ViewTube

Announcement: Due to a battery incident with the DJI Pocket 3 used as a webcam for our 24/7 livestream (the battery swelled and partially came apart), we will no longer be offering 24/7 streaming of Miami. We appreciate all of you who have tuned in during this time. Thank you for your understanding. 

Big News: We're Monetized Again & Introducing Acerting Art Elite Members!

Hey everyone,
I have some incredible news to share and a heartfelt message for all of you. As of February 2024, after a challenging period since July 2023, Acerting Art has finally been re-monetized! This journey wasn't easy. Continuing to deliver content without monetization tested our resolve, but we persevered, thanks to your unwavering support.

Your encouraging comments during this tough time meant the world to me. They reminded me that our content truly resonates with you, echoing the sentiment that the monetization setback was unfair. Despite a second application for monetization being rejected and nearly deciding against appealing the decision, your support gave me the strength to fight back. I showcased our original content—videos, audios, thumbnails, and behind-the-scenes footage—to prove everything we share is 100% ours. And it paid off!

However, the hiatus has taken its toll, with a 50% drop in traffic and a 60% decrease in revenue. In order to sustain our channel and continue providing high-quality content, we're introducing Acerting Art Elite Members. For just $4.99, you'll get access to exclusive perks:

FREE MP3 Downloads of all video audios for offline listening.
Member-Only Videos, including camera and microphone tests, behind-the-scenes footage, and bloopers.
Exclusive Live Streams and Chats, bringing you closer to our journey and allowing for real-time interaction.

While our beloved relaxation and city walk videos will remain a staple of the channel, the Elite Membership is for those who wish to dive deeper and support us further. This move also ensures that our content's originality is continually verified, offering peace of mind to both you and YouTube.

So, if you're ready to enjoy unlimited MP3s and get an insider look into Acerting Art, join us as an Elite Member. Your support not only helps keep the channel alive but also fuels our passion for creating content that brings relaxation and joy into your lives.

We can't wait to welcome you to the Acerting Art Elite Members!

Thank you for being the best part of Acerting Art. Your support means everything to us. 

Friends,
As I shared months ago, YouTube demonetized my channel in a completely unjust and retroactive manner for a type of content (Creative Commons) that was 100% allowed at the time. Once I was notified it was no longer permitted, I immediately stopped posting that type of content.

I also shared with you all the psychological toll this entire Acerting Art and YouTube journey has taken on me, negatively impacting my mood, self-esteem, and causing me to question everything I was doing.

At some point, YouTube decided it wanted to take down channels with 10 hour videos and evergreen content like rain sounds. Since then, my channel and others like it have really suffered. No matter what I posted, even with 400K subscribers, my videos struggled to reach a meaningful audience. My channel is absolutely shadow banned. Content I've posted that I've seen do well on other channels in the same category, barely gets 1K views for me.

This initially made me think it was my fault - that the content I was creating was bad and people didn't like it. So I DELETED MANY VIDEOS, even some with decent views or watch time. I thought I had to "sacrifice" them to leave only the very best, most engaging videos. And if new uploads didn't perform, I figured I should just delete those too.

I thought maybe YouTube didn't want me clogging up their servers with 10 hour videos, or that they didn't like me using loops to reach the 10 hour lengths.

Ironically, YouTube says the most important thing is THE AUDIENCE, and the audience wants 10 hour sleep videos, cares more about the sound than visuals (for my channel's niche), and doesn't care about loops as long as they're long enough (1 hour of unique content before looping seamlessly).

I know all of this because I was surveying my audience here in the Community tab, trying my best to serve you all.

Yet my channel has never recovered. All new videos fail to get views or reach.

I invested huge sums recording 1 hour videos without loops, but visually and sonically engaging, to avoid any issue with looping.

I spent money on fancy hotel rooms with beautiful views to position the camera for a full day or night of filming, getting real 10 hour videos without any looping.

Still nothing worked.

I've done everything imaginable, thought of every angle, tried minimizing mid-roll ads while still including some - balancing the audience preference with the need for YouTube to earn from hosting such long videos.

I could have had no mid-rolls for more views/revenue long-term or stuffed in way more ads, but tried to find the right balance. Wasn't enough.

They put SO much effort into punishing me and disincentivizing uploads, seemingly indifferent to how it affected me emotionally, yet still I persisted.

Before the demonetization, I had started reuploading some old deleted videos to see if it was just some algorithm glitch preventing them from getting views.

