Is a Music Reaction Channel Still Worth It? | Monetization, Copyright & Market Reality by @sergiomendes on 3Speak
Sharing an honest breakdown of why starting a music reaction channel may no longer be worth the effort. From constant copyright claims and blockages to razor-thin monetization rates and extreme mar...
Tags: #reaction #music #gems #ocd #qurator #appreciator #neoxian #bilpcoin #teamuk
Do not start a music reaction channel in 2026 and let me tell you why. I'm going to touch on a few points in here. I'm going to talk about the music reaction scene, channel growth, monetization, and even how the algorithm works or doesn't work. So you might be asking, why shouldn't I start a music reaction channel? It's so popular, people are listening, people are watching, people are engaging. Now, as much as that is true, it's also a lie. So, I've been doing this for a really, really, really long time, longer than I like to admit, because the results... are not the best. So I'm just opening up in the past, uploading music reactions and growing a new channel was very hard. YouTube was a very, very different platform and we are focusing mainly on YouTube, although we're going to talk also a little bit about the... vertical formats. But on YouTube, you had huge YouTubers that were already doing music reactions and getting millions of views in each music reaction they would upload. So it was very, very hard to start a new channel and grow. Another thing that in the past that was very, very different is that... People would not be just following everyone. People would watch a few reactions, they would like the reactor, and only after a while they would start following, because they wanted to see that person react to diverse. artists. Nowadays, it works completely different. People are not really looking for a React. You might start uploading, you might get some videos going viral, and get a lot of followers. But I'm going to tell you straight away, 90%, maybe even a higher number of those people have followed you because you reacted to one of their favorite artists. They don't care about you. you're there in the video and that means one thing after that first reaction you might upload 10 different reactions to 10 different artists they will flop because people have followed you because you reacted to that first artist. That was their favorite artist. They did not start following you because of you. So you probably will only get some more views if you react to the same artists. And obviously, on top of that, it is very inconsistent because of the algorithm and how much your stuff is shown on feed. This means that, yes, you probably will be able to... your following on YouTube a little bit faster than before and it will be a little bit easier than before. But it doesn't mean that when people follow you, they want to see your videos. They want to see a very specific type of video. And honestly, the same thing applies to all the other platforms where you will be uploading, like, a vertical format of the reaction. It's going to be kind of the same. to be lucky and the same will happen to you when you create a vertical format of the reaction or a highlight and you upload on the other platforms people might discover one of your reactions because you reacted to their favorite artists, they might like it, they might engage it but straight away, if you appear on their feed reacting to someone else, they will very quickly skip, they won't engage, and so it will hard for you to keep... stable numbers. Now let's talk a little bit about the monetization because that's probably why you clicked on this video. Because of copyrights and the fact that labels are not respecting properly the terms and conditions of the majority of the platforms when it comes to fair use for reaction, commentary, you won't be able to monetize the majority of your videos. So you will be working for free. There, I've said it. And that's why you see every single music reactor have a Patreon. or the subscriptions active on YouTube because they are not making money with their views. Probably less than half of their videos are monetized. Now let's be honest, everyone around the world, it is broke. So, people don't have money to be subscribing to every single reactor they like. Even if you start creating a community and even if you start growing, a lot of the people won't have money to go to Patreon and subscribe. But that's definitely the way that reactors are making money these days. Because although YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, all of them in their terms and conditions, have parts where they talk about the fair use for reaction and commentary when you use parts of the video where you are making significant changes to the video, you can monetize it. All the automatic systems there are in order are flagging the reactions and taking them from the monetization program. And because of that as well, all your accounts the majority of the time are always at risk of being deleted. Not because you are not respecting the terms and conditions, but because all the automatic systems in charge... are flagging your channel, which also brings me to the point that having all those flags might get your content to be suggested less as well. So yeah, although it's super, super fun to make music reactions, and although you might see some people getting some big numbers and even smaller creators, you might see growing and getting some nice results, that doesn't mean they are making money. And this is the main reason why I'm making this video because I don't want anyone to look at channels, see new channels growing, getting a lot of views and thinking, oh my gosh, I love this, I can do this, and put a lot of time and work on starting making reactions to, just after a while, realize that it's just numbers on the screen, and they do not translate to your bank account. and I'm talking by experience, guys. Just wanted to share this with everyone. I hope it's helpful, and if you are thinking about starting a music reaction channel in 2026, just know it's going to be a lot of work, it's going to be very frustrating. you might get some numbers and might be exciting to see your profile grow and your views on videos grow. But you also won't really be making a lot of money and most likely the people that will be following you Just a small percentage will be people that are following you because they like you and they like the way you react. The majority of them are just following you because of the artists you are reacting. And that's the reality. But if you still want to do it after all of this, good luck! I hope I'll see you in my feed, I'll drop a like and a comment, and I'll try to support you the way that I can.