OCR monetizing mixes on YouTube

[Anorax]

1 hour ago, Brandon Strader said:

And no I've had this sig for ... a while

Oh trust me, I've noticed. Oh have I noticed.

 

Anyway, I'm not going to contribute further to this thread. I will just say that as long as these ads encourage OCR's survival and growth as an organization and support its mission, I am on board with using YouTube as an alternate advertisement revenue source. I know there will still be dissidence, but you can't satisfy everything, and bygones will be bygones.

 

Are there legal ramifications? Well, yes, OCR has always been vulnerable to legal blowback by its very nature. We'll see what happens, but from a legal standpoint we were never quite in the right to begin with.

Are there moral ramifications? Well, duh, but since when does morality count for anything when it comes to Copyright or business proceedings in the US? That last one is sarcasm and does not warrant a response.

[djpretzel]

First things first, I'd like to thank everyone who's come forward with their support for the site & staff, in spite of the toxic way this has been introduced by non-staff and the accusations that have accompanied it. It means a lot.

As the father of two amazing daughters, the only way I can justify spending time on OCR and not with them is when I'm doing work that speaks to me, releasing kick-ass mixes & albums, and making the site & community stronger behind the scenes. This isn't that... this is dealing with a small contingent spreading bad faith accusations, paranoia, misunderstandings, and in some cases belligerence. As an adult, I realize that leadership DOES involve dealing with those types of things as well, but as a father of young children it is VERY hard to use my limited free time for this...

If you've been reading closely, you'll recall that our limited "trial run" of video ads was an experiment to see how intrusive the ads were and whether they would noticeably impact the user experience. We have indicated that our intention was to contact artists and hash this out once we had gotten the ball rolling on 501c3 status, and now it also seems like a revision to the content policy makes sense as well.

It's been a long, unnecessarily stressful conversation, but ultimately tomorrow we're going to post a mix & continue operations...

So what will that look like?

1. Our experiment is now effectively ended as we can no longer observe the impact of ads in a neutral setting.
2. We will not be enabling ads on additional videos UNTIL we can:
   1. Submit a filing for 501c3 status AND obtain this status, or reorganize into something more appropriate than a sole-proprietorship LLC.
   2. Modify the content policy with agreeably clear language.
   3. Present this change to artists and solicit feedback in a more civil setting, without toxic misinformation and accusations disrupting that dialogue.
3. We will proceed with removing ads from videos posted since June 13th.
   1. Exceptions will include any videos from artists who explicitly indicate they're cool with the ads staying, even prior to the above steps being taken. We would like to continue gathering analytics/metrics and seeing how everything works as we proceed with 501c3, etc., so this WILL be helpful to us.
   2. This removal will take a bit because to our knowledge, there's no batch mechanism for changing these settings, it has to be done one-by-one. Not awful, just a little monotonous. (UPDATED: Done!!)
   3. If you wanna help us get some more data in the meantime & have ads enabled on your videos, please let us know... as I said, we could use the additional insight.

So yes, this is still a thing & it's still happening - assuming the three steps outlined above can be completed and that artist feedback points us in this direction - but for now, thank goodness, we can take a break and wait until our ducks are in a row, we've made an historic step towards 501c3 status, we've updated the content policy to make things clearer, and we've had a more informed & productive conversation.

[Neifion]

What about not enabling ads on additional videos until after you've achieved 501c3 status? Submitting doesn't seem to mean anything. Until it's actually approved, you're still not 501c3. The books aren't open for the public to see. We're still not 100% sure that the money is going where you say it's going.

Not trying to antagonize or anything, just a legitimate question. Submitting for filing seems to show that you're taking steps to assure non-believers, but it doesn't actually mean anything until you've got it and we can see it.

[djpretzel]

1 minute ago, Neifion said:

What about not enabling ads on additional videos until after you've achieved 501c3 status? Submitting doesn't seem to mean anything. Until it's actually approved, you're still not 501c3. The books aren't open for the public to see. We're still not 100% sure that the money is going where you say it's going.

Not trying to antagonize or anything, just a legitimate question. Submitting for filing seems to show that you're taking steps to assure non-believers, but it doesn't actually mean anything until you've got it and we can see it.

