Status Update on the MusicalWolfe Channel
Dear MusicalWolfe Subscribers,
As you all know, I haven’t uploaded any videos since 2012. I am not dead, nor have I become a zombie or succumbed to any of a variety of other cinematic illnesses. I want to apologize for the lack of communication regarding my long and sudden hiatus from YouTube, and give everyone a rough idea of what they can expect from my channel in the future.
Why Did You Stop Making Videos?
The short answer is that I chose to prioritize other things, such as college (I graduate in December!), work (in the US, college doesn’t pay for itself), and building out my portfolio in other ways. At 21 years old, I’m continuing to slip into the confining grasp of adulthood, and if any of you aren’t there yet, prepare to be mercilessly slapped in the face with Responsibilities and Deciding What You Want To Do With Your Life.
A second reason I decided to stop making videos is that Minecraft doesn’t hold quite the same appeal for me as it used to. It’s a fantastic game with tons of replayability, but like any game, it has a finite amount of things to do. I stuck with it even as I was running out of steam because I didn’t want to disappoint you guys, but the reality was that towards the end I’d already explored all the options that interested me.
The final reason that I stopped making videos is because it started to become less like a hobby and more like a job/responsibility. I did a great job walling myself in, effectively pigeonholing the type of videos my subscribers came to expect of me. Towards the end of my initial sprint, I was uncomfortable releasing any less than a 1:1 ratio of Note Block Songs to other videos, because I didn’t know if people would react well to my cessation of note block songs. Which brings me to my next point:
Why Didn’t You Tell Us Sooner?
Flat answer is that I didn’t know how you guys would react. YouTube subscribers are a mixed bag, so I’m sure some of the responses would have been “That’s okay, I liked your Note Block Songs, but if you are sick of making them, you should stop.” Examples of responses I would not have been prepared to deal with back then would have been “PLEASE don’t stop making Note Block Songs, they are great and if you stopped it would make me super sad :(“ or “wow no more note blocks? unsubbed”.
I’ve done a lot of growing since 2011/2012, and I like to think I’m much more tough-skinned now. If you have something to say, positive or negative, I’ll open up the comments at the bottom of this post. Please be civil (I really have no idea what to expect).
So What Happens Now?
I’m going to bring this channel back to its roots. I’m planning to upload music to the MusicalWolfe channel on no predetermined schedule, showing off the types of videos that I enjoy creating, instead of videos that have been engineered to get the most views and likes (I was actually doing napkin calculations towards the end of 2012). I am effectively bringing this channel back to where it started, back before the stage light of Machinima, before it ever became a commercial thing. I will be answering to an audience similar to my original audience - my first few hundred subscribers before I ever started doing Minecraft songs. The people that like my music whether or not it’s been composed in Minecraft.
The easiest way to sum it up is that I’m giving my channel a new overarching Goal. Whereas my old goal was to get views and subscribers, appeal directly to my subscriber base, and try to save money for college, my new goal is to share projects that I would have done anyway. At this time I don’t foresee putting a lot of extra effort into creating content specifically for the MusicalWolfe channel, but I would like to use it to continue sharing any new songs I create, and some of the music/gaming odds and ends in my life.
What this all amounts to, is that there will be Two Big Changes to the MusicalWolfe YouTube channel:
Change 1: Content Type
Up until 2012, my YouTube channel has focused on two main staples:
- Minecraft Note Block Songs
- Orchestrated and Electronic Music/Remixes
At this time I do not plan on creating more note block songs. I do, however, plan to continue creating music, with the following caveat:
Change 2: Content Frequency
Since my YouTube uploads will now depend only on my music output, and my music output depends on my other responsibilities/priorities in life (school, work, etc.), there will not be any guaranteed upload schedule. Whereas before I would generally put out a handful of videos every month, now only plan to upload when I have some new content to share. If I go for months or years without making music, then that means months or years without uploads. I’m sorry to have to do this, but I have decided that from now on I am going to fit YouTube around my life, instead of working my life around YouTube as I did in 2011-2012.
Contact
I want to encourage discussion, and I also want to emphasize that I will always be available and easy to get ahold of! If you have any questions or comments, either post them below or email me at max@maxlaumeister.com. If that address ever goes dead in the far future, you will always be able to contact me by google searching my full name (I have been blessed/cursed with a pretty unique one). Thank you for reading, and hopefully you now have a better understanding of the new role (which was actually the original role) that my YouTube channel plays!
Cheers,
Maximillian Laumeister
(MusicalWolfe~)
