Smallsongs is a YouTube series brought to you by Americana Highways featuring small & stripped down performances on the streets of different cities.
I’d like to give a behind the scenes description of the logistics and mental meanderings that go into growing a small youtube channel. I’d like to preface this blog/article/post with the reminder to myself that I’m a dreamer. I dream big. I believe in the spontaneity & the stripped down nature of smallsongs. I dreamt up this idea on our honeymoon in Roatan after getting inspired by “La Blogotheque” and how those videos made me feel.
I brought a warm color correction to almost every single video on a now 300+ video channel and have always stuck with the same font (cochin). I use living portraits as thumbnails most of the time and I’ve worked with some of my idols as I record them doing their magic. At the top of the smallsongs youtube channel it now shows “smallsongs, biguniverse.” It’s a reminder that the universe is much bigger than we realize. Most of the letters are undercase just because I like how that looks, but it fits.
I’ve done a couple interviews this week about myself as a filmmaker and about the story behind smallsongs. Both interviews were for Denver Westword. One I reached out to try and make happen, the other one they reached out to me. Keep an eye out for those. After various relatively disappointing turnouts in terms of views on these videos that I make on a consistent basis, I felt like I was missing something.
I play the comparison game just like so many of us do. Smallsongs is first and foremost a youtube channel. While the goal isn’t to attain certain numbers, at times it can be frustrating to make a video that you are so proud of with one of your favorite successful musicians, and then to find out that a very small amount of people actually watched it.
So I found myself typing in clickbait words for search engine optimization on how to grow your youtube channel & viewers & subscribers & watch hours & things of that sort. I know the audience and the niche for smallsongs and I’ve got an intentional style. So out of this doubt and out of this desire for more and out of this newfound education of youtube’s algorithm, I made these SEO optimized and curated playlists. This trilogy of long videos feature smallsongs new & old and we’ll see how many eyes get placed in that direction. Either way is fine, but it’s worth a shot.
The first is called “GIFTED SINGERS 2022” at:
The second is titled “SPRINGTIME MELODIES 2022” at:
The third is named “ACOUSTIC CHILL 2022” at:
The analytics are relatively intriguing. Over the last 28 days, only 11% of people who watch smallsongs are actually subscribed. I’m slowly but surely approaching monetization. Certain videos get views everyday throughout the day on a consistent basis, others get drowned in the vacuum. You can compare yourself from month to month to month to year and see how you measure up in your growth as a content creator or youtuber, but it’s just numbers. Everything is temporary. I’ll keep pushing on regardless.
Become a smallsongs Patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/smallsongs
Find earlier small songs videos, here: smallsongs: Esther Rose