Latest / 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast / Do You *Need* a YouTube Channel?

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Do You *Need* a YouTube Channel? · 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast

• 0:31
  Speaker 1: So understanding the investment on the front end I think is vital in order for a successful channel to really happen and understanding why you're doing it.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: And if you're looking to make money which again is fifth on my list of priorities then that gets even more intense.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: What is happening?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Everybody?
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: This is Dave Kroff, and welcome back to another episode of the 52Q's podcast, a weekly podcast dedicated to all things production and library music, where we talk about industry topics and explore how you can grow your career as a production music composer.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: If this is your first time here, welcome, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening to the audio podcast in the go.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: I want to thank you for joining me today.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: This episode is made possible thanks to the support of the family, friends and patron subscribers of 52Q's, who help keep the podcast, the channel and everything running.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: We are 100% community supported, so you're not going to hear any sponsored segments for plugins or earbuds.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: But if you want to learn more about how you can help support 52Q's while also unlocking community perks like Zoom sessions, live streams, workshops and a ton more, then be sure to click on the links in the description for more information.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Do you need a YouTube channel?
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: That's the question.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: That's what we're going to be talking about on today's episode.
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Does the modern working production, music composer need a YouTube channel?
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Do they need to put their stuff out on YouTube?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The same way that I would say seven to 10 years ago you really needed a social media presence.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Facebook and Twitter, it was where a lot was happening.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Before then it was just having a website.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Before then it was having an email.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Before then it was having a fax machine, having a pager.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Is having a YouTube channel just a part of current running a business?
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Well, again, that's what we're going to be talking about today, but before we do, we have to understand why you would want a YouTube channel.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So we're going to talk about why what are the reasons you would want to have a YouTube channel, and then we'll talk about some of the downsides of trying to have a YouTube channel and we'll talk about some of the strategies that, if you want to have a YouTube channel, some things to keep in mind.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: So, first of all, let's answer the question why you would even want a YouTube channel, and if you're watching this or listening to this episode, then chances are you've thought at some point I need to have a YouTube channel.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: But why and I think there are five different reasons, or I'm going to unpack five different reasons to start a YouTube channel for production, music composers specifically, not just kind of in general, and these are kind of in order in order of why.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: You would not necessarily why I started the YouTube channel.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: I'll talk about that here in a second.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: But the first is for exposure.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Then I know exposure bucks and all of that, but YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and so having your music, having some kind of presence on YouTube, I think, is a value.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: You do have the ability to reach a global audience nearly instantaneously and libraries could discover your music.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: You could put your portfolio, you can showcase your work.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So just having a YouTube channel as an extension of your brand is one really big reason to have a YouTube channel.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: And even if you don't want to have like a channel where you're doing and posting and videos and you're chasing algorithms and more on all of that later, I think you should go claim your space, put your music out there.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: You can embed those videos into your website.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: It's portable.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Every app, every phone, every device that can play videos can more than likely play YouTube videos.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: So that's the first reason you would need to have a YouTube channel is for exposure.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: The second reason you might want to have a YouTube channel is because you love sharing.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: You love telling your story, whether you want to have a vlog or you just want to communicate to people.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: You just want to share of yourself and out of that could come because you love to teach.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: You love sharing knowledge, tutorials, breakdowns of your works, all of those things.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: And this is where I really feel YouTube.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: This is why I have a YouTube channel.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: That's why I'm talking to you right now is because, as a lifelong career teacher, I enjoy, I receive back from giving out.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I receive personal satisfaction.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It's a passion of mine, I enjoy it, I am fulfilled by teaching, and so for me, this channel is an extension of that of telling my story, hopefully inspiring you, showing you my creative process, hopefully building kind of a deeper connection with you, the viewer or the listener, and so sharing of yourself, teaching, I think, is a good reason to have a YouTube channel.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: Also, having a YouTube channel maybe you want to build a community, maybe you want to connect and collaborate.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: You want to get feedback, you want to leave feedback, you want to build a community around your cues, about around what you want to do, and this is another reason I have this YouTube channel.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: It's an extension of the 52 cues community.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: That's another reason to start a YouTube channel.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: But for production music composers, I think the least important reason to start a YouTube channel, I think, is to make money, to monetize, to generate revenue through ads, through channel memberships, super chats, all of that stuff.