Justin Omoi (GtPlayaProductionsz)
Age 29 | Orlando, Florida
Tell us about yourself. What do you do? Where are you from? Explain how school life was.
I'm Justin Bansraj. Artist name is Justin Omoi. Born in Queens, New York but Orlando, Florida. I am a YouTube content creator with around 110,000 subscribers at the time of creating this [interview]. I was known for my music education, but now I create content geared towards inspiration through music creation. My School Days were definitely Isolated nonetheless. It went from moving away from my childhood friends after Elementary School, To being depressed in Middle School because of it. I slowly gained friends with those who were labeled "outcasts" at that time. In High School, I was forced to be in Advanced Placement classes by my mother, which led me to not being around those friends that I've grown with in Middle School. If there was 1 word that would explain my entire school life (and arguably my childhood) it would be "Robbed."
Can you tell us about your background and how you became a producer and a YouTuber?
While being depressed in Middle School around the year 2004-2008, I've gotten an RCA Lyra MP3 player. After listening carefully to the lyrics to Eminem's "Rock Bottom" it gave me an understanding of the Art and Literature in Rap Music. Since then, It became my dream to create music and spread my messages around the world. I would rush myself home to jump onto my Frankenstein of a Windows 98 computer, surfing the internet to educate myself on Music and Literature, starting from Music Theory. It wasn't until my High School days where I would be able to convince my mother to get a Laptop for me for my birthday to be able to use Microsoft Office to type essays for all 6 of those Advanced Placement classes that she forced upon me... But more importantly, I was able to use FL Studio, a Digital Audio Workstation, to create music and learn music from the inside out!
I've started off with videos of me creating beats on YouTube, but after seeing that there was no viewership, I decided to teach people about music in order to help them, like I would have wished for myself. I also tried to use it as a means to direct people to buying my beats, which would have in return, be used to invest into the gear that I needed to create the highest quality music as possible. Word to Gucci Mane, I got "lost in the sauce." I kept educating people, even after YouTube's Algorithm showed me that I could never make a living from doing just that alone.
After a long process of acquiring the a full rich-mindset, alongside understanding YouTube's Algorithm, I was finally able to break free of the chains that I've wrapped around myself, that being to educate people, and focus back on creating music once again.
Can you walk us through your process for coming up with new video ideas and content for your channel?
Showing your niche alone would not grow a YouTube channel, but instead sustain the core audience that you currently have. My current process for creating videos would be to mix my niche (music creation) in with what is trending.
My current the process for me goes as follows. I would find a trend that I know I could relate towards that would fit my branding. I make sure that I could solidify these 3 major factors, otherwise the video would never see the light of day: 1. The Title; 2. The Thumbnail; 3. The "itch" that would make a viewer want to click and be invested into it. Once those three concepts are checked, I would then get into the scripting of the video, and then I would play the script in my head as if it's the video I've created. See what would be considered "fluff" and remove it. I would repeat the process a few more times, up until I am able to read it all the way through without taking my eye off of it at all.
After that comes planning and recording of the clips, editing the clips, playing back the video, and making sure that I can confirm the retention like I've done with the script, otherwise, I would have to remove parts of the video, as well as do more editing, and repeat until it's completed.
Can you discuss a time when you had to pivot your content strategy and how you made that decision?
Oh yeah, welcome to my life! Haha. As I've mentioned before, YouTube's Algorithm changed around 2017, but did not take a full effect on me until around the middle of 2018. Ignorant to my understanding of it, I tried to beat that dead horse until I declared it dead by the end of 2022. I did say that I would stop doing tutorials even in September 1st of 2018, but I got lost in the sauce, and held on to education as a means of making money.
Before the change, the boost of impressions from YouTube came from the results of viewership, comments, and ratings on the videos. That was the core basis of creating content back then. My job was to educate people on everything in the easiest way to understand as possible. It did not matter if the viewer watched until they got their answer, and then left, since they would thumbs the video up, and it would tell YouTube that we were doing a good job.
Due to the Algorithm being focused on session duration, people who search for videos to find their answer immediately, and then leave would NOT help a channel in the slightest. It wasn't a matter of if your video was good or bad. If your video's point is to teach someone something, the viewers WILL skip to find the answer, and stop watching when they fulfilled their answer to go back to what they were working on. They watch for a small amount of time, and immediate close the YouTube session. YouTube does not like that at all.
