A million hits on Youtube

Georg Mertens

Congratulations to our colleague, Georg Mertens, whose Georgcello Youtube site has now received a million visits.

As we said in a post last month, Georg Mertens is a cellist, guitarist, composer, arranger, teacher and author who combines great musical skills with an astute knowledge of successful internet marketing.

How did he achieve a million hits on Youtube? It was not by choosing to play current popular music, which was the way former Mitchell Conservatorium student, Ella Jamieson and her band, Aston, clocked up the magic million, with their classical version of Lady Gaga's Telephone.

And it was not a viral campaign, like the wildly successful Canadian Christmas flashmob version of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.

Georg's success in attracting a million visitors to his Youtube site has been achieved through providing so many musically interesting, varied performances on guitar and cello, both solo and in combination with other musicians.

His most popular video, so far, has been an Arabian improvisation on cello.

How to get an audience

The Aston method

Choose a song that is currently very popular, and create your own great version of it.
Make a great live video of your performance
Result? Over 957,000 views on Youtube.




The Alphabet Photography method
Choose a piece of music that has been popular from the time it was written over 250 years ago.
Hire a terrific set of singers, including soprano Stephanie Tritchew and Chorus Niagara, a professional 80 voice choir.
Find a suitable venue.
Liaise with the management of venue
Set up seven hidden cameras
Perform your song unannounced, as a flashmob at midday when the centre is buzzing
Result: 936,000 views on Youtube in one week!

Christmas flashmob

Do you know what a flashmob is? Wikipedia defines it as

a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.

It is usually organised via mobile phones or internet sites such as Facebook.

The Christmas flashmob above took place on 13th November, 2010 at a shopping centre food court.

Hope you enjoy this wonderful performance of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. Eat your heart out, Leonard Cohen. Please forgive Eusebius, but that song is one of his pet hates. (Cohen's, not Handel's.)

Merry Christmas!