nice food for thought.
6 Likes
I think on of our mistakes (and sometimes theirs) is to equate “interesting” and “meaningful” with commercially viable on the ever-changing YouTube meat grinder.
YouTube only wants megastars. They don’t care that it takes a large professional team to support the rate of content they demand and that commercial viability for everyone below that lone is increasingly impossible. They actively punish thoughtful, slow, creative work, and over the past few years it’s gotten much worse. The PR ecosystem around music technology has also gotten more aggressive, partially in response to all this and partially due to the ongoing acquisition streak.
There’s nothing wrong with these folks and the work that they do. Yes, some of them may be struggling creatively, but that’s what burnout and working at an unsustainable pace does to you. It’s not even a question of their work not being commercially viable, it’s that they’re working inside a rigged ecosystem that will always enshittify and steal revenue from the creative humans that it should be entirely in service of.
The problem here is capitalism, oligarchy, and hedge funds, same as most other places.
30 Likes
I don’t think we can discuss these people and their struggles (in particular to make a living, see @cuckoomusic recent post on instagram) without also at least mentioning the exploitative practices of YouTube and other social media platforms. Considering what these platforms earn with each view (eg at least 2 ads per view on your average video), the fraction of that revenue they pass on to the content creators are miniscule and this practice comparable to the exploitation of salary workers around the peak monopolisation phase during the industrial revolution.
16 Likes
really? 
I know that Dash Glitch was touring, but he is more of a sound design guru. He makes 50 Videos about Serum, 50 about Vital, 50 about Phase Plant etc, he goes deep and often brings value, he shows with each vst how you can create this sound. I think his channel was made to support his artistic career, and i think it helps him quiete a bit. Also there is not much drama around him. He is just to the point.
6 Likes
Found the video I got that quote from, I think it’s relevant to this topic and worth the watch
16 Likes
I think like everything else it’s a numbers game, there are 50 mildly successful synth YouTubers for every Loopop, I don’t want to name any names but those which over share, complain about YouTube, think they are “under valued” etc are never going to be as successful as Loopop, because A. They don’t have the skills or “dry professionalism” of Loopop, and B. Most of the audience don’t want to hear about all that stuff.
As for mean comments and whatnot, if you put yourself in the public eye without considering that not everyone is going to like you, be civil etc. then that is very naive IMHO. That doesn’t excuse bad behaviour but since it is inevitable that not everyone is nice it should be expected. That said it is also dependent on the youtuber, some don’t get nearly as much hate as others, for example I rarely see Ricky Tinez getting bad comments.
I think those that will stand the test of time are those who don’t keep having these kinds of “crisis” and keep the channel focussed on what the audience wants.
15 Likes
The Jon Makes Beats / Jon Wayne channel comes to mind. His musical results are great and he is just fun to listen to. Like zero airs / pretense / just making music with gear.
13 Likes
The $15 for Youtube Premium to avoid these ads is some of the best money I spend every month…
9 Likes
Yes but that money mainly goes to YouTube, not to the content providers you pay this money for/to watch ad-free.
Also YouTube is in the business of making the most annoying user experience possible without pushing far enough to break it for free users. Instagram & Facebook operate similarly.
I think it is outrageous that YouTube charges us for ad-free viewing. But it’s the problem of our time. Instead of a democratisation of access, the network/platform economy has been highjacked by the parasitic forces of capitalism (once again at work) and has thus delivered the monopolisation of access instead. If anyone thinks this is an exaggeration, just read Peter Thiel’s unbearable “Zero to One” where he explicitly encourages and even demands platform businesses to pursue a monopolistic vision/position to be attractive for investors at all.
Meanwhile if it weren’t for the content creators on these platforms who literally make a fraction of a penny per view while YouTube can earn multiple dollars per view of the same content, I wouldn’t spend a MINUTE on Youtube and neither would you. The value is created by the content creators, but most of it is captured by the platform providing access to the content. Same model as UBER, where the App takes 35% of every fare they broker…nuts.
