# Payoff of Social media and your Youtube Videos



## gsilbers (Apr 14, 2016)

Seems like everyone and their mothers are making youtube video and being a diva in socialmedia.

Does making video pay off for your guys? I mean, the amount of time and equipment spent on it and getting very few hits (few exceptions of course) seems like everyone is jumping onto the bandwagon just because "it's the thing everyone is doing" but not much chatter of it actually working.
have people get hired or approached because of this?


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## d.healey (Apr 14, 2016)

I don't know if it works for composers but as a sample library developer it's a must (the videos more than the facebook/twitter stuff)


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## Matt Riley (Apr 14, 2016)

I use youtube in a different way but yeah it pays off in promoting my stuff and driving sales. It's one of the most powerful tools out there.


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## gsilbers (Apr 15, 2016)

oh, yes. to check out products its for sure great. you can see and hear the product and how to use it.


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## rgames (Apr 15, 2016)

I doubt a YouTube channel is much use for getting composing gigs but it's probably a must if you want to sell music directly to the public.

I'm sure I lose money on my YouTube channel. I don't monetize it - I just use it to promote my albums but it's not very effective because I don't get many views. It allows me to kid myself that I'm still an actual musician and not just a slave to the media music empire.

rgames


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## gsilbers (Apr 15, 2016)

I do find it intriguing and fun dwelling into other arts. but I do see some videos with few views and production values that are quite something. this is not only for music tutorials but other stuff as well.


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## Gabriel Oliveira (Apr 15, 2016)

Daniel James probably have something to talk about this


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## Rv5 (Apr 15, 2016)

Absolutely - had some and continue to have some amazing things happen from making YouTube videos. Definitely use it. What a platform! Just pour yourself into it, if it's what you want to pour yourself into, stand out, do something a bit different. For me the biggest payoff is having musicians wanting to play for the sessions, met some great players and continue to meet more!


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## JohnG (Apr 15, 2016)

Nudity seems to attract a lot of traffic. In general.

Might need a stage name though -- "Daddy Gaga" could be catchy.


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## Jdiggity1 (Apr 15, 2016)

If you compose epic music of a moderately high caliber you can easily get your tracks featured in those mega-mix 2-hr compilation videos that rack up millions of views. There are also several subscription channels dedicated to specific genres (such as epic) where you can get your track featured on as a single video, often getting tens of thousands of views if not more. Good way to get your name recognized, but don't expect a lot of payment (if any).


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## LexDu (Apr 16, 2016)

What Jdiggity1 said. I think I have a couple of tracks inserted in some videos with 200-300k views (and a bunch with a few dozen thousands or less), and quite frankly I don't know how they managed to get there, but I don't mind and nor do I have the time, patience or appetite to go against people's will. Benefits? A ballpark figure is zero, plus or minus some happenings which I may not be aware of.

Also, the internet in general, hasn't been very fruitful for me, besides making meaningful connections with people I actually resonate with and keeping in touch with clients. I very much dislike to post personal information about me, my relationships and my lifestyle, and I am active once a week or less. I follow some peoples activities or groups, but that's for me to be in touch with the world of musicianship.

That doesn't mean that others haven't had success with it, but you must be very outgoing and just love to post multiple times per day stuff about you, your work, your lover, your food, your dog, your cat and everything in-between. Attach to that a bunch of selfies.

At least that's my impression of it all.


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## dannthr (Apr 16, 2016)

YouTube is a tool--being successful is a lottery--these are not the same activities.

If you can figure out how to USE YouTube, by all means use it! If it's not working for you or your goals, then don't bother with it--but don't waste your time with it if you're only going at it to become a superstar (unless of course you like the trying).


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## Allegro (Apr 17, 2016)

FWIW. YouTube was a lifechanger for me. Started out as another teenage guy with beats on trial version software. Artists started offering money for my tracks that weren't even on sale. Indie film Directors started offering work & imdb credit. Monetization companies started approaching me for ads. Videos started going relatively popular (100K-1M views). Then small music labels started showing interest.
My music was nothing spectacular to be honest (contrary to the sort of comments I'd get from unknown people), so I definitely credit YouTube for this. Just to be clear, I am not a popular Youtuber by any means. Nowadays though, I hardly ever upload there but I still think that it can be a big part of your income. I think that for me, it is quite safe to say that if it wasn't for YouTube, I wouldn't be replying here to a post on this forum. Heck I even made some of the best friends (in real life) from YouTube.


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## Daniel James (Apr 17, 2016)

I think alot of how well things like social media and youtube will work for you is equally related to who you are as a person. I like to communicate with people, alot (I am sure most who have met me in person can speak to my ability to talk for hours haha) and this translates well to the internet. 

I don't do social media and Youtube actively to gain anything from it other than an ability to talk to people much like I would in person. Some people are not that sociable so things like social media and youtube would simply reflect that, much in the same way as you can tell when someone does do social media and Youtube with the only aim to get something from it, the desperation is palpable....as it would be in real life.

So yeah don't think of social media as something you do to further yourself, think of it more of an extension of yourself. Don't change who you are or pretend to be something else when you do them and it will work. Else it will look forced and be useless.

-DJ


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## mac (Apr 17, 2016)

As far as direct revenue from youtube, I don't think you could ever make it to the mainstream big players level (gamers, pranks, fashion and makeup etc), but it certainly pays off in other ways. For example, without @Daniel James videos, I doubt I would ever have bought his (excellent) libraries.