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: If you're trying to do that through YouTube, then production music composers or just composers in general, I think that's a tough sell.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Our reasons will unpack a little bit later some of the downsides, some of the real challenges of having a YouTube channel.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: But if you're wanting to monetize a video, there are a lot of things, a lot of boxes you have to tick off to pull that off successfully, not to mention thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of subscribers.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: And production music just really isn't.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, if I'm just being honest, I mean, as of this recording, I have a little over 3,300 subscribers and, yes, I'm into monetization territory, but I make maybe like 15 or 20, maybe 30 bucks I think my highest month revenue was $41, I think from ads, from videos and everything.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Because in the global space.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Production music itself doesn't attract all the composers.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: This isn't a channel about just composing or about making money in the industry.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Those channels exist and they're great.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I bless and affirm all of those.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: But this channel has deliberately been laser focused on production music, sync music, library music laser focused on that and staying that thing.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: Because one of my goals isn't to monetize these videos.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: My goal is to share my story, build a community, help point people to the 52Q community where we can dig into all of those other things that YouTube really isn't the right space for my live Zoom sessions and feedback and critiques and posts and all of that.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: But before you think, hey, I need a YouTube channel, make sure that you've really gotten right with why.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Because that will govern how much energy you can and should be pouring into it.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Because building a YouTube channel, producing YouTube content, is not easy.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: There are some real downsides that I think you should be aware of and I just want to talk transparently about them.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And if your goal is to reach as many people and build subscribers and all of that, then there are some things that you should be prepared for.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: First of all, having an ongoing YouTube channel is a big investment of time and money Managing a channel, editing videos, engaging with subscribers, answering comments, posting regularly, doing shorts, moderating comments, not to mention there's a learning curve Learning about the algorithm, learning how to run Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere, learning about lighting, learning about strategies, video editing, photoshop Learning, you know, built making thumbnails and all of this costs money.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: The lighting costs money.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: The nice camera costs money.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Every subscription costs money.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: It's an investment.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: It's an investment of posting every single week.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: It's an investment building your subscribers, reaching out constantly, and it has a real potential for burnout.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: And if you don't know why you're doing it, and if the why you're doing it is well, if it's out of something like vanity, you know you might say exposure, but what it really is is that you're doing it because you like the little dopamine hit of feeling validated when somebody comments on something or somebody likes it, or you get a new subscriber and there's.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I mean, I check my subscribers and when my subscriber number goes up, I'm like, oh yeah, it feels good, it feels like somebody out there resonates with what you are saying and that makes you feel good about yourself.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: There's no shame in that.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: No, I mean that's that's the entire MO of social media and YouTube is ultimately media based on a social construct.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Normies like me and you making content that isn't being gate, kept by decision makers in a studio or a record label or whatever, but you're doing it yourself so much and it can really be a time suck, and so if it's vanity, then you won't be able to sustain that for long, you won't.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So understanding the investment on the front end I think is vital in order for a for a successful channel to really happen, and understanding why you're doing it.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: And if if you're looking to make money which again is fifth on my list of priorities then that that gets even more intense.
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Another downside, beyond just the investment of time and energy and money, is putting yourself out there.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: You know it's all out there in the public and the internet is forever, and so you put your thoughts out into the universe and negative, negative comments, criticism and people are can be really brutal under the anonymity of the internet and not really think about hey, what I'm about to say is to another human being with feelings and with their own journey and their own pads and their own insecurities and hangups, and something just happens on the internet, especially social media, where people will just fire things off into a comment thread that they would never in a million years say to another human being to their face, and that can be tough.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: There are still comments that I've gotten either via YouTube channel or on Instagram or something, that still kind of stick to me Negative comment from just one person, and it's still still stick.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Now I'm you know whatever thick skin and all that, but I haven't forgotten about it.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: And putting yourself out there for the public to see, I mean, there's a level of privacy that you give up as well.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: You know, and that's something we have to understand and get right with.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Putting my cues out there.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: During my year of taxi experiment on the, you know, the first three months of this year, realizing that there were other libraries listening to my music, I know for a fact that libraries and publishers have subscribed to this channel and they follow the channel and their friends of the channel and all.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: I've had them on the show before.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: But there are also other libraries who I know catch wind of it.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Maybe it shows up in their, their recommendation feed or something and they're hearing me talk about the industry, talk about them or talk about things that you know I wished was different and and yeah, could ruffle some feathers for sure and you're out there.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: So now I'm no longer Dave the composer showing up across their inbox If I'm pitching my cues.