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Payoff of Social media and your Youtube Videos

gsilbers

Part of Pulsesetter-Sounds.com
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?
 
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)
 
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.
 
oh, yes. to check out products its for sure great. you can see and hear the product and how to use it.
 
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
 
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.
 
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!
 
Nudity seems to attract a lot of traffic. In general.

Might need a stage name though -- "Daddy Gaga" could be catchy.
 
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).
 
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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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).
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
Perfectly said, thank you Daniel. Though I don´t like the result concidering my own personality :)


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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