Jeffstunes progress on Youtube

Having posted videos to Youtube for nearly a year. One thing I noticed was that you were limited on the quality of video and audio that you can have on there. If I put up a tune with high quality audio, It would get converted by Youtube, to lower quality mono. I managed to get around it with a free video converter, Which allowed me to encode flash videos, and adjust the video and audio quality.

Recently, Youtube have started to cater for higher quality video and audio though.

This was the issue that got me looking around for other websites that hosted videos, and I found one called Livevideo. I made a decision to only upload my original songs to that site. It doesn't have anywhere near the amount of traffic that Youtube gets, but I was ok with that. It's a place I can send people to hear my songs in better audio quality.

Here's a link top my Livevideo page:

Jeffstunes Livevideo channel

As per usual. Here's the latest info on my Youtube statistics.

The aggregate viewing figures on my videos is 167,997.

I've had 11,668 visitors to my channel, and I have 563 subscribers.

I shall be uploading another song to youtube soon. So that means I'll be posting soon too :)

Here's a really recent video. It was uploaded a little while ago!!

It's another one of my original songs. A new one this time.

So far, with my original material, the videos are comprised of image slideshows. This one is different. This is my first Original song video that contains moving images. I wanted the content to reflect the meaning, and I reckon I've managed to achieve that.

The name of the song is "Don't wish it away". It's about people who wish their days, or life away. Maybe it's grief, or impatience. Or maybe something else. You'll notice things vanishing, and also things going in reverse. There's something symbolic in that.

Check out my new song:

These are the latest numbers on my youtube channel.

My subscribers are at a nice round 550.

My channel has been looked at 11,329 times, and the overall viewing figures all of my videos are now at 162,129.

I was thinking about doing a cover version next. There are three song I want to do. The songs are The excellent song "The air that I breathe" by the Hollies, "Running on faith" by the one and only Eric Clapton or "My father's eyes", also by Eric Clapton.

So now I've reached the sixty third vid. At last I have caught up.

This is an original song by me, called "Sight Or Sound".

I have been writing poems since before I was 10, and one of my favourite things to do, was to make puzzles out of my poems, and hide things within the words.

So it's no surprise really, that those elements ended up in some of my songs. This song is a good example of that. In the description, I ask people to work out what the song means, and if they can discover all the links within the song and the video. I have only given the answers to those that have asked. I could tell everyone, but I prefer that some know and understand, and some don't.

I wrote this song last year, and recruited the help of a very good friend, and extremely talented guitarist called "Steve Morgan". He has just got married, so I wish him the best for the future.

So I hope you enjoy the song, and the wonderful skills of Steve.

Check it out:

Here's an update on the Youtube numbers.

542 Subs.

11,175 channel viewings.

158,875 overall video views.

So I got there in the end. I've caught up with my video releases. So I'm not too sure what the next post will be about. I'll know once I've decided what song to upload. Hmmm. An original, or maybe a cover :)

This next number was a collaborative effort with a Canadian musician. Before I started posting videos on Youtube, I was writing songs with various people, and he was one of them. He writes a lot of music, and was eager to co-write songs with other people. So he did the music, and I put the words and vocal melody to the ones that inspired me. I suppose you could say it was similar to the Elton John and Bernie Taupin scenario. The difference was that we made absolutely nothing from it :)

We did a number of songs together, and we were both happy with the results. In july, last year, I started posting up my videos to Youtube. Earlier this year I encouraged my musical friend from Canada to start posting his stuff on to Youtube. He has done very well up to this point, and that's well deserved.

Getting around to the song. He posted up some music, inviting others to put words to it. It inspired me, so I worked on the lyrics and vocal melody, and I called the result "Traffic signals". I used some imagery in the video, which is symbolic of the meaning.

Here is the result of our effort:

If you like the music in this song, then I suggest you go and take a look at his Youtube channel. His username is 'Songvibe'. He's got a decent collection of songs on there already.

I'll finish off with the stats.

539 Subscribers. Still on the climb.

11,121 channel views.

There are 156,734 overall video views. Up by a few more thousand

Looking forward to the next one. It's another original song that has a guest guitarist.

