How to Grow on YouTube as a Music Producer

Wondering how to grow on youtube as a music producer in 2023?

In this episode of Boomcast by Boombox, Fabio (@Noize_London) and Lukas (@musicbyLukas) explore the journey and success of Josh (@MusicTechHelpGuy), how his educational content and personal work have fed each other and how YouTube has ultimately lead to a career path uniquely designed for his diverse skills as a musician and content creator.

Learn from someone who knows exactly what it takes to grow your channel to 300k.

CREDITS:
Filming & Editing: Lauren Z. Ray (https://www.instagram.com/laurenzray/)
Transcription: Jess Adams (https://www.instagram.com/jessadamswrites/)

Thank you all so much for tuning in.
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Video Transcript: How to Grow on YouTube as a Music Producer w/ MusicTechHelpGuy – Boomcast Ep. 4

Lukas:
Welcome to Boomcast. The official podcast from Boombox.io – I’m musicbyLukas

Fabio:
And I’m Fabio from Noize.

Lukas
Boombox is a collaboration tool to provide a connection point for producers, musicians and engineers to be able to share, store and synergize creativity.

Fabio:
for this month’s competition, if you are one of the first 1000 subscribers, we will be giving away $500 worth of studio equipment. And that’s up to you what you spend it on. It could be hardware or software. So comment down below in order to enter and let us know exactly what you would spend that $500 on.

Lukas:
Today, we have a very special guest. We are joined by Josh from the YouTube channel MusicTechHelpGuy.

Fabio:
Josh, welcome. How are you?

Josh:
Wonderful. Happy to be here.

Lukas:
So, Josh, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background with music and how you started MusicTechHelpGuy

Josh:
Yeah. So I, I’ve been a recording engineer and a music producer for almost 20 years now. I started off doing a lot of live sound. I was a professional musician for a while and I started teaching college courses a little later into my career, and I was teaching like advanced sampling and synthesis techniques, and the students in class were having trouble keeping up with it. So I said, Well, maybe there’s some way I can create some content outside of, of class. And so I started the YouTube channel, not expecting it to go anywhere, not expecting it to be, you know, to blow up to 300,000 subscribers as it is now. Yeah. Logic ten came out back in 2013 and I started a series of tutorials just like sequential, you know, almost like a college level course and it just blew up from there. So that’s what I’ve been doing, along with mixing and producing and teaching. So that’s, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 18 years. 19 years.

Fabio:
The small videos. Were those ever part of a bigger course? Like, what did you have in mind when you were building those videos other than just wanting to help people? Well, originally it was kind of like, hey, if you if you forgot what I taught you in class today, go check out this video I made on YouTube. And it sort of recaps some of the things we talked about in class. And the thing is, nowadays, like education, I mean, sure, you can go to college and you can get a degree and that’s that’s one thing. But like you can learn a lot. Like, there are some like really, really great educational channels on YouTube. And I just figured, you know, this wasn’t really a market that was tapped back then. And this is cheap mind. This is like 12 years ago. I mean, I’ve been doing this for a while. You know, now I one of my little side jobs is I developed course curriculum for the Los Angeles Film School, so I just developed their entire bachelor’s degree for them. It’s yeah, sort of being A music producer, mixing engineer, plus also being like an instructional designer has kind of become my, my job. It’s like I almost created the job for myself rather than looking for a job. So

Fabio:
What would you say to music producers who maybe they want to start a YouTube channel, maybe they think it’s too late or maybe they’re just not sure how to do it. Like, what would you say to like some people to – how to grow on YouTube as a music producer?

Josh:
I would say having some sort of video based social media presence, whether it be YouTube or Instagram or even TikTok. I don’t have a TikTok yet. They want to get into the game. I would say just do it and play to your strengths and, you know, figure out what you’re good at. Like figure out what your niche things are that other people can’t do as well as you write and play to those play to those strengths.

Lukas:
Yeah you did that with Logic pro for sure. Like complete tutorials.

Fabio:
I’ve watched so many of those. So many. I can’t tell you how much you’ve helped me. You said you said you’ve been doing this for 12 years. I mean, that is so impressive. And it really gives an indicator, I think, to so many people how long it does take to build up credibility and a catalog of music. What kept you motivated throughout all those years and were there times where you thought, I don’t want to do this anymore?

