Youtube Videos...Good or Bad?

[Pete Academy]

I've just read a post on Facebook by an old saxophonist band member of ours. He's bemoaning the crap quality videos that people film on phones at gigs and then posting them on Youtube, stressing that they are detrimental to the band and can actually put people off booking them.

What do you think? We have quite a few of these on YouTube. Should we be grateful for the free publicity?

[SteveK]

I don't think the quality of the clip makes a lot of difference. Most people know bad quality when they hear/see it, and make allowances. The quality of the band is far more likely to make a difference and will shine through (good or bad) regardless of the clip quality... within reason of course!

[wateroftyne]

I'd agree with the sax player. Some of the clips I've seen put up by the bands themselves have been appalling.

I always carefully vet the stuff I put up.

Having said that, there's nothing you can do to control it... it's the world we live in.

[BigRedX]

IME a friendly chat with the person who has posted the videos explaining your PoV can often get the desired result.

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1352563989' post='1864679']
IME a friendly chat with the person who has posted the videos explaining your PoV can often get the desired result.
[/quote]

Someone put a clip up of a song from one of our gigs recently. Unfortunately one of the band had a massive mind-blank and played the biggest clunker imaginable right at the start.

I mailed the poster via YouTube asking them to crop the first ten seconds, and they obliged. Just as well 'cos it was a proper horror. ha ha.

[flyfisher]

Bands are performing entities. Unless they only 'perform' in a studio environment so they can control every little thing that is released then they have to accept the great unwashed public seeing and hearing their performances for themselves. Once upon a time those people would simply tell their mates how great/mediocre/crap the band was but these days they're able to record the sound and video instead and post it on the web.

That's the world we live in. You can spend your time tracking down poor quality performance recordings and trying to get them removed or you could spend that time getting better at what you do so that any such recordings can only show you in a good light.

[Thurbs]

or videos!

[gjones]

Our guitarist puts them up on youtube. His quality control usually only extends to how good his guitar solo is on that particular song. I don't think the fact that the rest of the video is good or bad even registers in his tiny brain.

[MiltyG565]

[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1352567330' post='1864737']
Our guitarist puts them up on youtube. His quality control usually only extends to how good his guitar solo is on that particular song. I don't think the fact that the rest of the video is good or bad even registers in his tiny brain.
[/quote]

hehehe! yeah, bad quality vids don't do a band any justice. Good quality vids don't either. Youtube has pretty terrible audio quality. I uploaded a couple of covers, and they don't sound as good as i was hearing them.

[Bilbo]

I think some are ok and many aren't. All it needs is careful consideration. But, yes, some videos do more harm than good,,,,,

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0shO4tv6vGs&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0shO4tv6vGs&feature=related[/url]

[Bilbo]

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2AeNjQiRLc[/media]

[SteveK]

So, are we discussing crap quality videos, or crap quality bands?

[flyfisher]

Bit of both I suspect, but mainly crap quality videos. YouTube is full of crap concert videos of top bands so what chance do lesser quality bands have?

[Pete Academy]

If you already know the band, then you won't really care about the quality. If you are watching a band for the first time, the poor quality may put you off.