By Mark Rodriguez
We recently celebrated our 10th year of the Video Game Masters show, which by default was our 10th year on YouTube overall. However YouTube has changed a lot during those 10 years and for many it just isn't fun anymore. Copyright claims have led to many videos being either claimed or taken down making it difficult for people to review certain games or topics. Most of the times these claims come from random people that don't even own whatever they say you're using without their permission. Things that can be considered sensitive topics or what YouTube might consider the wrong side of their political views can lead to channels losing their monetization or being taken down altogether. With YouTube now even announcing its own TV service, many small time creators have had enough of the corporate influence and unfair copyright policies that keep coming up.
The issue lies in where are you going to go? There have been other services like blip tv and vidme that have tried their hand at the video sharing business but failed and are now just memories. Dailymotion has arguably been around as long as YouTube has but it barely seems to make waves. What other platform can someone that is either already big on YouTube or wants to make it big go to that won't be some rare obscure platform nobody ever heard of or cares about. LBRY hopes to be the answer.
Set up sometime late 2018, LBRY is a new video sharing platform that deals in freedom of expression, where you can make the kind of videos that you want without worries about having them being taking down.
While similar to YouTube the set up is very different. They are working on a webpage called LBRYtv that will come soon but for now they use an app you can download on PC or Mac or most mobile devices. You make a free account based on your email and once you earn some rewards you can start publishing your own videos.
For those curious about monetization, the platform deals with LBC which is related to bitcoin. You can earn this form of currency by earning rewards like watching enough videos or subbing to channels, and even claiming your own channel and publishing your first video. Viewers can tip your videos and you can tip theirs in LBC. You can even set the videos to be free to watch or cost a certain amount of LBC to watch.
There is also a Discord chat where some of the people behind this project can further explain how the LBC works, and you can potentially earn some more as you help further newcomers. I am far from being an expert on cryprocurrency but the desktop app does have a virtual wallet to let you store all your LBC. It seems there will be updates to help actually cash out or sell the LBC for good ol fashioned dollars. From what I understand, it works in a way similar to stocks where you can decide to sell your LBC right away (when that option becomes available that is) or you can horde up your LBC and wait for the demand for it to be at its highest.
One advantage for people that don't necessarily want to leave YouTube or use both platforms is you can actually sync your existing YouTube channel to LBRY. And based on your pre-existing amount of subs and views you already have, it helps give you a bunch of free LBC just by syncing. The higher your sub count, the more you'd earn upon syncing.
Being a new platform there are a lot of things to be sorted out. The app doesn't seem to work perfectly on Android users and people are having trouble syncing their accounts from the phone app to the desktop app. The desktop app (I can't speak for the Mac version) seems to download the video you're watching onto your computer. Not many people are comfortable knowing their videos are downloaded to someone else's computer and I usually have to go back and delete everything I watched off my downloads folder.
Also with this being new a lot of things people might be used to on YouTube still aren't here, such as being able to give yourself a profile picture and give your channel its own banner and description and such. Comments are currently not available either and you have to look at your own individual video to keep track of how many views it has.
As for spreading the word and hoping some of the big name YouTubers come over to raise awareness and popularity, we're going to need some FAQs and a lot of how-to videos on how the LBC Bitcoin thing works until it becomes more common knowledge. I barely understand it myself. And the launch of LBRYtv should also help because it's easier to sway people to watch your videos on a webpage, than convince them to have to install an app on their computer first.
LBRY is still new but it's selling point is creative freedom. Now you are free to express yourself and voice your argument without worrying about being censored or getting de-platformed. You don't have to worry about dealing with controversial topics without getting your videos taken down. Also keep in mind, any nitpicks I might currently have pointed are due to change as more updates come to get this project off the ground. LBRY seeks to be all about you and not big corporations. But will it succeed or share the fate that vidme did? If it does succeed, will YOU be there?
For much more detailed information on how LBRY works as well as news and updates, check out the link to the official site. You can also download the app for your PC or Mac there.
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