Initially no luck, but then I realized - people subscribed for the 10 hour videos. I started posting my fully original looping content again, up to 10 or 8 hours, and saw a small improvement in views and watch time (which pays).

Soon after came the demonetization for "reused content."

Yes, I had some creative commons videos, but it wasn't an issue...until it became the perfect excuse to strip my channel of income.

There are channels that churn out objectionable content or harass people on the street in Japan for pranks, yet I get demonetized for nature sounds and walking around relaxing cities? Absolutely unfair, cynical, and hypocritical.

And YouTube's lack of transparency and cruelty towards creators is even worse.

They could have warned me to delete the content or face demonetization, but didn't even provide a list of the so-called "reused" videos - they don't even know?? They just make up arbitrary rules to execute you whenever and however they want with no explanation?

At least with copyright claims they tell you which video is the issue, but here it's the trump card to kill your channel with zero specifics.

Clearly they just didn't want to keep paying for the relaxation content I was creating, and when psychologically tormenting my channel with low views failed to make me stop uploading, they had to shut me down somehow.

Why don't they want me to keep posting? Maybe because now it's trendy for quick money channels to talk about how easy it is to profit off rain and nature videos using AI, flooding YouTube with garbage.

But I kept improving my content, traveling for real footage, hiring professionals to filter annoying sounds.

Maybe they don't want to store 10 hour videos, or decided my nature niche doesn't fit their current agenda - I don't know.

But they could have handled this differently, especially by providing warning!

So 3 months ago, I tried appealing the monetization removal by deleting any videos I hadn't 100% created, while keeping the ones from before their policy change against creative commons, hoping they wouldn't make me delete the bulk of my channel's traffic. But it was an absolute refusal with no recourse, forcing me to delete a massive 80 MILLION views, on top of other videos I'd deleted over the years thinking it was somehow my fault they weren't getting views.

At minimum, I can take satisfaction in helping over 125 MILLION people relax and sleep (the 80 million deleted views plus 47 million on the channel currently after deleting that amount) - which is huge. Other artists have bigger numbers, but it's still incredibly far reaching, and I'm glad to have achieved that.

For now, I can reapply for monetization on January 18th.

I don't know what will happen, but I want YouTube and whoever reviews my channel to know - I had MUCH more original content that I deleted because I thought it wasn't good enough.

Looking back now, some of those videos are lower quality but the ironic thing is some of my worst looking videos, with terrible quality, had over 100K views before I deleted them thinking "this isn't good enough anymore."Deleting them made no difference.

So I'm going to reupload all my completely original old videos, even if they're from 2011, 2012, etc. Because I made them, they're mine, I put in real effort, and I want YouTube to see how much more content I had beyond the few remaining videos.

I'm explaining this because there is going to be a flood of videos posted in the coming days as I rush to get them all up before requesting monetization again.

If they re-monetize, great! If not, at least my work and effort will be memorialized.

I hope you all understand. Thanks for your support.

Sincerely,
Jordi 

The year 2023 comes to an end, many changes for me, here a summary-quixote of my learnings and thoughts:

* It's a shame that eSports with fighting games like Tekken don't have the financial support that other games have. 
  In the end it always comes down to the same thing, money and popularity, with the games that require the most skill being the least popular and therefore the most mistreated in terms of people being able to make a living off of them.

* The Tekken community is one of the friendliest, most inclusive, good role-playing and good people communities I've encountered. They have their sessions of gossip and colorful drama from time to time but it always gets resolved in a civilized manner. 

* Tournaments and in-person matches are the best, nothing like just playing online, being in person allows you to really get to know each one, and I'm glad to have met them. It's a shame that due to different situations I haven't been able to dedicate more time to them. 

* I would have liked to be able to sponsor Tekken Spain activities much more but some unforeseen events came up... which leads me to the next point...

* YouTube demonetized my channel, after 10 years of work, due to a clause they invented years after videos I had already uploaded and then didn't upload that type anymore (Creative Commons). 
   YouTube, like Twitch and other US platforms, are especially cruel and heartless in how they treat their own creators without caring if they've oriented and dedicated years of their lives to them, they don't care about leaving someone without income overnight, without warning, and with everything automated to the point that supposed "manual" reviews are really automatic and there's no way to reason with them because there's no one there.  
   This generates real anxiety, stress and uncertainty that is truly damaging to the daily life of the creator, their mental health and that of their surroundings.