Nah, it's a good point... anyone can file. Three things:

• You're right, we should wait until we actually obtain the status, not just file. I'll update the above post.
• If for some reason we cannot obtain the status, we'll need to revisit whether some other organizational structure can provide similar benefits/assurances.
• Just FYI, with regard to the books being open we're basically talking about a 990-EZ, as per: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990ez.pdf

[Neifion]

2 minutes ago, djpretzel said:

Nah, it's a good point... anyone can file. Three things:

• You're right, we should wait until we actually obtain the status, not just file. I'll update the above post.
• If for some reason we cannot obtain the status, we'll need to revisit whether some other organizational structure can provide similar benefits/assurances.
• Just FYI, with regard to the books being open we're basically talking about a 990-EZ, as per: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f990ez.pdf

Thank you for addressing my question clearly for me. Sounds like a good plan and that you've thought it out well.

[jnWake]

I strongly doubt it'll gather much data but I don't mind having ads on remixes I wrote... which is only 1 right now haha.

[timaeus222]

FWIW, you can freely monetize remix videos for my mixes (though with my collaborations you may have less luck getting the a-ok).

[The Coop]

Quote

It's worth noting that we do not enable "unskippable" ads, and NEVER will. They are Satan. We've also never enabled certain types of website ads that are more obnoxious - "pop-unders" and full-page timed skippable things.... uhh, because we hate them.

I'll be holding you to this, djp. The first time I play an OCR Youtube video/playlist and see that goddamned 15 second auto insurance commercial about the "perfect record" pop up, I will stomp my feet and be very irked. And you wouldn't like me when I'm irked. I get all big, green and puffy.

[Nabeel Ansari]

Absolutely fantastic read. @Brandon Strader you'd be interested in this as well.

[KingTiger]

3 hours ago, djpretzel said:

Exceptions will include any videos from artists who explicitly indicate they're cool with the ads staying, even prior to the above steps being taken

I'm cool with the ads staying. I believe @YoshiBlade said he was ok with it too, earlier in the thread, so that covers our collab. You'll have to check with @Flexstyle about our SCB collab.

[Mirby]

58 minutes ago, The Coop said:

I'll be holding you to this, djp. The first time I play an OCR Youtube video/playlist and see that goddamned 15 second auto insurance commercial about the "perfect record" pop up, I will stomp my feet and be very irked. And you wouldn't like me when I'm irked. I get all big, green and puffy.

Aww I thought you turned into a werewolf when you got irked. Image = ruined.

Seriously though that all sounds great djp.

[timaeus222]

28 minutes ago, Neblix said:

Absolutely fantastic read. @Brandon Strader you'd be interested in this as well.

Should totally pin that.

[Sagnewshreds]

Most of what I have to say has been said already. I was initially against monetizing YT vids, but after reading @djpretzel's pretty well thought out explanations and responses I'm on board with what's happening. I think filing for the 501c3 is going to be great for OCR. I still think ads in the videos is kind of intrusive in the same way that popup ads are, but I am not fundamentally or ethically opposed to them (would prefer ads on the video page). I'm all for OCR generating more than just the bare revenue it needs to maintain itself. More revenue funneling back into OCR would mean more growth which I think is a good thing.

More promotion, more resources for album projects, eventually a better website with more features, being able to pay for the 501c3 stuff, having "oh shit" money just in case something bad happens (something unexpected will happen down the line, and as someone who has also led various organizations in the past I can say that having backup funds is a tremendous help), I can name countless reasons why making more money than just the basic operating/hosting costs of the website is a good thing. It seems to me that DJP and the staff put a shitload of personal unpaid time into OCR so there's no reason for me to believe that they'd be doing shady things to pocket the 190ish dollars that have been made from YT revenue so far. Hell, most non profits even pay their employees. I wouldn't give a shit if the staff had a small paycheck for the amount of time they put in. Honestly I don't give a shit about any of that stuff unless a lot of money is being generated. But I don't see video game remixes making enough money for me to even care about shady stuff. DJP can pay for his trip to MAGFest on OCR's dime for the sake of promotion and buy himself some Nando's and that's fine with me.

