Dirty Filthy Brand Marketing and YouTube

[Karl_Joseph]

Congrats, you seem to have found a new way to promote your channel. Enjoyed the video.

Thanks for taking the time to watch/listen to it!

[Karl_Joseph]

The best thing you can do with that whole cretinous "scene" is ignore it completely. Let it have no impact whatsoever on anything you do. If you want to tag a video with gear, do that - not because you're trying to be hot and trendy, but simply 'cause it's a fact, useful information completely irrespective of what's "hip" at the moment. F'rexample, if I'm looking at a piece of gear, it's genuinely helpful to be able to find tracks that demonstrate or prominently feature it so I can get a feel for the way it sounds; that's also why I include gear info on my own videos. There's no reason you should have to feel bad about it because a bunch of dipshits are chasing clicks by coincidentally similar methods.

This is a solid comment for listing the gear used in the video title.

It would be nice if Youtube's search algorithm would pick up on the description text (maybe it does?) so I wouldn't have to muddy my vid titles with gear names though. I work hard on my song titles and it's one of my favorite aspects of the creative process. I think it detracts from song/vid title.

[commodorejohn]

Yeah, I get that. Unfortunately, everything about every decision YouTube has made in the last decade-plus indicates that they have zero interest in facilitating users finding the specific content they're looking for when they could just put all their effort into signal-boosting the most generically trendy crap and raking in the ad dollars

[Karl_Joseph]

Yeah, I get that. Unfortunately, everything about every decision YouTube has made in the last decade-plus indicates that they have zero interest in facilitating users finding the specific content they're looking for when they could just put all their effort into signal-boosting the most generically trendy crap and raking in the ad dollars

I hear that! It's their company to do what they want with. What are the alternatives? TicToc? I've never used it but what I've seen come out of it makes me feel like I've been violated somehow.
I keep saying I'm going to try live streaming - I got OBS and a crappy webcam... just need to put my money where my mouth is at this point. Maybe, I'll upload it to vimeo for web distribution/embedding and just forgo YouTube.

The nostalgia of early YouTube (all the cat videos) - so much entertainment. Sad what it has become really.

[commodorejohn]

I don't know that there are any better alternatives - seems like most of the other video sites at the moment are even more focused on "trending" junk and the Perpetual Now. Soundcloud's better for listening, but not for reaching a mass audience.

[Technologear?]

I think it's a clever and artistically relevant niche to be able to feature gear to get the views, but get the repeated listens and active subscribers because they like your tunes.
I think it would be harder to cut through the 'researcher consumer ' mindset of your audience (who arrived as they're researching not seeking new music content) with a great song and get them to buy/download/stream it without visual content later on.

And let your audience like what they like from your videos. It might not be your music though. So what? They might really appreciate you presenting how to use a piece of gear to make legitimate art. There's still a respect loop from viewer associated to you (and appreciation from you) through that.

The main theme coming up in responses is authenticity. Just do, and choose, what you feel is authentic for you. From my perspective, featuring and commenting on gear that you bought yourself, are honest about, and not getting a financial kick back for, is authentic.

[bmot]

It would be nice if Youtube's search algorithm would pick up on the description text (maybe it does?) so I wouldn't have to muddy my vid titles with gear names though.

/snip

There are tags, but I read that YouTube stated tags are no longer much of a factor - it's definitely harder for unknowns to get noticed on YouTube's, the algorithm favours those already "popular" on the platform. I've a few other tips at the end of this long post!

I've been on YouTube for ages, I used to get far more views than I do today. The last video to hit 1000 was a track done exclusively with the Lyra8 (when it was fairly new). Those uploaded since then have all been "general" music, no gear names, and hit the low hundreds at best. 5000 to 20000 was common when I started. Back then I made videos using only the Korg Electribe ESX, and as was mentioned above, people interested in a specific bit of gear will research using the name (by the way, all these have been hidden from view now - a lifetime ago)

I moved into less "accessible" music and a larger collection of instruments, I guess those doing gear research won't pick up my videos like they might have done in the past, as i'm far less focused on something people are likely to search for and be deliberately interested in. People browsing music are unlikely to find me or want to watch (my video names are pretty generic - maybe I can improve that), and my videos do look a bit geeky, pointing at the cable mountain.

Anyway I came here to offer a few tips which when used together may help to improve a video's chances of being recommended or found in a search. Not because it's important to have loads of views, but because it's nice when people watch and comment. Again I used to get new comments very frequently, these days nothing at all, and I do miss the feedback.

1.Rename your video file using a target keyword.
2.Insert your keyword naturally in the video title.
3.Optimize your video description.
4.Tag your video with popular keywords that relate to your topic.
5.Categorize your video.
6.Upload a custom thumbnail image for your video's result link.

[bmot]

ps I really enjoyed the last vampire cowboy track! May I say it reminded me of Stone Roses with synths?

[Karl_Joseph]

ps I really enjoyed the last vampire cowboy track! May I say it reminded me of Stone Roses with synths?

I didn't know who that was so I had to go check em out! That's a cool band! Thanks and thanks for listening/watching my video!

[Ashley Pomeroy]

One thing that really stood out for me lately is this Syntakt release, and how regularly scheduled synth reviews were ready to go as soon as the product dropped.

I remember noticing this when the Moog Subharmonicon came out. There's a bunch of video review-adverts that were published on 12 May 2020. Presumably Moog threatened to never give the reviewers equipment ever again if they broke the embargo.

It stands out in the case of the Subharmonicon, because it's not an easy synth. None of the reviewers got to grips with it - they didn't have time - and as a result all of the demos are awful. This one is particularly bad (I've fast-forwarded to a bad part):


As some of the comments point out, the video saved a bunch of people £700.