In an interview with some of the Las Vegas Mobsquad (aka LVMS or LVMobsquad) members, I dug deeper into understanding what happened to The Cow Song. A viral video that swept the internet some years ago (with sequels and everything) and then came to a noticeable stop. It continued to live on ever since but with a much smaller amount of traffic flooding to it (likely dedicated fans). It was doing so well. So what happened?
The answer was “YouTube”. Apparently, YouTube suddenly happened during the height of their videos. The company demonetized its channel out of nowhere, claiming LVMS’ videos were copyrighted content (by LVMS…). Their notice even noted their name as the copyright owners.
This caused a lot of damage as it sudden cut their profits to zero and they were no longer coming up in search the way they used to (popular videos tend to pop up at the top during user searches). However, it seems that demonetized channels lose this feature. So not only did their profits come to a complete stop, but a huge portion of their traffic did too.
LVMS tried reaching out to YouTube immediatly to try to get the situation resolved. Explaining that they are themselves, therefore everything was kosher. That they didn’t understand how they would get tagged for copyright for their own videos. YouTube eventually agreed but said the damage was already done. The company stated that their system is automated and once a channel gets demonetized (even if it was in error), they would have to wait the number of months to re-apply. That there was nothing they could do.
This sounds incredibly odd and suspicious. Most likely, YouTube didn’t care. They are a giant afterall and their ad profits are still running on their videos. So what do they care?
They inquired about a lawyer to try to fix the situation, but no lawyers would take on the giant. So in the meantime, LVMS decided to stop producing content. They waited the window and eventually applied again. It took some time but the channel was eventually monetized again. However, nothing has been the same ever since.
LVMS said that numbers never came back the way they were before and the profits no longer matched the numbers they still had. Suddenly they were making a lot less for traffic compared to what they used to (not just because numbers were down). Apparently, the demonetization of the channel really screwed things up. They felt like they were coming back from a major stroke and just never recovered.
This experience with the streaming platform resulted in LVMS stepping back from production. Why produce on a platform that punishes its creators, right? They have since released videos, but nothing like the Cow videos. The Cow videos might have come to and end thanks to YouTube. I say might, since they said there was always a chance of sequels in the future. However, they just don’t have the excitement and energy to bother with it thanks to YouTube completely destroying the experience for them.
Meanwhile, time passes by and entities like Doja Cat come out of nowhere, completely ripping off the The Cow Song in a tacky cleavage-filled rap video. Cow Song fans even commented that it was a rip off of The Cow Song and no one ever did anything about it. YouTube never tagged her for any copyright violations. I guess rap artists continue to get away with stealing lyrics and sampling the tunes of other artists. While the original artists fade into the shadows of giants.
Such a shame that the Cow Song met the fate that it did. I hear that things like this happen a lot. YouTube apparently doesn’t offer much for customer service. Therefore, it is too bad that no lawyer was willing to go up against YouTube as this might have been the perfect way to rattle their door and get someone’s attention. Meanwhile, content creators continue to get hurt to this very day.
Note: Header image used with permission from LVMS.
