Nostr Web Client

Well, Nostr sort of passed the YouTube buck back to the users, by requiring them to host their own videos. Services are the biggest cost, not software, so we can turn a profit at a much lower price point.

And a lot of people who upload content to YouTube pay for Premium because YT is a pain to use, otherwise. And I suspect premium users are less-likely to get censored or have their stuff removed to free up disk space.

Everyone who has our premium subscription will also automatically get our media server, for example, as we'll put their publication images in there when converting, unless they say otherwise. And only they can use the converter, as conversion is expensive. Same with semantic (image) searches, deep search, grammar checks, translations, exporting publications, etc. Anything that is a service can just get cut off or redirecting to your own service. <>

It's the same with YT or Spotify. I don't even notice the Premium features, until I try to use it without logging in on a computer and then it's like...

?🤔 Where is the button for..?

Matt 8mo ago

You make some interesting points, which inspire more thought. YT probably wouldn't be so shitty if users paid for it. Instead, YT is making decisions based on what ad buyers want. They sort of have to. But that isn't the case for Premium. Another similar example was the whole interface fiasco. I messaged them and told them I was canceling if they didn't leave my shit alone. They said they would and I never dealt with it. Those who pay have the say. It's just the reality.

And I agree Nostr did toss it back to the users. That's not bad. I think it's great. But that also means there is no real alternative to YT and likely won't be for many years. At least not on Nostr.

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Discussion

Laeserin 8mo ago

YouTube and the others all low-key hate ad revenue models. That's incredibly fickle revenue and it tends to suddenly crash, anytime the economy slows a bit, whilst the running costs stay up. Subscribers are more loyal.

And the ad revenue sources are often highly political and hit you with one boycott and shitstorm, after another. It's a never-ending nightmare. That's why stock prices for these companies only really get a big bump when they gain subscribers and contracts, not ad revenue.

Laeserin 8mo ago

Because ad revenue is tightly-clustered. It's not ad revenue from millions of different accounts; its one big ad agency and it can terrorize your company by pulling all ads at once.

Matt 8mo ago

Which could be avoided by not relying on ads. But that clearly isn't possible from the numbers I've seen. I don't see Nostr changing that as a technical solution. It'll require a shift in culture and user expectations. It's already technically possible on Nostr as far as I can tell. And yet the masses aren't pouring in. There's more to it than technology.

Rand 8mo ago

IT IZ Early/E*/*ya #painwillpush

Laeserin 8mo ago

Well, we don't have any critical mass, yet. 10% subscribers is more than enough to carry a freemium video model, but 10% of what number?

If you think of what our gitserver costs, you'd probably need a few dozen high-paying subscribers, to get a video hosting service up and running, which means you need thousands of regular users. Until then, someone needs to just bleed the cash.