Ask HN: A hobby makes money on YouTube. Should I share the revenue?

2 points by pinouchon 6y ago ↗ HN

When I was young I played with Kapla with my brother. At around 19 I had my own place to live and I decided to take with me the 6000 planks (unused for many years) we had at the time. I then started making big constructions alone and uploading it on youtube. This is the first video that made ~100k views at the time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzVcXvCcE5s. I turned on monetization and my channel earned about 30eur/month. I let it run for about 5 or 6 months then turned it off because I didn't need the money at the time and preferred that my viewers see no ads. I kept making kapla constructions. I made deals with citiblocs (another plank company) where they give me free planks and I make videos for them on a separate channel. I then made a deal with Kapla (the company) where they send me 25000 planks and I make videos for them. At one point, kapla asked that I remove (set as unlisted) citiblocs videos and I did because they have been quite generous overall.

Recently I turned on monetization again and it makes in the order of 400-500eur/month. I told my brother who helped me on some videos. To give a few examples, here he does help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W61THELYq48, here he doesn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIbsx9PeH84. About ~1/4 of the videos he helps me, it depends. The projects always have been my initiative, I own the planks and I edit and post the videos on youtube.

Today he wants some of the youtube revenue. What he specifically asked for is that I "give" him all de-listed citiblocs videos (with the consent or not of kapla), so he can create his own channel and have the revenue of those. I should mention that we have past disagreements about how to share the equity of a startup I'm trying to create and he left early (but that's another story)

Given the situation I describe, what is the reasonable thing to do? Is it legitimate for him to ask for some of the youtube revenue of my channel?

celticninja 6y ago ↗

He's your brother is family so even if she may have fallen out sometimes you just gotta help out. sounds like you have an ideal situation you keep making videos for kapla he makes them for city blocks I would advise that you don't mention each other or anything like that as in your brother's so the both organisations don't know you're competing against one another for their stuff. No reason you both can't get paid but I would suggest that perhaps instead of paying him YouTube revenue you offer to help him get set up and start doing his own channel at no cost similar to how he helped you when you started your channel.

I would suggest he didn't money out of it and try and get him set up so he's making his own money but make it clear to him that you never gonna want to claim off his. what he does on his channel is his, what you do on your channel is yours

davismwfl 6y ago ↗

I pretty much echo this.

I would absolutely feel obligated to pay him (or anyone regardless of relationship) a little something for his help in the video's he did, that just seems fair, but it should be proportional to the work he did. Or you can trade him out the other delisted videos if he & you feel that is fair. I think the family part comes in to play with me more in that you should encourage and try to help him get started if he really wants to do the same thing. But that doesn't mean you give up your situation or damage your standing just to get him started.

pinouchon 6y ago ↗

The thing is that Kapla really really don't want the citiblocs videos to be public. I agreed with them do delist those videos because they paid for unexpected plane expenses as part of a project I did with other builders (by that point they had made that request many times). So if I let my brother upload the citiblocs videos (on which he did help but I still did most of the work), that will damage my relationship with kapla a lot. That will probably mean they won't sponsor partnerships I do with other builders (where they pay for travel) or free planks. Kapla know all of that. I cannot fool them saying it's not me who uploaded the videos.

The option that does not damage my relationship with kapla is sharing revenue on exiting kapla videos.

I also proposed to split 50/50 revenue of future videos that we upload to a new common channel. And de-monetizing videos where we work together. But he doesn't like any of those options.

Also the company citiblocs has sold, and their planks are lower quality. My brother doesn't want to play with citiblocs. He wants the existing citiblocs (or kapla) videos to make money off of those videos.

A_Parr 6y ago ↗

I'm not a lawyer, but I doubt he's entitled to any of the content you've made. So the only discussion should be over actual money.

davismwfl 6y ago ↗

Well as I said, you should not do anything that hurts your situation or damages your standing with kapla and sounds like relisting those videos on any account would, so that's an easy decision, no.

As for the rest, the biggest issue I see (and I've done it too) with communication is not being clear and direct which is what makes people uneasy. That's why sometimes the asshole at work is easier to get along with then the friendly guy who seems noncommittal most of the time. At least with the asshole you know where you stand and can work with that.

In your case, just my 2 cents, but I'd be direct, honest and fair and say look any video you help me with the split will be X for you and Y for me. And Y will always be bigger then X because I am the one with the relationship with kapla and I am the one they are sponsoring. Maybe if you agree to help him create a few video's of his own (mind you I have no clue how much time this takes) and he can monetize those then that's all you need to do, no money split etc. But if you are planning on using him more in future videos you need to come up with a fair split (or pay him for his time), that is the right thing to do.