Jeffstunes progress on Youtube

It has been a mad rush week. I've done some work on my own website, so that I can get it ready for the release of the album. I've changed some of the information. Put some more links in. I have also added an email registration on my home page, so that anyone can register for updates on the progress of the album.

I pointed out that the email address will only be used for album updates, and will not be given to anyone else. I have also added that same registration feature to another website I have a page on.

So now I can confidently share my web address. I've been running it for a few years already, but I haven't done much with it up to now :)

Anyway. Here it is. My website:

Jeffs music

There is a music player on there that has got a selection of songs that I've created over the last 4 years. I could have removed them, because the recording quality is not very good on some, and the vocals are less than perfect on a number of them. However, I want to leave them there for a while to show where my recordings started, and all the flaws with it.

Now this next bit is very interesting. I was contacted by a friend on Youtube, who had started up a live internet TV channel, and he asked if he could feature my tracks on his shows. I said yes of course. He reported to me that when the first show went out, it got over 1,000 viewers within the first 3 hours!!!

Here is a link to his live channel:

Music for you - Live channel

He needs some more original music videos for his TV channel, so if you compose your own songs, and would like it broadcast on a live internet television channel, then visit the link I've provided above and contact him via the email address that is shown on the channel. It could get you some good exposure, just like me :)

Last but not least. The Youtube number counts.

I gained 2 subscribers, but then I lost 2 :( So it's still 681.

The channel views are now at 15,146.

There has been another few thousand views to all of my videos so that figure now stands at 229,501.

There's been another cover version of one of my original songs. The tune this time is "Broadcast fantasy".

This was covered by "PetesBehr" on Youtube. It sounds like an unplugged version.

This guy has covered another one of my songs in the past.

This is quite different from the original, but I like it. It's interpreted in a completely different way, and that is something I really like hear people having a go at with music. Especially when it comes to my music. Engraving their own signature on it.

First up, is the Original version of "Broadcast fantasy". Check it out at the following link:

Broadcast Fantasy - Jeffstunes

Now you've heard the Original. Check out his cover of it:

It feels good when other people like your songs enough to want to record their own versions. It makes me feel like I'm doing something right :)

Now, it's the Youtube update:

I've got 681 subscribers. Only nineteen more to get to 700.

My channel views have raced forward to 15,037.

The total viewings for all of my videos are 227,028. Only another 23k to the quarter of a million, and it's moving at about a thousand a day at the moment.

I've been working on my own website recently. I think it's important for me to bring everything up to date, considering I'm releasing an album soon. So I'm updating the info, and changing a few things around. I'll be pumping out the URL when I'm happy that it's ready, for anyone who may be interested :)

I decided to take a few days break from putting the album together, and I got around to recording one of the songs that was requested quite a while ago. It's a song I really wanted to do because it seems a very simple song, but it's quite vocally expressive. The song I'm talking about is "No surprises" by "Radiohead".

The making of the vid was pretty easy. Not much going on in it. Just me sitting in half shadow, throughout the song. The video to the original is just the singers head, nit what looks like a space helmet to me, filling up with some water. I didn't use any water though.

Instead, I decided to think about different events in my life while singing, so that there would be subtle changes in expression.

This is the final outcome:

As per normal. Here is the latest news on my Youtube account statistics.

677 subs.

14,891 channel views.

224,885 total video viewings.

It would probably be a good idea for me to get back to making the album now :)

Right. This is the first of my updates on the progress of my album, and also a nice little tip for musicians on Youtube :)

I've decided to select 4 tracks from my Youtube uploads. I've chosen 3 already, and those songs are as follows:

Broadcast fantasy - Jeffstunes

Don't wish it away - Jeffstunes

Sight Or Sound - Jeffstunes

I'm going to make a short list of three other songs and put them to a vote. So effectively, the fourth will be chosen by voters.

I've now completed 2 other songs so far. They are "You think it's all over". Which is an adaptation of a song I wrote 2 years ago. The original version of this song was played on Spirit FM several times, which covers West Sussex in the UK. The second of those songs is "Soaked to the bone". I finished that one yesterday.

So just 4+ songs to go. I've got some tracks in mind. Some of them have been half developed so hopefully they wont take too long. It would be nice if I could finish them by the end of next week, but it will probably take me longer.

OK. Here's that tip for Youtube.

