Youtube Channels Suspended, New Christmas Song

Remember how in my previous post I posited that one of my youtube channels with millions of views and thousands of subscribers might serve as a new outlet for my own music? Not only was that true to some extent and actually a really good idea, now it's an impossibility as BOTH my channels were terminated just days before Thanksgiving. First they got my hugely popular channel and then took down my personal Exit World music and creativity channel as well.

I know who is responsible for it but I am not sure of the extenuating circumstances behind it. See, on this widely popular channel called JustGoodStuff I had many clips of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" programs that were well over 40 years old. They had been up for easily over a year or longer. I began uploading some clips after the 2 Twitch marathons that were broadcast in 2017 and 2018. I had recorded many of the shows while they were airing during those marathons. These clips were very popular and well-received. They were not necessarily the reason for the explosion in popularity of this particular channel. That was attributed to some Tim Conway & Harvey Korman clips from the Carol Burnett Show that I had compiled. My original plan had been to put together and upload 4 of these compilations at about 15 minutes each to resemble a game. The clips all featured Conway & Korman breaking character as a result of doing unscripted bits and lines. I think it only took about 2 months before the first video compilation hit a million views. The second video was uploaded shortly after the first and went the same way in terms of views. When my channel was suspended on Monday the first video was at over 2 million and the second at over 1 million. I have never had any videos do that well.

Those 2 videos along with an earlier Conway/Korman video I had uploaded and a segment from a 1973 episode of "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson also led to this channel getting an extraordinary number of subscriptions per day. In fact, I was actually annoyed at my phone going off so frequently with emails stating I had new subscribers all the time. 

It is possible that these videos and subscriptions played a part in the large number of views I was getting on the Mister Rogers videos as well. I'm not totally sure. There has been a lot of Mister Rogers stuff going on the last 2 years due to what would have been his 90th birthday, 50th anniversary of his show and 15th anniversary of his death. Not to mention the documentaries and movies that have been coming out about him as well.

So those videos were getting plenty of views and comments as well. Nowhere near what the Conway/Korman & Carson videos were getting but still a good amount of traffic. I was at 8150 subscribers and one of my most recent uploads was my own rendition of "Ding Dong Merrily On High" & "Gloria in Excelsis" which I combined into a medley and called "In Excelsis Medley". Within the 3 weeks it was up it had received over 200 views and had 9 likes with no dislikes. I would have never gotten those kinds of numbers on my own Exit World channel. So my initial conclusion had manifested. 

I also had a crazy thought. Why shouldn't I check to see if this channel could be monetized. No harm done, right? I mean, I wasn't getting my hopes up. I knew that most of the content on there was not mine but I was putting it together in unique ways or adding my own background music to some videos. I was almost certain they'd say no.

About a week or so after making the request sure enough the expected response came in. "No, you cannot monetize this channel." OK, at least I know for sure now. A few weeks later and all my work is gone. All the hours I'd leave the computer on overnight to upload a longer video trampled on and invalidated.

One more thing to consider: in the last 2 weeks youtube started talking about this thing called COPPA which is supposedly something that's 'meant to protect children.' Now every time you uploaded a video you had to check a box that declared that your video was either made for children or not made for children. Honestly speaking, I didn't like how the choices were worded. If you choose 'not made for children' does that mean your videos may be considered inappropriate for them and then you get unwanted special designation on the videos? And if you choose 'made for children' you're catering to them? So needless to say it was rather confusing. I decided the best choice for me was that my videos were not made for children.

Last week a number of my Mister Rogers clips were taken down and I received 2 copyright strikes. I wondered why they chose those particular videos and left all the others. I also wondered why I received one copyright strike for a single video and then another one copyright strike for 6 other videos. That didn't make a lot of sense. But I was still in the game. I had one more strike to go. I figured they didn't take down the other Mister Rogers videos for whatever reason so I left them up as well. And youtube had said that if I went to their 'copyright school' those 2 strikes would expire in 3 months. So I did it. All it is is a short cartoon you have to watch and then answer 3 questions about copyright that are discussed in the animation. I did it and passed and in 3 months I would be back to no strikes. Just to let some of my subscribers know though, I made one video with some of my own background music and some lines of sentences that basically let them know the position I was in and the chance that channel could vanish at any given moment.

And voila! On Monday morning I was informed via email that I received a 3rd copyright strike for the remaining Mr. Rogers videos that were still up and that my entire channel had been taken down. I know for a fact that there is no way to reinstate a channel that has content you don't own on it. So the milestones of subscribers and millions of views for the unique content that I had uploaded were all erased. What I was trying to most figure out was why. WHY NOW? I suspect the request for monetization of the channel could have had something to do with it. Also this COPPA thing. And the current hype for all things Mr. Rogers may have played a part as well.

