this is stuff you like I'm Jill Bearup and the 9th of April is ASMR day which
is not even weird to me anymore because ASMR has kind of conquered the internet
in a generally polite and always softly spoken kind of way. Don't make me angry
you wouldn't like me when I'm angry I might raise my voice to a normal
conversational tone and that just would not be cricket. two other important
things have come to my attention: first that ASMR is no longer a niche thing on
YouTube it's basically mainstream, a load of people at VidCon I spoke to have
heard of it or use it even if they don't experience it. And second that apparently
some of my videos are quite popular for people to fall asleep to. I'm not sure
whether or not to take that as a compliment to be honest but I I think I
will take it in the spirit in which it was intended. but what is ASMR Jill? I hear
you say very softly because we don't do shouting in this genre
well ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and now most of you are
probably thinking what's an autonomous sensory meridian response when it's at
home basically as near as I can tell it's
like having really pleasant pins and needles in your head spine or body all
over and I didn't think I'd ever actually experienced it I've certainly
never experienced it from an ASMR video but actually I have experienced it in
other parts of my life because I get it from music so for example if I listen to
the soundtrack of the greatest showman there are several bits which literally
send kind of tingles up my spine into my head and it's very pleasant I also find
that Disney music and religious music do it as well quite often. But apparently
the triggers for ASMR are different for everyone who experiences it and not
everybody does that said even if you don't experience ASMR the videos have
become really really popular just because
they're super relaxing as a niche it has exploded in recent years to the point
that they invited Maria from gentle whispering to Anaheim to be a featured
creator I think in 2018 and that was kind of a big deal not that it
necessarily should be a big deal because she has several million subscribers but
it's gone from being a really weird niche thing to so big a niche that it's
actually fragmenting into its own little sub niches.Niches getting big enough
to fragment into their own sub niches is something that Alex the lowspecgamer
talked about at VidCon and I think is quite pertinent to ASMR particularly
because of its recent relatively recent runaway success the actual reasons for
its success on YouTube I will get back to you in a minute but I think they
mainly have to do with the YouTube algorithm many things do. and I think
it's a good thing that it's kind of fragmenting into sub niches because I'm
really picky about the videos I watch at the best of times so I don't really want
an ASMR video where someone pretends to be my girlfriend
or pretends that Harley Quinn is kidnapping me both of which are
apparently very popular and are probably why young pretty women do particularly
well in the ASMR genre. I mean young pretty women tend to do reasonably well
on YouTube anyway but not in every sector that being said beauty and ASMR
are apparently quite good fits what I like in an ASMR video apparently is
people being salty about Essex in a video about vampire spray-tanning
look I don't really know either at it did genuinely make me laugh yes let's
throw some shade on Essex during this random fantasy related ASMR video
excellent. so basically this is a very softly spoken video in which we're going
to try and explain the popularity of ASMR as seen through the lens of the
YouTube algorithm the thing about the YouTube algorithm is it prioritizes well
a fair number of things but it prioritizes watch time over all.
basically it's like a drug dealer and it wants you to stay on the platform for as
long as possible it isn't particularly worried about what it is you're watching
it just wants you to stay there and so among the things it likes are watch time
which is a really big one but also session starts so it really likes the
video that got you to start your watching session on YouTube and
both of those things lend themselves really well to ASMR being really popular
on YouTube because if you want to go to sleep and you're very stressed and you'd
like listening to this kind of video to help you go to sleep then you're going
to go to YouTube specifically to start an ASMR video and so that video gets
bumped up a little bit in the rankings and then once you're listening to it you
don't turn it off you just keep listening to it to the end and that's
how you end up with things like 10 hours of storm noise or whatever or two hours
of somebody brushing a microphone with their makeup brushes or whatever if you
have auto blade and you fall asleep but then YouTube will just keep showing you
videos until you either wake up and turn your phone off or until you wake up in
the morning so that's a really long session and YouTube can't tell that
you're asleep through most of it so it thinks that's really quite good and
because of that the algorithm then thinks aha these videos are popular and
shoves them out to a bunch of other people who might never have heard of
ASMR who might not really know what that is
and then the videos get more traffic and it becomes more popular and then people
start writing about the phenomenon of it which drives more people to the videos
and then people who aren't ASMR youtubers like me for example make
videos on the phenomenon and that drives more traffic to ASMR videos and it
becomes more popular as a search term and on and on it goes
plus if you are an ASMR youtuber then brand deals are a thing that you might
be able to do because while advertising can be a bit iffy given the volume
differentials. people like ASMR videos they make them
feel good and relaxed and generally positive about life and advertisers like
videos which make the people they want to buy their stuff feel-good so you see
where I'm kind of going here especially if you can get an ASMR youtuber to do a
sponsored video and everyone likes the sponsored video people tend to listen to
ASMR videos over and over and over again by which I mean they tend to listen to
the same ASMR video every night before they go to sleep or they might just
listen to the same one several times in a row both these things happen and so if
you are an advertiser and you've got your sponsored video and it's a really
good sponsored video and a lot of people like it they will be listening
effectively to your advert over and over and over again and you've only had to
have that one upfront cost of paying your ASMR youtuber to make this video.
No matter how much you like say my Star Wars content you're not gonna come and
listen to me every night before you go to sleep but if you're an ASMR youtuber
you can get people coming back and back and back again every day just because
it's a comforting familiar thing that helps them to relax and go to sleep
basically because of this switch to watch time as the be-all and end-all for
the YouTube algorithm 40-minute ASMR videos of mermaids brushing their hair
and pretending to sell you cutlery which I might just have made up but it is ASMR
so I don't know have gotten really popular I mean they're still considered
pretty weird in most places but they've gone from totally weird now that you've
explained what it is to me to totally weird but I know what it is and I
understand that it's very popular with the kids nowadays. and now you know and
so for the rest of this video I'm just going to trail off artistically because
I don't know what YouTube has decided you want to watch next and it might be a
bit of a hard transition.
yeah gotta love that YouTube algorithm right? I hope you enjoyed this video and
that it was interesting or relaxing or both leave a comment if you are still
awake and tell me what you think of ASMR and if you experience it and I hope to
see you all next time