"Not exactly the same thing. I mean for some "no-name" band that hasn't made it, playing in some @%$#hole dive bar, yeah sure.
Obviously you aren't going to get anybody big to go for that and certainly not in some big venue. Music on the radio would be a better example though."
I've been that band for dozens of gigs, playing original music, and the venue collected entrance fees and sold drinks.
Music on the radio is a horrible example, no listener is actively making money from the listening while the song is playing. Twitch people dropping bit donations is exactly like buying a drink. Good venues pay the band a portion of drink sales because the reason the person showed up was because of the band. When you are a cover band playing someone elses songs, YOU also pay the band who wrote the songs. If you don't own intellectual property rights to the product you are using to generate income without any true transformative work being done on your end (sorry playing a game isn't transformative. it's doing exactly what it is intended to do) then you haven't added anything to it that is unavailable to anyone else who buys it. You are effectively playing a cover song in a bar and expecting to keep all the money for using someone elses work.
Now back to the Twitch and Youtube, because really you are just deflecting and doing "whataboutism" at this point. Where does the revenue from Twitch and Youtube come from? Advertising. So don't tell me it doesn't have a tangible cash value and that free advertising doesn't either. There are plenty of games I have tried because I went to look at say a base design tutorial, and that streamer does a lot of other games and one catches my eye and I watch and it looks fun.
We've already paid for a game. If you buy a saw and hammer and you use them to make furniture and sell them, should you have to pay the manufacturer a cut because you use their tools to provide some other goods or services?
The majority of People show up because of the game you are playing. NOT simply because of who you are. If you are interested in a game you search for it and watch. They showed up for the game. Did they show up for you? Maybe a little, but really it's the game. As a streamer you should be paying royalties to the creator of the reason they showed up in the first place.
I've been on both side of this, as a band getting paid in exposure and as someone who lived with a full time streamer for years. They always picked what game was hot, because the wrong game doesn't get you eyeballs, and no eyeballs means no twitch partner, and that equals no revenue. The revenue comes from advertising yes, but the majority comes from subs and bit donations. That equals WAY more than advertising. Advertising is a small amount in comparison. You watch 1 add at when you launch a stream. I saw my old roomate make $100's in subs and bit donations in 4-5 hours all the time. You also have to think about all that traffic cost. That is a ton of internet traffic and someone has to pay for it. The advertising doesn't even begin to.
If you actually modded something, that the devs added, I think you should absolutely get paid, but playing a game, which anyone can do doesn't hold any value like a skilled trade of a laborer does. Anyone can play 7 days to die with a PC and $20. VERY few people can walk into home depot and buy a few tools, build a piece of furniture of ACTUAL quality and convince someone to buy it from them. I'd say the ratio is likely 100 7d2d players to 1 furniture maker and that's being generous.
) because it was all paid for by advertising.
