YouTube Virtuosos (Old Man Rant)

[socialleper]

I'm old enough to remember when being "a musician" meant getting together with some friends and jamming, or joining a band that left a flyer up at the guitar store. I'm also young enough to have been using computers most of my life and understand how to use social media.
All that said, I don't understand the phenomenon of what appear to be brilliant musicians just doing YouTube stuff. There are some multi-instrumentalists with full blown studios taking up their entire houses out there, spending a massive amount of time producing videos of themselves. If this was a way to promote yourself to get in with a big name band, it would make sense to me. However, it seems like these people are content with just doing that.
My question is why? I make the occasional gear demo, post live performances fans shot, share clips of things that won't work with a band on SoundCloud for giggles; but that is all secondary to my work as a performing musician. That doesn't seem to be these peoples' goal. This is their career. But isn't that an awful lot of work for nothing? I've never heard of a YouTube musician getting discovered and joining a band. I've seen one of these guys play a solo gig at a club once and it was boring AF.
Am I missing something here?
Are these people just anti-social?
Can they only play covers really well and not create marketable music?
Can whatever pocket change YouTube throws at them possibly make up for the giant expense of producing these videos?
I'm not knocking it, I just really don't understand it. 'Splain it to me.

 

[GKon]

I have been told that if your video(s) on YouTube get over a certain amount of views that you can make money. Supposedly my fiancee brother does this. In pretty sure it exists but have not researched it.

Past that, perhaps it's something they do to show off their skills, gain followers, perhaps use as an online archive, maybe even to fulfill narcissistic tendencies?

I have to assume at least some of them play professionally and use their vids for self promotion.

Just a few thoughts that came to mind to help answer your question.

 

[charlie monroe]

Maybe they have day jobs that pay big bucks
Maybe they are sick and tired of flakes that call themselves band mates
Maybe they enjoy the process as much as the product
Maybe they have agoraphobia

...also, Journey hired one of these guys as their lead singer

 

[TheCrimsonKing]

Maybe they like putting videos on Youtube? Maybe there's more ways to be a musician other than the tired old ''band meets once a week and performs generic blues rock''?

 

[fretter]

Maybe they're the equivalent of guys who used to sit there and shred in GC

 

[socialleper]

I have been told that if your video(s) on YouTube get over a certain amount of views that you can make money. Supposedly my fiancee brother does this. In pretty sure it exists but have not researched it.

I've heard this as well, both from people in person and in videos themselves, but I don't know what the numbers are like.

Past that, perhaps it's something they do to show off their skills, gain followers, perhaps use as an online archive, maybe even to fulfill narcissistic tendencies?

I tend to think it is this, but MAN that's a lot of money and effort.

 

[socialleper]

Maybe they have day jobs that pay big bucks
Maybe they are sick and tired of flakes that call themselves band mates
Maybe they enjoy the process as much as the product
Maybe they have agoraphobia

...also, Journey hired one of these guys as their lead singer

All possible.
I know the guy Journey hired is frightening a lot like Perry. I didn't know they got him from the web.

 

[Awesome Sauce]

Yes, you can make money from ad revenue on YouTube. It can actually be quite lucrative.

 

[socialleper]

Maybe they like putting videos on Youtube? Maybe there's more ways to be a musician other than the tired old ''band meets once a week and performs generic blues rock''?

Maybe they're the equivalent of guys who used to sit there and shred in GC

For the bedroom rockers with a webcam, this seems likely. There are some other guys that are really putting A LOT into their videos, AND they are really good musicians. They aren't just wankers. In a world so short of truly talented players, we need these people in bands writing music. Just d!cking around on the web seems like a waste of potential to me. That's why I'm wondering if there is something else I'm missing.

 

[socialleper]

Yes, you can make money from ad revenue on YouTube. It can actually be quite lucrative.

Numbers?

 

[Odinbass]

Other people would likely get in the way of virtuostic playing, especially if we're talking bass players. "Serve the song" "Just groove" "Keep it simple"... that's the kind of stuff we're told to do. Who would want to be a backdrop for a bass wanker? Not many. So if you're into jacking off on bass maybe being a YouTube star is the way to go.

Also - if you look on Craiglist long enough you begin to understand why some people just go it alone.....

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

For the bedroom rockers with a webcam, ...

I think Youtube would delete posts like that. I know you couldn't show it on TB.

 

[Awesome Sauce]

Depends- just like any other job. Many people have multiple channels that have similar- but not exactly the same- content. They can span multiple genres/interests this way, while not turning away people only there for one subject. It's easier to understand if you look at YouTube as self-produced reality TV instead of pointless, narcissistic show-boating. Originally, it was the latter, now it's the former.

