Philosophy Tube
2024 State of the Channel
18 hours ago
Hello lovely Patrons and non-patrons (this post is public)! I hope you had a wonderful 2024 and are having a Happy New Year. As is customary, here's the end-of-year summary of how the channel is doing financially, artistically, spiritually, etc:
The Channel Overall
The channel gained 96,000 subscribers, which is fewer than last year. Unfortunately the Patreon lost 700 paid members, though it gained 3,600 free ones.
Hello free members of the Patreon; would you consider perhaps becoming paid members?!
I mothballed the Philosophy Tube Twitter account and started on Bluesky. We're doing well on there and have a decent presence on Instagram, TikTok, and tumblr too. TikTok is fun but I'm not sure it represents a productive use of my time lol: I don't think I'll prioritise it in 2025.
I don't think I made any serious errors this year? The only thing that went unambiguously wrong was the delays to the shooting of Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend, which weren't my fault. Unfortunately that did have a knock-on effect - I'll say more about that below.
Outside Philosophy Tube
This year I've done a few movie premieres and press engagements promoting my work in Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend and Star Wars. I got to go to the Emmys too. That's all fun, but it is expensive and takes time away from other things; hopefully they translate into more acting work later. I also left my former agent and signed with a new manager in LA, who's brilliant. Kill James Bond, the podcast I do with my two best friends, grew and made a lot of people laugh, especially at our live shows in London. I'll be on University Challenge tonight on BBC2 at 20:30, which is fun too - a very prestigious British quiz show.
Episodes of Philosophy Tube
This year I focused on making fewer videos of higher quality. We made four episodes (plus a little extra mini-video right at the end that I won't count). All but one episode took multiple days to film. The one on Judith Butler was the biggest production we've ever done on Philosophy Tube requiring multiple days of shooting as well as extra crew members. Two episodes got over a million views, the others got around 3/4 of a million and counting. The one we made on Death didn't go down as well as expected, curiously, despite being a collab? That's a pity, but oh well. The final episode of the year, TikTok Vs Democracy, was an experiment with a simpler form that I'd say went pretty well - it was artistically satisfying and still performed decently. I might do more things like that next year.
Right in the middle of all this I also shot Dracula's Ex-Girlfriend, the film that I wrote and starred in on Nebula. We initially planned to shoot in February but got postponed at the last second to June, meaning a big cost in both time and money to me. Had that not happened I might have been able to do a 5th episode of Philosophy Tube.
On the whole I'd say this experiment with 'Bigger and Fewer' isn't something I want to carry forward into 2024. Artistically it was very satisfying! I really let my creativity flow this year and I am proud of that. But it didn't reflect brilliantly in the...
Finances
The channel's finances are okay. It made money this year, but slightly less money than last year.
The decrease was partly down to the drop in Patrons. That happened in the context of a general worldwide economic downturn so, not much I can do there, but it's also probably caused by a decrease in the number of videos - four, VS last year's five. Fewer videos means fewer views; less ad money and fewer sponsorships; fewer chances to plug the Patreon.
The channel also had slightly more outgoing expenses. The biggest cost increases were staffing (more crew members and raises for those crew members); and travel.
There's also the fact that 2023 was relatively very good, thanks in large part to one person - F1nn5ter ! That collab we did - The Rich Have Their Own Ethics - was such a smash hit that it brought up the numbers for the whole of that year!
Income to Philosophy Tube comes from patrons, from advertising, from merch sales, and from Nebula sponsorships. I don't accept sponsorships from anyone but Nebula, which limits the amount of money I can make there but means I'm only accepting sponsorships from people I know and trust. If you superchat me during a livestream that goes into the 'Advertising' column. All the money goes into a separate bank account (i.e. not my personal one) and if there's ever anything left over from the budget of an episode it gets rolled over into the budget for the next episode. The biggest expenses are the crew, especially Brian the stylist.
The money I make from acting work goes to me. If you're curious, this year I made less from acting than last year: the industry is in a very difficult place. My roles in Star Wars and House of the Dragon were announced this year but I actually filmed them in 2022 so the money for that doesn't figure in this year's accounts. (It all went to my landlord long ago anyway.)
The Year Ahead
In 2025 I think I'd like to focus on making some shorter videos - 20-40 mins - and perhaps more often, if I can manage it. I did some experiments this year shooting certain sections in my bedroom with less production quality and people didn't seem to mind, so perhaps I can use Brian's services more judiciously and save some money that way.
We'll be starting off the year with a double episode on Nietzsche: two short videos, spaced closer together and shot more simply. Beyond that, here are some topics that I'm interested in exploring:
Why Are American States Square?
A History of Conversion Therapy in Britain (that might be our big traaaans episode for the year)
Reclaiming Religion from the Right
Something about the Vienna Circle?
Elon Musk and Credibility
Why Are Britain's Rivers Full of Shit?
Something about performing mental health online?
Something about René Girard
Something about children and antinatalism?
I hope I'll have more acting work, and I'm also considering moving to the USA next year... We'll see. It all depends.
I'll be revamping the Patreon, reducing the number of tiers and simplifying things. We'll see how we go and if things don't pick up I might change course.
I'll probably mothball the Philosophy Tube Facebook page, as part of a general plan to get off Facebook, unless there are any strong objections?
My Health
Here's where I have to give some bad news. I took two days off this year. One was Christmas Eve. A few days ago I had some kind of... panic attack? Breakdown? Some kind of health incident . I took my 2nd day off after that.
I took no holidays. (I tried to take one but broke up with my long-term partner right at the start so it was actually more stressful than if I'd just kept working). That means I haven't actually had a break since 2022.
I have been working too hard, so one of my New Year's Resolutions is "Take A Holiday." I hope I manage to do it. I'm also going to be getting a therapist to help me cope.
YouTubing is hard. Being a trans person in the public eye is hard. Acting is hard. (Actually acting's easy and the best thing ever, but all the stuff you have to do to get to the acting is hard.) Doing all three at once is... a lot, haha. I will do my best.
Final Thoughts
The nature of the profession is that some years are good and some years are not so good. We had a good year - not as good as last year, true, but we still grew and the show still made enough money to pay for itself, so I should count myself lucky. Thanks for sticking with me, and here's to a peaceful 2025.
Abi XXx
[A few comments:]
8h
I just upped my pledge. I know this will not be enough to pay for a holiday. But, please, take a holiday this year.
And Happy New Year!
13h
I am sorry to hear about your panic attack, those are scary. I hope that 2025 is a good year for you! Keep producing great content.
14h
Abi, for the love of crime, take a vacation. Your health and sanity has to come first.
15h
I just upped my subscription to a paid one! Please take days off this year if you can. You deserve rest and self-care
