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Did the youtuber get popular because of the synth or did the synth get popular because the youtuber?
The OP1 was a top selling synth for years before RMR.
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I watched the whole video and enjoyed it!
I donât really watch synthfluencers so I donât carry any baggage with these people.
The cutting between two recordings is well done. Itâs like a directors commentary on an DVD extra.
He is clearly having a complete meltdown in one recording. Maybe just fed up in the other recording. He sounds like he has just realised he is in an abusive relationship.
Itâs easy to laugh or pour scorn on a person who only exists on a screen. I feel some sympathy towards him.
He keeps mentioning being a professional musician, videographer, and explainer, but it is interesting that the nexus of those capabilities canât afford a mortgage. Seems like a bad combination then. Videography by itself and education by itself are established and well paid careers.
Iâm just surprised how naĂŻve he is about business.
I would interpret him as a freelancer and therefore up to him to determine his daily/hourly rate based on his capabilities and market price for the job and either a company accepts his pay rate for a job or he accepts a negotiated price or doesnât do the job. Without sounding critical or judging it is quite simple.
Out of interest how long does it take to make a synthfluencer video?
Do synthfluencers have day jobs?
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Yeah but the success of his op-1 videos meant that companies were sending him free gear to demo, itâs very cheap advertising
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The discussion about terms doesnât strike me as being very different to the argument that I know lots of freelance photographers, illustrators, designers etc have put forward over many years.
I think âpay me properlyâ is a legitimate point to make. I disagree with the tone of the video a bit but objectively think paying people for their work is reasonable - perhaps the frustration came from previous discussions of his terms and getting nowhere with the companies he was talking to?
I guess YouTube, social media and the rest blurs the line between hobbyists and professionals though.
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I think it really is quite that simple.
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True enough but if he did not negotiate for some other payment or decline the offer where is the blame to be placed?
Iâm not saying that his brand has no value or that his content has no appeal to some customers but it is difficult to quantify, unless he says something like my rate is this amount, take it or leave it, then it is up to the business to decide if they want to go ahead.
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Influencers are middle men trying to get a cut from someone in exchange for giving exposure similar to the informal and formal ad networks of old.
An old school example would be the club owner that tries to get a band to play in exchange for exposure.
A old and new one would be the food reviewer that tries to get restaurants to give them free meals in exchange for exposure on their newspaper column or instagram.
The gear/review youtube channel that tries to get free stuff from companies in exchange for giving exposure is just a new medium for the same old thing.
The real problem is exposure is pretty well worthless from a business perspective and thereâs little ROI from giving stuff to influencers.
Many of these influencers would also be hard pressed to show their exposure resulted in a single sale which is what a well run ad campaign would need to see.
If a platform resulted in thousands of sales from getting a video on there and they could clearly demonstrate that, companies would be clamouring to get on there with their marketing budget.
But thousands of youtube views and channel followers rarely translate to that especially now as there are so many other mediums which companies can get the news out about their product.
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Because free device + views equals more money than views alone. And money is all a professional youtuber cares about.
Whatâs a âreal jobâ? Does it only count if youâre miserable? If itâs something you would never do unpaid? If itâs easy for you bur lucrative, is it more real?
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Are you 100% sure about this statement?
I would think money is just one of many aspects a professional YouTuber cares about, but maybe Iâm wrong.
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I was a freelance designer for several years, so I know this world can be a bit of a rollercoaster.
I totally agree with this. But as others have pointed out people are making these videos for free and companies probably donât need synthfluencers to launch a product.
There is a race to the bottom in many industries but also some people paid very well. For a logo you can go to Fiverr or Pentagram.
Going back to the freelancer statement: once you set a pay rate it is tough to hike your prices. It is possible to do amicably but takes time and trust. If you started doing the job for free (as synthfluencers probably do) itâs gonna take a long time and really high quality work to justify a high pay rate.
I guess all of the above puts synthfluencers in an awkward position, but one that is entirely in their control.
