I have been using Youtube regularly since I was 15, a freshmen in high school. I think it all started when I was trying to find new music to download, via a YouTube to MP3 site. I was particularly into an artist that goes by the stage name “Flying Lotus”. He has dozens of tracks that are not on albums or eps that you obtain through iTunes, if not hundreds. But, for some reason, they get uploaded to YouTube. I always enjoyed that about this website. Not only is it primarily user driven, it also allows for artists (or “leakers”) to release music in a different area than the regulated sites of iTunes and record label websites. It also is a great way to discover how an audience of dedicated fans will respond to your new material.

Most casual listeners will not go beyond the standard methods of obtaining music. I think that, generally speaking, the die-hard fans are the ones who are ready to scour the depths of vinyl stacks and bootleg websites so that they might find that unknown gem of the artist’s library. It is a great method for artists to either test out new tracks on the fans that really matter, or to release old tracks that they enjoyed making and listening to, the ones that didn’t make it on to the ep or album due to the professional process. They can check the number of views and read the comments to gauge its popularity or lack thereof, and if it’s a hit, suddenly they have a new popular track that could go viral and increase their renown. Basically, YouTube is the new “B-Sides” album of every modern artist that is willing to provide their music for free. I say this because it extends far beyond Flying Lotus. I have found countless tracks from many artists that aren’t on iTunes, BitTorrent, or vinyl. It seems to be most popular amongst electronic musicians to use this internet based release form, but it also extends to other genres, especially if someone has a recording of a song that the said band only plays live, or something of the like. Digging through YouTube has yielded many treasures in my time exploring.

My other favorite aspect of YouTube are the “Web Series”. These are usually short, episodic videos that are uploaded by either individuals or corporations, whether they are previously popular or not. The first web series I really got into was “MarbleHornets”, when I was a sophomore in college. For those of you who don’t know, MarbleHornets was originally created by a couple of film school students with a 500$ budget, which they used to shoot the first 26 episodes. I thought I knew what it was like to be scared watching a movie from my experience with “The Shining” and “The Grudge”, to give some perspective. But I have realized that I, in fact, did not know shit. Marble Hornets would release, each week, a video simply titled “Entry #..” with the appropriate number following it. These videos, usually no more than nine minutes, would scare the living hell out of me, especially alone in my dorm room with a bowl of far too hot ramen ready to spill on my lap. They essentially did the same thing as “The Blair Witch Project”, with their “recovered footage” sort of premise, which makes it feel all too real. But they also use methods of both sound and film manipulation to accentuate the horror. Every time “The Operator” (notoriously known as Slenderman from the Something Awful forums), we see a brief image of the horrifying figure, followed by the camera going haywire and emitting awful high pitched frequencies, only to snap back to normal footage once the being had left the frame. Scary stuff, let me tell you.

So I guess what YouTube means to me is that it can provide for a very intimate experience, almost person to person, or perhaps even more importantly, stranger to stranger. When I download that hidden track, I feel closer to the artist. When I share it, I feel like I’m letting someone in on a wonderful secret. When I watch a webseries episode, especially one made from a KickerStarter fund or with a very small budget, I feel like I’m seeing a truly personal and artistic creation that hasn’t yet been contaminated by media. Yes, there are ads, but these support the uploaders. I’m a huge fan of YouTube, and I think it allows for a new and excellent means of connecting people across the globe, who otherwise would never know that the other existed.

Here are my top 15 (beware, the first five are Marble Hornets!):