Josh:
You know, if I could quit everything today and just mix music, I would. But the thing that’s wonderful about social media is it helps propel your your professional career. Like most I would maybe not most, but I’d say a very good chunk of people who come to me for mixing work are people who have found me from YouTube or they learned to record themselves in their own home studio, or record their band or put out their first EP or single by watching my videos and other people’s videos. And then they’re like, Hey, I’ve recorded all this. It sounds good. I don’t really have an ear for mixing. I don’t really have the equipment for mixing. And would you like to mix it for me? So it’s it’s kind of like a feedback loop of putting out content, people watching it, creating their own content. Then some of them trickle back to me and ask for mixing and mastering work.

Lukas:
That’s true. It all kind of circles back and forth like you, you know, if that does well, then your social media does well, then your business does well. If your business does well, they probably check out your social media. So it all kind of goes. And do you also produce your own music and put that out often as well? Or…

Josh:
I used to more. More so in the past than I do now. You know, unfortunately, one of the things is when you when you start producing and mixing other people’s music, sometimes you struggle to find time to make your own. But, yeah, I have a back catalog of a whole bunch of songs that I need to get out or do something with, but I’ve kind of been passing them off to other people, you know? I’ve been working with a few artists and just just kind of taking some of my stuff and saying, Well, this would sound better in this person’s style rather than my style. And so, I mean, I was I was a guitar player in a heavy metal band, you know, ten years ago. And we played all over the place and we were kind of around the Michigan Chicago area and so we we, I wouldn’t say toured, but we gigged all over the over that scene for I mean, seven, eight years. And then I kind of got out of the the live performance thing and, you know, came more into production.

Fabio:
I got the heavy metal vibe just from the the color of the sound panels in your studio. Something that I’m always impressed by on your channel is as soon as there there’s a logic update and it’s not like you’ve got Apple on the phone, like, hey, by the way, we’re going to release some new features tomorrow. You know, here’s a quick heads up

Lukas:
or does he?

Fabio:
Here comes – oh wait… or do you.

Josh:
Most of the like when it comes to soft like new software being released from any company, whether it be Apple or even new hardware from some companies, they will typically send us an advance copy like usually like a week in advance to review. So I do work with I’m not officially a part of the beta team for logic, but I do assist with the beta team and in reporting bugs and things like that beforehand. That’s part of it. So there’s definitely at least three or four other like logic based YouTubers who are getting advanced copies of logic before it comes out. Like, you know, it’s like again, it’s just a beta release. It’s still one of those things where it’s I’m rushing to get the product out, you know, because a lot of times they’ll send an update like two days before it’s released in some cases or a day before it’s released. You know, they’re constantly tweaking things. You know, on the fly, too.

Lukas:
So then are you, like instantly getting into the studio to record at that point or, you know, is it like time is of the essence? Like you want to be the first one to have the video out? Or…

Josh:
Yeah, when it comes to a new version of logic, I pretty much drop everything I’m doing and I just I just focus on that, you know, which is why, you know, some of those videos maybe don’t have the best quality yet. I’m a little out of focus or I’m a little red in the face, you know, because I’m just like, editing as fast as I can to get it done.

Fabio:
We’re so grateful for those videos because none of us over here I know Lukas is a

Lukas:
Logic user as well. Yeah.

Fabio:
We don’t want it. We don’t want to read through that manual. We don’t want to read through the release notes. So you giving it to us in this beautiful bite size and everyone else you know, and this beautiful bite size information is is incredibly helpful.

Lukas:
So what are some top tips that you have that you’ve learned over because you’ve been doing this for over ten years, that you’ve learned running a YouTube channel, successful YouTube channel. What are some things like that you’ve learned along the way that are like now? Like the things you live by? How to grow on YouTube as a music producer?

Josh:
Maybe I would say the number one thing you can do on YouTube is upload consistently like make a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, upload schedule or you know what I mean? Just if you’re if you’re uploading, you’ve got to get content up as much as you possibly can, if possible, every day. You know what I’ve been seeing a lot of people doing Monday through Friday releases and then like a couple of shorts on the weekend or maybe, you know, three or four main releases during the week and then a few shorts. So even I’ve been dabbling with the shorts as well to try to fill the gap. And it’s not like, hey, let’s put a fluff video in here that, you know, that doesn’t you know, that doesn’t really contribute to anything. It’s more like you’ve got to keep people viewing your content because when they start to get bored, they or they start to not see you as often they start to disappear or the numbers sort of, you know, trickle, because there were several occasions where I just I was just really busy. So I didn’t upload for a month, you know, and you can just see the growth sort of stagnate. That’s the number one thing.

