SgtThump
Real OG
YouTube was the coolest thing ever for many years! Now it’s pretty much ruined with fake influencers. One big infomercial.
This clickbait crap on YT is getting out of hand.........enter if you need a laugh.......................
TotallyRadGuitars
Well-known member
As someone who uploads videos to youtube about twice a year, it's a sad reality (but worth mentioning) that the stupid face thumbnails and clickbait goldfish-brain titles is how you get lots of views and make money on that platform.
We are a niche community here, casual guitar players and musicians at large don't want to watch someone talk about amp history and circuits for 45 minutes, but they do want to watch stuff that is some kind of spectacle. That can be anything from sexy people, virtuoso level guitar playing, goofy characters, old-school freak show stuff, nostalgic references, comedy skits, etc that's what appeals to the larger audience. And more views = more subs/clicks = more $$, simple as that. It doesn't matter if the video sucks and people only watch for an average of 30-60 seconds, that's still a click and gets sorted higher to get even more views (youtube does track longer view durations but it isn't valued as much as the initial click).
Oh, and consistency - a video every week or every 3 days etc, which also means creators are incentivized to pump out just "any crap" some weeks to keep their metrics happy.
PS if I ever put my face on a thumbnail, or sellout/shill some product I don't care about, someone please come slap the shit out of me. I'll appreciate it. At the same time I don't blame anyone for doing it, gotta pay the bills.
We are a niche community here, casual guitar players and musicians at large don't want to watch someone talk about amp history and circuits for 45 minutes, but they do want to watch stuff that is some kind of spectacle. That can be anything from sexy people, virtuoso level guitar playing, goofy characters, old-school freak show stuff, nostalgic references, comedy skits, etc that's what appeals to the larger audience. And more views = more subs/clicks = more $$, simple as that. It doesn't matter if the video sucks and people only watch for an average of 30-60 seconds, that's still a click and gets sorted higher to get even more views (youtube does track longer view durations but it isn't valued as much as the initial click).
Oh, and consistency - a video every week or every 3 days etc, which also means creators are incentivized to pump out just "any crap" some weeks to keep their metrics happy.
PS if I ever put my face on a thumbnail, or sellout/shill some product I don't care about, someone please come slap the shit out of me. I'll appreciate it. At the same time I don't blame anyone for doing it, gotta pay the bills.