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## rgames (Apr 17, 2016)

mac said:


> but it certainly pays off in other ways


That's true, but you need to be clear on what you're trying to do. If your goal is to appeal to a mass market then you don't want to put up a lot of tutorial and/or walkthrough videos. Then your brand is established as one that caters to the songwriter/beatmaker/composer/musician market and the mass market is going to pass you by.

If you first establish yourself in the mass market then you can move to one that is more specific. That happens regularly (think about Waves plug-ins). But it's pretty rare that it goes the other way and it can be a hindrance to brand yourself incorrectly from the get-go. At a minimum you need different online presences for your different markets.

It's like restaurants: lots of people want to start a restaurant so there are probably lots of websites and YouTube channels that cater to those people. But if a general restaurant goer looks up a restaurant website and it's filled mostly with reviews of stoves and cooking utensils he's probably going to pass it by, right? Such a website is unlikely to attract a broad market.

So you need to be careful in how those other ways pay off.

rgames


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## Greg (Apr 18, 2016)

I started 4-5 years ago posting almost all of my work as time went on. It payed off far beyond my wildest expectations. Do it.


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## Prockamanisc (Apr 30, 2016)

Greg said:


> I started 4-5 years ago posting almost all of my work as time went on. It payed off far beyond my wildest expectations. Do it.


Care to elaborate?


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## Sid Francis (May 1, 2016)

Perfectly said, thank you Daniel. Though I don´t like the result concidering my own personality 




Daniel James said:


> I think alot of how well things like social media and youtube will work for you is equally related to who you are as a person. I like to communicate with people, alot (I am sure most who have met me in person can speak to my ability to talk for hours haha) and this translates well to the internet.
> 
> I don't do social media and Youtube actively to gain anything from it other than an ability to talk to people much like I would in person. Some people are not that sociable so things like social media and youtube would simply reflect that, much in the same way as you can tell when someone does do social media and Youtube with the only aim to get something from it, the desperation is palpable....as it would be in real life.
> 
> ...


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## Greg (May 1, 2016)

Prockamanisc said:


> Care to elaborate?



This really good seminar explains how valuable Youtube is right now: 
http://www.pyramind.com/training/bl...outube-with-your-music-jeff-price-video-recap


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## Sid Francis (May 1, 2016)

Thank you Greg...very interesting, will listen to it carefully.


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## jononotbono (May 5, 2016)

Curiously, What is decent software for screen capturing and also filming myself with a Camera so the screen shows both me and the screen capture (if that makes sense)? I'm interested because I'm studying and all of us students have discovered the powers of Quicktime's Screen Recording for making each other Tutorial videos as and when something needs explaining. It's such a handy way of teaching stuff.

Just wondering how to involve camera footage as well because trying to explain the physical routing (for example) of a Mixing desk and where Guitars and FX are routed would be so much easier to just show it rather than talk about it!


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## dannthr (May 7, 2016)

Hey Jono, I use BandiCam paired with VoiceMeeter Banana (yes, you read that, Banana) along with Premiere Pro and After Effects.

I've also picked up a cheap set of lights and backdrops (probably about $200) and a Logitech 920c, which is one of the cheapest webcams that does 1080p.

Still working on the overall workflow, but it seems like the bare essentials.

If you want to do streaming, there are many options, but the best and easiest one I know of is TeleStream WireCast--which is basically a real-time video/audio mixer.


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## passsacaglia (May 29, 2016)

Allegro said:


> FWIW. YouTube was a lifechanger for me. Started out as another teenage guy with beats on trial version software. Artists started offering money for my tracks that weren't even on sale. Indie film Directors started offering work & imdb credit. Monetization companies started approaching me for ads. Videos started going relatively popular (100K-1M views). Then small music labels started showing interest.
> My music was nothing spectacular to be honest (contrary to the sort of comments I'd get from unknown people), so I definitely credit YouTube for this. Just to be clear, I am not a popular Youtuber by any means. Nowadays though, I hardly ever upload there but I still think that it can be a big part of your income. I think that for me, it is quite safe to say that if it wasn't for YouTube, I wouldn't be replying here to a post on this forum. Heck I even made some of the best friends (in real life) from YouTube.


Great one!

Same thing happened to me. Did music, not orchestral stuff, but I played covers and made tutorials of popular edm, pop and house songs which gained yuge (huge) popularity 10 years ago when the big house era exploded with Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, Eric Prydz etc.
The videos are kind of old and I stressed out having the videos published why the quality is kind of bad on some.
But the channel got super popular and my fast learning of new tracks (almost perfect pitch and, I just hear a track and I play it), made me do covers I heard after a concert gig where I recorded new ID's of unreleased tracks which I did covers on. This lead to huge collaborations with artists like Dirty South, Tara McDonald (David Guetta's vocalist), Avicii, Henrik B etc. Everytime I uploaded a new cover, it got covered on twitter and the guys always retweeted them etc. The collaborations have been fantastic and I'm doing it as a side-job. The channel is not That popular like it was back then but I upload stuff from time to time everytime I hear a great track... but still it has almost 3 million views, some videos have almost 300k views etc, everything from 1000, 20.000 and 100k+, so it's fun. And as well, friends all over and people recognize me at the weirdest situations (St Patricks' day in a Philadelphia bar "Oh, you're the piano guy right?!") etc. So...yeah, to me, youtube has been fantastic.
Some new cool projects will be announced very soon. 
Cheers!


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