The Marble Machine X project shows the value of the Youtube community

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/13/the-marble-machine-x-project-s.html

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Looks like we missed our chance to buy one, though… “We regret that this item is no longer available.”
https://www.hammacher.com/product/marble-machine-orchestra

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The real question is whether or not the youtube channel is financially viable.

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I’ve no idea about this video or channel performance, but this seems the ideal content in youtube’s view, it is somehow addicting, and not political at all.
But, I’m not sure if it still can attract enough advertisement because it seems too niche and don’t have any aspirational drive.

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Over 5000 Patreon and YouTube Membership supporters is plenty good

The channel is fantastic btw. Been following since the beginning.

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That Planet Gear is beautiful.

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I’ve been following since the beginning also. It’s a great project and he’s gone through periods where I thought he wasn’t going to get it to all work, that it was too complicated and fiddly. He’s getting there though.

He’s done some amazing cross-promotional work. He has had well known (and some not so well known) youtubers make parts for him. So they make a video about them making the part, he makes a video about getting it, using it, modifying it, whatever. I got exposed to some new to me channels that way.

I think he’s probably making enough on patreon to live off of and pay for stuff.

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Hammacher Schlemmer had no right to put that up as it’s not their product. I’m on the MMX team and they have been asked to take that down more than once. Oh internet…

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In response to Rusty, support has been great, plus he’s a working musician. Hes been about to turn down a lot of sponsor offers, including a really big one from Amazon. All the engineering is strictly volunteer though, it it couldn’t happen. Thanks to all who help from the MMX team.

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There was a bit of speculation about the legitimacy of Hammacher Schlemmer’s version recently on the BBS:

Good to know that they didn’t bother to license the design from the artists who created it. That is not a good look for HS.

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I’ve been following the project ever since the first Marble Machine video went viral (and I was kind of obsessed with all his music for a while).

Frankly, his weekly videos are one of the best thing on Youtube for me right now. The combination of grit, musicality, cinematography, and Martin’s straightforwardness is just… adorable.

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I feel so vindicated in my skepticism. There were some folks in that thread that were all, “An overpriced internet retailer would never rip off an artist like that! It must be licensed!”

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To be fair, they are absurdly blatant about copying the design. They even literally uploaded Wintergatan’s video to their own YouTube channel and used it as the product video on their shop. To someone who’s not predisposed to distrust everything they read on the internet, that seems like evidence that it must be official.

Also, if there were ever a case where YouTube’s ContentID system should actually be making the world a better place, this would be it… and yet, the video remains up. Funny, that.

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Thanks to the magic of systemic bias, I’m pretty sure ContentID only protects your music if you’re a giant publisher from the old guard.

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