What I Learned From YouTube & What’s Next… Honestly.
14 years ago, I got on YouTube just to chill and give game, have fun and talk to people who love music as much as me.
- I never talked about anything I ever worked on in music, because in LA, you don’t talk about it, you just live it.
- I never played or shared music, because I made music as a profession, not for views, likes or followers.
- I never bragged about anything in music, because I never wanted people to follow me because of who I knew or what I’ve done.
- I made content from a de-monetized channel from 12 years because I never cared to make content for the money.
- I’ve given my phone numbers to over 500 people over the past 14 years to anyone who had questions about music or life, because I just wanted to help people better understand how to navigate through music.
- In 2016, I started a music school, to educate people from my experience… music creatives who wanted to learn directly but didn’t have the money or means to attend a traditional music school.
Since then, I’ve been called a “scam artist”, I’m not really industry”, “he doesn’t talk about his credits because he doesn’t have any”, “he’s lying”, “he’s a hater”, etc… I never budged. Never went out of way to convince anyone otherwise, I just kept being me.
Still never cared to share music or prove my industry experience.
It wasn’t until 2020, when a business partner said that I should start working to strengthen my “industry reputation” and my cousin Steve telling me that I need to start sharing music when I began slowly talking about my past in the music industry, sharing my experiences, my truth so that you guys could finally understand that I was telling the truth.
I tried to tell my story…
I finally and slowly started to share music in unique ways, thinking this would finally get people to understand that I wasn’t some “washed up producer” talking crazy. I am one of the best music producers walking, I just never cared to prove it.
I’ve shared vlogs, revealing things no one else ever has online about the music industry, and that info has never been directly appreciated by humans, just YouTube profiles showing support.
After 13 years, I finally requested Gold & Platinum plaques for music I worked on in 2009. I got them and it didn’t make me feel better, so I never talked about them… I just posted the gold plaque in my office because the platinum plaque is too big and won’t fit in there. Not one person acknowledged that, you guys thought that was a lie as well.
Never wavered by ignorant opinions, I just kept being me.
Then I start to learn about all of the bad influencers online and had no choice but to call them out, because there’s absolutely no way that I can see that and just ignore it. That’s not integrity.
I scared off the trolls to the point where they won’t even show their face on cam. Now that is some funny shit. lol.
These influencers that I’ve called out have shown zero responsibility, accountability, integrity, morals, values or respect to the art of music or the culture, and their followers are not far behind them.
Through all of that, I am still here, being me.
I’ve made people upload real pictures to their YouTube accounts. I’ve brought the people up and gave them a voice. I gave the haters a voice as well. I’ve brought people to tears, sat on streams for literally hours giving free game, advice, insight, my time, my care, compassion and curiosity to better understand this online music community and the people in it. I’ve even cried on streams…
I stand on my observations that this online music community is trash, and the majority of the people who are a part of this community are trash as well.
Going forward, I will not be looking to interact as much with my followers. I will stop caring about online influencers improperly influencing the naive, careless and ignorant, but I will be available for private classes and consultations, in which the prices on all of that will be raised significantly.
I will no longer care about a community that doesn’t care about itself.
I don’t care about YouTube ad revenue either, and don’t plan on activating them on most of videos on my other channel.
I will no longer acknowledge strangers who don’t serve me behind a like, comment, subscription or a few membership dollars. I honestly think all of the pay walls online are corny.
Anonymous negative are all blocked immediately. A grown ass scary man with an opinion is not a man in my eyes. Y’all are too old to be pro commenters with no accountability.
I will place a higher value on myself now. I’ve earned that. I’ve poured into a community I wanted nothing from, nothing but to just be human and cool folks.
Music is a beautiful thing. It has changed my life. Music has given me confidence. It has given me a career. It has allowed me to be able to live for the rest of my life and never have to work again. It’s sad that no one here seems to appreciate all that music has to offer.
I am proud of myself and how I navigated through this online space over the past 8-9 months, even at the cost of my professional reputation, I can always get that back so I’m not tripping.
What I can’t get back is the time I feel I wasted on forcing a lazy community to care.
I look forward to the future and stepping more into my value and worth, and getting back to making and sharing high quality content with a small community of people. I’m cool with my little 2-300 views per video. Those 2-300 view videos are what made Monster Sessions successful back in 2016.
🤝🏾 Dame Taylor