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Now I'm Dave, that guy from YouTube who had this to say about me or the industry, or this is what he thinks.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: You know, you all know, I live in Orlando, or maybe you don't.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: I'd live in Orlando.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: I think I've talked about that before, and so you can reduce some of your privacy.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: So it's all out there and the internet is forever.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Another thing to keep in mind if you're putting your stuff out on YouTube and maybe it's not been published and you put it out there and then maybe something gets signed that then gets registered with content ID, that can create issues, and I run into this almost on a daily basis.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Now, it doesn't create any copyright strikes, but what it does do is demonetize my videos.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: And if one of the reasons I have a YouTube channel is to make money off of the ads and the revenue that YouTube brings in, then posting one of my cues that I wrote and then a year later, it gets signed and registered with a publisher who puts it into their content ID system and now it gets demonetized.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: That's an issue Now, because making money off of the YouTube channel itself isn't that big of a deal for me, it's no problem.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: But yeah, right now I think I have like 45 or 50 notifications.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Revenue sharing this video is sharing revenue with the copyright holder.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Blah, blah, blah, because it's all production and library music and so it's all good.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: I have no problem with them taking the revenue from a video that I did a year or two years ago about hard drives or about headphones or whatever.
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: It's totally fine, because the least important part of this for me is actually making money from the videos themselves.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I've also run into some copyright claims from featured community members.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: You know, featuring a cue from a member of the community playing it on the podcast.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: That cue from the member goes and gets published and then it gets registered with Content ID and then I get a copyright notice Once again.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: Totally fine.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Cost of doing business on YouTube using somebody else's music or my music.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: That's going to get registered somewhere else, which is fine.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Another downside to having a YouTube channel is, at the end of the day, it's not your space.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: This isn't.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: This is, although it's my channel, I don't control what happens to it.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: Youtube can change their policies.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: You know, if YouTube goes down, if they decide all of a sudden, you know what Anybody named Dave we're not going to have on the platform.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: They're well within their rights.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: It's not a free speech issue or anything, because they're a private company and my signing up for having a YouTube channel agreeing to their terms of service, means that they can pretty much do whatever they want with their own platform.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: You know it's the term for this from history is sharecropping, and that's what we're all doing here.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: We are digital sharecroppers.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: If you're not familiar with that term, it's basically you know a company or a person owns the land, but that person doesn't do anything with the land.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Instead, they will allow somebody, a farmer, to come onto their land and raise the crops and do all of that stuff and essentially split the profits.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, whoever owns the land calls the shots and they could say you know what we're not going to.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: We're not going to have farms on here anymore, we're going to have office buildings and so sorry, farm, go away.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: That's what we're doing.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: This is digital sharecropping.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: It's one of the big reasons 52 cues community moved off of Facebook, because Facebook controlled everything controlled how many people saw the posts, it controlled where it showed up, not to mention all the ad spam and everything else and scraping your data and privacy concerns.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: So we moved on to another platform, and that platform itself is a service that 52 cues has a company subscribes to, but they don't own the community Facebook owned, at the end of the day, the 52 cues group.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Mighty networks can't claim ownership over the group Now they can change their policies, so the only way around this is to build your own software from scratch, and that's not necessarily untenable.
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: But mighty networks isn't a social network looking to get people to stay on mighty networks.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: Facebook is a social network looking to keep people on Facebook so that Facebook can sell ads.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Mighty networks doesn't have any of that.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: I, as a business owner, subscribed to mighty networks and then I control every aspect of my community.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: That makes sense.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: So you're digitally sharecropping and if you are wanting to have your videos seen by more people, if you're wanting to do all the things that YouTube wants you to do, then you end up chasing the algorithm, you end up making sure that your thumbnails are placed properly and you're using right SEO keywords so that more people will.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: It will show up in their, in their feeds, in their recommendations.
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: The more people that click, like and subscribe, it will show up to more people.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: By the way, that's how that works.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: If you ever wondered why so many YouTubers are all saying like, subscribe and like and share, that's because that feeds that algorithm.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: So the more people thumbs up this video, the more the algorithm will say hey, people are really liking this video, so we're going to show it to more people, so it can get more thumbs up, so they could show it to more people, all so that, ultimately, youtube can show you more ads.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's not mince words here.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: That's what's happening, and so you're chasing that algorithms and it can change on a whim, and it does change on a whim Just within the last three years.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: It used to be view counts how many people actually clicked on the video and it was subscribers how many subscribers do you have?