14 Likes
YouTube synth dudes were my life-saver when getting into Elektron - specifically Cuckoo and Max Marco, but I got jaded when I began to realize most of the other ones were just there to promote the shiniest new toy.
These days, I really enjoy Matthew aka EZBOT and of course Loopop. My favourite proper tutorial dude is Thavius Beck, though that’s on AskAudio, not free YouTube.
12 Likes
The sad fact is a lot of the content creators would be nothing without youtube either, a monopoly exists because people allow it and enable it, from the investors, to the content creators, to the audience.
Same could be said of Amazon, Spotify, etc.
4 Likes
To me what I’m writing is on topic. If an influencer gathers 100k views but struggles to make a living off of that “success” it’s not necessarily a question of the quality or relevance of their content but maybe also of the system that monetises their success.
Being viewed by 100k (or even 65k times!) indicates significant relevance to a broad audience, and not a lack of anything valuable to say. The only reason we’d conclude the latter is because that qualitative success repeatedly doesn’t translate into material success sufficiently to make up for the downsides of being in the public eye (eg negativity from haters etc).
Without people like @cuckoomusic I wouldn’t have bought an Octatrack and I wouldn’t have been inspired to use it the way I use it. Without people like loopop, Benn Jordan or Tim Shoebridge I wouldn’t have bought some of the synths I have, experimented with them the way I do or thought as critically about aspects of music creation and the music industry as I have thanks to them.
The value they create to a niche audience such as ourselves is very high in my book. However, economic pressures and the dictatorship of eg the YouTube algorithm force them to be “compliant” without much in return.
I’ll make in an hour speaking in front of 100 people what some of these guys make in a month speaking to 100k people and more.
The line of “content” vs. “art” is also a weird one to be an further blurred by “artisanship” — while I don’t consider much of the content as “revolutionary” or “artistic” I would consider most of it “artisanal” in the sense that it is high quality, well thought out, interesting & original and executed to a high level.
16 Likes
I don’t think that must people really want their favorite musicians making long winded gear-explainer videos, because they still want the magic behind the music. When am artist that you enjoy becomes a synth-tuber personality and over shares, it kills part of that mystique. Following that train of logic, the influencers act as a barrier between people interested in gear (us) and artist musicians (people whose music we enjoy). They take one for the team, explaining the gear without ruining the magic of their musical output, because they have no true artistic statement, just advertisements dressed up as helpful tutorials. A true crossover that can pull off both is a rare thing
11 Likes
I largely agree but that is if someone’s only using YouTube and affiliate links to fund the effort. That is a thankless endeavor. That’s why a lot of them use patreon. Or sell things like sample packs and courses, teach etc (this is what I do although I don’t really see myself as a synthfluencer). YouTube then becomes a channel to share free knowledge and music or simply fun videos and at the same time acts as a promotional device.
Would be nice if YouTube paid more but that’s never going to happen.
11 Likes
100% agree on all points.
TBH I preferred youtube as a viewer before monetisation was widespread, less polished, less corporate, less clickbait, less thumbnail face, less ads, more homebrew.
Success is the death of art.
23 Likes
Somewhat related, very good video essay about YouTube as a platform, taste, culture, and microphones. Not music related but a lens through which synth YouTube could be analysed as well?
2 Likes
most gear influencers are in their 40/50, it is called andropause
1 Like
“Boomertube”
I guess young people are more into TikTok, Twitch, Instagram etc nowadays.
2 Likes
I will possibly regret sticking my oar in here, but as somebody that has been dangerously close to getting lumped into this category before, this kind of thing has been on my mind a lot. Apologies if this ends up as something of an essay.
There are lots of factors of course, but IMHO, we are seeing the natural outcome of a situation where people have come to rely on the money or ‘success’ of their YouTube channels, and have become disillusioned with the reality of having to produce ‘content’ in a particular way; one that doesn’t provide any kind of meaningful personal satisfaction other than the numbers (which inevitably also vary).