* YouTube's shadow bans can really mess with your mind tremendously and very deeply. I've been uploading videos for years, every week, and in recent years no video would gain traction, you question everything, plus the channel with revenue and views (over 1 million views per month), but all from old videos, all the new ones fall into oblivion.
   I tried everything, thought I was doing something wrong, that the quality, length, theme, anything was bad...I tried everything, bought expensive cameras, went to film in more places, hired people...everything...and it didn't work, still I kept uploading videos, and nothing.
   This really discourages you and makes you feel that everything you do is useless, and it affects you mentally, morally, your self-esteem, everything.
   But...you have to keep going...because if you stop uploading videos then you lose traffic since I have channels I abandoned but had tons of traffic but weren't monetized and as soon as you stop uploading videos YouTube starts to ignore you and leave you aside.
   So keep uploading videos, investing money, time, trips to places, hotels, everything...knowing they'll be less than 1000 views and you'll lose that money, but that's how the old videos will keep generating what they generate...that really affects you more than you think by not seeing results for what you do. You have to "look the other way" a lot, too much.
   Until finally YouTube decides your videos will no longer be monetized, demonetizes your whole channel and tells you to delete those old videos.
   Were you mentally affected and dedicated and invested your life and business model into your channel? They couldn't care less, and there's no unemployment, no warning, they don't care at all what happens in your life. Be very careful with YouTube, seriously.
   At least I had been creating other income sources because that uncertainty only affected me negatively and I preferred to have more peace of mind "just in case" by having alternatives to YouTube, and thank goodness I did.

* Working from home, which I've been doing for over 10 years, has always been difficult but I've perfected it. The discipline it requires is much greater than one might think and not everyone can do it. Also, it really helps to differentiate the work and personal areas in the same house, and if you can have a small office somewhere, even better, you notice a difference. 

* I was very naive in thinking everyone would be able to do the same and be disciplined about working from home, this year I had my first payroll employees and it couldn't have gone worse, due to my inexperience, unforeseen events, and because I believed too much what I read in other people's tweets who say everyone is super responsible, everyone meets deadlines and doesn't pretend to be busy and that employers have to be super nice, 100% trust employees and give them every facility in the world.

* Now I've learned that working from home is not a right, it's a privilege for people who prove they are able to work in a disciplined manner without needing a boss watching over them, and, curiously, that's not as common as one might think. 

* I've also learned that "a junior is a junior no matter how much they want to be a senior", it's like a little kid saying they can do what adults can, and yes, they mess up, but in a much more spectacular way than a senior, and only then do they realize they are not senior level. I had to learn this "the hard way".

* You really have to follow the advice "hire slowly and fire quickly", letting someone who is doing things poorly continue longer than they should is unfair to the potential employee who could be earning that money by doing things right. 

* I've discovered there are a lot more fake people than I thought, especially (in my personal experience) in the world of art and entertainment, and then almost at the same level in the entrepreneurial world, having "friendships" that are really just contacts and as soon as there's a bump (channel demonetization, you can no longer provide them anything else, like contacts or influential people) then they don't treat you the same or just stop talking to you altogether. Let no one feel alluded to because these are very very specific cases and you're probably not one of them because if you're reading this then we are still in contact and it's not you I'm talking about xD

* 10 years of bootstrapping entrepreneurship has meant that I've lost "my youth" (my entire 30s decade), 99% of my friends and social life, and now at 40 something I don't even know how to resume that, and I feel "old" among 20 year olds, I feel out of place among 30 and 40 year olds because most are employees and have their lives already set...and I feel one-dimensional because entrepreneurship absorbed my whole existence except for Tekken season. 

* At the same time, it was a sacrifice I made consciously, fighting with everything I had to improve my situation, because it has been and is my duty to help my family and you do what you have to do as long as it's ethical and moral, so now I just have to figure out how to manage having a personal life in addition to professional, and reinvent myself a bit (AI topics I love) to generate new income sources since you can't rely on YouTube.

I really don't think many people will read this quixotic rant, but it helps me vent and in passing if it serves as a learning experience for someone, even better. 

And nothing else, happy exit from 2023, and may 2024 be much better! 

I'm frustrated to report that my application to re-monetize my channel was denied again last Wednesday. What I find puzzling is the reason given: "reused content." The content in question was wholly my own, which makes the label especially confusing.

In an attempt to align with YouTube's vague policies, I've taken drastic measures. I've deleted any video with a static image, regardless of whether I paid for the license for that stock photo. I've also removed videos that combined my original content with public domain elements—a practice that, to my understanding, should not be classified as "reused" when it actually results in something new.