Fabio:
Do you think, shorts of the future and…

Lukas:
Yeah. How are you incorporating those?

Fabio:
And how have they affected your long format videos?

Josh:
The shorts? I don’t think they’re the future because YouTube, I think, is such a unique platform difference, you know. So then, you know, like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok where they’re really focusing on short content to the point where you can’t really even upload a video longer than a certain length. But depending on, you know, what you’re uploading and I don’t see that going away on YouTube and I don’t see it. I don’t I see shorts growing on YouTube, but I don’t see them becoming the predominant thing people are going to YouTube for. Like, I haven’t had cable TV in five years because I have an Apple TV in my living room and I just when I sit down at the end of the night and crack open a beer and just relax, I’m going to YouTube and I’m like looking up documentaries. I’m looking up educational. I’m a huge nerd. I love documentaries and educational stuff. So that’s my TV now, and I just don’t, you know, I don’t I don’t see that going away. I don’t see long format content going away in terms of of teaching things. I just kind of have to put things. I can only teach things that I can condensed into a one minute format, which is very few topics. Can I, can I condense into a one minute format?

Lukas:
Are you doing those separately then? Are you creating separate content for the short form content or are you using clips from your long form videos?

Josh:
Both. I what you know, when I did The Logic of the Last Logic update, I did like a short format version of the, you know, the top ten new things that are in the new version of logic. Whereas other times I’ll just be like working on a mix or like working on a on a song and I’ll be like, Oh, that’s a cool little trick I just did there that I, I’ve never taught.

Josh:
And I’ll be like, Let’s, let’s do a quick, you know, here’s how to do this technique. And one minute so sometimes most of my shorts end up being things that I’ve just discovered on the fly while I’m working on other things. And I’ll sometimes I’ll just take a quick pause and I’ll just make a little short and then I’ll resume my normal work duties.

Fabio:
So just a quick shout out to Boombox and thank you for their help with our collaboration because if you comment down below, we are going to offer you $500 of studio equipment. And what we want to know from you is, Lukas?

Lukas:
What kind of studio gear would you want? So if you subscribe below, if you’re one of the first 1000 subscribers and if you comment what kind of studio gear you want. Boombox.io is sponsoring someone this month with a $500 gift card to studio gear.

Fabio:
So for our out the box question.

Lukas:
We have a box question for you, which is the segment where we ask you an off topic question and our hot topic question, tis the season is Josh, what do you want for Christmas? What’s on what’s on your list?

Josh:
I already got my Christmas gift. It was a PS5. And but the the other thing I would love is I want a new smoker. Nice.

Lukas:
So I like how like a lot of the stuff that you do outside of music is for good times, like you’re talking about, you know, enjoying yourself and the end of the day and yeah.

Fabio:
Smokin’ meats.

Lukas:
yeah doing your stuff like its and then you also but it sounds like you also really enjoy music which is great. So the passion is still always been there.

Josh:
You have to take time away from making music professionally because otherwise you get burnt out like and ambition. You know, ambition is a good thing to have and that having the drive to build your business and your brand and all that. But ambition can be very dangerous if you start leaving your personal life behind and getting sucked into to your professional life and only your professional life. I was getting so sucked into my professional life and so consumed by ambition and trying to push things forward with my professional life that I kind of got out of touch with my personal life. And you have to you have to balance the two things, because otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy and you’ll just you’ll just be stressed out all the time. Then you’ll sort of grow to hate the work that you do because you’re so burnt out by it. So you have to keep a balance between your your personal and your your professional life, for sure.

Lukas:
And all three of us relate in that way.

Fabio:
Yeah. So difficult when you work for yourself. And then there’s also like some things you got to make that sacrifice because there’s no growth without pain and there’s a bit of a push and pull. I mean, I feel exactly the same way. I think COVID lifted the veil for me and I actually firstly, I stopped my YouTube channel for six months because I was like, I need a break. I need to refresh and and feel re-inspired by the content I was creating because it’s, you know, and I’m sure you both feel the same way, but you’ve got to make the content for your audience, but you also have to make it for yourself. Right? Because that’s why we all started doing it, because we felt passionate about it. And so when it’s too, when you’re, delivering too much to appease people, it doesn’t have the it doesn’t strike inspiration in the same way.

