Fascinating inside scoop on being a full-time Synth YouTuber

The Lounge General Discussion
#64

I imagine most companies don’t want their new gear reviewed, they want it demonstrated by someone who knows what they are doing and can make something look ‘cool’. And for that I’m in total agreement with Jeremy (MLS, Liam Killen have also flagged up their issues recently), they should be paid for that. But won’t companies just avoid that synth tuber and use one of the myriad of other ones who may be equally as capable and open to free gear as payment?

Personally, I really appreciate critical reviews that don’t gloss over the obvious flaws/shortcomings, yet these type of videos are few and far between. (Just how many videos did have you seen of the latest portable flashing info-packed-screen wonder-box being used outdoors etc?)

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#65

I really hope we are seeing the beginning of the end of the influencer thing. The arc was the same with most social media. We all started watching people’s YouTube channels because they seemed interesting, then they secretly started shilling gear for companies, then they kind of got called out for secretly shilling gear and have to disclose it, and now we are all just watching infomercials.

Really good article on the broader “enshittification” process of social media here.

I started unsubscribing to loads of YouTube channels and mailing lists this year, getting off of a lot of social media, deleting apps from my phone. It’s felt really cathartic.

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#66

Funny thing is, I think there is a niche for demos that are openly paid for by the company. It would be good to have transparency. And it could be genuinely useful if it’s done by someone who is good at music, and who has had a lot of time (because they’re getting paid!) to learn the device properly. At the moment there’s this wave of ‘reviews’ that aren’t willing to be properly critical, and in a sense shouldn’t be because they don’t even know the instrument properly, they’ll be on to something else next week.

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#67

There are things like that. The guitar player Andy who works for Reverb comes to mind. The problem is that the guy is so damn talented that it’s never a really good indication of what the gear is going to sound like when you get it. What you are hearing is not the gear it’s a talented guy that could make anything sound good.

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#68

Did anyone here watch the video? I’m not a music technology brand so I skipped it

He’s really capitilising on this soapbox content aint he.

I like it when he plays with synths.

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#69

Poles apart in terms of style but this is why I really appreciate people like Jexus and Tim Shoebridge. Neither do ‘timely’ videos for the most part but they’re both more than happy to have a proper moan about annoyances where the best you’ll generally get elsewhere is a very brief aside with excuses made or vague suggestions that issues might be fixed later so nobody gets upset. The latter part is another problem with these embargoed reviews, very few products with software elements release in anything like a finished state these days so initial ‘reviews’ are often pretty pointless as far as functionality/user experience goes.

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#70

You can read the SynthAnatomy article i linked, and it will give you a good overview ( a little hacked up ) of what Jeremy says in the 18 minute video.

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#71

haha thanks but that sounds even worse :see_no_evil:

I’m just really not into the whole youtube drama thing. I guess Jeremy is getting a lot of positive feedback from this content but it’s not for me.

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#72

May i remind you, you comment on something you didn’t watch.

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#73

Well if it were addressed to me and not so condescendingly maybe I would have :slight_smile: But… good point

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#74

THIS! Phrased it better than I could.

He clearly doesn’t like adding to GAS syndrome. It’s a concept that I believe he truly despises- there’s clearly a discrepancy between his pursuit and his ideals- that I don’t think he’s aware of(probably because he’s too in the weeds to be able to see).

The question is, how does he remain a synthtuber and step away from hawking gear?

Its a real pickle he’s found himself in.

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#75

Thinking beyond just synthfluencers the entire business around social media influencers and people being a brand to sell things surely has to crash soon.

Anything that reaches such peaks often has a shelf life and in it’s current form of selling us stuff on YouTube and social media under the guise of demos or pretending to use or like products.

I don’t mean it will disappear or stop but it’s total saturation currently

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#76

Judging by the comments from other synth youtubers it seems to be a widespread feeling, they talk of how “valuable” their content is, but I think the reality of business is that if all of them stopped their channel tomorrow synth sales would not be affected. There would be plenty of other people making synth videos.

Also they all get views because they feature the gear to get the views in the first place, no synth companies asked them to do so.

