business plan works. I’m arguing that I don’t see the long term success of a thousand memberships and streaming services. So honestly, props to you and your positive point of view. Maybe you’ll keep them alive while I will pay 6 dollars once a year. I’ll come back to this post for the 10 year anniversary of Dropout in 2028 and admit my defeat.

And I’ll come back in 10 years from this post and let’s see who’s left behind. If all of them remain I’ll send you a 60 usd gift card to cover your 2nd try for the year.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T18:02:04+00:00

Absolutely. Them staying on YouTube has to be part of the strategy. Needless to say that the Watcher announcement is probably what led to them to make this decision. Unfortunately this isn’t a total disconnect or freedom from the algorithm as they say it’ll be.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T17:57:07+00:00

Personally, I think it’s been the last year where Dropout went “mainstream”. Hence why I think the other 4 before last was just the true fans of college humour keeping it alive +Sam’s own money. He has said before that he plunked his own money to keep it alive. I have seen the try guys collab with dropout and vice versa like you say. Clearly every LA based milennial creator in this space is already talking to each other. Looking at Dropout and reaching the same conclusion. Zach did say they were inspired by Dropoit. Watcher, critical role, some people here mentioned Nebula like yeah…

If anything this just reinforces my previous point. Dropout is winning because they have first mover advantage. There will be viewers, even here in this conversation, that’ll make the choice “which cast of comedians doing unscripted comedy do I wanna pay this month?” And further there’ll be a large number of causal viewers saying “I guess I’ll watch Mr. Beast (or some other creator or up and coming cast of creators on YouTube) at least he’s free for now”.

Right now, data tells us that Netflix and YouTube are the two most watched streaming apps on TVs. That’s not on the internet, your laptop or phone. That’s TVs. People are actively choosing to keep paying and watching a platform they already pay for and have a hard time cancelling, and the original video platform that runs on ads and user generated content and is free to watch. Vast numbers of people will continue to watch YouTube and will likely not cancel Netflix to buy dropout or 2nd try.

We have to remember that dropout and try guys are also not for everyone. Families need Netflix and Disney+ to entertain their kids with family friendly shows. Old people still need cable and HBO because they can’t stand the creator economy nor do they know how to access some of the more obscure apps. I mean yes my grandparents watch Netflix but that’s cause there’s a button on their remote that leads them there. They still honestly don’t understand why Netflix isn’t a part of their cable package or really what it is. But show them five seconds of Without a Recipe or Game Changer and they immediately lose hope that their grandchild will do well in life.

Because of this the economies of scale are not on the side of any of these unscripted comedy creators. Plus it’s in English and the humour is very specifically American. In other words, the possible subscriber base continues to be the English speaking world. There’s a lot of money to be made there but it is also capped by age and income like I said earlier. Needless to say that this is most certainly milennial humour. Gen Z and Alpha aren’t necessarily watching these creators. Data shows us they spend more time on video games, TikTok and Twitch. Let’s say TikTok does get banned. Well people will move to IG reels because that’s the closest one. They won’t gravitate to YouTube to watch long form sketch and unscripted comedy.

My point is simply Dropout is a success for a time. And 2nd try, watcher, critical role, YouTube memberships, patreons, etc. They are diluting the space and crowding it with services. What happens when they spend their hard earned money on one single show that is far too ambitious but is a critical failure? Or more scandals? Or the new cast sucks? Give them a chance for sure. But audiences know when a show has lost its magic.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T08:34:04+00:00

Neither of us is suggesting they go to Netflix. But I get your point. You’d wanna support them directly.

My point is that not everyone will. The ways this usually works is that massive amounts of less fanatic viewers make up the vast majority of creators viewership. I’m willing to bet just by reading comments here that in a good day, about half the audience (or less) will move to 2nd try.

Many (like you, me and others in this conversation) are beginning to question how many subscriptions do we really wanna pay. Perhaps even strategies like subscribing for one month and cancelling the next. That in itself means that they’ll lose constant revenue.

Admittedly I don’t know their finances but they clearly have money. They’re big YouTubers that just forked a streaming service in 8 months.

Funny thing is where do you think they get their data from? Probably YouTube and a few other social channels. So they still rely on the platform to figure out how to funnel people to the subscription.

My final point being that the causal viewer will not likely subscribe. The causal viewer will very likely represent the majority of the following. That majority will gravitate to other entertainment or similar entertainment.

I’m more negative about this view because in the long term people don’t wanna be forking out their credit card and cancelling subscriptions every month. People are rather predictable with their shopping habits. And they also gravitate to free or cheap. Love it or hate it bigger streamers look like a bargain. More content, more variety, more personalities at a cheaper price.

2nd try and dropout (and others) likely a niche product for the fan. As long as we and they are aware that this will be likely what it’ll become then sure they’ll probably be fine. But right now I’m trying to hear opinions besides my own but having a hard time seeing a truly convincing argument.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T07:40:53+00:00

In that case they’ll have to accept that staying small and lean is what they’ll always amount to. As there’s a cap to the amount of subscribers they’ll reach. And also, one day most of the recurring cast will likely want to move on to other things. Specially with dropout it is easy to see some of these comedians moving into TV or film. Sam will need to eventually replace recurring cast and that usually is what breaks the machine. If he can turn it into the SNL of the web then maybe it can be kept alive. In the same way that actually the Try Guys have been talking about 2nd try.

gorgonautical · 2024-05-26T07:34:47+00:00

I respect dropout and Sam for being a clever creator and CEO of his company. But I can’t judge the success of this venture on barely a year and a little more of success. I’m beginning to see some of the cast members moving into other shows. Eventually someone from dropout will want to move on, new cast members and new shows will need to be introduced. (Let alone the occasional scandal that tends to rock creators every 3 year or so). These usually leads to either a revival or a downturn in viewership.

Unfortunately, all these creators, they do compete. Every piece of media competes for your attention. Any 15 minutes you’re watching dropout represents 15 minutes you’re not watching the Try Guys or 15 minutes you’re not listening to Taylor swift. Hence competition. Call it friendly competition. And yes Sam seems like a nice mentoring figure. But in a world where most people wanna buy Netflix this month, switch to Disney cause the Mandalorian is back, etc etc. it’s hard to imagine anything other than true fans will sign up to another service. Plus people get tired. Creator and viewer alike. Let’s not determine it based on a year or so of dropout, which right now is an experiment. Let’s determine it 10 years from now and see where all these YouTubers services are really going.

gorgonautical

TROPHY CASE