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Jane: We've now gone live. Oops, no. There was another thing. So maybe now we're live.
Adam: Okay.
Jane: So Adam, tell me about how you got started?
Adam: Alright! Well, I'm a guitar player in case that wasn't already evident. I play guitar.
I have big heroes like Santana and Hendrix. So I love this sort of melodic end of guitar
playing. I started out on MySpace when I was 19 I think.
The story goes, when I was 15 or 16 years old, I recorded this track with a friend of
mine. It was like an 8-minute guitar escapade, this really melodic piece that just went on
forever. And I just thought, "What happens if I packaged ten CDs, send them off to a
few record companies" when it was actually still possible (before they all had one address)?
I sent out a couple of labels. One that got back to me was an indie company. I signed
with them when I was 17 I think, 16? Seventeen I think. And it was basically them saying,
"There's this new thing called MySpace," you should try it. I had no idea about social
media or social networking or anything like that.
And so I thought, "Okay, I'll try." I gave into that. After about two years of hustling,
I gave into it and just said, "Okay, I'll start it."
And I found myself being really hands-on with MySpace. I thought it was incredible that
you could put something up and some random person on the Internet can listen to it and
give you feedback. That was really interesting to me.
But the funniest thing is I think I may just have superseded it. But beforehand, MySpace
was the most successful thing I'd ever done. I got about -- it's not exactly a massive
amount, but I mean I had 20,000 space within a very a short space of time. I had lots of
plays every day. I had loads of comments. Whereas like I'm still not on 20,000 subscribers
on YouTube.
I had to reset everything to move from one platform to another because I could not bring
what I had already established on MySpace. Anyway, other than Myspace, it just died with
the platform, which is a big shame.
But I don't know, Myspace was incredible to me because there were lots of big mainstream
artists who have Myspace pages. They would manage them themselves. Quite often, they
will manage the thing because I think it was quite cool back then. So I got in touch with
all of my heroes through just typing to a computer screen saying, "Please, please, please,
please read this letter."
It's a long story, but it was a great experience anyway.
Jane: Well, the story is what we're interested in. So I noticed on your website that you
had a lot of really famous people that were endorsing you.
Adam: Myspace.
Jane: And that was through Myspace?
Adam: That was through Myspace. I mean, the way it works was back then, I was signed to
a small record company and we were doing a charity project which was music-based basically.
We had to get people to record things.
So I got really hands-on with this and I started emailing anyone who I could. It flopped to
me. It wasn't entirely my doing, but I'll leave it at that. I'm no longer with this
record company. They were great, but that's a closed chapter.
But I had people like Chaka Khan willing to come and record after she did her Wembley
show. I thought it was incredible that I was just a little 19-year old behind a computer.
I typed a letter and I got in touch with these people.
So along the road, I sort of got "endorsements" after they listened to my stuff, and I just
thought, "How cool making a list to put out on my website." And that website is really
old now. I haven't touched in a couple of years.
Jane: Right! I was going to ask you about that because you're very active on YouTube
and obviously on Facebook, but your website, you've kind of neglected.
Adam: I need to re-do it and completely, completely re-do it. Scrap it and start again I think.
I did in 2010 or something in about three hours and it hasn't been touched since. So
yeah, it's like...
Jane: Does it get any visitors?
Adam More than anything else I do. Go figure why I have not actually updated it. It gets
loads of traffic. I don't know how. I think that people search my YouTube. Somehow, if
you put my name, my website comes up somewhere in the top hits with the YouTube channel so
people actually click on it and...
So it does get traffic, but I don't know where that traffic comes from, if it's because I
did a few Michael Jackson tribute a while back. I have people searching Michael Jackson
tribute and I did a huge blog post when he passed away and somehow, people were getting
to my website searching for that.
I haven't actually taken time to figure it out, which I really should be, but I want
to redesign it somehow. YouTube is my main thing right now I think. That's the thing
I'm focusing on to try and grow up as much as I can.
Jane: And how do you actually go about getting more viewers on YouTube?
Adam: I don't understand YouTube. I won't lie. I mean, I put up a video, I can work
extremely *** the video and put it up and it'll be a total flop or I can just like
do a video in two minutes and it's suddenly the biggest video I have on my channel.
I mean, I've got one video I did, the most successful one I have is Michael Jackson's
Jackson's Smooth Criminal. And I did not expect it at all. I had a thing as of about some
time 2011 to try and -- I got a cool fancy camera. I'm a big photography fan. I like
to do a lot of photography stuff. So I was reading up big time on how to make videos
and just watching other videos and try to learn tricks.
So I was doing this thing where every video , I included some new tricks to make it a
little cooler than the last one. I had tried some cool tricks and I didn't know if that
was what helped, but that Smooth Criminal video did really, really well. It's still
doing better than anything else I have on, but I don't understand honestly what makes
it work. I wish I did. If I did, I'd do more videos.
Jane: I think people would pay you a lot of money if you ever work that one out.
Adam: I know. I know.
Jane: So how about Facebook because I found you through a sponsored post?
Adam: What? Uh, Facebook is the weakest performing page for me by a long way. I have some 2000
likes on Facebook. I have 15000 subscribers on YouTube and some 20,000 followers or Twitter.
So it's the smallest end for me. It's an enigma to me. I wish I understood it.
I'm told that it will boost post. As I've mentioned to you earlier , I saw the little
boost button where I thought, "Okay, if you pay a tiny amount of money, let's see how
many visitors is that going to bring in that you wouldn't have seen otherwise and does
it make a difference."
