I totally agree with you - I don't think it's specifically emoticons that are the future. Snapchat is definitely a perfect example of the direction we are going in (picture + text).
The best use for this is if you wanted to have content, other than your usual content, that is exclusive to fans that specifically subscribe to you on YouTube.
This isn't something you should do for every video. That would definitely stunt your growth.
Boost is something you should use once and a while with the specific purpose of converting your existing fans on other social networks to subscribers on YouTube.
Our goal is to discover artists, grow their audience, and help them generate real revenue online.
We've already found quite a bit of incredibly talented artists. Check out this recent submission from an artist in San Francisco: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7jcfFrpvMA
Thanks for the feedback - we're looking into how we can make more of a "killer offer". We've received quite a bit of feedback that videos would be very desirable.
- If your music isn't good enough to go viral yet then we can provide you with feedback on how to improve and reach that point.
- If your music IS good enough to go viral the we want to promote you, get you press, get you featured on YouTube, Ustream, etc (these are all things we can do very easily if your music is good - we already have these relationships).
- If you are really taking off we can help you monetize this growth in very interesting and artist/fan friendly ways. When you reach this stage we will enter into a production style agreement and take a % of the revenue we generate you. This is where we make our money and NOT on the original $20.
Concerns:
- If we don't charge we will be bombarded, like you pointed out, with low quality content. This is a problem we want to avoid.
- If we don't charge then we will be paying artists to review your content out of our own pocket.
Question: What would this site have to say so that when you saw it, as a musician, your reaction was "Holy shit I have to do this and would be stupid not to"?
If the production, vocals, and presentation (good branding, etc) are at a level where most people who like that genre would play the song and think "Yeah, this sounds like a real song..." then we will work hard to make sure those people hear the song.
Our artists are good at reviewing rap, pop, edm, country, rock, etc. All genres.
Currently we can help the most with promoting rap, hip-hop, pop, and edm. We can help all genres find labels (we know a lot of them).