I think knowing the exact timeline would clear a lot of doubts in here because according to Candace, Crowder came back to the table to negotiate more money?
I will say that adding that "demonetized" section specifically for something they offered Crowder was a gigantically stupid mistake, and should've been dealt with. Also, calling young talent wageslaves is NOT a good thing to do, even in the privacy of a phone call with a "friend" so I'm glad Crowder aired it. I am mostly on Crowder's side, but I still think something doesn't really add up.
From what I understand, they approached him as soon as they found out he was going to be available (like a month ago at most from what I understand, which is when Crowder announced his departure from Blaze). They talked to his agent, who straight up came out and said what would be the bare minimum to get the ball rolling. DW came out with an offer that
they thought was reasonable, lowballing him from the get go with all these iffy conditions on top.
I heard that Mug Club had many as 300k subs (and growing), that's $100 yearly sub, or $75 with a discount. This is not even counting merch. They wanted to buy all that for ~$50mil, while essentially building price reduction into the contract?
One thing worth mentioning is just like with Mug Club and Blaze where he didn't get to keep email list for subscribers, pretty much the same thing would've happened after contract with DW expired, he wouldn't be able to just take the audience he built up in that period with him. If he accepted contract as it was, that is.
So they approached him with this shit, fully knowing that he's in precarious position having to rebuild his monetization after leaving Blaze. If that's how they treat friends, what about everyone else?
Wow, he's stacked that bullshit nice and high. "It's not about money", yet the whole recording is him talking about money and changing the business model. The cherry on top is Jordan Peterson changing the country before benzos burned his brain, and calling Ben Shapiro "the smartest guy I know". Yet those two chucklefucks fell into the same trap.
Money is obviously needed to sustain the operation. The problem is whether money should take priority over the cause. Crowder seems willing to make less but be able to speak without having to compromise himself (which is what his style of monetization is all about), DW is clearly not, which is what their proposal made him realize. For them profit takes precedence, and they make emphasis on retaining monetization on the mainstream platforms, which means abiding by ToS, which means being inoffensive, which means toeing the line and playing ball with Susan Wojcicki's of this world.
That's the point of contention here.