Josh:
Exactly. 100%. Yeah.

Fabio:
Josh, if you were to start your YouTube channel again. Today.

Lukas:
Yes good question. Good question.

Fabio:
What are three things that you would do differently?

Josh:
Oh, I would have started with having my face on camera in every single video or just about every single video, because that’s one change I’ve made recently that has been positive. The, the, the, the, the one thing about like other, like similar channels that they’ve like grown beyond my, you know, the scope of my channel is that they have consistently put out live video like there’s a live video component to every video, even if it’s a Logic tutorial or a DAW tutorial. That’s something I would do right out front. Like I’m kind of a perfectionist. I’ll sit there and I’ll just, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll focus on one phrase that has a plosives in it, you know, for 10 minutes trying to fix a plosives or a, a pop or something and trying to get, trying to get the dialog mike to sound perfect and you know de-reverb it and de-noise it de- click it and do all these things to it. But the reality is a lot of people on, on the listening end on the watching end don’t pay attention to those things. I mean, I’m not saying don’t put out, you know, not quality content. You certainly want to put out quality content. But there’s a certain balance where you can only push it so far and you can only mold it and shape it and fine tune it to a point where people aren’t going to realize that you’ve done all that hard work, so you don’t want to do, you know, that last 10% of work if no one’s going to notice. So I’d say those are the two things getting my face on camera and not being, you know, too picky about-

Fabio:
We need one more option.

Lukas:
We need one more.

Lukas:
oh, it’s a three. Oh, geeze. Well, I’m putting out consistent content. Like I said before. Making a make, making a legit schedule and making that schedule part of my work schedule, like, you know, in a typical week. Okay, Monday, Tuesday, YouTube videos get two or three, four videos done Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday I’m doing mixing Friday am doing something else course development. The weekend I take off.

Lukas:
Yeah. And then even for people who because maybe someone’s listening to that and they’re like, well, I have a full time job and I have school or I have something like that. And it’s like, well, you’re saying if you were starting your YouTube channel now as if, you know, you’re in your current position, but it’s like you can still you can still succeed even if and grow even if you do have. Like how to grow on YouTube as a music producer. Because like for example, when I started my YouTube channel, I did have a full time job and school and I remember thinking like, why did I wait until I was at my busiest point in life essentially to like start this like, you know, hobby or side hustle, whatever you want to call it? And we were able to do it. Luckily, I did have someone to help film. Lauren helped film my videos, but we did it at like 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. and we just put out one a week and it worked and we started gaining traction with that. So it is possible to kind of work your way up. And of course now we work more than 10 to 11 p.m., but you know, it is possible to start and kind of grow from there. I love the what you said about consistency, though, and the fact that you how when you took like a month off that, for example, you know, you noticed that the numbers dwindled. And that’s why I would say it’s so important to be able to have that balance, like you said, and to kind of make your music job not be and just another job that you need a vacation from, but to sort of incorporate little moments of vacation into your actual job and into your daily routine so that you don’t feel so burnt out or so, like, you know, overworked.

Josh:
Yeah. All great points. Great points. You have to you have to still enjoy the job you do. You can’t. You know what I mean? And it’s you know, people say this all the time, especially with music and arts. They say if it becomes a job, I’m afraid I’m not going to like it anymore or I’m going to again get burnt out by it. And you have to, like you said, you have to sort of even insert elements of your personal life into your channel, because whether you like it or not, you are becoming an Internet personality by starting a YouTube channel. Whether you have ten subscribers or 10 million, you are putting yourself out there and becoming a personality and you kind of can insert your personal life into it. And I think sometimes that makes it a little more enjoyable. Like I’ll record a song of mine or I’ll record my wife’s band and use it as a musical example, or I’ll, you know, do this and that or so

Fabio:
We’ve all experienced hateful negative comments and feedback before on YouTube, and I am very guilty of the fact that if I don’t have enough carbohydrates and caffeine in my body at the time of reading those comments, sometimes I am a bit of a loose cannon. I’m wondering, how did you approach the haters?