And it did make a difference, but I didn't pay a huge amount. I mean, I just wanted to
see if there's any change. It does make a small difference, but I think -- I was thinking
this to myself the other day that if I'm going to put a new video out and I want to create
a buzz about it, I might actually just target a post to do with that video and invest a
large amount and hopefully, it would carry on. That's what I'm going to try on my next
one, so let's see how it goes.
Jane: Well do you mind if I ask you like what kind of money are we talking about?
Adam: £5 and that was it.
Jane: Sorry, how much?
Adam: £5 and that was it.
Jane: £5!
Adam: £5, you're supposed to reach an extra 3500 people or something like that, which
I thought was extremely bold, but I didn't know. People told me it doesn't work, don't
bother. So just once, I was trying it skeptically. And so I will try a larger amount next time.
But I've done it since and I did it on a different video with exactly the same amount of money
to see if it would make a difference, what video and what I posted. So I did Smooth Criminal
the other day and it did make a difference. People were more interested in Smooth Criminal
than the Calvin Harris cover that I did last.
So I'm just trying to form patterns and see if there is a formula. There isn't, but I'm
just taking what I've discovered and try to better my strategy and see what happens.
Jane: Well, I think you probably just mentioned it, didn't you? I mean, it's probably the
choice of artist that you're covering rather than any other thing that's the main impetus.
Adam: Yeah, I think so as well.
Jane: Yeah?
Adam: Michael Jackson, I'm a huge fan of Michael Jackson. I have been since I was a really,
really tiny infant. It was my earliest musical memory. And so, I always love doing tributes
to him. He's a huge influence for me and I love him to bits. But I do know he has a lot
of respect. In fact, most artists don't have that reverence that Michael Jackson has. There
are obviously artist that do, but he was such a master of his craft, that he has that sense
of wonderment when people click on his videos.
So I think maybe doing a tribute to Michael Jackson rather than somebody else might pick
up traffic for that reason. I definitely had no intention of getting traffic. I just noticed
that Smooth Criminal just kept going and spiraling ahead of everything else and I didn't understand
why other than it may be that it's just a cooler song.
Jane: Oh, that's good. I can hear lots of chirping in the background.
Adam: That's my cockatoo, you know, I'm afraid. This is Cheeky, he's just out of the frame
and he's making a racket. He likes to sing a lot.
Jane: A musical bird.
Adam: He's very musical. I can bring him in the video, he might be quieter.
Jane: Oh, please do, yes. I think that would be wonderful.
Adam: Give me just a second. Come on, big boy. I'm hoping you'll stick around this time.
This is Cheeky. He used to make his way into every video, every Hangout that I do. He can't
keep quiet.
He likes to get his head scratched. He's always bowing his head at me. He's terribly cute.
But anyway,
Jane: He's obviously very jealous of the attention.
Adam: Indeed! He is. He is jealous quite frequently.
Jane: Adam, is there anything else that you'd like to add. I'm basically making this for
music tech students trying to find a way forward in the social media world as it exists today.
So, I don't know if you have any words of wisdom you'd care to pass on.
Adam: Oh, gosh! I don't. I just always think -- I mean, I look at videos as sort of like
when you're putting up a video, you're putting up a piece of yourself or artistry that's
going to remain. It's kind of like if you're a scientist or an academic, it's publishing
a paper. It kind of remains in literature like video remains on YouTube.
So I always think that if you're going to make a video, try and make it to the best
standard you can. Make it something you'll be proud of. It's going to represent you until
you take it down.
That's the best advice I could do is to make the best content you can and then worry about
the rest later. That's it! That's it, you know.
Jane: I think that's... sorry?
Adam: I was going to say I try to make the best videos I can, but sometimes it just gets
difficult. You just get lazy. You're just like two angles, go! But what's best to try
I think, I would set a goal. So I'm trying to think, "Okay, I did that last time. What
can I do to make it stand a bit different?" That's the best advice I can give.
Jane: Actually, I think there are two very important points there. One is that your online
life lasts forever.
Adam: Yeah. Well...
Jane: Well...
Adam: Potentially...
Jane: Potentially, yes. So, just be very, very cautious about what it is that you're
putting out there. The other thing is to be as creative as you can be. It's almost like
these two diametrically opposed things. You have to be able to be free enough to experiment,
but also cautious.
Adam: Absolutely! You've got it spot on there. Yeah, I've tried all things to see if they
work. Sometimes it did, sometimes they don't and learn from the lesson. Learn a lesson
from the mistake.
Jane: I'm going to take that from you. It's just like you don't know what it is that is
going to work. You just got to do a lot of different things.
Adam: Absolutely. I mean, I'm still trying to figure out a formula as I've said before.
If I could just figure it out, I'm willing to do every single video. I would.
Jane: Yeah, email me. Email!
Adam: Yeah, will do when I find out. I will if I find out.
Jane: Adam, it's been lovely talking to you.
Adam: You're welcome. Thank you for asking me.
Jane: Thank you so much for this. Sorry?
Adam: Thank you for inviting me. Thank you for...
Jane: Oh, bless you! What I'll do is I'll end the broadcast shortly and it will automatically
be on my channel on YouTube.
Adam: Alright then!
Jane: But I'll make it private until you've had a look through it and then you can choose
whether it goes live or not.
Adam: Okay! Cool! Thank you so much.
Jane: Lovely to meet you and Cheeky.
Adam: Bye. Okay. Anyway, thank you so much.
Jane: Bye!
Adam: Bye!