But the culling didn't stop there. I went ahead and deleted all videos featuring music or sounds that I've also uploaded to streaming platforms like Spotify and Amazon Music. My concern is that this might be considered "reused content" since Tunecore, the aggregator I work with, also publishes these tracks on YouTube. Altogether, these deletions amount to a loss of 90 million views.

I apologize to all of you who've been asking where certain videos have gone. I will do my best to provide alternative links to the music and sounds, especially those published via Tunecore, so you can still enjoy them, albeit only in audio form.

I find YouTube's lack of transparency and guidance unacceptable. If any of my videos were truly in violation, a simple notification would suffice. I would willingly make the necessary adjustments. Instead, YouTube has chosen a path that is not only opaque but is also mentally and financially draining for creators like myself.

What this experience has irrevocably done is erode my trust in YouTube as a platform. Even if Acerting Art gets re-monetized, the relationship will never be what it once was. The sad reality is, it seems YouTube prefers to amplify sensationalist, misleading, and harmful content at the expense of creators who produce beneficial and uplifting materials. It's disheartening to see that at the end of the day, the priority seems to be revenue over the well-being of the community.

I leave here a link where you can find some of the videos that I had to delete:  https://www.youtube.com/@AcertingArt/playlists?view=50&sort=dd&shelf_id=1 

We've moved out of our apartment and will be staying at my mom's house for a few days while we finish packing and deciding what to take with us. We're leaving for the U.S. on Monday. We've stored all our belongings in an office and set up servers to keep our 24/7 streams running. We can access these remotely, which should allow me to create videos from the U.S., as all our data is on a 12-bay Synology NAS. Given the heavy and complex setup—including my PC with an RTX 3090, a server with an RTX 4090, 128GB RAM, and various cooling components—it's not feasible to ship it right now. For the time being, we'll be staying in an Airbnb for about a month and a half while we look for a long-term rental. Once we're settled, we'll assess whether it makes financial sense to ship our cameras, tripods, lights, lenses, computers, servers, and NAS, or if it's more cost-effective to purchase some of these items anew.

In the meantime, although the channel is not yet monetized, I'm employing someone to create DAILY videos for my secondary channel, Acerting Tours, and to take over Acerting Art once we've moved. So, I'll be somewhat absent for a while. I might not post updates in the community, but perhaps we'll do some live streams once we arrive in the U.S. to catch up with all of you.

We hope everything goes smoothly in this new chapter and are eager to see where the channel goes from here. Either way, we must keep moving forward. We'll keep you posted! 

More photos of the equipment I use: lenses, tripods, suction cups, lighting triggers, Rycote Windshield, and more. And that doesn't even include other items like Sound Blankets for ASMR and Aputure lights, or the Insta360 Titan, which I've already used for some videos. This is what I use to make my videos, and I also hire people to produce content, as well as contract others on Fiverr or directly to create content for me. It's a broad commitment to the channel because at Acerting Art, we do things right. We all may have made mistakes in the past, but for years we've been committed to and invested in unique, original, and exclusive content created solely by us. 

What microphones do I use for recording? So many that I don't have enough photo slots to show them all! I use 3dio, Neumann KU100, Sennheiser 8040 and 8060, Neumann KM 185, Schoeps CMC-641, Shure SM7B, Roland Binaural Microphones, Andrea Electronics SB-405B, and the interchangeable head microphones from the Zoom H5. For audio recording, I use the Zoom h1n, Zoom h5, Tascam DR-4, Mixpre3-II, MixPre10, and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I've tested these mics for nature sounds, ASMR, soundscapes, virtual reality, music, and much more. The dedication, financial investment, and desire to innovate are evident. It would make no sense to purchase so much expensive equipment if the content were fake or reused. The content we create is original, and only over 10 years ago did we upload Creative Commons content, which is a minor part of the channel. Here are some photos showing the microphones and me with them. I can also provide YouTube with invoices for these equipment purchases over the years. I hope they can understand that I genuinely enjoy what I do and will re-monetize the channel. 

We're already packing up everything to leave our apartment and move to the U.S. We're still uncertain about the channel's monetization, but after years of effort to secure the O-1 Visa, we can only move forward. While boxing things up, I've come across some relics, like the first voice recorder I ever bought, which I used for many of my initial videos. I've also found my Nikon Coolpix P500 and placed it next to my Nikon Coolpix P1000. I'm uploading some photos so YouTube can verify that this equipment is mine, I recorded the videos, and a lot of time and money has been invested in the channel.