6 Likes
Red Means Recording throws down the gauntlet and tells the music brands, what he expects from them to make a video. He also talks to other content creators here, about how the business works, and what is fair ā and discusses that in the context of cooperative rule setting, in sort of a āunionā approach of cooperation to improve things. There is also a part of this video you can watch as a member of the āconsuming communityā ā after all none of the rest of this would happen without āusā watching these videos and buying the products.
I like the way Jeremy Blake lifts the fourth wall in this video.
Just so you know it is 18 minutes long.
There is also an article in SynthAnatomy that covers some of the same territory.
Interesting to consider. In what ways are forums like Elektronauts part of this ?
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Aināt coal mining, is itā¦
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Pretty much why I stopped watching at 5 mins.
Get a really shitty job. Then complain about it. Except he wont, because heāll get paid. Thats why they call it work, thats why its called a job.
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I got to 4 minutes; clearly itās a very hard life being a synfluencer. But Iām not a manufacturer or synfluencer so, as stated by the maker, it wasnāt for me. Nice pad, deck and garden though.
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This video seems like it would have been better as a private conversation between Jeremy and Korg (or Roland, Elektron, whatever) before he agreed to record a video in exchange for a drum machine.
Also, regarding āPayPal reports to the IRSā: yeah, welcome to adulthood, we pay taxes here buddy. Lol
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I really appreciate some synth demos where thereās no talking, but perhaps explaining what the user is doing, and or opinions, with subtitles and the sonic proof. (Sonic Proof, sounds like quite a bold project name )
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I think there is kind of the hard truth that if they are paying proper videographer and musician bucks they may as well just hire people in to do it in house. Now someone might hire him as part of a job like that but I donāt think many synth companies would want pay big bucks to hire someone to make something on their own personal channel to grow their own personal brand. Maybe pay a few youtubers at a reduced rate, but I doubt many companies would put more money into outsourcing videos to youtubers than making videos in house.
End of the day if you arenāt making enough as a youtuber I am not sure really how much you can expect to get from paid sponsored videos in such a small niche, if he needs money he should probably go get some actual videographer gigs and continue to do whatever he wants on youtube.
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What I donāt quite understand is why one of the more successful YouTubers just start buying the stuff themselves so they can say whatever they want? They might not get it early, but theyāll get the views.
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Iām about 6 minutes in and my impression is that he seems to have found himself in a field that he, at least on the surface level, found himself in a terrain in his yt career that he despises.
Iām inclined to believe that its sincere given howā¦offā¦his modern branding is. Feels a little too off the cuff to just be some manipulative marketing tactic.
As far as the complaint about PayPal- i mean, I get it, who doesnāt hate paying taxes(especially when youāve already paid them), but that drum machine IS your core income. Soā¦its not double tax, but initial tax- Iām a little bit unsympathetic of that plight.
Wait a minuteā¦didnāt that guy say that elektronauts is toxic?! Scratch what I said, heās a dumdum and a jerk
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This thread is maybe proving his point a bit 
Capitalism sucks. Make robots do the work and share the spoils while we make music. Free octatracks for everyone! 
9 Likes
Peak synthtube, I expect to see similar videos from all the others in the next few weeks.
I could write a bunch of stuff about it, but honestly I donāt give a crap about it, I do think some of these synth YouTubers are a bit egotistical and self entitled, and over estimate their importance and influence.
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I donāt knowā¦I kinda get his pointā¦
I think synthtubers and brands might be talking past each other.
The brand probably only sees follower counts and views. The synthtuber is looking at the amount of effort is required(learning the instrument, composing with the instrument, filming, producing both)
If I wanted to be really catty, Iād ask why heās making deals with companies for reviews when heās on an anti gear bent, but thats just where he found himself
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They feed off each other, there is no shortage of either gear companies or synthtubers, RMR followers make up a tiny portion of the synth market, and of those the percentage that actually buy a synth featured in a video directly and solely because they saw it in a RMR video is probably a very small number. Or to put it another way, if he closed up shop tomorrow it would have no impact at all on synth sales.
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I stopped watching when I was told, like a good content consumer.
1 Like
Yeah, income is usually taxed. He admitted that it was his income right before the PayPal thing.
