I think the influencers who sell merch generally show themselves along with their merch
This guy not music production but gadgets but i like him🙌
Floyd Steinberg is pretty good, just recently discovered his channel:
And no nonsense “gear on the floor and have a jam in his slippers” gwEmbassy is also one of my new faves, no bollocks, just decent and interesting content.
not really totally musics but following this guys problem solving is definitely gonna come in handy one day when i have to fix some obscure electronic object.
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After she decided to “have fun” with her richest baby daddy in the world, shitposting on social media how cryptocurrency hypercapitalism is actshually communism and we should get in on the ground floor i gratefully never had to hear about her in pop culture contexts again. Perhaps I sidestepped the “do not recommend” and blocked her channel directly 
“We appreciate power” indeed.
I don’t know, i tend to watch more essay content than jams these days on Youtube. Nabbed a cheap premium account on a VPN, the cheapest areas wouldn’t let me do it without a local billing address but still much cheaper than US.
If they’re being explicitly paid to promote the product then it would be flagged as an ad on YouTube.
I suspect that all they’re getting from the manufacturers is free gear - the real prize for them is (partial) exclusivity on being able to make videos about the product, because they’re one of a few people that have them. It’s why we now get a flood of videos from the same handful of YouTubers whenever a new product is launched.
That’s worth a lot of ad revenue and user engagement.
It’s a sneaky economy - because for all intensive purposes it’s an ad, but due to the way it’s financed it’s not.
You only have to watch that particular Volca FM2 video where a certain YouTuber is so pained in saying anything even remotely critical that I don’t even think they realised how comical the whole thing was.
Their content is great for understanding what the products can do, and to be fair they do often point out some softball negative points, but I’ve seen enough times them gloss over obvious glaring issues that regular folk point out that it’s clear they’re there to build relationships with manufacturers as much as customers.
I still like their videos but I take them at face value.
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Absolutely. Im being to hate the disclaimer at the start where they say “I’m not paid by the manufacturer for this review and they have no say on the content, but they have sent me xxxx for a review”. Bullcrap.
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Nothing to do with music, but this guy is like the cuckoo of wild camping/camping gear reviews on YouTube.
Very interesting insight into how it can quickly fuck your head up.
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Not sure if this has been noted here, but using a VPN and setting your region to Cambodia totally eliminates YouTube ads.
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Yes but Cambodia is a nice area and deserves better.
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Still using YouTube Vanced to watch YT without any ads on my phone, and AdBlock to watch YT on my MBP. I can’t stand ads.
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What they don’t mention is that though they are never told what to say if they say anything which the brand doesn’t approve of it will be the last free thing they ever receive and they are well aware of this.
As I understand it YouTube rules suggest that even if they’ve been sent the gear to review and aren’t being paid, or even if they bought it, but were given a special discount then it still counts as “Paid Promotion” and should be flagged as such.
The few YouTubers who always buy stuff themselves without relying on manufacturers are notably much more critical of gear.
For most YouTubers it doesn’t really matter. Loopop will say “Most products of this type can do X, but this can’t it’s up to you if you think this is a problem”.
He’s sticking to the facts and not offering an opinion, but you know what it means.
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Hi.
On a per step basis I agree with you.
Stimming, though, I’m relatively sure he isn’t paid by Elektron. 
He’s the only guy I believe is telling the truth / his truth when he reviews gear. Not that I always agree with him of course
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Love Stimming reviews! They always feel very unprepaired, but in a good way - you get to see something quite genuine in them. And he’s pretty damn talented so you often get to hear the best of what the gear can offer.
If he thinks something is bogus he’s never afraid to point it out - but he’s not cynical either - I’ll always remember his Hydrasynth review - the man was in Nirvana haha.
I don’t think he’s on the promo circuit though - the gear he reviews is either his own or provided by others (similar to how Bad Gear does it I think) - and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him get anything early?
If one reviewer gives a ‘Shout Out’ to another reviewer you can bet your bottom dollar their part of the circus.
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It would be better if no one did gear reviews. Then every purchase would truly be a surprise.
One of the more absurd (to me) situations recently was seeing the livestream with Noir et Blanc Vie, Benn Jordan, Adam Neely and possibly others from NAMM. It just felt so… weird, I don’t know why. Or the “supergroup” of LMNC, Hainbach and Cuckoo. Which, admittedly, I’m interested in. I like all of the channels I mentioned above, but the cross-promotion and such feels really inorganic and inauthentic. It probably shouldn’t feel that way, but it does - I wouldn’t feel this way if they were all traditional musicians without active youtube channels meeting up or forming new bands, why is it weird to me in this context? Is it because the nature of youtube somehow feels more ‘commercial?’
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I think that’s all it is. I don’t think any of these ‘synthtuber’ personalities are ever really trying to be overtly commercial or not cover things honestly, I think there is just a kind of shared understanding between the content creator and the viewer that this is all about revenue streams, at one level or another.
I think we can all be aware of that and both sides can get something out of the interaction, but just like reality TV it’ll never be as authentic as talking to a friend about it. Maybe that’s cynical, idk, I might be wrong. Plenty of people just make videos on youtube that are a lot less popular because they just like to make videos.
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So this whole fucking recommendations problem is getting fucking worse.
I’d say about 50% of my recommendations now have nothing to do with my viewing history or interests and about half of those are these thumbnail wankers and their cunty little look at me videos. Doesn’t matter how many times I click on not interested or don’t recommend, they just keep coming back.
I wouldn’t give a shit but I’m paying for the premium. It’s like if Netflix suddenly started recommending me nothing but fucking real housewives over and over again.
YouTube can go fuck itself.
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I never use that section anymore.
It’s obnoxious.
The occasional cat video is the sanest wankery this algorithm is able to conjure.
But it could get worse. If you watch a few children videos then the shit gets real. Oh boy.
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