In this blog post we are going to be talking about the popular, guitar-centric YouTuber KDH. He was kind enough to sit down for a chat recently where we discussed modifying guitars (here is a link to the blog post) and also living life as a content creator on the world’s biggest video sharing platform.
KDH, real name Kelan Hughes, is a young musician from Ireland, and lives in close proximity to Dublin. He has been a full-time content creator and musician for the past four years. Despite him being a guitar focused channel with nearly 100,000 subscribers (at the time of writing), he often creates many different types of videos based on events in the music industry, product reviews and anything else that takes his fancy.
The purpose of this blog post will be to give you an insight to living life as a YouTube creator, dealing with the sometimes harsh realities and potential downsides of the position and how it compares to normal life.
Why?
You may ask yourself the question ‘why should I do it?’. Perhaps you have had people ask the question to you when you have expressed an interest in creating YouTube content. It is my opinion, one shared by many people and applicable to other endeavors, that you should not do it for the money or with the intention to get famous. It should because you want to… any success that you get along the way is just a happy bonus.
When I spoke to Kelan about this, his response mirrored that which I explained above. He does it for the enjoyment of creating the videos and all that encompasses it.
“When I make videos, it’s just whatever I want. You’ll find some videos are about strings, or I’ll read a comment and start looking into it”
This coincides with a discussion we had about longevity, but I will expand upon that a bit later on. Prior to working on his online presence full-time, Kelan worked in a local bakery; he already had a full-time job so was financially secure, content creation would have started as a hobby before it developed into a career.
Creating Content
Creating content is challenging for many people, and given that YouTube has been a major player in the internet business for nearly 20 years, it is tricky to come up with original ideas. Many videos are simply copied from another creator so do not really have any merit on their own.
In the quote above, we learn that Kelan likes to create videos based on what interests him. I further learned from our discussion that his ideas are based on what he would like to view himself, rather than what he thinks people would like to watch. Some of those ideas are reports on the nefarious actions of companies and figures in the community, and I am not ashamed to say that, to begin with, watching some of KDH’s videos made me a little angry. I thought that he was going out of his way to be controversial and foster a sense of animosity between different groups of fans online. However, taking a step back and judging the video from an objective standpoint made me realize that these are simply facts based on research.
“Sometimes I do the controversial videos, but that’s not intentional. I’m well aware that it would be, but that’s not the reason. I just find it interesting”
The purpose of me explaining this is to make potential creators understand that it is ok to publish your thoughts without specifically tailoring them to suit certain needs. As long as you are aware of the impact that your content could make, then go ahead and create whatever you would like! To some extent, I have even seen people criticizing cover videos because the guitar being used “isn’t the right one” - as if that is actually important!
KDH often publishes videos regarding using your amps in an interesting way, sharing a cool idea that recently came across or even simple guitar reviews - the last thing you should do is back yourself into a corner where you no longer have freedom with the style of videos you create. A good example of this would be the YouTuber ‘Steve Terreberry’ - despite being a highly-skilled musician, his content is aimed towards younger audiences and are quite goofy, so he cannot realistically create serious videos as they will not appeal to the audience he has built over the years.
“Due to the nature of my work, not many sponsors are [interested]. I’d rather not take money, but I’d take the product. If I don’t like it then there’s no incentive for me not to say I don’t like it.”
A popular way to make money on YouTube is to be sponsored by a company, although this comes with its own requirements, such as subscriber count amongst others. Often, these sponsorships have strict rules and you must adhere to them in order to get paid. A sponsorship could be advertising a game or service, or demonstrating, not reviewing, a product of some description. As referenced above, if you are being paid to demonstrate an item, you are expected to say nice things about it, and if you do not like the product in question it means you have to be dishonest with your viewers - most people would not be comfortable with that!
Longevity
A problem with many creators is that they can only take their channels so far. The guitar community is so saturated by review-based channels, professionals and amateurs alike, that another one is merely a drop in the sea.
“I feel as long as I keep making videos that I want to see, people will also want to see them. If you’re thinking it, someone else is too!”
Keeping things fresh is not the problem, as that means to follow the current trends and eventually you will lose momentum. That is why the content you produce must be based on your own terms. Many big YouTubers have secondary, smaller channels where they can afford to stray from their main content without affecting the existing viewership.
Kelan plays lead guitar in a band called ‘Walker’ - they are a hard rock band that record original music and play in the local music scene around Dublin. When I asked how his YouTube profession coexists with his musical projects, and whether one supports the other, I got the following quote:
“All I need is a camera, a laptop and a guitar. I would have all of those if I went out with Walker”
YouTube remains the main source of income for him, with only small earnings from CD sales and merchandise - I can’t find any sign of Walker on the most popular streaming services, which is understandable given the pitiful fee they pay musicians.
Some of the more invested fans will be interested to get a behind the scenes look of their favorite band going on tour and traveling, so producing vlog style content, perhaps even straight ahead travel videos, are a great way to go. The information is almost always going to be different for each creator.
The Downsides of YouTube
Over the years of being a professional musician and educator, I have learned that gear demonstration and reviews should minimally affect your decisions when shopping for the next piece of gear to add to your collection. When a new product is announced, and again when it is released, the community is overwhelmed with videos that are basically the same thing.
“Someone has a new product and sends it to everybody with a camera and you have to release it on this day at this time… and everybody does. It just bores me and I feel like it will bore other people”
I thought it was interesting hearing a content creator discuss this, and given that YouTube is like a hive-mind, the chances of everybody agreeing to change this pattern is extremely unlikely, to the point of being nigh on impossible.
Another issue is that, due to the infamous algorithm, you must constantly upload content at regular intervals. Even so much as going on holiday for a week can mean your video is suggested to less people and added to fewer playlists. There is no way to escape this, and many aspiring creators underestimate how much of a commitment this can be. This is still a job, and in many ways gives you more responsibilities.
“I don’t love that I feel like I have to, but then again, it is a job and you’d have to show up at your job. This is much better than working in a bakery!”
There are many other problems you must overcome, not directly related to YouTube. For example, you must be able to edit and record videos effectively (most learn to do this themselves), market effectively on social media, doing your taxes if you earn any money at all - there is definitely a lot to think about.
“I don’t enjoying editing videos”
Final Thoughts
Many consider a YouTube career to be another arrow to their quiver, however, it can quickly demand your attention if it is going to be worth your time and effort. First and foremost, you should always try to keep it fun and engaging for yourself and not to others.
Don’t be afraid to try something new, whether that be just creating videos or a new style of video. Understand that you will need just the right amount of luck and perfect timing in order to make a living from this, but that should never discourage you from giving it a go. The most wholesome and realistic content, at least in my opinion, is when people use YouTube as a platform as a personal video diary, or they seem so happy just sharing something - I am overjoyed when they also become successful as a result.
Once again, I would like to thank KDH for his time, helping me out with some great responses to my questions and for the while we spent chatting via Zoom. Below I have included some links to his YouTube channel, Instagram and that of his band Walker too.
Here is a great music video from Walker, with their song ‘She’s On Fire’:
Alex
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