Opposable Thumbnails
August 6, 2024 2:23 AM Subscribe
For YouTubers, thumbnails are serious business, as they can make or break a videos’ reach. Top creators such as MrBeast test up to 20 different thumbnail variations on a single video, paying designers a reported $10,000 for a single video. This has spawned a microeconomy of freelance YouTube thumbnails artists around the world, who hone their design skills to attract clicks. Designers and artists who spoke with Rest of World said they’re treating the rise of text-to-image generation AI tools such as Midjourney and AlphaCTR with a mix of anxiety and curiosity. from AI comes for YouTube’s thumbnail industry [Rest of World]
His team uses ChatGPT Plus to write scripts for YouTube videos and draft descriptions of thumbnail ideas, and Midjourney to generate illustrations. “Now, I’ve hired one person … whose only role is to go to ChatGPT and keep asking [for scripts and editing them],” Anurag told Rest of World. It costs him one-third of what he used to spend on scriptwriters.
Yuck. What a depressing paragraph.
posted by Philipschall at 3:22 AM on August 6 [11 favorites]
Yuck. What a depressing paragraph.
posted by Philipschall at 3:22 AM on August 6 [11 favorites]
I kind of feel sorry for successful YouTubers. It feels like an endless tiny rat race of fiddling, and oh man. What a boring way to spend your time.
I cant wait until at least every video stops beginning with, "Hey guys!"
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:48 AM on August 6 [4 favorites]
I cant wait until at least every video stops beginning with, "Hey guys!"
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:48 AM on August 6 [4 favorites]
Please make no mistake, my interaction with this post is absolutely a hate-fave.
I worry that denigrating "art" and entertainment is a slippery slope, but this all feels very wrong and wasteful. Then again, someone probably sat on the sidelines years ago, shaking their head at the tulip traders.
posted by johnjreiser at 5:54 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
I worry that denigrating "art" and entertainment is a slippery slope, but this all feels very wrong and wasteful. Then again, someone probably sat on the sidelines years ago, shaking their head at the tulip traders.
posted by johnjreiser at 5:54 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
I'm just about to leave for the office, where I'm on #4 of 20 videos going into detail about a real niche academic subject, primarily so that I don't have to teach it over and over again and I can have the students watch the videos and we can use class time for discussion. Flipped classroom FTW. I have more than 5000 subscribers! And I've never monetized a bit of it, because why. I have a lot of fun making these, and I enjoy the appreciative comments students from as far away as Bhutan and the Central African Republic leave on the videos, but I cannot imagine how horrid it would be to have making YT videos my primary or even secondary source of income.
Oh, and "AI" sucks and should be burned to the ground.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:57 AM on August 6 [7 favorites]
Oh, and "AI" sucks and should be burned to the ground.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:57 AM on August 6 [7 favorites]
Imagine that the number of degrees of your mouth open in an astonished gape as the thumbnail of a video becomes the gating metric on whether you make $15000 a day or $20000 a day on it. I guess it's better than giving blowjobs in person. Probably.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:23 AM on August 6 [3 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:23 AM on August 6 [3 favorites]
AI eating the Mr. Beasts of the world seems like next logical conclusion, of course. I’m assuming we’re at best a decade from a closed and almost entirely nonhuman system for viral YouTube content. Probably a lot less than that.
posted by ryanshepard at 6:34 AM on August 6 [4 favorites]
posted by ryanshepard at 6:34 AM on August 6 [4 favorites]
I always wondered why my selfies holding a giant mango while standing next to a toothless guy in a turban never come out quite as good as the ones I see on my YouTube feed. Now I know.
posted by zaelic at 6:52 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
posted by zaelic at 6:52 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
I kind of feel sorry for successful YouTubers. It feels like an endless tiny rat race of fiddling, and oh man. What a boring way to spend your time.
Making guys Bob Clagett, David Picutto, and Jimmy Diresta have a podcast called Making It where they talk about their lives and work and What The Hell Does Youtube Want was a fairly regular topic of discussion. They're not the biggest channels in the world, but collectively they have 5 million+ subscribers and 3/4 of a billion views which is not nuthin'. I can't imagine my livelihood depending on a platform that best case is completely indifferent and worst actively hostile to attracting and retaining an audience.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:28 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
Making guys Bob Clagett, David Picutto, and Jimmy Diresta have a podcast called Making It where they talk about their lives and work and What The Hell Does Youtube Want was a fairly regular topic of discussion. They're not the biggest channels in the world, but collectively they have 5 million+ subscribers and 3/4 of a billion views which is not nuthin'. I can't imagine my livelihood depending on a platform that best case is completely indifferent and worst actively hostile to attracting and retaining an audience.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:28 AM on August 6 [2 favorites]
I use this extension to get rid of all custom youtube thumbnails. It shows actual stills from the video instead.
posted by one for the books at 7:47 AM on August 6 [8 favorites]
posted by one for the books at 7:47 AM on August 6 [8 favorites]
Basically the covers to pulp magazines, but ugly.
posted by credulous at 11:20 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
posted by credulous at 11:20 AM on August 6 [1 favorite]
20 variations of this MrBeast thumbnail:
:o
posted by AlSweigart at 4:07 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
:o
posted by AlSweigart at 4:07 PM on August 6 [2 favorites]
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posted by grumpybear69 at 3:09 AM on August 6 [13 favorites]