Well, that's a week I was glad to get out of the way. My grandmother passed away two weeks ago, and the funeral was a couple of days ago. She was a wonderful woman, who I loved. She had a long life. She reached the ripe old age of 93.

In the early part of last year, I was taking part in music collaborations. One of these was with a Swedish man called Ulf. He is extremely talented, and had retired from gigging. He is now concentrating on composing, and is providing music for the film and television industry. His strengths are in the electronic side of music. There was a song I completed with him, which was his music, and my words. However, this is not that song. I mentioned his name in relation to this song, because he wanted to create a version of it. It's something we didn't get around to doing, so this is totally by me. The name of the song is "Take me home".

It's about someone who has made a big mistake in a relationship, that caused it to break. In the song, the person is appealing to their partner.

Have a listen, and see what you think.

Back to the stats.

I've got 534 Subscribers now. They are still climbing consistently.

The amount of views on my channel are now 11,121. All going in the right direction.

My overall video views are now 154,447.

My next post is about a collaboration with a good friend and extremely talented musician in Canada.

Now for something a little different. A good friend of mine asked me if I could do an alternative version of a Beatles song several months ago. The only provision was that I could not select any of their songs that had been hit singles. The song I was to choose, had to come from one of their albums. So I went through all their albums and made a short list of 10 songs. Then I narrowed it down to a single song.

I normally find my own songs pretty easy to write, but this was more difficult that I first thought. With my own songs I can hear the full arrangement in my head, and all I have to do is to bring that into reality. In the case of this song though, it already had music to it, and I had to try and clear that original music out of my mind, so that I could compose a new sound to it. It wasn't a quick process, but I eventually came up with something in the end.

Check out my new version:

My next video is another of my Original songs. One I wrote last year.

Now to round up with my Youtube figures.

There are now 526 Subscribers. Up a couple.

The viewings of my channel are 11,071.

The sum total of my video viewings are 150,542.

Only one more to the 60th vid. This is number fifty nine. This is a song that is not easy to forget. The reason for that is that it's quite a different song. It is "Mmm mmm mmm mmm" by the "Crash test dummies". If you are familiar with this song, then you will know that the lead vocal is quite low. A perfect opportunity for me to test out the depths of my vocal ability.

Here are the results:

At the beginning of the video, I mention someone called "Tay Zonday". Any of you that have spent some time on Youtube will probably have heard of him. He rocketed to fame because of an original song of his on Youtube, called "Chocolate rain". It's quite a boring song, but the man is quite astounding. You really don't expect that sort of voice to come out of that body. He appears very much like a student, but when he starts to sing. This low thunderous sound comes out. Very low :)

This is what is happening with my Youtube stuff at the moment.

I now have 522 Subscribers. A slight increase on last time.

The channel viewings are slightly up at 11,048.

My total video views are still moving forward well, and are currently at 148,768.

Only a couple of weeks and will have caught up with my videos. Then I can post to my blogs as I release the videos. The next of my videos was a challenge set by a friend last year. I've had such a backlog of requests, that I only got around to doing it recently. The clue is "The Beatles"

Back to another cover. This tune reached 19 in the UK charts in 2001. In my opinion, it should have got higher, because I think it is an awesome song. It's quite surprising to me that not many people actually know the song.

It was done by a group called "Toploader". Everyone seems to know their biggest hit, which was "Dancing in the moonlight". The song I did of theirs is called "Only for a while", and out of all their material. This one comes out top for me.

This is my take on it:

As I've built my contact list on Youtube, the views when I first put a video up get stronger and stronger. That's because I can let those people know when I've put a new video on. Once I've uploaded my video, I share it with all my contacts. This also means that they can share their videos with me. I've noticed a habit with some of them, and I've had to start crossing people off the list. There are some that send me a whole batch of messages for just one video. Just in case I didn't get the message first time!! Also there are some that send me that same videos every day. As a result I get sent about 80 videos a day now. There's no way I can get through all those. That's why I've decided to cross some of them off.

Anyway. Here's the latest numbers.

520 Subs.

11,036 Channel viewings.

147,599 total viewings.

My next video is something to test the depths of my voice :)