It's no secret that YouTube has effectively replaced television and the radio in terms of the distribution of content. For my clients who have YouTube Channels, and use that revenue as part of their business strategy, there is a recent study from Offenberg University in Germany that holds that the average YouTube channel owner can't generate enough cash to crack the poverty line in the United States.
The language of the write up in Bloomberg I've linked to is bleak, but it is a bit overly glum in my opinion.
While YouTube's payment rates are a bit opaque, to be kind, my advice to budding entrepreneurs and creators out there is that revenue from a YouTube channel should be part of your strategy, but not your entire strategy. Every stable business is stable because it has multiple revenue streams, and that concept certainly applies in the new economy.