When it comes to theshizz, they are definitely an unruly and polarizingly opinionated bunch, but they are awesome people. For the most part, it's an amazing community and some of my best friends are shizzies. Hell, a ton of OCR folks post on there like @zykO. Most of them are rad and a ton of good comes from that community, like DoD and all of the kick ass bands who post on there. I think a good few of the old school shizzies have fundamental philosophical differences with OCR when it comes to VGM stuff, but who gives a shit? That doesn't matter. There were some anti-OCR posts in general on that shizz thread, but I think most of the people who weighed in on this topic really don't care what OCR does with monetizing YT vids, myself included honestly. I'm fine with ads or no ads. Do what you need to do to run the site and I trust the staff's judgment for the most part. I will say though that YouTube is the main way I consume content from OCR and that if certain artists who disagree with the content policy were to take their remixes off of YT, I would probably forget to ever download and listen to them in the first place. So I hope that doesn't happen  Seems like some compromising has been made in the last pages of posts though.

@Brandon Strader said some pretty out there things a few pages ago, but I think it's really good for the community at large that he brought this discussion up. Seems like a lot came out of it when all is said and done (at least one somewhat direct result of it being that there now seems to be an urgency for filing the 501c3 stuff). Judging by his posts, it seems like he'll always have a disagreement with what is going on with the YT advertisement stuff. However hyperbolic some of his responses were, I hope he comes around and doesn't leave OCR entirely so he can continue to be a positive force in the community with all the kick ass work he's been doing on album projects (and regular remixes). Oh and to his credit, whenever I saw him link to this thread outside of here, he seemed to present it in a reasonable way (he shared his more opinionated views on the topic not in the same posts as linking to the thread).

Also if OCR ever enables un-skippable ads I will cause a god damn scene.

[Brandon Strader]

1 hour ago, Neblix said:

Absolutely fantastic read. @Brandon Strader you'd be interested in this as well.

I am, I read about 50% of it approximately, will check it over again and finish it probably tomorrow. Did OCR get some kind of certificate when they became an LLC? Saw one of those recently.
I've been a stickler for details, some of which might be pretty sensitive, but I'm basically a Meeseeks--once it's solved to satisfaction you'll see me disappear. That more or less was accomplished after much push back and forward, though the way I was demonized by djp is still really embarrassing, especially after all these years. He may be really mad at me but that's par for the course; things seem to have resolved pretty positively for the situation as a whole regardless of anyone's personal feelings. Ultimately I think most of this could have been avoided if the information was introduced first (two months ago). It was a ton of fighting and misinformation and arguing over stuff, because nobody knew anything, and it took a couple days before satisfying answers were even shared. And maybe now people are pissed at me cause like chicken little I said the sky was falling. Like chicken little I acted on what I knew at the time. Like chicken little I can be a bit of an asshole when I'm sharing opinions, but people love chicken little anyway. 

At any rate I may have been extremely careless with some of my messages, but I did not have malicious intent. Careless, but not intent. 

[Eino Keskitalo]

I hereby explicitly state that I allow OCR to monetize my mixes on Youtube.

[Jorito]

I hereby explicitly state that I allow OCR to monetize my mixes on Youtube.

[Newt]

5 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

I am, I read about 50% of it approximately, will check it over again and finish it probably tomorrow. Did OCR get some kind of certificate when they became an LLC? Saw one of those recently.
I've been a stickler for details, some of which might be pretty sensitive, but I'm basically a Meeseeks--once it's solved to satisfaction you'll see me disappear. That more or less was accomplished after much push back and forward, though the way I was demonized by djp is still really embarrassing, especially after all these years. He may be really mad at me but that's par for the course; things seem to have resolved pretty positively for the situation as a whole regardless of anyone's personal feelings. Ultimately I think most of this could have been avoided if the information was introduced first (two months ago). It was a ton of fighting and misinformation and arguing over stuff, because nobody knew anything, and it took a couple days before satisfying answers were even shared. And maybe now people are pissed at me cause like chicken little I said the sky was falling. Like chicken little I acted on what I knew at the time. Like chicken little I can be a bit of an asshole when I'm sharing opinions, but people love chicken little anyway. 

At any rate I may have been extremely careless with some of my messages, but I did not have malicious intent. Careless, but not intent. 

LLC ownership cert things cost a bit extra and don't really do much other than give you something to hang on a wall.. They don't make an org more or less legitimate.

[Flexstyle]

- Fact: I'm on staff and I'm not getting paid for any of this crap.

- I'm completely okay with OCR making a bit of a return on the great service they provide to me as an artist. If that shows up in the form of a slight financial benefit from ads run on or near my submitted material, no matter what form those ads take, that sounds great to me. Viva OCR!

