Archive for YouTube – Page 7

Quality Tech Reviews

Too often in the world of new and upcoming tech, one can be easily overwhelmed by the crowded feed of user reviews. Enter a simple search such as “iPhone Review” onto the YouTube search engine and one will find a plethora of videos all aiming to answer the same few questions. What does it do? How does it work? Is the product (the newest iPhone, for example) worth the cost? Does it succeed or live up to one’s expectations? Is it better than the competitor’s options? These are simple questions that the consumer asks. Unfortunately, many reviewers fail to communicate to the average consumer the answers they seek. Too many reviews focus on specs, build quality, or the camera, but few have always been able to deliver to the consumer a holistic perspective on whether or not the piece of tech delivers.

Enter Marques Brownlee. Born in December of 1993, Marques is an American based, Youtuber specializing in technology reviews. In 2013 Vic Gundotra, the former senior Vice President, Social for Google Inc. named Marques Brownlee “the best technology reviewer on the planet right now.” Why is this?

Marques Brownlee

                               Marques Brownlee

While his videos have always been informative, he originally gained popularity for responding to his viewers such as answering questions they brought to him and by asking his viewer what they were interested in viewing. Since 2008, his channel has gained over 3.7 million subscribers making him the most subscribed to ‘tech based’ YouTube channel.

 

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Marques stands out from the many reviewers on YouTube using his deep understanding of technology to explain new and complicated developments. However, unlike many, he does this using simple terms and straightforward videos creating high quality tech reviews answering the questions the consumer might have.

 

Caine’s Archade

When Caine Monroy was just 9 years old, he spent his summer vacation building a DIY cardboard arcade in his father’s used auto parts store. He created displays for his prizes, which were his own toy cars, hand labeled prize bags, and even designed an elaborate security system for his fun pass. Caine sold a $1 ticket that got you 2 turns or a $2 Fun Pass that got you 500 turns. Although his father’s auto parts store didn’t get much foot traffic, on the last day of summer Nirvan Mullick walked into the store. After he picked up his car part, Caine asked him if he wanted to play his arcade. Nirvan was Caine’s first customer. Nirvan is a filmmaker and asked if he could make a short film about Caine’s arcade.

The short film was posted on April 9th, 2012 and within the first 24 hours, it received over 1 million views. Nirvan started a scholarship fund for Caine and was hoping to raise $25,000. Within the first two days he raised $110,000. Since, they have raised $240,000 for Caine’s scholarship fund. But this project isn’t just benefiting Caine. Just 5 days after the film was posted, they launched the Imagination Foundation. As it says on the Imagination foundation’s website, “The mission of the Imagination Foundation is to find, foster and fund creativity and entrepreneurship in children around the world to raise a new generation of innovators and problem solvers who have the tools they need to build the world they imagine”. The Foundation has partnered with National Head Start Association to bring early STEM education to 30,000 Pre-K kids, primarily in under-served communities. They have also launched “Imagination Chapters” to help give kids time and space for Creative Play every week. This program has expanded to over 130 Imagination Chapters in 20 countries, providing over 3,000 kids with time and space for regular Creative Play for 9 months.

It is clear that this family is having a great impact on the young generation of society. This is all due to a young man with a big dream.

http://cainesarcade.com/

http://imagination.is/

The Rise of Pewdiepie

Imagine doing what you love, earning nearly six million dollars annually, and never even having to leave the house.

I know what you’re thinking, sounds like some kind of overused and obvious internet scam, right? Well, not exactly…

Felix Kjellberg, known by his subscription base as “Pewdiepie,” is a Swedish YouTuber with a passion for gaming. Now you might be questioning the legitimacy of a YouTube career, or the idea of a YouTube entrepreneur, but hear me out.

Humble Beginning 

After realizing how much happier he could be making YouTube videos and working a hot dog stand, Felix dropped out of Chalmers University of Technology in order to pursue his early 2011 YouTube career. During this period, Pewdiepie videos quickly caught on and spread like wild fire. Many would argue that a mix of hilarious horror game “jump scares,” his Swedish accent and a seemingly never ending stream of jokes and references were to blame for the viral explosion.

The Statistics Are There

Impressive statistics show that Felix has ranked as the most subscribed channel on the money making machine for three years running now, only behind YouTube’s top four video categories, even beating out the ‘News’.

Clocking in at 41,040,281 Subscriptions and over ten billion views, most would ask the question, why?

ICM Master

This man is an Internet Content Marketing master, that’s why. He puts out an immense amount of content curated for his audience, rolling with the punches in order to keep up with the times, and never let his channel grow old. One way Felix accomplishes this is by reviewing both popular and ‘underground’ games in order to offer the informative, yet still rather unpredictable comedic flare his audience loves him for.

Many games owe their success to his “Let’s play” videos, such and the infamous Slender horror game. This makes him a valuable asset in the indie gaming market, gaining nearly two and a half million hits on average per video. That’s a lot of viewers!

