YouTube's Quality Paradox: PewDiePie Explains It And Might Even Solve It

In interviewing dozens of successful YouTubers, I have been intrigued by how they refer to their millions of subscribers. Most call them their audience or fans, a few refer to them as their community. The fact that it interests me rests on a fundamental question: “What exactly are we doing here?”

That was the unasked question that PewDiePie, YouTube’s biggest star, answered in a video last weekend called OLD VS. NEW PEWDIEPIE. The post made news because he addresses offensive jokes, such as slurs against sexual orientation, by saying, “I’m not proud of it. I’m really not. But I’m also glad that I’ve grown past it.”

PewDiePie clearly knows he’s a role model and this video was, to a degree, an act of conscience.

But there’s something else going on. Several times the YouTube star talks about the production quality of his old videos and his habits around making them. He talks about how last-minute his work was, how careless he could be. So careless, in fact, that he one time accidentally uploaded (instead of the latest edited show) a webcam video where he did nothing (except habitually lick his mustache). It has more than 350,000 views. He talks about fumbling to get his webcam pointed correctly, which he failed to edit out. He talks about posting 12-minute unedited plays that could be frustratingly repetitive.

He juxtaposes those old uploads from five to six years ago with the work he produces today, for which he and his team can spend long hours shooting and editing to make the most entertaining product possible.

“I’m sure if they were uncut,” he says in the video, “a lot of people would love them in the same way and be able to enjoy them in the same way, but not as many people would be able to enjoy them.”

This is a very smart point and begins to get at the YouTube’s quality paradox, a phenomenon that anyone interested in digital video should care about: The higher quality YouTube videos get, the harder it is to connect them to their intended audience.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhumphrey/2016/04/27/youtubes-quality-paradox-pewdiepie-explains-it-and-might-even-solve-it/#2993548948e6