[Platonist]

6 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

... though the way I was demonized by djp is still really embarrassing, especially after all these years....

At any rate I may have been extremely careless with some of my messages, but I did not have malicious intent. Careless, but not intent. 

So even as you admit that you went overboard, you're still trying to shame djp for pointing it out? 
You're contradicting yourself in a single post here. Careless is clearly an understatement. I can't even...

[Chimpazilla]

7 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

the way I was demonized by djp is still really embarrassing, especially after all these years. He may be really mad at me but that's par for the course;  

I have to call this out.  What total bullshit this statement is.  You started this, which ultimately I think was a good thing because it got the ball rolling on some good things, but you set the angry and accusatory tone right from post #1 and maintained it for 14 pages of thread.  We are all getting too old for this.

 

7 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

It was a ton of fighting and misinformation and arguing over stuff, because nobody knew anything, and it took a couple days before satisfying answers were even shared.

Are you even serious?  Dave began providing solid, undeniable answers right from the start.  You continued screaming.

 

7 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

And maybe now people are pissed at me cause like chicken little I said the sky was falling.

They are pissed at you because you made incredibly insulting and darn-near libel-worthy accusations claiming you had actual evidence.  You dragged OCR and Dave specifically through the mud, and not just here.

 

7 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

At any rate I may have been extremely careless with some of my messages, but I did not have malicious intent. Careless, but not intent. 

Whatever.  You need to clean up your act in a very big way.  You had Dave on the border of insanity yesterday and I'm REALLY not ok with that.  I'm sorry but this just needs to be said.

[Wina A. Kamlongera]

Man, clearly It's been too long since I was last here lurking. How'd things get so personal?

I'd like to reiterate that I'm cool with my mixes being monetized for the site. Thanks for the patience and responses, djp.

Thanks for bringing it up on Facebook, Brandon. Although I do wish you had kept the even tone you presented the matter with on Facebook.

We're all coming at this for the love of the craft so I guess tempers/emotions are bound to flare. 

[OceansAndrew]

7 hours ago, Brandon Strader said:

 though the way I was demonized by djp is still really embarrassing, especially after all these years.

The only thing embarrassing was how you handled yourself here.

You have a historical pattern of this, and I am personally done with it. 

[DarkeSword]

I'm going to close this thread up. A spirited discussion to be sure, but @djpretzel indicated what the next steps are going to be for OCR with regards to shifting ads over to YouTube.

I don't think it's healthy for us to sit around and do a post-mortem of the arguments/discussion. Let's get back to talking about video games, music, and video game music.

[Liontamer]

Will also add that if you still have questions about ad revenue or other concerns that you don't feel were answered fully, zircon wrote up an FAQ that we've reviewed detailing everything to the best of his ability. Feel free to ask questions and continue the discussion there.
 

 

[Liontamer]

Have to include some new stuff from Brandon that continues to assume the worst about how OCR is run, including the belief that mixes from popular games were posted in order to maximize YouTube revenue (ignoring all the less popular games we posted mixes from). I want to be sure people can see these accusations. My responses below:

Quote

Statement Concerning OverClocked ReMix

08/16/2016 / BRANDON / 0 COMMENTS

“They can come back, but they have to do so legally.” ~Donald J. Trump

Most of you probably don’t know that recently, OC ReMix attempted to monetize videos to get revenue on YouTube. They started doing this on June 14th, 2016 but recently were forced by public response to take it off until such a time that their ducks are in a row. The monetization had been active for 2 months without any of the artists being informed or asked permission, and none of the remixes were legally licensed so that revenue made would be shared with the publisher or rights holders of the music.

There were a lot of issues with this taking place, but the most glaring issue is that they did this without asking or informing anyone. They did it in a really shady manner, and tried to justify having done it by saying “nobody noticed for 2 months”. When confronted with this betrayal and questions of legality and ethics, some staff shared their opinions, while others — such as site owner djpretzel — became very defensive, and ultimately brushed concerns aside. At the end of the short discussion, I was blamed for “misrepresenting” the situation, or making OCR “toxic” by airing my concerns, speculation, and grievances.