His humor can be both crude and explicit, however, if you so choose, check out his YouTube channel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technology and Toys

Evan, a nine year old entrepreneur, has it made. It’s estimated that he will make $1.3 million a year. Doing what? Reviewing toys. His channel, Evan Tube, has over 2.8 million subscribers and over a billion people have viewed his videos, and it’s easy to see why. After visiting his YouTube channel, it’s clear that Evan Tube is the ultimate kid fun zone. There’s videos of him at Universal, doing the “Chubby Bunny” challenge, reviewing the new whip cream in your face game, this kid does it all. Oh, and he’s been doing this since he was five.

This young man has created a brand for himself that has been so successful. Moms and kids know they can visit his channel to get reliable unbiased information from a fun kid perspective. It is the perfect package.

Who knew that technology and toys is all you need to create a successful business? I didn’t. I’m so astonished that a child can create this amazing story for himself all through using technology that was accessible to him and playing with toys that he was already using anyway. Evan, you are a true success!

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JackGap: Shed Session

photoTwin brothers Jack and Finn Harries have had a relatively distinct presence on Youtubefor several years now. With over 4 million subscribers on their channel titled JacksGap since 2011, it is no wonder that have some level of influence on the Youtube community. However, their normal content is not what I want to talk about. It’s a branch of their channel that they recently formed that has caught my attention. Shed Sessions is a strand of content where they showcase musicians playing acoustic music in their neighbor’s shed. Both loving quality music, Jack and Finn, are striving to expose start-up and small town musicians to a wider audience to benefit both the artists and listeners by giving them new content to listen to. While announcing the new project on their blog, Jack said,

“Music is something that I have always felt passionate about, in particular acoustic music. So it only felt natural to me to share it on our channel… There is something really exciting about being able to share music in such a raw and intimate setting. It is important to us to record Shed Sessions in one shot, with one angle. We want to capture the song in its rawest form.”

JacksGap has featured artists such as JP Cooper, Jeremy Loops, and We Were Evergreen. I myself have enjoyed listening to new artists and experiencing their music in such a natural setting. Jack and Finn recognized that no one with a significant Youtube following was promoting growing, talented musicians and so they took initiative. JacksGap has experienced significant success with Shed Sessions with views per video averaging around 1 million. The JacksGap channel continues to grow and explore new possibilities and it will be exciting to see which new avenues they will take over the next few years.

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Beme

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Over this past summer, filmmaker  and youtuber Casey Neistat and former VP of Engineering for Tumblr, Matt Hacket launched a new app called “Beme”. After working on the project for over a year, the duo was finally ready to release their new format for video sharing.

“Beme” is an app that, according to Neistat and Hackett, captures the unfiltered and genuine moments in life. “Beme” captures videos with the rear camera in four-second bursts by covering an iPhone’s proximity sensor. The screen goes black so users have no way of previewing the content. Viewing others’ content is done via a snapchat like interface where you hold down your finger to play and when the video finishes, it’s gone forever. The app lets you react to other peoples’ content with the iPhone’s front camera by sending a selfie to someone as they watch the video.

So what makes “Beme” different or better than other forms of video sharing, such as Snapchat? Being frustrated by the superficiality of social media today, Neistat feels that “Beme” allows users to consciously capture their life without altering it to make it seem like something that it’s not. With such widespread use of social media, Neistat felt that there needed to be something that could capture life in the most unaffected, candid manner. Neistat states that he loves sharing apps, such as Instagram, but it’s not the right platform to share little photos of what he sees throughout the day, rather it’s a place to share beautifully edited aspects of his life. According to Neistat, social media today is built to share with the world a version of who you are. Now, “Beme” wants you to share who you really are.

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Within eight days of release, “Beme” users shared 1.1 million videos and sent 2.4 million reactions. As of now, Neistat and Hackett decided on a slower, invite-only rollout to ensure that each user had at least one friend on the app. The partners said that they hope to upgrade the app’s background soon so that they can do away with invite codes and let anyone join. In addition, while this is currently only available on Apple devices, they are working to develop it into an app for Androids as well.

Khoa Phan: 6 Seconds of Fame

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Khoa Phan is an artist who started using the app “Vine” in 2013. At the age of 23 he started using the app to market his own skills and sell himself to marketing companies and advertising agencies.

Vine is a video making/social media app that allows people to take and upload 6 second videos to their accounts. Vine videos can be sent through sites like Facebook and twitter.  Much like youtube, Vine has made a few people a lot of money. Many people have been found through Vine and some have been hired to be in movies and commercials. Khoa became an internet sensation with his stop-motion videos, a series of many extremely short clips or pictures put together to create one video. Using his artistic abilities, Khoa made a name for himself in the Vine community. Many big name companies approached Khoa for artistic ability and his internet fame to create commercials and ideas for how their companies could use vine to sell their products.

Khoa was named Mashable’s “Vine’s most creative stop-motion video maker” and named Forbes’ 30 under 30 for marketing and advertising.

Khoa has worked with big name companies like Snapple, Coke, MTV, UNICEF, HBO and even Peanuts to create stop-motion videos of Charlie Brown and Snoopy the Dog. This freelance Vine editor has made a name for himself, not just in the online community, but also in the big time marketing community. It will be interesting to see where he takes his stop-motion art and creative advertising next.

