Greetings my awesome Metal and Geek friends, it seems that we’ve hit another cool milestone for the outlet and need to aim the spotlight over to the Official PiercingMetal YouTube Channel which celebrates it’s own 15th Anniversary of existence today. This comes a little over a week after the actual 18th Anniversary of the PiercingMetal website which I discussed in a post that you can find by clicking HERE. This post is to reflect on some of the YouTube ideals and what I’ve done with it over this length of time and some of the stuff that I’ve learned about it all.

In the notice about the YouTube 10th Anniversary, I mentioned how I had first launched this Channel about three years after the birth of the PiercingMetal website and while it had existed as a “thing” for a few years by then, I never really knew what to do with it. I was so locked into the traditional reporting and the photography and never saw myself as what I referred to as a “Talking Head” to the screen. Eventually I would begin adding some live concert videos to the Channels content base but I really don’t do many of those anymore as they can trigger the copyright strikes and no one wants those hitting their Channel. I will say that the 10th Anniversary set me on a better creative path even though it wasn’t always a continuous one since I have other things keeping me busy on the website and the myriad amount of social media profiles that come part and parcel in the world of online publishing. For historical purposes I’ll reflect on the first video that I published on the Channel once more because everything has to start somewhere. This was the band Eluveitie at the Gramercy Theatre and I just love the sound that they bring to life onstage and I guess back then I had recorded it to post in hopes of getting more people into some of the more interesting bands I was getting to see. Funny thing is that I actually caught them a few weeks ago at the very same venue but the only video I did was one of the YouTube Shorts.   

Now I should mention that while the account was online for fifteen years there were often long spans of time between any content and truth be told I really only focused on it a couple of years before the pandemic hit us and found everyone trying their hand at new things. I finished posting many concert clips that I found on a couple of drives and then learned how to make photo gallery videos to help generate more convention interest and have things to show reps as their events came around. I also even started doing more talking to the audience in regular check ins during the pandemic and then from the conventions and shows. Slowly I was starting to both get more of a hang of it and even enjoy it. The downside of doing all this so late in the game is building up the audience that would have hopefully been growing all along had more care been placed on the Channel. I actually celebrated my own personal anniversary on the network in a post that ran HERE if you’d like to check that out. YouTube is one of the most important of the mediums to have for a brand and I like to keep mine very fun, positive and hopefully interesting. Since doing music pieces is on the difficult side, I’ve focused on the conventions where I talk to so many different creative people and want our audience to learn more about them and hopefully support them as well. The criteria for YouTube to allow you to monetize any of your content is to first hit 1K subscribers and then have 4K watch hours in a given year. Sadly we are not there yet but if you have friends that enjoy the same kinds of things that get published then please show them this network. We’ve passed the half-million point in terms of Views so let’s keep that rising as every minute you watch something here adds to the larger mix. It would honestly be on a closer path if the Facebook Page followers all rallied for the Channel and began watching. It’s a slow climb but I am down with it all as there is so much content to create. Now I want to share some of my favorite clips from the Channel because I think you might like them as well. Let’s start with the legendary Uli Jon Roth who was backstage at the now shuttered B.B. King’s where we did a spot discussion about his famed Sky Guitars. The other videos will follow the overall narrative we are in the middle of. For a sudden creative idea it was pretty cool to see it generate 21K Views.

So a lot has changed from the 10th to 15th YouTube Anniversary and one of the biggest ones is that I finally have a Channel for “The Chronicles of Piercing Ken” website. That was so many years overdue but I pulled the trigger in 2020 because that website is doing so many awesome things and needed YouTube Content to be created as well. There is even a Channel for my Ken Pierce Media angle and while its not posted on as much as this and Piercing Ken, we do use it. What I’ve tried to do is connect all of the creative dots and interplay between them all as a Content Creator. Something on my original Personal Channel might refer to PiercingMetal, The Chronicles or even KPM and by doing that I am helping to foster more growth across all the Channels. Wrapping this announcement up I want to thank you if you are already subscribing to PiercingMetal on YouTube and if you aren’t, please let me stress that the subscriber count helps the Channel achieve greater milestones and lets it do even more creative things. I also love seeing any comments that add to the mix. It also shows us that you’ve subscribed or are seeing the content. I’ve set up all the different Channels on the Channels tab on each of the different YouTube Channels. I remember a day when I didn’t want one of them and now I have four of them. Each does speak to a different creative voice so I think you’d like it. My bottom line goal is to entertain you and get you as excited about the things that I am participating in. Since this is the best part to do that reminder stuff I will ask you to first Subscribe, click the Notification Bell, like the videos by pressing the thumbs up and leave some comments. That’s pretty easy IMHO and it would be awesome to get past the 1000 subscribers mark by the end of the year. Together we can make this happen so let’s break some barriers. Thanks for reading another anniversary notice. Now please enjoy some of my own favorite videos.

Sailor Moon Pretty Guardian Showcase

Judas Priest Mini-Museum

Metallica Pop-Up Shop

New York Comic Con Essentials

PiercingMetal Social Media Overview

Hasbro Selfie-Series

Oh yeah I forgot to share some of the analytics about the audience which is primarily male as opposed to Piercing Ken’s being primarily female and the age range is dynamic from 16-60 which is cool. We learn this from those who are subscribed mostly since Google gathers statistical data as you might expect. This lets me actually understand better who’s checking us out. I am posting more regular content here in both longform and the Shorts videos. The Shorts are easier to zap out since you can only do 60 seconds. They’re also fun so I’ve been doing show announcements, product reveals and comic book stuff with them. I even made a Playlist of only Shorts which makes for some fun scrolling when you have time. There are currently almost 475 videos to enjoy and I expect to surpass 500 by the middle of Summer. If you’re part of our little YouTube Family I thank you again for all of the interest. Let’s keep climbing.

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