January 28, 2010

Ray Stevens' You Tube success

Welcome to my latest Ray Stevens blog. I thought it would be fun and interesting to dissect the play totals of Ray Stevens' music videos on You Tube. Ray began uploading his popular music videos on You Tube half a year ago and each of the music videos have obtained a level of popularity on-line as a result. Admittedly the music videos had long been available on You Tube from other users who had uploaded them from their own personal collections and those uploads scored hundreds of thousands of hits on You Tube months, in some cases years, before Ray and his people got involved and launched their own You Tube channel. Ray didn't upload many music videos during the last seven months...a bulk of the available music videos you can watch were uploaded 6 months ago. "We The People" was uploaded a month ago and "Thank You" was uploaded 3 weeks ago. The military salute, "Thank You", isn't the official follow-up to "We The People" and that's why he hasn't promoted the song as much. "Thank You" has received thousands of hits nonetheless.

To date, the music videos on You Tube that have been uploaded by Ray's people have obtained a combined 2,965,631 plays if my math is accurate and I didn't punch any wrong numbers on my calculator. While it's true 95% of that total can be traced to just one music video in particular the fact remains that before long Ray will crack the 3,000,000 mark. The reason I make a big deal about that is because Ray isn't a mainstream artist...and anytime a non-mainstream artist can tap into that mainstream audience I consider it impressive. Usually artists who are considered not among the mainstream continue to have success within their audience reach...but once mainstream publicity occurs it's like you've successfully maneuvered around a roadblock of sorts...that roadblock being the mainstream music media and music video channels on television.

So this is why I come across as "too excited" or "easily excited" to those of you who happen to stumble across this blog and wonder why I'm making such a big deal about video airplay on You Tube and the exposure on the Fox News channel. I hope Ray continues to use You Tube to get his music to the masses who otherwise would not hear it if he went through the conventional channels. Ray, being an Independent artist and free from major record label constraints, is able to use You Tube to market his music. He records for his own label and he publishes nearly every song he records...even when he was signed to a major label he published nearly everything he recorded.

The major labels, though, usually use You Tube to market a mainstream artist's music video but with little to no control from the artist. Ray, on the contrary, has much more artistic freedom and control of his music than your typical mainstream artist does and I hope he continues to use You Tube in that manner.

Here is a list of the music videos officially uploaded by Ray Stevens on You Tube and a total, to date, of their hit count. I've listed them from most hits to the fewest...

1. We The People: 2,525,082

2. Osama Yo' Mama: 131,725

3. Jeremiah Peabody's Green and Purple Pills: 72,941

4. Thank You: 61,900

5. Mississippi Squirrel Revival: 55,653

6. Everything Is Beautiful: 30,709

7. The Streak: 23,314

8. Teenage Mutant Kung Fu Chickens: 21,518

9. Santa Claus Is Watching You: 13,307

10. It's Me Again, Margaret: 12,938

11. Misty: 12,931

12. Ahab the Arab: 7,691

13. Shriner's Convention: 5,812

14. Sittin' Up With the Dead: 110

The 110 plays of "Sittin' Up With the Dead" interest me because none of his other music video uploads have failed to achieve at least 1,000 or more hits. Music video 13 at 5,812 dwarfs the 110 plays of "Sittin' Up With the Dead".

The music video had been uploaded by numerous users prior to Ray uploading it onto You Tube and that could play a factor as to why that particular upload has such a low hit count.

2 comments:

  1. I miss all of yr videos of ray stevens. seems youtube has changed a lot on here. you were the best. i loved yr christrian channel also.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello! You may have me confused with someone else. I did have a lot of video montages of Ray but I removed them. However, I never had a Christian channel.

    ReplyDelete

Show your appreciation for the music of Ray Stevens...leave a comment...