Mac Address was an under-appreciated Youtube gem

In recent weeks several Linus Media Group channels announced that they were going on hiatus. Yes, that’s Linus of the Tech Tips variety. The channels closing included TechQuickie, GameLinked and Mac Address. While the majority of the main Linus Tech Tips channel’s videos are heavily focussed on PCs and PC Gaming, Mac Address was instead a channel dedicated to covering Apple products such as the Mac, iPhone and Apple Watch in more detail. Unlike the other channels in the LMG family, Mac Address hired an outside talent (Jonathan Horst) to be the face of the channel. Other hosts on LMG’s channels are typically co-hosted by Linus alongside writers who have risen through the LMG ranks. Instead, Horst fronted all 122 Mac Address videos during its three year run with Linus making occasional appearances. While channels like LTT are almost foundational to the YouTube experience, I feel that Mac Address ended up being an under-appreciated youtube gem.

The Linus Media Group family of channels

Linus Media Group has been broadening their network of channels for some time. The flagship Linus Tech Tips channel launched in 2008 and currently has the broadest reach of his channels with 16 million subscribers. The channel covers a broad range of content (largely PC oriented) including reviews, explainers and projects. More recent additions have been intended to focus more specifically on other content – such as ShortCircuit which focuses on unboxing and first impressions. One key type of content was always noticeably missing however – Apple coverage. Prior to the launch of Mac Address, the only coverage of Apple products was in the form of occasional reviews or unboxing videos for new products.

The launch of Mac Address

Mac Address launched on the 16th of April 2021 with little fanfare and a fairly unassuming video (“Make your iPhone Even More Secure” – embedded above). Linus also announced the launch of the new channel on the same day during the weekly WAN (Weekly Analysis and News) show. That first edition of Mac Address pulled in 253,488 views (as of today).

While most LMG channels have dedicated sets, this first video stood out for it’s extremely minimalistic presentation which was reminiscent of the design ethos that Apple is well known for. Many videos comprised of a single camera setup filming Horst in front of a plain white background. This may make the videos sound dull – but with crisp visuals, well thought out scripts and stellar camerawork the channel often felt more “premium” than its LMG counterparts. While later videos often took place “off-set”, the minimalistic style remained a key part of Mac Addresses visual style until the end.

While the main LTT channel puts out videos near-daily, thanks in part to a large team of writers working around the clock, Mac Address didn’t. Instead, it published on a slower production cycle with videos coming out approximately once per week. Some factors in the longer production cycle may have included a smaller writing staff, more focussed content and a perceived higher production value.

The End (for now?)

News of trouble at the channel was somewhat abrupt and came as a surprise to me. Videos continued being posted to the channel on a regular basis until approximately two weeks ago. At that time, a post was published to the Mac Address YouTube page stating that the channel was on hiatus.

While the post only stated that they would be “taking a break”, it appears that a much more permanent change is afoot. The lone channel host, Jonathan Horst, posted on his Twitter/X account a few days later – indirectly stating that he’d been “laid off” by LMG.

When I was in broadcast journalism school, our instructors warned us "you will be guaranteed to experience layoffs in your career." I'm on my 2nd.

I'm fine. It was an enormous privilege to work on Mac Address. I appreciate the opportunity and all who supported the channel. 🧵

— Jonathan Horst (@horstpwr) November 17, 2024

Likely issues with Mac Address

The sudden end caught me off guard. While I was understanding of the other two channels winding down (TechQuickie was running out of content and GameLinked was really an offshoot of TechLinked at best), Mac Address had seemed safe to me. The channel appeared to be well liked, and the content (while somewhat niche) was oriented to a broad audience.

After doing some thinking, I think the answer is probably quite simple. Linus Media Group, like every company in the world, has to make money to survive. While in the past I suspect that Linus operated channels largely as passion projects, the recent hiring of an actual CEO has likely led to difficult conversations regarding financials and building a sustainable future for the company.

On YouTube, making money means attracting a loyal audience. Those audiences watch videos. Watching videos drives ad and sponsor revenue and that revenue goes into paying bills and making new content. Thus, the cycle continues.

So with that in mind, the problems at Mac Address become a little more clear. With a relatively low subscriber count (compared with their parent channel), Mac Address has approximately 617,000 subscribers. Linus Tech Tip has 16 million by comparison. A low subscriber count alone isn’t necessarily a problem if your audience continues to grow. Unfortunately for Mac Address however, they also seem to have been suffering some stagnation in subscriber growth.

As you can see from the SocialBlade.com graph above, Mac Addresses growth hit a plateau in the latter half of 2023. The channel hit 600,000 subscribers in December 2023 and added only 17,000 subscribers in the following 12 months. While the channel did take a four-month break earlier this year following Horst becoming injured, that’s still a significant drop off in new subscribers. Why this drop off occurred is open to interpretation.

In addition to the fairly low subscriber count and slowing growth comes low video viewership. The most popular Mac Address video pulled in 1.8 million views, in comparison to LTT which pulled in 23 million for theirs. Many of their videos received less than 250,000. While these numbers are in themselves, respectable, it’s important to view them in the context of revenue vs. cost.

While I’m far from an expert on the financial aspects of running a YouTube empire, I do know that more views equals more money. Some estimates I’ve read put the return on a single YouTube video view at $0.01. If that’s accurate, a seemingly popular 250,000 view video only generates $2500 in ad revenue (not including sponsorship integrations). If you’re working alone making videos as a hobby, that’s a great return! However, by the time you’re funding multiple salaries, equipment, props, devices, etc… – well, it seems like a lot less.

One of the final nails in the coffin for Mac Address may have been a realization that there’s a large overlap in coverage with other LMG properties. Both the main Linus Tech Tips channel and the Short Circuit channel often cover Apple product launches such as new Macbooks and iPhones. They even cover some of the smaller product launches such as AirPods. This overlap leaves Mac Address in an odd place as a sorta-niche channel that (excluding reviews) really only covered odd lifestyle-type content (Mac Users deserve a better keyboard) or Comparison-type videos (iPad Tier List).

Mac Address was an under-appreciated gem

While it’s too late for the channel now, I really believe that the loss of Mac Address was a big one. YouTube is chock-full of content creators covering Apple products. You can barely move for people unboxing iPhones or hyping up the latest MacBook. Heck, some of the biggest content creators such as MKBHD and iJustine arguably owe their entire careers to early Apple coverage.

What you don’t find so often on YouTube is calm, thoughtful looks at Apple products. While Jonathan was clearly an Apple fan, he wasn’t unduly full of praise and often took the time to talk about shortcomings in their products. His presentation style was calm, explanatory, and felt welcoming whether you were a long time Apple user or otherwise. The content on the channel had a high production value that was refreshing to longtime LTT viewers and the production team clearly weren’t afraid to take a walk outside when it made sense for them to do so.

The channel was a unique part of Linus Media Group and I hope they’ll take some of the lessons learned from it and apply them to their other channels. I also truly hope that Horst will land on his feet elsewhere – he stood out as a host and I’m sure he’ll do well in future.