YouTuber MKBHD (Marques Brownlee), sparked controversy and backlash after launching ‘Panels,’ a subscription-based, HD wallpaper app for phones.

Bro really tried to sell his subscribers a “50$ a year” subscription to a “wallpaper” app.

Interesting points about the “app”:

  • the app has premium and free wallpapers
  • the free wallpapers are only available in sd quality and if you want hd youd have to subscribe
  • in order to unlock the sd quality you have to watch two 30 second ads.
  • theres a wallpaper called “orange” thats just the color orange
  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
    34·
    3 months ago

    remember kids, if you take on responsibilities like renting out a studio space, and hiring employees, those costs are only going to go up, regardless of whether or not you continue to make the sort of revenue you’ve historically made from video views, which leads to having to rely more on merch sales, and patreon, and “other” revenue streams just to keep everyone paid. i mean, who knew, right?

    • circuscritic@lemmy.caEnglish
      15·
      3 months ago

      I rarely watch his videos, but that’s because when I have, he clearly has direct financial entanglements and conflicts with the same major brands he’s discussing or “reviewing”.

      For a channel his size and reach, I can’t imagine those aren’t enough to cover his overhead, unless he’s made some really terrible business decisions.

      This is, of course, entirely speculation and based off of calculations pulled from my brown star, so maybe I’m wrong about that.