Here is a link to one of his videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhB_whIDwwQ

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Toby Turner: A Youtube Legend

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Toby Turner (Tobuscus) is your typical goofball who makes cheesy videos with his friends, but when he started uploading videos to youtube, he never imagined that it would make him a millionaire.

Toby started making videos for Youtube in 2006. On his first channel, “Tobuscus”, he made spoofs of popular movies, funny commercials, and did crazy things with his friends. He soon became one of the most subscribed to channels on youtube. Toby realized quickly that he could make a lot of money from youtube and became one of the first youtube millionaires by getting sponsors, allowing commercials at the beginning of his videos, and by selling merchandise.

Toby had an eye for what youtube trends were coming. He created a second channel simply called “TobyTurner” when vlogs(video blogs) were becoming popular. People tune in daily to see his vlogs and it brings in a lot more revenue. Toby was also one of the first Youtubers to see a big shift in what videos people were starting to watch. Watching people play video games on Youtube was just starting to become a huge trend on the internet. Toby saw the opportunity and created a third channel called “TobyGames”. TobyGames has over 6 million subscribers and has an average of 200,000 views a day. Combined, Toby has over 15 million subscribers and more than 3.2 BILLION youtube views on his 3 channels.

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Besides being an entrepreneurial wiz on Youtube, Toby has used his internet fame to earn him appearances in commercials for Cartoon Network, have two big films roles in the movies “New Low” and “Smiley”, and earn a spot as a series regular in the TV show “Annoying Orange”. He has also started writing a book series based on his popular show on the internet; “Tobuscus Adventures”.

Like many other youtube stars, Toby Turner has found his passion in video making. He continues to look for future trends and is always looking for new ways to please his fans, make a profit, and have fun at the same.

Pentatonix: The A Capella Entrepreneurs

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Pentatonix is a group of five a cappella singers that came together to perform on NBC’s “The Sing Off”. The group originated with Kirstie Maldonaldo, Mitch Grassi and Scott Hoying. The three were friends in high school and sang at different local events. The three of them loved “The Sing Off” and wanted to compete in the show,m but in order to try out they needed at least two more people. They found Avi Kaplan, a well known bass singer in the a capella community, and Kevin Olusola, a beat-boxer that had become famous from a youtube video. They all met each other one day before trying out for the show, and they got in. What made the group so special was their ability to reimagine songs and create some amazing sounds only using their voices. When they first appeared on The Sing Off people could hardly believe they were actually signing. With a sound like no other the group won “The Sing Off” and with the title of Sing Off Champions they were also given $200,000 and a recording contract from Sony.

Pentatonix was very successful with their first two albums, but the contract from Sony was only for two albums, a regular album and a christmas album. The group was then on their own. When the record company left them, Pentatonix turned to social media and Youtube. They are now the 13th most subscribed to music channel on youtube beating out Beyonce, Lady Gaga and Avicii. When no recording company would take them, they made music on the Mac application “Garage Band”. They have made millions of dollars and their most recent album, “That’s Christmas to Me”, was No. 2 on the Billboard 200 only being beaten by Taylor Swift’s new album. The group has recently signed a record deal with “RCA Records” and will make albums with them. Their Youtube page continues to do amazingly with over 728 million views.

I have been a big fan of Pentatonix ever since they gave their first performance on “The Sing Off” and I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Pentatonix

The Brilliant Bradlee

What if the history of music we know is wrong? What if all of the hits we knew and loved growing up sounded just slightly different? This is the alternative history of pop music that Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox plays.

When Scott Bradlee was young he was thoroughly inspired when he listened to Gerswin’s Rhapsody in Blue. He taught himself how it to play this on the piano, however, he was unsatisfied stopping there. He quickly picked up the steps of 1920’s ragtime music; fast, reckless, and fantastically loud. It captivated him. His comprehension of what made pop music from all ages truly great enabled him to slur together various styles of music, yet, he was still able to contain the core meaning of each song he recomposed. This is the brilliance of the man.

What can an artist do to make a name for himself? Bradlee made the traditional move aspiring artists make. He moved to New York City. Sadly for Bradlee, Jazz pianists, which he was marketing himself as at the time, were everywhere in the Big Apple. Refusing to break from his dream Bradlee made the sensible move and went to Astoria, a far less populated area with cheaper rent. While he was there he started making videos for YouTube. His first hit was a hit was a ragtime themed medley of 1980’s pop music that scored over a million views, and thus began his true career.

With the assembling of Post Modern Jukebox Bradlee finally had a crew of all shapes and kinds to help him achieve that truly spectacular sound he had always dreamed of. Since their forming, they have taken hits from the 1970’s to this very day and rewritten them in the full spirit of Postmodernism. At this moment Scott Bradlee has a following of 844,00 subscribers and approaching 150,000,000 views on his YouTube videos. Starting this year they are scheduled to tour North America and Europe. Thankfully, for those completely hooked on his videos, he shall still be making them while on tour.

Postmodern Jukebox