The Twitch streamer MontanaBlack has announced that he will take action against people who steal his content. However, he himself uses other people’s content to make money. But he is concerned about videos on TikTok, as here, plagiarisms prevent him from earning money himself.
This is the announcement from MontanaBlack:
MontanaBlack announced in a stream on Twitch at the end of August 2024 that he would hire his own employee to have channels on TikTok deleted that use MontanaBlack’s content. The 36-year-old says:
I’m going to hire someone again who does nothing all day but have TikTok accounts deleted that upload my content. Unfortunately, I have to crush everything again. Because in the end: Business comes first.
MontanaBlack is part of the ‘Reaction Meta’
Why does this seem ironic? At first glance, this seems strange because MontanaBlack himself is part of the ‘Reaction Meta’ on Twitch and YouTube. He reacts to the video content of others during his Twitch streams, uploads his reactions to YouTube, and earns a lot of money from it. According to his own statements, he earned 4.2 million euros in 2023.
A substantial part of the revenue came from the YouTube channels “Die Crew” and “Richtiger Kevin,” which frequently upload reaction videos of MontanaBlack to other content creators’ videos. In July 2023, he boasted that he had already earned $10,000 by reacting to videos about the controversial streamer Shurjoka.
In “Reactions”, the videos of others are played, but the person inserts themselves into the image with a face camera and interrupts the video to react to and comment on it.
Especially when “Reactions” add little value to the original videos, they are criticized — like clips — for “stealing” the contents of other content creators and making money with their content without involving them.
Because he himself frequently reacts to others’ videos, one could accuse MontanaBlack of “stealing content” as well. In a recent stream on Twitch, he watched only videos from others for the first few hours and ate something in the process.
It therefore seems hypocritical at first glance for him to accuse others of “making money off my content,” when he does the same.
However, MontanaBlack has good reasons for his decision.
Instead of 4,000 €, MontanaBlack only earns 200 € with a viral clip
Why is he doing this? MontanaBlack explains: Because his content is copied by other TikTok channels without his consent, even his own original videos are considered copies and thus monetized significantly worse.
On Tuesday, August 27, he uploaded a clip to TikTok that shows him during a police check:
- The TikTok video received 5 million views and should have actually earned several thousand euros, maybe 3,000 or 4,000 €.
- However, since the clip was recognized as a copy despite TikTok’s verification tick, he only earned about 200 € for the video. That is why he is deciding on such a drastic approach, hiring someone to take down the channels of such content thieves.
That he is losing real money here angers the streamer so much that he now wants to hire his own employee.
MontanaBlack was able to solve the same problem elegantly years ago – not this time
What’s behind this: MontanaBlack faced the same problem years ago on YouTube, where people “stole” his content and earned money while he received nothing. At that time, teenagers frequently cut clips from his multi-hour Twitch streams and uploaded them to YouTube as standalone, easily consumable videos.
MontanaBlack solved the problem by writing to the teenagers and offering that they could do it officially if they involved him 50:50 in the revenue. It was clear: If they did not agree to the deal, he would have the videos taken down.
This agreement led to the reaction channels “Richtiger Kevin” and “Die Crew” on YouTube, as he explained in December 2019. But such a win-win solution apparently is not possible on TikTok.
The difference is the platform. Making money with the content of others, which “works” on Twitch and YouTube and makes a lot of money, does not seem to work on TikTok. There are apparently measures in place that penalize the copying of content, and not just for the copier themselves, but also for the one who is being copied.
MontanaBlack has shown in the past that he prioritizes business above all else. Because when the YouTube channels of the teenagers were doing so well that their revenues kept increasing, he cut down their percentages: MontanaBlack earns so much money on YouTube that he no longer wants to share 50:50: ‘It hasn’t gone down well at first’