For those of you who upload songs in stereo to Youtube, and get disappointed when the audio comes out in mono, and lower quality. You might find it interesting to know that Youtube do have a higher quality version of your video.

When you provide a link for your video, you will normally specify a URL. To get the higher quality version, all you have to do is append "&fmt=18" to the URL. I suppose it's possible to do that with the embedding as well, but I haven't attempted that yet.

Here's an example for you. This is a link to one of my original songs:

Don't wish it away - Jeffstunes

Now the same song with the addition of "&fmt=18" to the URL

Don't wish it away - Jeffstunes

Can you hear the difference?

Now for my youtube figures.

My subscribers are now at 670.

The channel viewings are progressing quicker now, and currently stand at 14,702.

My total video viewings are increasing by over 1,000 views a day now and are now at 221,328.

More album news coming soon :)

I was trying to find ways to bump up my daily Youtube viewing figures, when I came across a tool that is in Beta stage at the moment. It's called "Annotations".

It allows you to add linking text or hotspots to your videos. When I watch videos on youtube, I don't normally pay much attention to what else is on that web page. As a maker of videos myself, that is not very encouraging. However, with this tool, I can make a link pop up on the video, and that is more likely to be noticed.

So I went through most of my videos and added annotations that link back to my channel. It took me ages. It's early days, but I've already noticed a jump in traffic. Especially in my channel views. So it seems to be working.

This is a link to my Channel on Youtube. Where most of the Annotations point to:

Jeffstunes Youtube Channel

Now for the latest on my Youtube numbers, followed by a snippet of news :)

My subscriber count is now at 662.

My channel views have jumped up to 14,509.

The total video views are now at 216,799. It's looking like the quarter of a million figure will be passed before the end of July.

Now for a bit of news. I'm releasing an album!

It will be release for digital sales only to begin with. If it provides enough revenue, then It's likely that the money will be invested in a CD release, and some promotion.

The album will consist of some of the tracks I've uploaded to Youtube, and a good number of songs that haven't been heard yet. I'm quite excited about it. I'll keep my blog up to date with the progress as the release date gets nearer. Giving info on selected tracks etc :)

This is a bit of an update on the last post I put up. I recently uploaded a new song to Youtube, and the response exceeded my expectations. The title of it was "Broadcast fantasy". It was an amusing view of TV addiction.

My honours for this video were more than I thought they would be, and there were a couple of firsts too. Literally.

Basically, Youtube has an honours system. Which works on a daily, weekly, monthly and all time basis. There are top 100's for Most viewed, Top rated, Most discussed, Top favourites, Most responded, and some others too. There is an overall set of top 100's that are worldwide, and then there are those that are divided into countries. These are also subdivided into categories. So you could have a video in the top 100 Most discussed of all videos in the world, or you could have one in the top 100 most discussed Music video in the UK.

Getting into the top 100's in som countries is easier because there are less Yuotube users in those countries. The U.S. is the most difficult, and the U.K. is quite difficult as well. Which makes my achievement better in my eyes :)

I normally get a batch of honours for each video I upload, and this is because I have a fair amount of subscribers and friends on my channel, but what I got with this latest video topped it all. I got my first number 1. Not just one, but two!

#1 - Top Rated (Today) - Music (United Kingdom)

#1 - Most Discussed (Today) - Music (United Kingdom)

That was on the 4th June. I was so pleased with them, that I put them in the video description.

This is the latest on my youtube figures.

Subscribers - 651

Channel views - 14,196

Total video views - 211,513

I've got some interesting news coming up in my next few posts. Something I'm getting quite excited about :)

I was busy writing another song when this one popped into my head. So I halted progress on the initial song to develop it. It's a song called "Broadcast fantasy".

I've finally racked up a year on Youtube, and I wanted to upload a song in celebration, and this one seems perfect. The song is an amusing poke at addiction to television. As Youtube shares a lot of similarites with television, it seemed like the right choice to make.

The style of this song is again different from my previous compositions. I think this one sits more in the pop arena.

Check it out here:

I put this video up less than a day ago, and the reaction so far is excellent. The daily honours have been building nicely :)

So it's down to the stats again. Here's the latest.

I've now got 639 subscribers on my Channel.

My channel has now been seen 13,842 times, and the combine viewings of all my videos are now 205,218.

I'm hoping my next upload will be the song I was originally working on. Though I have a habit of changing my mind at the last minute :)