Great idea! There should be a “Thread of Wisdom”
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I use YouTube exclusively to stay in touch with the Dr. Steve Brule community.
I bookmark so many things here.
No.
In my old age I have become a burning furnace of ambition.
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It feels like that actually 
Reminded me to bump this old thread.
What can I say, really?
I wonder if that guy from U2 ever successfully learned how to play bass 🥸
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Well, if he was the good looking one like the drummer no one would even bring it up…
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For this one, YouTube is what led me to be aware of these people, subsequent purchases less but that’s what made me aware of the individuals I listed. Had I been exposed elsewhere, I would likely still have bought the Hainbach and Jogging House releases that were my introduction to their music, since I like the sounds and style for music to work to or winding down at night. Jeremy Blake was more initially based on liking his instructional videos and wanting to support him as an artist, some of his music I think I’d naturally gravitate to if I heard it elsewhere and some I would probably never have heard because some of it is in a style that I don’t actively seek out. My tastes are all over the board and change with my mood.
For your other points, I think we’re splitting hairs and actually agree more than disagree on all the salient points. I have plenty of quirks as a music consumer, like I prefer smaller less crowded shows to big concerts or festivals, but maybe some of that is just being old and the lessons learned from things like the last couple years. Really, I have discovered more music from just doing BC rabbithole explorations or following “similar artist” chains on various apps than I have from YT, but I can’t discount YT as a means of exposure. Mostly I’m just happy in the thrill of discovering things I like and less concerned about how I got there or if I am liking something that other people would consider “worthy” or accessible enough. It’s probably also that I’ve spent enough time in shitty bands that I probably am more sympathetic to ambition than a lot of my peers.
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I experience this a lot actually. I get a little bit obsessed with the finality of it. Could’ve been the greatest artist/musician alive, but they’re dead. They’ll contribute nothing more. They slowly become forgotten, perhaps even irrelevant and I find it bleak.
I had a similar issue when my mum passed a few years back. It almost felt like she’d never existed. That’s she’d been a figment of my imagination.
Thankfully I got through that 
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It’s different kinds of success though, on a platform that’s geared towards the channel he’s had the most success on.
But I get what you’re saying, if I remember from his video about it though he recognises this along with his great musical success.
But being successful at more than one thing shouldn’t (and doesn’t) diminish other successes, that’s more about fame, to some extent.
Maybe it’s playing semantics but I’d argue that he’s more famous for one thing than the other - not more successful. Success is a state, and he’s reached it on multiple levels. Otherwise we’re just dangling a carrot we can never reach, as you can always be more of something.
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Yea, to be honest Buddhism really is the only thing that quells these sorts of feelings in me, and is pretty much the only real answer (for me) to this existential strife.
And speaking of you Mum, if I were to achieve some material success after my Mom passes, I would likely be preoccupied that I couldn’t of made it happen when she was alive and make her life easier. So, really no end to this cycle of suffering based on achieving some sort of notion of success…
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Why not? If they found a way to grind out a living that meets their own personal standards of ethics and comfort, and it just happens to be on tools that are owned by a corporation, so be it. The Sex Pistols existed on a major label for their entire career. Music and money and greed and influence are inseparable from one another, you just have to get in there and scratch out whatever living you can, ideally doing something that brings joy to yourself. If it benefits others, than so be it. That’s more punk than deliberately existing in squalor and more true to a DIY ethos than starving yourself because of some purity standard.
Fair points.
I think in the scope of monetary success it is arguably more lucrative to be a gear content youtuber than a youtube musician, in terms of satisfaction success the inverse is probably true.
I mean to put another spin on it, I best most people here spend far more on gear than they do on music.
I couldn’t disagree more. How I am successful is more important than achieving what some view as success, or what I view as material success etc., doing some creative enterprise I actually care about as I care enough about my creative side not to debase it by doing things I find distasteful. Maybe that’s why I am broke, but somethings I don’t want to change about myself and it’s why I stopped listening to Brian Eno after he did that Mountain Dew commercial.
Using sex pistols as an example of punk ethics makes me question your punk credentials. You sound like a cynical capitalist.
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And how do you feel about Steve Ignorant selling mudflaps on TikTok?
How about Merle Allin selling GG’s teeth on eBay? That’s punk rock!
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What was the reserve??