As much as it pained me to get my channel shut down by the company associated with the man I considered a personal hero and whose program was something I could never get enough of growing up and even later on, the pain was even more debilitating when on Tuesday morning I received an email stating that my Exit World channel was also taken down because it was linked with the other channel. This was my own personal channel for my own music and video creations. Okay, I may have had a few things on there that weren't mine as well, but they were few and they had been there since before I created the JustGoodStuff channel. There were never any issues. I had never received any copyright strikes for those. If you'll remember, that channel was even monetized for a while until they changed their standards to better serve the elite channels. 

Pissed as I was, I finished writing a one and a half page letter which I emailed to the Fred Rogers Company (FRC). I don't expect anything to come of that but I wanted them to know that what they did was a very much anti-Mr. Rogers thing to do and that he would never object to the content of his shows being online because he believe in sharing and in fair use.

There is a possibility for me to get my Exit World channel back up but I have to appeal and send in this form to youtube or google or whoever the hell it is. I don't feel like doing it. I think it'll be a time-waster. They have the final say. Welcome to the free world. 

I had gone to a Mr. Rogers group on Facebook and announced what happened and said I was going to write the letter and asked for any ideas. This very un-Mr. Rogers-like group pretty much acted as my judge and jury with an immense amount of self-righteousness and undoubted hypocrisy. One who had copyrighted images from the recent Laurel & Hardy movie (among other things) on his own Facebook had the gall to say that I deserved what I got for using what didn't belong to me! Another one mentioned the Fred Rogers Company's right to sue me! Sue me? For what? Good luck with that!

I have no doubt these accusers and naysayers spent countless hours watching the videos I uploaded. But now all of a sudden they are armchair copyright attorneys and defenders of the rights of intellectual property owners. After receiving a rash of comments siding with the FRC, I finally called them all a strange bunch--certainly they knew nothing of who Fred Rogers really was; many have just jumped on the Rogers hype bandwagon--and told those who supported what happened to me that they themselves better be obeying copyright laws by not watching anything that's been illegally uploaded. Because, after all, if you're going to be self-righteous, then you'd better be righteous yourself. 

So I am not sure what I'm going to do. This did put a damper on the Thanksgiving Day anticipation. My initial thoughts were to abandon youtube forever and not use it anymore for anything. (I refuse to capitalize youtube any longer). But they're like the ebay of the video world. Where else are you gonna go to build that massive viewership and potential revenue? I still do have my ExitWorldTopic channel (or TopicExitWorld, whatever it's called) but that's fully controlled by CD Baby not me.

Most importantly for me now is to finish and release the new Christmas song I've been working on. I'd love to have my own channel to upload the video to but it's not an option at this time. When it's done and released I'll get it up on Vimeo and Soundcloud and wherever else I can find. Oh, and of course, ChristmasSongsRadio.com. They play my stuff and that might be the best place to get it promoted. By the way, the song is going very well and I should be done recording it in no more than a few days and then mixed and mastered and released with artwork. 

Spring Update

So we're into the final third of April and I have not written any holiday or seasonal tunes! And to be honest, I don't really feel like it! I knew this would happen. I have not able to immerse myself into that genre of music as I had wanted to. But fear not--I have been working on other music. I have about four songs I am working on right now. One is lyrically complete and ready to start recording. The other three are more in the infant stages of writing. But I feel good that ideas are flowing. And at this time, I feel as though I'm going in the direction of shorter songs. The bulk of the music I love is pop & rock of the 1960's & early 1970's. If I had to sum it up into a range it would be 1964-1972. The majority of the hit songs of that era were all just about under three minutes long. So I'm probably going to keep them short and (hopefully) sweet. I'm also considering mixing all the songs in mono just to give the project that extra 60's sound. Some of my all-time favorite songs are in mono and only available in mono (as far as I know). Here are some of them:

Heart Full of Soul (The Yardbirds)

Gimme Some Lovin' (The Spencer Davis Group)

Can't Be Still (Booker T & The M.G.'s)

Ya Ya (Lee Dorsey)

Take a Heart (The Sorrows)

Down Home Girl (The Stones)

You Need Lovin' (The Small Faces)

Baby Don't Go (Sonny & Cher)

Barefootin' (Robert Parker)

Good Time Charlie (Bobby Bland)

I realize some of those may fall outside the specified range, but it's not an exclusive range. Anyway I'm not a huge fan of mono but it does give a recorded song more of a vintage, lo-fi feel. Plus, when comparing mono mixes to stereo ones of the thousands of songs I have in my library, the mono mixes usually sound louder and more balanced. Of course, that could have to do with mastering techniques as well. In the 60's most singles on 45 were punchy mono mixes made specifically to sound loud over the radio and on your home turntables. The Beatles released all their albums in both mono and stereo up through 1968. They involved themselves in the mono mixes and left the stereo mixing up to the studio staff.