Letās say Arturia asked me to do a demo and said they would give me a synthesizer in return ā I think it would be really shitty if I were to agree, then do it, and then complain to tens of thousands of people on the internet that Arturia only paid me a synthesizer and I had to pay taxes when I sold it ā in this fictitious scenario I wouldnāt be surprised if Arturia told me to fuck off and the tens of thousands of people on the internet made fun of me.
9 Likes
I have the feeling that RMR is an artist (you like or not), not a business man
so he must be in a weird place trying to handle the business side of his Youtube channel.
There are a few facts:
- no ads
- no vpn, distrokid sponsorship
- no āsubscribe, like, commentsā incitations
- no patreon, merch, lessons, affiliate links reminders
- no post to promote the last video in case you didnāt see it
I guess he doesnāt want to do all the above.
Perhaps he finds 1&2 to be a pain for his audience and do not bring much $.
I couldnāt find any information about that but if I were Youtube,
I would recommend videos with ads turned on before promoting videos with ads turned off.
soā¦ by turning ads off, he may not only be losing a few bucks from the ads but also views (and therefore new subscribers) so way much more than just the revenue from the ads.
I wouldnāt mind 1~5 if it helps him get more bucks.
I do think YouTube ads pay really nothing though so he could make a rant about Youtube too.
some RMR quotes in the comments from this video:
RMR: "iām not a gear youtube channel."
I have to say that this comment was a surprise because for me, it is a gear channel.
He doesnāt have that much videos that are not about showing off a piece of gear.
He had the āso you want to create a soundā series and he has a few in depth tutorial about some piece of gear or about modular but most of the time, he shows a piece of gear, creates music with it and done (and thatās why I donāt watch many of them tbh because I know the formula and the end result and even though I think he creates really great tracks, itās not exactly my cup of tea).
I donāt see Heinbach, Benn Jordan as gear channel but Bobeats, RMR, Loopop, pretty muchā¦ Ricky Tinez is a bit in between, I donāt know, this guy is like ASMR done right.
RMR: "What the fuck do views and subscriptions do for me"
RMR: "Sub count does nothing. It doesnāt lead to views. Even if it did that doesnāt lead to dependable income."
Well, thatās an interesting point of view.
His patreon has 752 subscribers. The minimum is $2 so he earns at least $1500 but I guess thereās a 15% or 30% cut but as there are other tiers, all in all, it must be around $1500-$2000 per month.
If he had no subscribers who the fuck would subscribe to his patreon really? Iām not saying he is earning enough but saying that views and subscriptions do nothing for him feels wrong. He doesnāt know how to monetize them properly, thatās for sure but thatās a him problem, not a Youtube problem, not a brand problem.
RMR:"I donāt fucking care. Yeah I know my videos are down. I am very aware. But people still want me to hock their shit. Iām not Andrew Huang either. I donāt have a team of people working for me, securing deals, managing my shit and editing for me.
I am painfully aware of everything wrong with my channel. I will still be charging for videos that hock peopleās shit. If they donāt want to pay what I ask, guess what: who cares?
I think you may have missed the part of the video where I said there are things worth making content about that are infinitely more interesting than gear."
Well, I think and of course, I could be wrong but he should def start to do more of the āthere are things worth making content about that are infinitely more interesting than gear.ā because if he were in this situation (owned content:90%, gear stuffs:10%), his rant would make much more sense imho. Letās say brands take his word for it and donāt send him gear anymore. 90% of what he is creating disappear. I donāt know, perhaps he already has enough leverage to do this video without too much consequences though but it would be nice if he could develop some new contents.
āmy 10 top favorites artists of all timeā
āmix tipsā
āhistory of electronic musicā
āmeet the artistā
āmeet the makersā
āmy 10 top artists of the monthā
which are stuffs that if I were to create, nobody would fucking care but he has 414k subscribers so this would certainly be of interest for his subscribers but well, might be way more work than just reviewing gear huh but as I said, a 90% owned contents, 10% gear review content would place him in a really good place to ask a good amount of cash for his reviews and could help with his views going down too.
but my sense for business is minus infinity so he should certainly do the opposite of everything I said. He is in a very good place then!!
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Yes.
If they want to invent a ājobā for them selves, and are now complaining it doesnt pay well, thatās no ones problem but theirs. Their business planā¦ was a shit plan.
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What is āālikely unionizingāā supposed to mean?
Donāt expect to have the balance of power if you donāt unionize.
Unionize already.
1 Like