Assessed Activity 7.1 (2015) by Kieran

YouTube for Instructional Videos

For writing and producing music, I utilise YouTube for instructional videos to figure out how to do things things like how to tune an instrument or how does a guitarist get a certain tone from an amplifier. The main part of music production which I use YouTube for is instructional videos on how to complete tasks and what techniques to use to produce music using FL Studio, a music production suite. YouTube has a wealth of instructional videos for FL Studio from professional and amateur users. Every task and technique needed to successfully complete a musical project using FL Studio is covered by multiple YouTube videos. But it does have its drawbacks… 

Strengths:

1. The answer to a question is available immediately.
2. The visual medium is easy to absorb.
3. The visual medium means people can use screen capture technology and show you how to execute a technique.
4. If there are multiple ways of doing something and a certain video doesn’t cover a technique, you can simply find another video.
5. Image-Line, the company that produced FL studio, have their own channel, with professional techniques and answers to many common questions.
6. There are lots of professionals and quality amateur videos with clear instruction

Weaknesses:

1. Some videos use obscure techniques and you have to research which technique to use.
2. Some videos are of such poor quality, they are unwatchable.
3. Common mistakes made are: Poor audio, poor lighting and low resolution (which is especially bad when using screen captured videos)
4. Low resolution 
5. There are so many videos to pick from and it can take some time to find a good quality one with the easiest technique

Opportunities:

1. Image-Line could make their own playlists with quality videos only.
2. A full FL studio visual manual (this would be quite an ambitious project but it could greatly increase FL Studios audience).

Threats:

1. YouTube may start requiring payment to have an account.
2. Users being put off by poor quality, unhelpful videos.
3. Users not using it because they aren't sure how to find the video they're after.
4. Users seeking alternative video streaming sites.

Finding the correct video with the easiest solution can be difficult. A user needs to consider the fact that anyone can upload an instructional video and there are some really poor videos on YouTube. Some handy tips for getting the best out of YouTube for instructional videos is to subscribe to official or professional YouTube channels as they are very reliable with their content. Another tip is to find blogs which discuss issues and techniques for FL Studio and they will often link you to a YouTube clip solving the problem.