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: And even to this day, subscriber count is a metric that YouTube uses pretty seriously.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: It's how they decide when to monetize.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: You have to have a thousand subscribers and 4,000 watch hours.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: Well, that's where it was when, when this channel got monetized.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: And what monetization means is, I reach a threshold beyond which YouTube will say it will allow me to join what's called the partner program YouTube partner program so that I can make money off of the ads that they're showing before and during the videos.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: By the way, I personally I hate, hate, hate midroll videos, and so if you ever see a midroll video during the podcast or anything on my channel, it's either YouTube forcing it or my inadvertently forgetting to disable it.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I make every effort to disable midroll ads.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I hate them.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: There are some, some channels that are really brutal about it and I just sit there watching.
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: I'm just staring for the skip button, I guess.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But yeah, yeah, I'd rather have unskippable ads at the beginning than skippable ads in the middle, and some of them are really bad anyway, and so those algorithms can change.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Now it's about watch out like how, how long are people watching your videos?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: Engagement, you know, are they watching for 10 seconds and moving off, are they watching for eight, nine, 10, 15 minutes?
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: And so everybody chasing the algorithm kind of starts shifting their, their videos to match.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: And that's not really how I want to do things, because I'm not chasing the algorithm for money making, not looking to monetize necessarily.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: So, as long as you understand those risks that you're sharecropping, then you're fine.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: That's not something you're interested in.
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: Then subscribe to a service like Vimeo where you can white label your videos, put them on your website.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: That's totally fine.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: But one of the reasons to be on YouTube is so that you can have the ability to be discovered, for folks to stumble on your videos.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: It's where viewers already are.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Nobody's pulling up Vimeo to just browse through things.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Well, I think they have it, but there are as many people discovering video content creators on Vimeo as there are folks discovering artists on SoundCloud.
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: I guess, like that's not how I use SoundCloud, it's not how I use Vimeo.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: We do use Vimeo whenever we want to embed white label videos into 52 cues For the Album Accelerator, for example.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Those are hosted in Vimeo.
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: It's really great and that's what it excels at.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: To be honest, they've leaned into that and I think that's a smart business move because they're not going to compete with YouTube.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Youtube is too big and it's been around for too long.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: And then, finally, the last downside I think you need to get right with if you're looking to start a YouTube channel is just wow.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: There are so many content creators out there, so many videos, so many YouTubers.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, is it oversaturated?
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: There's just a lot of content, so standing out can be real challenging and so you just have to be mindful of that.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: But, again, knowing your why will determine whether some of those downsides are worth it or not.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Knowing why Again, the why is for exposure, if you're looking to share of yourself, if you're looking to teach, if you want to build a community or if you want to make money.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: Those are kind of the five reasons that I see a production music composer wanting a YouTube channel.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: And those downsides is it's a big investment of time and money.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: It's all public for the entire internet to see.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: There could be copyright issues down the road.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it's not yours, you are digitally sharecropping and then, finally, you're just kind of a needle in the haystack.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: So if you understand all of that and you're still with me and you're still thinking, hey, you know what I want to make a YouTube channel, here are my suggestions and some strategies to be successful at it.
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: The first and absolute most important thing for me this isn't the most important thing to get the most clicks.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: These aren't strategies to ensure that you get the most subscribers or most engagement?
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Nope, these are the strategies that I live by.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: In the first, you have to be authentic.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Be real.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: Be authentic.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: I think that people can sniff out the phony.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: So don't overinflate your abilities, don't overinflate your experience.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: Don't try to make yourself more important.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: Just be you.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Share your story.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: That's what people are subscribing to.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I want to believe and I need to believe that folks who subscribe to this channel, who watch me, who join the community I mean, they believe in what we're doing here and I hope that there is a level of trust between me and you that on some level, you trust whether it's my experience or my education or whatever or you're like Beards, I don't know.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: You just trust me and I don't take that lightly at all.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: But you have to be authentic because if you're making videos out of your inauthentic self, then that is not sustainable at all and I think people are going to suss it out.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: You could probably think of YouTubers you've seen before and it might be highly polished, but they're just.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure they're really walking the walk.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, you think of YouTubers who are incredibly authentic and it endears trust.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking of Anthony Clint Jr, john Meyer, venus Theory.