My biggest problem from the start was that they had gone behind our backs — we, the artists, who essentially provide all of the content for OCR — and did this without asking and without permission. Then, when confronted about it, they justified generating revenue on this platform outside of OCR (YouTube) by saying it’s “the same as advertisements on the OCR website.” I personally don’t see it that way. YouTube is a free service, and “remixes” need to be legally licensed so that the rights holders get their fair share of the revenue. If the YouTube aspect had been in the agreement to begin with, or if we had simply been asked if it was alright, this probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal. Site owner djpretzel has stated that the Content Policy will rightfully be updated to reflect changing technologies, as the original policy had been written in 2007.

The second thing that bothered me about the situation is that rather than apologize, and simply state that they’re going to try to work harder to appear ethical and work more diligently to adhere to legality as much as possible, I was demonized and scapegoated by site owner djpretzel. I was, more or less, accused of “poisoning the well” as he brushed aside the negative concerns surrounding the situation. I have often, for multiple years, been critical of OC ReMix’s lack of accountability and transparency. Going forward, I will probably also be critical of their lack of trust and good will. As someone who provides content for the website, and essentially a customer (if you would consider OCR to be acompany), I am in no position to be scapegoated any more than any other customer would be for asking questions.  That’s unprofessional, and demonizing me over the situation is embarrassing and shows a lack of character, something that has been coming more to the forefront with how OCR conducts its business.

As a result of this whole disrespectful display, and waste of mytime, I am ready to remove all of my personal content that I produced alone from OC ReMix. However, I decided to do what OCR was not capable of and leave this decision up to the fans. Only 8 people voted in the poll I pinned on Twitter, sadly, which is hardly a sample size worthy of note. But in an age where people don’t really care that much to begin with, this is probably the best I can do outside of running the poll for a month and publicizing the situation in other ways. So in brief: I’m not going to request my content removed from OC ReMix.  However, as a result of this petty, inept nonsense, I am going to be seeking other avenues to release and promote my own content — legally, and in a manner that I can’t be exploited in some way. This may mean many less submissions to OCR, and more legally licensed, high quality projects released through Loudr, available on iTunes and Spotify, in addition to original music released through similar platforms.

(ed: I forgot to mention YouTube. I will still put all my new mixes on YouTube unless they’re made for a project.)

I have no intention to end any of my current projects. The only difference you might see is less fresh content going towards OC ReMix from me personally, yet the projects that are currently active (FF3, FF8, others) should ultimately not be affected. I can only hope that the revenue generated by upcoming projects allows the staff to look past their grudges, as the artists involved deserve to have their content heard if they agree to release their content through OC Remix.

“Leaving it up to the fans is the best possible course of action, in my opinion. I will leave my content available on OC ReMix for those who wish to still see it and enjoy it on that platform. I may not be happy, but if my music brings joys to others, I’ll live with it.”

Thank you for reading,
Brandon E. Strader

 

Sagnewshreds, on 15 Aug 2016 - 01:46 AM, said:

Isn't that what ocremixes are anyway though? I mean I guess it doesn't matter because the whole point of this was about how OCR isn't actually profiting from any of it.

Except DJP probably just bought a TWO Ferraris with ad revenue from Strader's Chrono cross remix.

Quote

 

Not to beat a festering horse, but don't you find that just the littlest bit...... shitty? 

 

They started monetizing with a SM64 mix on June 14th that got 12,000 views. That is absolutely above and beyond any normal upload in terms of view count. They followed that up with a FF6 mix that got around 7,000 views. Also above and beyond the average view count for a mix. 

 

During the period they had monetizing active, they pushed a FF7 mix which is fairly rare to see posted, FF4, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and many other mixes that pulled in a couple thousand or more views each. From my experience, seeing a video get 1,000 was a good sign, getting 2,000 was a boon. It was great to get 2k views.

 

Now a mere few days after the shitfest of monetization was blown open, they announce a Chrono Trigger album is ready to drop.

 

As a side note, my Chrono Cross mix was DPd and then posted within a week or two, clearly out of sequence.

 

I think it's a legitimate concern that stuff is or can be scheduled in such a way as to maximize on profit. It seems like a conflict of interest to me now, and introduces a troubling bias that was still THERE but less pronounced before money got introduced. 

 

Maybe it's all just a coincidence, but it's a pretty damn convenient one. I still have mother-lovin' mixes that are multiple years waiting, just sitting there untouched, and they post one they just come across fresh instead, because it could bring in views just based on what game / theme it was (Time's Scar). 