I'm going to do this. And it's cool because I will still have access to make stereo mixes whenever the mood strikes or if need be. That's the difference between my recordings and the ones listed above. Many of those were recorded on two or three-track tape with the masters no longer available. Thus they are preserved for posterity in mono and nothing else. But it is fun to think about how they would have been mixed in stereo. I got used to a lot of The Beatles' earlier stereo output where most instruments would be panned to one side and the vocals on the other, with nothing much in the center. Those stereo recordings helped me better hear and figure out the different instrument parts so I could learn to play them. That's one of the reasons I prefer stereo overall--there is a lot more to be heard that mono mixes do not permit.

I think the four songs I'm working on will be interesting. If I can get really serious about finishing them up and doing a few more things I may actually have something to release this year.

Recording Done, Now Onto Mixing & Mastering

The weekend is officially over and the bad news is that my recording of "We Three Kings" is not ready. The good news is that I got a very good overall snare drum sound--probably the best I've ever recorded. Took me three sessions to get the final drum track I was pleased with.

There is still plenty of work that lies ahead. As I wrote in the last post, I used four separate tracks for the drums. I now need to combine those four into one. Not because I want to have it all on one track only but because I have used more tracks than I technically have available. My recorder is marketed as a 16 track but in practical reality it only offers 12 tracks; 8 mono tracks and 4 stereo tracks which are counted as 2 each. And one of the stereo tracks cannot be used for recording on because its purpose is to act as the track onto which the mixdown is bounced onto. At the moment I have 15 parts of which I will have to bounce some. Putting the 4 drum parts onto one track and the four horn/brass tracks onto only two should probably do the trick. Plus I also have to clean up any noise on some of the guitar tracks. After that I will make EQ adjustments and create a mix of all the tracks. Finally, after I have the perfect mix I will have it mastered. But to all of you who do your own home recordings you know how the process goes.

I'll be spending hours doing all this tomorrow with the intention of having the song ready on the following day. After that is all complete I will try to figure out what I will do next. Anyway here are a few photos of my drum recording setup:

Submit 'Milestone' For Review?

I really want to get working on my next album. And I would really like to have it done this year. At the rate I've been going the last decade or so I would think that is impossible. But a 'new' band I just discovered said they recorded their latest great record in 3 days. Of course they are a 4 piece band which makes things easier. And their album is over 60 minutes long. I know I can do it but it will require extreme dedication.

I want my next album to be great in every aspect that matters to me. What that means is that I want solid musicianship, really good vocals, lyrics that are at least somewhat meaningful, relatively simple productions and great mixing. While I do feel accomplished at having released "Milestone," the songs on there were recorded over a period of 12 years. I grew and learned a lot during that time. Some of the songs on there will always be personal favorites of mine. But others were lacking in some way or another. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to my music but I am limited by certain things.

I have considered several times sending in "Milestone" for review on websites that accept artist submissions. But I almost know what they will say. The musicianship is solid in my opinion. Some of the older songs had some recording issues which I could not fix without re-recording. However my biggest concern is the vocals. I'm not a good singer and some of the songs have flat vocals in spots. Perhaps to the average ear they may go unnoticed. But I'm confident that reviewers will not miss that. Thus while I'm curious to read some reviews of the album I also want to spare myself the outside criticism of what I am already highly critical of myself. It's not that I cannot handle it. It's more of a matter where they may decide to focus so much attention to that issue that the rest of the product will go largely unnoticed. Of course, they may dislike the music as well. They may conclude that the album does not flow well and that there are too many styles on it. They may deem it uninteresting. If they're going to say that the songs are badly produced and poorly vocalized, I will not completely disagree. I already have my reservations about those things so I do not need to hear that. The next project will be improved in those areas. Hopefully they will realize this was not created in a state of the art studio. But I would like more focus to be directed towards the musicianship, the arrangements, the lyrics. I want to hear who they think the music reminds them of. I guess I'm seeking more of a focus on the creativity versus the technical aspects.

So I don't know. I'm already overly critical of my material. I don't need to hear more criticism. I'd like to focus on the positives. Again, I'm not afraid of criticism. I'd rather not read anything that may discourage me. There's plenty of that going 'round already. Of course, there's no guarantee anyone would ever get to doing a review of my album anyway. Just something to think about.