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: These are really super authentic people that you are drawn to.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So that would be my first suggestion Don't try to be something you're not.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Be who you are, be proud of who you are, be true about who you are and then just go from there.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: I believe that everybody has value and everybody has a story to tell.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So tell your story.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: You don't need to tell somebody else's story.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: Just be real, be transparent, ask for feedback, respond to comments, all of those things but be authentic.
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: That's the first thing.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: The second thing is always, whenever you sit down to watch a video or make a video, always have something to say.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Always have something to say.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: Plan your videos.
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: If you need an outline, if you need to think through it, whatever but what you can't really do is just wing it.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: You might be able to wing one or two videos, but again, if we're thinking kind of long term and wanting to build our audience and all of that, then you got to do a little bit of prep work.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Like even for this very video, I have a whole page of notes, an outline that I've already sat, talked through, thought through, made notes, edited some things.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Don't need this, let's talk about this, let's group these things.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Yep, I plan every single one of these podcast episodes.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I plan my interviews.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: Before I sit down for an interview, I will brainstorm questions.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I'll even send those questions off ahead of time.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: We'll go back and forth, but what I don't do is just flip on the camera and then just start talking.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Well, I don't do that every time.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: If you want that experience, then the MotoVlog, which is still a thing.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: It's just been so hot writing in Florida here in the summer and if it's not like 100 degrees, and then of course I'm wearing a helmet and everything else.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: That's where those MotoVlogs have gone.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: They're still a thing.
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: But that's what I do there, just ramblings, which is fine, it's fine.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: But it's just one little part of what I do here.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't expect to teach a college class that way.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: Teaching college curriculum, I have syllabi, I have lesson plans, I have keynote slide presentations and all of that stuff that goes along with and to support my lecture.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: And, as I've mentioned on the channel before, the type of content that I want to make and the type of videos that I've made peace with making and that I can make consistently are more kind of lecture videos me talking to you, not super highly edited, not super highly polished.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: It's what I want to do, the type of content that I can sustainably make and that I want to sustainably make, but they're planned out ahead of time.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: So always have something to say.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Plan your videos.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Don't try to wing it every single time.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: Next strategy is if you're looking to grow subscribers and if you're looking to have more eyeballs on your videos, then be consistent.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Growing a channel, for whatever reason you want to make it see earlier, requires consistency, whether it's once a week, whether it's once a month, once every two weeks that's almost beside the point.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: But have a schedule and stick to it, because the only way you're going to get better at making YouTube videos and the only way you're going to grow a channel is to keep making videos.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be perfect.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: Go back and look at my first.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: Was it 2021?
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I think?
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: Was that the first year?
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: I've lost count?
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: I think this is the third year I've done this, but it's rough.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: It's just me.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: I look all tired and I'm talking really soft.
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: It's only like 12 minutes long and the camera was terrible.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: The lighting wasn't great at all.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: But if you wait until you have all the gear and everything to start, then you won't ever start Everything.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: You see, all the lighting and the camera are incremental improvements to the video quality.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: Because I just wanted to start posting.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to start making videos, putting myself out there, practicing, doing the thing that I wanted to do, not waiting until I had all my ducks in a row before I did it.
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Because I wanted to post regularly Again, whatever regular is, that's up to you.
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: But be consistent, and that's true of any, let's say, you want to start a podcast.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: Anytime I've met with podcast clients, I tell them that you always have to have something to say.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: You always have to be consistent.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: And the next aspect, the fourth aspect my suggestion, my strategy, is you have to work on your production.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Quality Doesn't have to be perfect, but it should work towards getting better over time, which means that you might have to invest in actual lighting.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: I have one, two, I have one, two, three.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: I have eight lights in the studio.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I have a key light, I have a fill light.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: I have another side light right here.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I have that guy in the back.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I have another one on the side right there.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: I have one here, one there.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Then I have another one way over here for my live stream when I do my cross shot, my side shot, side view.
