The title of the video is Goodbye Ellie. A tearful young man in a T-shirt looks into the camera. "Right, OK, I'm going to try and compose myself. It's not easy. You can see from the title that yesterday, unfortunately, Ellie died. And it really sucks - it really, really sucks... so enjoy another video of me crying."

Ellie was Daniel Middleton's pet pug, first introduced to his YouTube followers as a puppy ten years ago. The video announcing her death has had nearly seven million views and brought over 100,000 messages of sympathy.

At one point Daniel was the most watched YouTuber on the planet, with 300 to 400 million hits a month.¹ His DanTDM channel currently has 27.7 million subscribers. But as a boy he was extremely shy, not helped by the fact that - since his father was in the army - the family frequently moved home.

"I would always just sit and listen rather than be someone that talks in front of people at school presentations," he told the BBC. "A lot of YouTubers are naturally introverted, but very creative. YouTube helped me to come out of my shell more."

He started his first channel, devoted to Pokemon, when he was a student at Nottingham University. After leaving in 2012 and going to work in a supermarket, he moved on to Minecraft, renaming the channel "TheDiamondMinecart // DanTDM."

Within seven months his hilarious commentary on himself playing the game had won him more than 10,000 subscribers. He decided to leave his job and devote himself full-time to YouTube.

He was careful to make his videos suitable for children: "No blood obviously, no swearing. I would always think, 'What if my nan watched these videos? If my parents watched this, would they be proud?'"

By 2019 he had earned a place in the UK's Top 100 Influencer List, compiled by the Sunday Times. The newspaper estimated his wealth at £25m. In one single month he made £900,000.

"I was in a lucky position where I started it at the right time," he says. "I found a niche pretty early on as well. And then YouTube just grew exponentiallyExponential growth is when the rate of growth increases steadily over time, for instance by doubling: 1, 2, 4, 8 rather than 1, 2, 3, 4. This kind of growth has the capacity to lead to dramatic changes over relatively short time spans. over that time. So a platform with that many eyes on it is going to make money."

A good thing about YouTube, he adds, is that - unlike TV - it has no production schedule. If something does not work, you can simply do it a different way the next day.

He has branched out into live shows, voiced a character in the Disney film Ralph Breaks the Internet and written a bestselling graphic novel called Trayaurus and the Enchanted Crystal.

But he suffered from severe depression during the pandemic, having become a father just two months before the first lockdown. He decided to tell his followers about it, and is glad that he did so: "It was helpful for me to convey how I was feeling to them, as to a reason why I wasn't making as many videos." He has been particularly gratifiedPleased. to receive messages from followers saying that his videos have helped them through difficult times.

Yes: Artists are always quick to seize on a new medium, and YouTube has proved no exception. If Van Gogh or Michelangelo were alive today they would almost certainly be using it.

No: To be an artist you need a combination of vision and technical brilliance. YouTubers can make videos without either. Daniel Middleton's are entertaining, but no more than that.

Or... Most YouTube videos are of little significance, but they are a brilliant starting point for people who want to make movies, since they allow you to practice the basic skills such as editing.