It is a bit like standing outside a restaurant as a happy customer and telling everyone how great the food and service are, then complaining to the restaurant that you aren’t on the payroll.

There are plenty of ways to monetise youtube, if that is the primary goal, so probably best to focus on those rather than expecting synth companies to pay them.

How even would a synth company be able to theoretically quantify the value of a particular youtubers content to the sale of a particular product?

Artistic freedom and significant monetary compensation are rarely bedfellows, you either have to suck the corpo D or not, can’t have it both ways, never could, never will.

To paraphrase Ray Kroc - the world is full of unsuccessful men with talent.

I’m not saying it is fair, but life isn’t.

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#78

Absolutely agree.

I came across the RMR video two days ago, as i was watching another recent video he did on the 3rd Wave synth, that is mostly not being shown by synth reviewers. Jeremy made a very interesting video, looking at the history of similar synth — very informative — and then showed an interesting feature, that to my knowledge has not been reported elsewhere. I posted that video in the 3rd Wave thread.

So i think he is practicing what he preaches.

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#79

Then he needs to turn the camera off and get some gigs. You could play classic rock covers on acoustic guitar and make more money than these YouTubers.

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#80

…aaaand besides all that, who’s intrested in an original bobeat album…?..
…some real music, all “handcrafted” for real by the man himself…
can’t wait…

…and rumour has it, it even comes with heaps of fancy brandstickers u’ve never seen before…
a truu must have, i tell ya…

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#81

Not to mention how unhealthy it must be with the mix of constant dopamine rushes and people shit talking you. If you post a photo on Instagram, just those 20 or 30 likes from your friends or whatever starts getting you looking constantly for that little rush, or feeling down if nobody likes it. For people doing YouTube professionally, the highs and lows must be amplified to unbelievable levels.

Here in Japan, they recently passed a law where anonymous bullying on the internet is punishable by up to a year in prison after a reality TV star got bullied so much she killed herself. It seems much healthier not to be the brand and have distance between yourself and the company. Losing that separation sounds like a recipe for disaster unless you are a narcissist, and just programmed to think you are god’s gift no matter what people say.

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#82

Views I guess. Like advertising. They probably have it down pretty accurately how many views translate into an actual sale based on past data. It’s probably a tiny percent of people that actually buy, which is why they’ve moved to blitz marketing on YouTube now.

The problem is that once people see it all as just ads it loses its legitimacy and is no longer a viable sales platform, or so I would think. In other words, maybe you’d buy a piece of gear if you think that person actually likes it (for instance a rock musician known for a particular guitar), but if it’s just some dude switching it up each week, where’s the value in that?

#83

If there was only 1 youtuber that would be easier I guess, but most people when considering a particular synth to buy would most likely look at a bunch of videos, right?

I think the most realistic option for wanting to get paid for product promotion for a synth youtuber is to do affiliate links.

#84

Some thought for a synthtuber like RMR finding themselves in this trap: make some kind of „No Gear New Year“ pledge to yourselves by publicly saying „okay, I will only accept one synth, one pedal and one piece of software this year and only make music (not content!) with these over the course of the year. So we canexplore and get to better know this stuff together over a long time. You will see how my thoughts on it develop, how the music I make with it evolves. If that makes you interested in the gear and you buy it, great. If you just like to listen to the music made on it, also great. You will know when the occasion arrives which will be the pieces you want to have.

You could also just buy some older gear and do this. Or use something you already got sent or bought but didn’t have the time to really use. Or ask your community which if these 5 options they would love to get a deep dive on.

Seems like a healthy way to get back to the OP1 days. You could be the guy known for making the most interesting Syntakt videos in 2022. You could also make a lot of great, specific tutorials this way that I‘m sure people would refer to. This way you still get some gear and money through affiliate links, but it‘s not a day 1 review that’s the focus. You could also design patches in videos and sell them for a few bucks etc. Make some interesting documentary style videos like „history of Elektron“ or „history of drum machines“ around it.

Not sure whether this would pay off, but would sure be a lot more fun. And from what I gather it doesn’t really pay off the way you’re doing it right now.

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