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: So six colored LEDs and two white LEDs for my primary lighting.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: That did not happen immediately.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: It started with well, actually, I think if you go back even further it's just like my overhead room light and then it was the key lights and then I added a couple of LED and, by the way, these are just cheap Amazon landscaping lights that are controlled by my Amazon Echo, like I can do it with voice commands.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: Before I started this video, I'm like Echo, I'm streaming and then everything lights up.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: But it happened over time incremental improvements, updating and finding a nice camera.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to get better.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: So, investing in the gear, investing in the software you're going to need, whether that's getting Adobe Premiere or Final Cut or DaVinci Resolve or which I think is even free, or I use ScreenFlow along with Adobe Premiere and learning those things, learning how to make thumbnails, learning Photoshop, how do you do the cutouts Every one of my thumbnails I do and I go in and I select the background and put the little white border around me, because I have studied like good thumbnails and all of that, but the point isn't to be perfect.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: The point is to get better, because production quality, at the end of the day, does matter.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: If I am asking you to watch me for an hour, then my part of the bargain is having something to say, being dependable so that you can count on when a new video is going to come out, but also making sure that I'm working towards giving you the best possible product Not the best product, but the best possible product.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: There have been some audiobooks from composers who I really want to hear from, but I couldn't listen to their audiobook because it sounded terrible.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: I'm like you are an audio professional.
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: How does your audiobook sound this bad?
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: Like they had a noise gate on it and sound like their computer fan was running.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Like for this podcast, I do a ton of post production.
• 39:54
  Speaker 1: I'm going to bring it into Isotope RX.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: I will clean up all the background noise.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: The edit that you saw earlier I don't know if you noticed it.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: Hopefully it will be nice and slick, but the edit that you saw earlier was because somebody in my house opened the garage and I'm like, oh, dang it.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: I have a light outside my studio.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: Right outside my studio is a stairway down because this room is over a garage and I have a light that I can actually tell the echo I'm recording and it will turn that light on to red, which tells the house I'm recording up here, which generally means don't open the garage.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I forgot to do that today and so somebody opened the garage and so now I have an edit point.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, is that too much inside baseball for you?
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: But that's because I am looking to bring you as good a product as possible.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: I clean up the audio, I remove like mouth clicks and room noise and reverb, and all of that.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: I've worked on the studio to reduce reflections.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: I'm using a nice microphone.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: Again, I didn't write a check all at once for this.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: It's incremental improvements.
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: So quality absolutely matters.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Doesn't have to be perfect, you just have to work on getting it better.
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: And then, finally, a good strategy for YouTube growth and having a successful YouTube channel with understanding the why.
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Is working the algorithm at least a little bit?
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: You don't have to chase the algorithm.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: Lord knows, I do not chase the algorithm.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: The algorithm tells me my videos are too long.
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: The algorithm tells me you've got to do more editing.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: The algorithm tells me I need more B roll.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: I need more camera angles, but I don't have the energy, bandwidth, time, effort, skills to wrangle all of that and that's not the type of video I want to make.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: It's not the type of video I enjoy watching.
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: I enjoy watching talking head talking at me, have it on the background, almost like talk radio, which is why this is a podcast, which is why, even though it's on YouTube, I still call it a podcast.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Yes, it is in the audio feed.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: You can go subscribe on Apple podcast or Google whatever, and listen to the audio version of this exact same performance.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: But I'm not chasing the algorithm.
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: However, I do work on good titles.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: I do work on my keywords.
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: I do make sure that I have a nice description.
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I've studied effective thumbnails.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: I do pay attention to what YouTube is doing, algorithms, trends and other ways that I can optimize my channel.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: I pay attention to those things.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: I'm just not beholden to them.
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: I am not going to change what I do to chase the algorithm, because as soon as the algorithm changes Now I am just like a butterfly fluttering off to another flower I guess a bumblebee.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: All butterflies like flowers too, not to mention if I am chasing an algorithm and get into doing the types of videos that I really they don't just naturally come out of me anyway or doing videos that I don't feel super fulfilled doing.
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: I'm feeling good about the subscribers I'm getting, that's fine, but I don't feel good about what I'm actually making.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: That's not sustainable.
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: Then again, the algorithm changes and you're forced to change.
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's a way to.
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: It's just not a long-term solution.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: If you're true to yourself and you're authentic and you're making the kind of videos that you want to make and your whole point is to put yourself out there to tell your story, to teach, to share whatever, and monetization making money off the videos themselves as the lowest rung of priorities, then algorithms are the lowest rung of priorities.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I do have a couple of other bonus strategies If you're looking to really build, and the first bonus strategy is to cross promote, have folks onto your channel from other channels and be on other channels.
