Jeffstunes's Blog

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 updated some of the info. Added some links. I've also put an email registration on my home page, so that people can register for updates on the progress of my album.

I've stressed that the email address will only be used for that purpose, and will not be shared with anyone else. I have also added that same registration feature to another website I have a page on.

So now I can finally give out my website address. I've had it for a few years already, but it's just been sitting there :)

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 them to stay there for a while to show how everything started. Including all the mistakes and flaws.

Now this next bit is very interesting. A friend messaged me on Youtube, who had created a live internet TV channel, and he asked me if he could use some of my original music in his shows. I agreed, of course. He informed that when the first show aired, it received over 1,000 viewers in the first 3 hours!!!

This is a link to that channel:

Music for you - Live channel

This guy needs some more original music videos for his channel, so if you write your own stuff, and want it aired on a live internet broadcast channel, then go to the link above and contact him via his email address. It could get you some good exposure, just like me :)

Finally I'll finish up with the Youtube figures.

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

The channel views are now at 15,146.

Another increase of a few thousand on my total video views. The are now 229,501.

There's been another cover version of one of my original songs. This time it's "Broadcast fantasy".

It was performed by "PetesBehr" on Youtube. His recording of this song is a bit like an unplugged version.

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

I think that this differs quite a bit from the original song, but I quite like what he's done with it. He has created his own interpretation of it, and that is something I really like hear people having a go at with music. Especially my songs. Putting their own influence into it.

First of all, here is the original version:

Broadcast Fantasy - Jeffstunes

So now you know how the original goes. This is his cover of my song:

Cover of Broadcast fantasy by PetesBehr

It feels good when other people like your songs enough to want to record their own versions. It makes me think that I must be doing something right :)

Now, it's the Youtube update:

I have now got 681 subscribers. Only another 19 to go 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 thought that if I'm going to release an album, I might as well bring my site up to date. So I'm updating the info, and changing a few things around. I'll be giving out the URL when It's done, for anyone interested :)

I decided to take a few days break from putting the album together, and I recorded a requested song, from a while ago. It's one I've always wanted to do because on the surface it seems such a simple song, but it has so much room for expression. 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. I'm just sitting in and out of a shadow, through the entire 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 my facial expressions would go through subtle changes.

This is the final outcome:

My cover of No surprises by Radiohead

The latest numbers on my Yotube account.

677 subscribers.

14,891 channel viewings.

224,885 overall video views.

I suppose I'd better get back to album making :)

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 have decided to choose 4 songs from the ones I uploaded to Youtube. I've selected three already, and these are the three:

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 was played on Spirit FM which covers West Sussex. The 2nd of the new songs songs is called "Soaked to the bone". I completed that one yesterday.

So I have got 4+ songs left to prepare. I've got some numbers in my mind. Some of them have been half constructed already, so hopefully it wont take too long to finish them. 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.

If you upload your songs in stereo to Youtube, and get frustrated when the sound comes out in mono, and reduced quality. You might find it interesting to know that Youtube do have a higher quality version of your video.

When you make links to your videos, you will normally use the video URL. To get the higher quality version, all you have to do is add "&fmt=18" to the end of the URL. I suppose you could do that with the embedding too, but I haven't tried it 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

Notice the difference?

Now for my regular statistics update.

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 happened upon a tool that they have in Beta at the moment. They call it "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 there's a good chance that it's going to be noticed.

So I ploughed through a lot of my videos and put on the annotations that link to my channel. It took me a long time. 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

So here are my latest Youtube figures, followed by some news :)

I now have a total of 662 Subscribers.

The channel viewings are moving now and currently stand at 14,509.

The total video views are now at 216,799. At this rate I should reach the quarter million by the end of July.

Now for some news. I'm finally 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 contain some songs I've uploaded to Youtube, and a good number of new songs that haven't seen the light of day yet. I'm feeling quite excited by it all. Just the fact that it's being released. I'm going to be updating my blog with the album progress, as I lead up to the release date. 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.

The honours I got for this video were more than I could hope for, 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.

It's easier to get into the top 100's of some countries because there are less people using Youtube in those countries. The U.S. has to be the most difficult, and the U.K. is pretty difficult too. Which makes my achievement sweeter :)

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 happened on 4th June. I was over the moon with them. I put them in my video description as a reminder.

This is the latest on my youtube figures.

Subscribers - 651

Channel views - 14,196

Overall video views - 211,513

I've got some interesting things going on at the moment, and I'm going to be talking about them in my next few posts. It's all exciting stuff :)

I was in the middle of writing another song when I came up with the idea for this one. So I halted progress on the initial song to develop it. It's title is "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. It's a tongue-in-cheek look at TV addiction. 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:

Broadcast fantasy by Jeffstunes

This video was uploaded less that 24 hours ago, and the response so far is very good. Lots of lovely honours :)

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

I've now got 639 subscribers on my Channel.

The channel itself has been viewed 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 been known to change my mind at the last moment :)