One of the reasons I started making videos in the first place was because so much of what was out there already seemed so ‘perfect’, or at least, attempted to present this polished persona and skill-set; people that knew everything about synthesis, or were expert beat makers. Every time they put together a track it came together in seconds, flawlessly. They never struggled to find a melody, or figure out which bloody minijack MIDI connector was the right one out of a pile of them. In other words, they lacked authenticity, and were incredibly difficult to relate to, as somebody who definitely did not have that kind of experience with gear or making music. (If you’ve ever been in a band you will definitely know what I mean!).
All of this has been compounded by a number of folks getting fixated on YouTube ‘success’ - whether that’s in subscriber numbers, view counts, or income. I can understand why. The system is designed to throw a ton of data at you in order to suck you in and produce more in response to what seems to generate the greatest up-tick in those figures. Once you give up your day job to fully rely on the revenue from producing this stuff, the whole cost-benefit calculation shifts even more dramatically. You can no longer afford to sink time into making a video that will ‘under-perform’, as the drop in view count could have a significant impact on your actual, real life. You have to consider and give primacy to the investment/return ratio.
The result of all of this is that we have a constant glut of ‘content’ (because that is all it is), which is purely designed to generate clicks, and is just a drab repetition of every other video to come before it. Soulless, empty, meaningless, shite.
What @Sleepyhead said above resonates:
As a ‘musician’ (despite arguably having qualified for this, I use the label with trepidation and reluctance), one of the cool things about having a channel where you talk about gear is that you have the chance to experiment with loads of different equipment that you would never normally be able to afford otherwise. I feel really fortunate to be in that position, because it’s provided a momentum and semi-sustainable way to indulge something that I am passionate about. Whenever I make a video, I try and express that in an authentic way - as well as hopefully providing some useful insight for other people who might be interested in the topic. But if not, it doesn’t really matter. Ultimately, I (perversely) enjoy the process, and that’s enough. If I hate a bit of gear, I wouldn’t use it. If there are major flaws or problems, I will highlight them (and have). If the video gets thousands of views then great! If it only gets a few hundred, who cares? If a brand gets pissed off with me for being honest, that’s okay. Ultimately it makes little difference because I don’t place critical importance on it.
In contrast, I find that a lot of the ‘content’ that comes out about new gear from other places is very transparently, purely about the desire to grow their channels, income, and following. Receive and ‘review’ a device as quickly as possible in the same format before moving on to the next thing. Anybody that uploads videos wants people to watch of course, and will experiment with changing titles or thumbnails or messing about with descriptions to try and get more eyeballs (partly because it’s fun!), but this particular approach oftenfeels very much just like a consumerist treadmill, and ultimately comes across as disingenuous.
What makes this worse is that the folks involved often seem to lack any sense of self-awareness. They engage in these obvious practices apparently unquestioningly, often don’t give any kind of disclosure about their affiliation with a product when they are actively involved in marketing it, and then appear personally slighted when people criticise them for that. Some of it obviously goes beyond the pale and is unacceptable. I get my fair share of unjustifiable abusive nonsense - that’s the Internet - but at some point if you want to hold yourself up as what is effectively a corporate spokesperson, then you need to expect a degree of adverse feedback, which appears to be an alien concept at times. Interestingly enough, some of these folks are also the first to be very publicly, and aggressively outspoken about anybody that questions them.
To round this off, part of the reason I ended up changing my channel name (shameless plug, because I had to, come on) was because I found myself getting lumped in more and more with the ‘synthfluencer’ crowd, and it felt like I was becoming railroaded, or trapped into a particular type of topic or format. For me, YouTube is a fun place to make and share stuff, which generates about £200 a month to help offset some of the ludicrous purchases I indulge in as part of creative pursuits. (Caveat: Half of this is from Patreon). As soon as it becomes anything other than that, it’s time to re-evaluate.
p.s. Sorry, I warned you. p.s. Don’t come for me. Or I’ll make a video about it.
62 Likes