The German Twitch streamer and YouTuber Marcel “MontanaBlack” Eris provides insights into his business model on YouTube. He collaborates with teenagers who edit videos from his Twitch streams and earn good money on the channels “Richtiger Kevin” and “Die Crew.”
Where does the information come from? MontanaBlack spoke with the streamer Staiy. He uploaded the conversation on YouTube.
The conversation revolved around the trouble MontanaBlack had, after he compared women to dogs. According to MontanaBlack, this was the “best Christmas advertisement he could get for free.”
During the conversation, he then explains how YouTube works for him.
MontanaBlack runs 2 channels himself, is “involved” in 3
This is how it is with YouTube: MontanaBlack operates two YouTube channels himself:
- The YouTube channel MontanaBlack has been around since August 5, 2009. The channel has 2.29 million subscribers and 265 million views – however, videos are uploaded only relatively rarely. In the last 7 months, there were 5 videos.
- The gaming channel SpontanaBlack has been on YouTube since October 5, 2013. The channel has 2.02 million subscribers and 419 million views. Here, there are about 5 videos a month.
The noticeably more active channels that deal with MontanaBlack are:
- “Richtiger Kevin” – 872,000 subscribers/277 million views
- “Die Crew” – 935,000 subscribers – 245 million views
In addition, there is the smaller channel “MontanaBlack Stories,” where Instagram stories are reused.
On these two channels, almost daily new videos are released, which are edited from MontanaBlack’s Twitch streams.
Mobile users fast forward to 3:57:
This is what the channels are about: As MontanaBlack explains, these channels are operated by fans. MontanaBlack receives 40% of the advertising revenue – the respective operators receive 60%.
This makes the young fans top earners in their age group, as MontanaBlack explains.
“They are 17, 18, 19, 20 – around that age. Dude, they earn money that almost no other percentage, maybe 2,3%, in that age in Germany earns. Yeah, but they deserve it, they have been supporters since day 1.”
MontanaBlack
With these earnings on YouTube, they belong to the top 2% in their age group.
MontanaBlack says that contact was made with them when they started uploading videos.
MontanaBlack considers this share justified since it is his content they are editing. He could also hire someone for €3000 to edit the videos for him, but this way there is good karma.
The deal likely originated from MontanaBlack
How did the deal come about? This is not explained by MontanaBlack in the conversation with Staiy. It is only said that “contact was made” and they have been “supporters from day 1.” Everything sounds harmonious and planned.
However, there is a recording from a live stream by MontanaBlack from 2018, where he stated that the YouTube channels “Richtiger Kevin” and “Die Crew” upload his videos. He did not know them back then.
He said he had no problem with it, but he “wanted a piece of the pizza.” He planned to get in touch with them in order to better coordinate.
Secondary use by teenagers
This is behind it: Many gaming YouTubers have switched to Twitch, after it became harder to make money on YouTube and it became clear what great opportunities Twitch offers. However, YouTube with 2 billion users remains an important platform.
So there is money to be made by people editing material from Twitch streams and uploading clips on YouTube: the “reuploading.”
The often hours-long Twitch streams of popular gaming streamers are edited into new clips on YouTube and thus “reused.” Considerable advertising revenues can be generated via YouTube, as these videos often reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of views.
It is said that a secondary representative of US streamer Asmongold earned $32,000 a month. As MontanaBlack explains, his secondary users also seem to be financially well off if they achieve between 500,000 and a million views a day.
This secondary use is made with practically all popular Twitch streamers. The question is: Is the Twitch streamer involved in the revenue or not?
Asmongold, the big WoW streamer on Twitch, says, that he has never seen a cent from the many videos about him on YouTube until the reuploaders approached him and wanted to collaborate with him. This, however, only happened recently.
By now, it seems to be difficult for such “reuploaders” to earn money on YouTube with others’ content.
MontanaBlack seems to have found a way for himself and his partners to profit in order to get the most out of YouTube without really creating “own, new” videos.
