The Damage Done

US music reviewer Anthony Fantano is making a huge wave online with his vlog The Needle Drop, to the point where his YouTube channel has over a quarter-million subscribers. He’s hitting BIGSOUND for the first time to pass on some of his hard-won knowledge and interesting perspectives.

“I’ll be talking about current trends in music and criticism,” he explains. “I hope to throw in some Australian-specific material – things that I think might be really important to Australian artists in general – such as how to effectively market your music on the internet to acquire an international fanbase, plus what that means and how to capitalise on that.”

As for The Needle Drop’s traction, Fantano puts it down to a combination of trust and a personal touch.

“I think there are people who gravitate towards the things that I recommend and who trust me as someone who can recommend stuff,” he concedes.  “Going with my gut has put me in a position where I know that not everybody’s going to agree with me, and not everybody is going to like what I like, but I think that the people who do share similar tastes to me, there’s been enough of them watching my videos on a regular basis and recommending what I do to other people.

“I try to make my videos be as personal an experience as I can make them. I try to make the dialogue as much like a one-sided conversation as it can be – there’s not really anything that I say in my videos that I wouldn’t say if we were talking face-to-face. If we were to start a conversation right now, everything I would say to you would probably end up in my review as well. Being conversational is important to me.”

"Going with my gut has put me in a position where I know that not everybody’s going to agree with me."

Despite a college radio and NPR background, Fantano believes that the video aspect of his reviews allows people to connect with his personality.

“But the only difference with video – or doing it on YouTube – is that the audience can answer you back,” he smiles. “When you have a radio show on a popular station – and the station that I was on was the most popular NPR-affiliated station in my state – then you know that there’s people listening, but on YouTube they can agree with you or tell you that you suck or whatever. So the issue becomes understanding which comments to take seriously and which comments are right and wrong – sometimes people don’t want to hear [it], but the negative feedback you get can have a lot of truth to it. I see what I do as having a purpose – serving the music fan – and if my videos aren’t being helpful to people trying to find out about new bands or genres, then I need to be sensitive to that.”