AMV rant

[TheAMVShow]

I'll cosign on all that has been said here. Youtube in general is an effort in sheer luck, tons of marketing or just being recognized long enough that the views make themselves. When I was doing the AMV show months ago most of my views came from here, Reddit and cross promotion from other AMVs that had the same anime as the AMVs I was featuring that week.

As for the AMVs that I featured they did get a small bump in views in the week that they were featured but not anything that would push them over the top, mostly because my subs aren't diverse enough and isn't really bringing a new audience to the AMVs.

As said before Cons are definitely the best way to get exposure, Youtube is just a platform and on its own won't bring the views something else has to happen to bring the views and then you'll just have to be good enough to make them stay around.

[Chiikaboom]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

And thats 100% fine, dont get me wrong - I'm just saying if views are that important to you, you have to fan pander.

[ibabrak]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

Tell me about it. Pretty much the only one of my amvs that people know is multi-sourced and 50% of the comments are just people asking "what's the anime at 0:35" etc.

[AceD]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

Tell me about it. Pretty much the only one of my amvs that people know is multi-sourced and 50% of the comments are just people asking "what's the anime at 0:35" etc.

Pretty much normal

[ibabrak]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

Tell me about it. Pretty much the only one of my amvs that people know is multi-sourced and 50% of the comments are just people asking "what's the anime at 0:35" etc.

Pretty much normal
Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i60.tinypic.com/116mlx1.png

Didn't say it weren't xD

[CrackTheSky]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

Tell me about it. Pretty much the only one of my amvs that people know is multi-sourced and 50% of the comments are just people asking "what's the anime at 0:35" etc.

This brings up an interesting point for the OP to think about -- who are you trying to get to see your video? Editors, or anime fans? Do you want people to comment on the editing, do you want people to like your video because you put a lot of effort and thought and work into it? Or do you just want views by people who probably couldn't care less about it being a good video, but just like the song and/or anime?

It reminds me of something I read in Chiikaboom's Lip Flapper interview:

[On the .org] its a lot less about the anime, and more focused on the editing perspective. A lot of people edit with anime they havent even seen just because the footage looks nice. Imo that totally takes the point out of making amvs for me. It feels like anime has just become stock footage now... its no longer about being an anime fan and embracing that, its about wanting to be a video editor, or an artist. I guess theres nothing wrong with that if thats what you like to do, but I guess it kinda feels like people like me are isolated out. And then theres those awkward moments when an editor edits a kick ass vid using an anime you love, and you're like "OMG HELLS YEAH SOUL EATER YAYYY" and the editor is just like "i havent even seen the show i just edited with it lol". Ummm.

Neither approach is necessarily "better" or "worse", but you can insert yourself in certain communities that better fit your intentions. If you're an editor who wants people to see your video and appreciate or comment on your editing skills, you'd probably find more fulfillment here (although given the dwindling size of this community, you probably won't get all that much feedback here either). If you just want a lot of people to see your video and you don't care if they care about all the work you put in, you'll have to find a way to stand out on YouTube...and good luck with that >_>

[AceD]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

Tell me about it. Pretty much the only one of my amvs that people know is multi-sourced and 50% of the comments are just people asking "what's the anime at 0:35" etc.

Pretty much normal
Quoted Image converted to link:
http://i60.tinypic.com/116mlx1.png

Didn't say it weren't xD

I wasn't disagreeing, I was just backing it up . Although, It also applies to single source amvs as well, not just multi ones....quite amazing how people always ask on single source videos really.

[ibabrak]

One of my amvs that I hate has over 2 million views on youtube. Hardly anyone comments on the editing of the video, most of it is just people talking about the anime.

Tell me about it. Pretty much the only one of my amvs that people know is multi-sourced and 50% of the comments are just people asking "what's the anime at 0:35" etc.

This brings up an interesting point for the OP to think about -- who are you trying to get to see your video? Editors, or anime fans? Do you want people to comment on the editing, do you want people to like your video because you put a lot of effort and thought and work into it? Or do you just want views by people who probably couldn't care less about it being a good video, but just like the song and/or anime?

Yeah, I have to agree. I myself would rather have one comment saying something about the editing rather than 100 comments asking about the sources.
I've even had people complaining about the sources not being listed in the amv itself while there's clearly stated "Anime: All anime I used are in the link in the description." in the description. Same with music. People are just too lazy to even read, I guess.

That being said I do still find it worth it to upload my stuff on youtube, because even one simple constructively criticizing or complimenting comment is good enough of a reason for me

I wasn't disagreeing, I was just backing it up . Although, It also applies to single source amvs as well, not just multi ones....quite amazing how people always ask on single source videos really.

Yep, pretty much the same as people asking bout the one song mentioned in description

[Castor Troy]

Back when I had an AMV channel on YT, I hated seeing people upload my work and getting 17 million hits while my version only got 600...

Then I got canned.

[MatthewRoy]

Well that's just how youtube works.
You can have bad/average videos that get insane amount of views just by sheer luck. Fortunate choices with the words in the video title or in the description, with popular sources can give you thousands of views from nothing. Or being one of the first to make a decent video with a source that gets popular.. you get some views just from people searching for the anime, then you become one of the first results when looking for "main character vs nameofavillain" and once you are in the first positions in the search result list the view counter is going to grow endlessly

I think youtube can be a good place to showcase the videos you did over the years for contest and conventions, a nice page where anyone can quickly check your work on a decent quality. If you are good the subscriber base will slowly grow and I'd take those kind of users that aknowledged your existence from contest etc than 1000 of those who end up on amvs while looking for "naruto vs pain". Those would probably enjoy a non synced action video with cringeworthy effects.

Then if you really want to focus on how successful a certain amv was on youtube you can look at the views/likes ratio. A less popular video (let's say with 5k views) with 400 likes in my eyes is way more impressive than a 100k views with 1k likes.