BTW- numbers? Think in the millions of views to be lucrative, hundreds of thousands to make a living at it. That's per vid, with multiple videos a week. Some every day.

 

[AngelCrusher]

Millennials are the Me generation. They actually care a lot about likes on FB, IG and YT, and all that stuff really matters to them. If you grew up as a Gen X or Gen Y, you will remember when computers were for nerds and it was not cool to care about such things. Essentially that has all changed and kids get a lot of their affirmation online instead of in person. They have grown up glued to their tablets and phones. IMO I do not think it is a good thing and there will be a sea change once everyone gets sick of being isolated.

It's super easy to get validated online. Somewhere, no matter how insane your video is or how stupid the comment you posted is, someone will like it. That simply was not the case before the internet.

You can imagine the musician who never clicked in a band setting would find a lot of satisfaction in getting youtube views.

 

[RED J]

I'm old enough to remember when being "a musician" meant getting together with some friends and jamming, or joining a band that left a flyer up at the guitar store.

Me too, but things have changed a lot in the music world, that's all. I watched a video this morning I think Got Bass Chops ? intro video. Anyway, these guys and gals can play. Maybe live too. Who cares ? I am not in a band any more, but I can sit in my music room and record and track and jam as if. I do it on the cheap too, but I could pack up and go to a jam or a gig on a moments notice if I so chose. Fact is, I would make the same money I did 40 years ago. Not so great. Glad to have the new technology.
Everybody can find their spot.

 

[Jayhawk]

There are all kinds of levels of YouTube musicians and, yes, some make a decent living at it. Here's a link to an FAQ video by Ryan Bruce (aka Fluff) that talks about the financial side of things and why he does the YouTube thing:



Like Fluff's channel, most of the time channels that have any success are more than just cover songs and usually include something either more informative or entertaining to keep people coming back. Successful channels can not only make money but get actual gear endorsements. Like most "passions," doing a YouTube Channel isn't as much about making money as doing something you enjoy and sharing it with others you hope with enjoy it and/or find it useful as well.

 

[lz4005]

Numbers?

Last time I looked into their revenue model it was 1/10th of a cent per view if you allowed ads before/during the video. That was about 3 years ago. I'm sure they've tweaked the formula since then.

But assuming it's still similar, that translates to $1 per 1000 views.

People usually can't even think about quitting their day job until they have at least 500,000 subscribers and are doing two videos a week. Generally speaking, you're lucky if half your subscribers watch any given video, so you might average $250 per at that level.

Of course that's not taking into consideration other income sources like mp3 sales, paid content, endorsements, touring, clinics, gigs, etc. And other social media monetization.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

A friend of mine landed a gig with the biggest metal band in his home country through his youtube videos. I've seen pictures of him in front of 60,000~ people when he opened for Iron Maiden.

Deonidra was offered a gig with one of the Jonas brothers based off her internet videos. I don't know her in real life or if it's actually true but I like to think nobody on TB is a liar.

 

[socialleper]

There are all kinds of levels of YouTube musicians and, yes, some make a decent living at it. Here's a link to an FAQ video by Ryan Bruce (aka Fluff) that talks about the financial side of things and why he does the YouTube thing:



Like Fluff's channel, most of the time channels that have any success are more than just cover songs and usually include something either more informative or entertaining to keep people coming back. Successful channels can not only make money but get actual gear endorsements. Like most "passions," doing a YouTube Channel isn't as much about making money as doing something you enjoy and sharing it with others you hope with enjoy it and/or find it useful as well.

Interesting.
It kinda sounds like this guy and Jered Dines were already recording engineers and had all this equipment around already. The explains part of it. The amount of stuff you would need to make this all work is a lot to dump just on YouTube videos, but all they had to do it add a camera.
Sadly it seems like their videos are more popular than their own bands. There are a few pedal makers out there that have to pay for their music career with their pedal making. Goes to show how little being a musician pays these days.
Dines is a pretty talented musician. I'm wondering if he isn't a more "successful" musician because he doesn't want to be. Touring is a major pain and not very profitable. Scallon may be the same way. Interesting.

 

[mdogs]

Maybe they're the equivalent of guys who used to sit there and shred in GC

Ok, no offense, but I hear this a lot about, "people shredding at GC." I go back a long ways with GC, the early 80's in their store on the NW side of Chicago that was in an old grocery store. But, it was a great store with some unbelievable equipment in there. Point being, that you used to see some of the monster players from Chicago and other places for that matter in that store. They moved out of there in the very late 80's or early 90's and that is the last time I have EVER heard someone do anything that I would even remotely call "shredding" at a GC. In fact, I couldn't tell you the last time I even saw someone who was even competent playing at a GC.