Lukas:
Josh doesn’t get any haters. It’s just, you , Fabio.

Fabio:
I knew it.

Josh:
In the early days. In the early days I’d get really worked up and I’d just be, you know, keyboard warrior defending my honor, you know, and nowadays, like, if it’s anything that’s, I would say hateful, like, like legitimately hateful or just like you’re just being a troll most of the time I just blocked them from the channel and move on with my life. You know, some people will disagree with me on points and that’s fine. Like, that’s like I’m all for open discourse on topics and opinions. And, you know, I try to respond to as many comments as I can and I try to address as many as I can. But, you know, I mean, just to give you one example, one time I mentioned that my wife is from Brazil and I had someone say, you and your wife should move back to Brazil like basically like a get the heck out of the U.S., you know what I mean? Like okay. Okay. Instant block, you know. So sometimes those things happen. So I don’t because my channel is more educational rather than entertainment based. I would say if unless it’s if it’s something that can be discussed as discourse, then I will respond in a respectful way the best I can. Other times it’s just an instant block. And just you can you can no longer comment on my channel. You can view my videos, feel free to. But you’re not going to able to comment anymore.

Lukas:
Make sense. I mean, one thing that I heard which is really help me with any time I get a comment from a hater is just the saying hurt people. Hurt people. Like when people are hurting, they their natural reaction is to try to push that hurt outward and they have like that negative energy. And so now when I read like a hateful comment, I try to think like that, like, oh, this person’s just hurting. Like that’s why they’re expressing themselves in this way. And then I almost feel empathy, obviously, like you said, if they’re just being like totally, you know, hateful, then it’s different. But yeah, I feel that empathy and it helps me just be able to just disregard it or to comment back in a nice way or actually a lot of times even the other followers will even reply back for you, which is kind of cool and kind of, you know, spread that positivity there. So I think we all are pretty positive audiences for the most part too.

Josh:
Yeah, definitely. And like you said, you have to stay positive and you have to keep a positive mindset. Otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy. And yeah, you do have to empathize with people. And, and I’m the same way I’ll look at like a really negative comment and I’m like, I don’t know what that person is going through right now for them to feel that way. Or, you know, they may, especially in this day and age, you might just be misinformed. You might just be, you know, your head may not be in the right place. And so you’re you’re lashing out as a as a result of your situation rather than actual hate for that person or for that content. So, and that’s part of the reason why a lot of times I’m just like. BLOCK And that’s just, you know, we can we can both move our separate ways peacefully.

Fabio:
And it’s amazing when you do kill people with kindness, sometimes they take a step back and they check themselves like, oh, and they sometimes they apologize as one is just like, you know, we just trying to we’re just trying to set the tone. We’re just having a good time, you know what I mean?

Lukas:
Well, I had a good time. This is a really good podcast and for your first podcast, crushed it. Comment below. If you thought MusicTechHelpedGuy crushed the answers on the podcast. Josh, It’s been such a pleasure having you on and we know there’s no doubt that your channel will reach a million subscribers at some point. We love your content. Please keep putting it out. We find it incredibly useful, you know, so everybody who’s watching this podcast there’s his link in the description below and make sure as well that you comment and subscribe, right, Fabio? For the for be one of the first thousand subscribers comment below the question of the day was what would you spend your $500 gift card on for studio gear? What kind of studio gear would you get? Comment that below you can find me as well on @musicbyLukas and Fabio, where can they find you?

Fabio:
You can find me in the link in the description below on Instagram @Noize_London and Josh, where can they find you?

Lukas:
Yeah, where can they find you?

Josh:
You can find me on YouTube @MusicTechHelpGuy and Instagram @MusicTechHelpGuy. Thank you so much, guys, for having me on. It’s been a pleasure.

Lukas:
Make sure to go to Boombox.io

Fabio:
Make sure you do it.

Lukas:
Do it.

Lukas:
All right, we will see. See you guys soon.

Fabio:
Goodbye, everybody. Thanks for tuning in.

Lukas:
Bye bye. Awesome.

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How to Grow on YouTube as a Music Producer w/ MusicTechHelpGuy – Boomcast Ep. 4

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Video Transcript: How to Grow on YouTube as a Music Producer w/ MusicTechHelpGuy – Boomcast Ep. 4