Good article, but the last paragraph had me scratching my head. $250 for a YouTube channel subscription that notifies you with an email? If I'd paid $250 for that I'd be pissed off.
That's sort of like saying "I'll never pay $250 for a meal." Statistically speaking, you probably will, you're just not currently thinking of a circumstance under which it sounds reasonable, but given the circumstance it will sound very reasonable indeed. (Example: Your wedding dinner. Granted, once you have that context, it isn't just a meal, but once you have the context of this purchase, it presumably isn't "just" a video on Youtube. It's an expectation of direct value, a relationship with the producer, a statement about one's priorities, etc etc.)
More broadly: going from "I wouldn't buy that" to "That's commercially nonviable" is one of the classic hacker mistakes. Clearly people buy it, right? You can fail to sell to billions of people and still have a great business.
May not be directly relevant, but - I certainly would spend $250 on a meal. Indeed, the first meal I ever spent that much on - at the Fat Duck in the UK - was one of the best and most memorable single events of my life.
Which, I guess, points out another class of "actually reasonable" circumstance - the "no, really, it actually is that good" circumstance. I've heard similar things from people who bought top-end couture - you go in thinking "I can't imagine spending that much" and come out thinking "holy shit, I'm so glad I decided to spend that comparatively small sum of money".
Good article, but the last paragraph had me scratching my head. $250 for a YouTube channel subscription that notifies you with an email? If I'd paid $250 for that I'd be pissed off.
Even then, what's the issue? Just because something is available free if you search hard enough for it doesn't mean the creator can't or shouldn't charge for it.
Because $250 to see some content that is of value to you is reasonable. $250 to get an email telling you that the latest instalment of a series that is available on a public channel is not.
No, but paying - and thinking of it as paying, rather than donating - that much for a service that youtube gives you already for free (at least, I'm amazed if there isn't an option for "email me whenever this channel uploads a new video") would seem... odd.