 

I dunno. Apparently you guys are haters and your opinions don't matter anyway. But I may be going crazy, all signs for me just keep pointing to something shady going on. 

 

Need to be clear that Brandon wasn't blamed for "misrepresenting" the situation, as if it were just a difference of opinion. Despite pages of discussion and details, he's continued with over-the-top conspiracy theories, fake claims of evidence, and conclusions in bad faith that were literally libel. We believe the Content Policy gives OCR the permission to republish the mixes on other sites and present advertising in the context of the submitted materials, that fair use allows us to do this without licensing the music, with the revenue going to OC ReMix as an organization and that all revenue is disallowed from being used for profit. He doesn't agree with that point of view, and that should have been the focus of his issues. But negative concerns weren't brushed aside as he claims, and Brandon wasn't the only person who shared them. He also claims there were no apologies and that no commitment was made to transparency and legality. People can read through this thread and see all of the back-and-forth. Everything brought up was addressed. I will say that Brandon is very good at projection, since demonizing people, being disrespectful, and displaying a lack of trust & goodwill are things he was great at in this discussion.

One thing not mentioned before is that enabling YouTube ads increases the search ranking of the content, the same way that enabling ratings does. Back when we started the YT channel, we actually disabled ratings for everything to match how we didn't do polling or ratings of the mixes. It turned out that disabling ratings made YouTube reduce the visibility of the videos. But enabling those things makes YouTube increase their visibility, so we're trying to get the mixes heard by more people. That may explain why the SM64 mix, which was the first one with monetization turned on, received greater views; YouTube actually gives more weight in discoverability to content that's monetized and allows ratings.

That said, I'm the sole person that decides mixpost order these days (because I'm tagging them up and staging them), and claiming that we were just posting popular mixes to maximize YouTube revenue is silly and needlessly overthinking things. Sagnewshreds called your suspicions "tinfoilly," and he's right. For posting your Chrono Cross mix out of cycle, sometimes I do that. I just noticed you hadn't had a mix posted in about a month and didn't know you had anything else waiting besides some tracks on the FF9 project that were going to be posted on 9/9.

We can't state enough how we're not actually motivated by money and don't profit, but in any case, in the 2 month period where ads were enabled on 43 out of 3,000+ videos, we also had mixes from Gradius Gaiden, Jazz Jackrabbit 2, Yoshi Touch & Go, Skylanders, ilomilo, To the Moon (yours), Global Gladiators, Lufia II, Rollerball, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Tyrian, Vectorman, After Burner, and R-Type for the C64.

Have to say this over and over again: we don't care what game something is from. At all. It doesn't change how we evaluate anything. If the submission is creative and interpretive enough with the arrangement, and produced well enough, we'll post it. We don't post stuff from certain games to boost ad revenue or social media metrics or whatever. Also, all ads were off since the 14th, including when that Chrono Trigger album trailer went up (plus we had already decided not to monetize trailers (which is why you yourself noticed the Esther's Dreams trailer wasn't monetized). Brandon's also saying that even BEFORE YouTube monetization, we were ALREADY strategically weighting mixposts to heavily popular games. This is despite publishing an album from him for the super-obscure game Teen Agent.

As I've said many times, we don't pick what games are mixed, the ReMixers do. And it almost goes without saying that Chrono Trigger or Mega Man 2 or Final Fantasy VII is more of a nostalgia and popularity draw among the ReMixers themselves, which is why they arrange those games more than others. We don't control that or try to steer anything in that direction. If OCR could have 1,000+ more Tim Follin arrangements, that would be awesome.

The last thing I'd say is that I don't know why Brandon put up a poll on keeping his mixes up on OCR. It's very obvious that he assumes the worst about the staff, thinks we're pocketing the ad revenue, maybe buying cars or comics or anything & everything non-OCR related with it, that it's some money-making cabal, that all the staff are complicit in said cabal, and that we'd love to illegally and unethically generate YouTube revenue in the shadows and willingly anger hordes of artists. Since he's convinced it's run like that and unethical like he claims, why would a poll convince him to keep his ReMixes up?

Like I said before, no amount of transparency or actions can make Brandon believe that OCR is run honestly, ethically, above board, and without a profit motive. Weighing that, I can't imagine why or how he'd convince himself not to request removal of his mixes. Due to his overly suspicious, paranoid, and imaginative nature about all of this, I think that's inevitable.