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: One of the reasons that I wanted to have Anthony Clinton Jr on the channel is because he's amazing and I want more people to hear what he has to say, and also it gives his audience a chance to hear what I have to say.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: Share on social media.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: You know we put the YouTube links in our Instagram feed.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: I picked up threads, but I really haven't done anything with it.
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: It's why I enjoy going and hanging out with Eric on the Make Music Income podcast.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: It's fun and I'm also able to share our community talk about 52 cues and the 52 cues folks go and see what Eric's about over at Make Music Income Love it, love it.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: And then the final kind of bonus tip and strategy is look at diversifying your content If you're really looking to build your YouTube channel, and what I mean by that isn't like here's a video on I don't know hair styling.
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: Here's a video on scrambled eggs.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Here's a video on Pro Tools.
• 46:02
  Speaker 1: I'm not talking about that, but more like a mix of different types of content.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: So having maybe cue breakdowns, maybe having live streams, talking heads it's why I put the MotoVlog out there.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: It's why we do Q&A videos.
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: By the way, the next Q&A is planned I don't know the exact date yet, but I'm planning to do that live here on YouTube.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Youtube live stream, maybe do some behind the scenes vlog, whatever.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Just diversify your content.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: Maybe offer a tutorial ever now and then, and this is something that I have a desire to do.
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: But much of that is being given to these subscribers over at the 52 cues community.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: So the family, friends and Patreon patrons they see the live streams.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: It's just a way to reward those folks who are helping to support financially let's not mince words financially, support the channel financially, keep this all going.
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: So, at the top of the show, when I say like live streams and all of that, that's what I'm talking about the family subscribers.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: They connect on Zoom twice a week.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: We have weekly office hours via Zoom.
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: We have weekly feedback sessions.
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: That's additional type of content that goes beyond, necessarily, just YouTube, and I know it's a little bit beyond what we're talking about here.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: But mix things up.
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: Mix things up.
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: What can you add new that doesn't pull you off of your laser focused niche?
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: So my motto vlog is me talking about the industry, just in a setting that's different, because I want the podcast to be like 45 minutes an hour of me talking at you, whereas if I just have a thought, I don't necessarily want a video of just me doing this exact same thing.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Instead, I'll go on my motorcycle and talk about it there.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: So strategies first, and I think most important is to be authentic.
• 48:20
  Speaker 1: Number two always have something to say.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Don't start a video unless you have something to say.
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Number three be consistent.
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: Number four work on improving your production quality, from lights to the camera, to the editing and all of that.
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: And then finally, number five work the YouTube algorithm just a little bit, not so much that it pulls you out of your niche, that it pulls you out of what you want to or can sustainably do, but just work the system just a little bit.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: But those are my thoughts.
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: I would love to hear from you.
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts?
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: Do you have a YouTube channel?
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: Has it been successful for you?
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: If it has been, how have you found success?
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Are there any other reasons to have a YouTube channel beyond what I talked about?
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: Are there some other downsides that maybe I didn't go into, some pitfalls that you've run into, and what are some of your strategies for building a successful YouTube channel?
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: I would absolutely love to hear from you.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: Please let me know in the comments below.
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: I do read all of those and I make an effort to respond if I'm able.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: As the channel grows, more comments come in and it gets a little bit tougher to follow those or to be able to respond to everybody, but I absolutely do read all of those comments.
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: So that is going to do it for me today.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining me.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: You definitely want to tune in next week where I am joined by the CEO and co-founder of Bulletproof Bear, a boutique independent library, and we're going to be talking about kind of the current state of production music and what it means to be a smaller library amongst a sea of much larger publishing companies, so you don't want to miss that interview with Jason Moss.
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: Of course, a huge word of thanks to the family, friends and patron subscribers of 52Qs who help keep all of this happening.
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: Please know that without your support, none of this, none of this at all, would be possible.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: So thank you very much.
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: So I hope you've had a good week and please know, friends, that I am pulling for you and I believe and I trust that the universe has amazing plans just for you.
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: Until next time, peace.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: The 52Qs podcast is copyright 2023 at 18 Studios.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: All rights reserved.
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: The music played on the podcast is copyright of their respective owners and is used with permission and for educational purposes only.
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: For more information and including joining the community and submitting your cue for consideration on the podcast.
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: Head over to 52Qscom.