If he is frustrated by being a synthfluencer he should move on and pursue his many talents in other more rewarding forms. Which it sounds like he is planning on doing and this video is explaining his new position.
Suggestions here for longer form video sound worthwhile.
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Personally Iâm not interested in any kind of paid review.
If Iâm looking for a product review on YT (or anywhere else for that matter) I want to hear an unbiased opinion.
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I never got this argument. As if work was meant to be painful, unfulfilling bs. A life where you get up every day to sacrifice your waking hours, making someone elseâs dreams come true. As if it was more honorable to suffer a useless job than do something worthwhile. The kind of hustle culture rhetoric than claims hard work is better than good work.
This also implies that âdream jobsâ deserve the low pay and bad treatment. All because some vampire in a suit selling your work convinced you they were the critical element in the production of value. Thatâs why so many people bug everyone with âthe workforce claiming back the means of productionâ.
I donât see how itâs asking too much to demand recognition, a living wage, and the ability to evolve in your job. If you canât get that, your job should not exist and you deserve better.
Holding people hostages in dehumanizing jobs in exchange for pay is not okay, let alone cool. And âthatâs lifeâ is not really an argument.
I hope I live to see the day when that myth dies.
ps: this is not at all against you @Microtribe! I see this kind of stuff bounce around all the time from people shouting it on autopilot, and I just think it kills conversations too quickly.
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It doesnât seem to me that channels like RMR do much to stimulate the creativity of musicians. I donât think thereâs anything wrong with people buying a synth to fuck around aimlessly. Hobbies are great. But music has all of this weird baggage attached to it, and so many people have these (variously expressed) Feelings and Aspirations and Questions around what might possibly happen with their music and to their own lives when they just get a little bit better, or a little bit closer to the sound in their heads. And I believe that channels like RMR make that a lot worse for somewhere between âa fewâ and âa tonâ of people. I wish all of the synthfluencers the very best, but I believe pretty strongly that music would be better off without their videos.
From an aesthetic point of view, it is a bummer to me to see such little creativity in the production of these videos. When you compare a typical synthfluencer video to something like what ASD does with Ableton tutorials⌠Those videos really teach you, and they emphasize tools that people already have, or techniques that are conceptually translatable to different technology. Itâs clear that there is so much room to make these videos more interesting, but in the end, theyâd rather produce content to a template that works well for other synthfluencers, is relatively easy to make/reproducible, and exists somewhere between a commercial and product demo. Theyâre employees, but they signed up to work for free. I think it makes sense for a brand to pay them, but I have no clue whether the upside is truly there for the brand, and itâs probably not wise to quit the day job until youâve got people asking to please take their money.
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You donât think someone known for genuine reviews might get more views? Just a thought. Especially if they complain about expectations.
I donât think thatâs the point.
I think the point is that perspective is important.
95% of us have to do a bunch of shit we hate. I donât think itâs in any way inappropriate to point this out to people who are unhappy in much more creatively nourishing vocations.
Itâs easy to get bogged down in the negatives of our situation, even when our situation is relatively pretty fucking great. Sometimes itâs useful to be reminded that you ainât wiping peopleâs arses for minimum wage for 80 hours a week.
My wife has a great job that sheâs very good at and gets paid shit loads for, but itâs stressful and she has some pretty bad days with it. Sometimes she needs a shoulder to cry on and be listened to, sometimes she needs to hear âit ainât fucking coal mining mateâ. She doesnât always want to hear it, but sometimes itâs necessary to be the arsehole.
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Perhaps our pay to live. Chase money then you die meaningless/bullshit society might be to blame. Just a thought.
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People have had it with synthfluencers, they know the arrangement, and the jig is up. Random people who are passionate about making music, make actual good music, and demonstrate equipment they are interested in, is all people really want, but the potential for those passionate to be compensated and then hemmed into the gear sales world is too tempting for most, save a few. Itâs the same way underground versus mainstream aways goes. The true believers/talents get bought off and lose their souls, and then everyone gets sick of them and moves onto the next one before the cycle repeats
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