Knowing that YouTube would never continue to promote a tutorial channel, the only clear choice left for me was to finally pivot out of the education content, and focus entirely on inspiring people with my music creation. This lead me to understand the importance of people's time, as well as how to maintain it. It's a matter of create, analyze, improve!
Can you talk about the role of audience engagement and feedback in your creative process?
Audience engagement is definitely key. Without them, there would be nothing. You NEED engagement in order to spread the word around. But this does NOT mean to follow your audience and let them decide the future of your direction. I've learned vey well that letting your audience control you will result in you losing your passion and motivation, which results in burnout. The only thing that I use as feedback is what my audience shows me through engagement. If I see that the retention drops, I look at the video and ask why. I've come to learn that the opinions of the common viewer would be what they personally would have wanted to see, and not what everybody would have wanted. That's like me saying that I would prefer saying "chicken curry," while others say "curry chicken." In the end, the food is the same thing, and the real value of the dish's improvement would come form the creator improving on what he or she did not do the last time around for. True feedback for improvement comes from the actions that a person subconsciously does when you give or show them your result.
Do you have any hobbies outside of music & content creation?
I like to watch Anime, Go to the Gym, Do Gardening, Seek knowledge.
I also Play Games, but not as much as I've used to when I was in my teens. Nintendo all the way! I prefer games that are single player, and have a story to them. I HATE games that are online multiplayer, and or offers in game microtransactions. Both of them would cause addiction, which would give me anger, as well as astray me away from my main goals.
Can you describe a particularly memorable video or project you worked on and why it was special to you?
Whenever I've created a video that was not Education, it made me realize the enjoyment of creativity in videos. Before I focused on creating tutorial videos, my cousins, my brother and I recorded a handful of videos. I did not realize it at that time, but it was very fun to do, and it was the core inspiration of my happiness when it came to me making videos in the first place. We were acting "stoopid" and it was fun.
When it comes to a project for music, in 2017, I've made a song called "Monopoly Man" I believe that was the first time I've actually put in a LOT of focus in creating a video. Writing up every detail of shots to take, and effects to do. The video and song itself wasn't something game-changing to the world, but to me, it definitely was a life-changing event that made me look back and decide that I had to be me again, and create music. When I saw the viewership drop in mid 2018, and declared that I wanted to stop making tutorial videos, the Monopoly Man video was my anchor that was giving me the clear evidence of where my real happiness resides. Even in my future videos now. I find the same happiness in making them.
Can you discuss any obstacles you've faced as a YouTube producer and how you overcame them?
I've already mentioned the main struggle, so I'll mention this major obstacle:
Not knowing what I needed to know was a BIG factor in my main downfall. How could I know what to do, change, or improve on, if I did not know what it is that I had to learn in order to understand what it is I had to change? I can't describe it as ignorance or inexorable. You See! What I am doing right now is what I am trying to describe. What is a word or term for this? Unknowing? Yeah, I believe unknowing would be the perfect term for this. You can see how easy it is to be tripped up when you are not aware of the correct direction or pathways that you should be paying attention to. Truth be told, it wasn't until around 2021 when I stumbled onto the importance of the Algorithm, and realized why my channel failed.
It was only then when I was able to realize what it was that I had to do, change, or improve. Before that, I declared words that held no reason "why" to me, which explained why I jumped back to creating tutorial videos in the past despite knowing that I did not want to do them anymore.
How do you balance creating content you're passionate about while also considering commercial success and monetization opportunities?
Twisting a trend into your niche is the major fact that I believe will lead to a commercial success and monetization. If you create content with ONLY your niche, your target audience would be just your niche, and you will be stuck with only that audience. As a video content creator, it's possible and will get very easy the more you improve on your creativity. But for someone who only creates music as an Artist, you have to branch out of just your music. You have to put your face out there, and stick your nose in trends and incorporate it in your content. It is either that, or keep pitching your personal music to playlists until either you become viral for something you've done or said, or if a Label picks you up and knows how to juice you out as best as they could. Blend your niche with the trend, and when you become respect and well known, you can become the trend yourself.
How do you handle negative comments or criticism on your videos?
Hide their comments if they are evident to be showing hate. If you engage with hate, your supporters will see you being venerable, and that would weaken your higher status that they see you as. If it's criticism, I see it as their personal opinion. I don't say it out of stubborn-ness of course. There are times when the audience would say something that I could agree too, because it lined up with my expectations to myself. If it's something that friends would tell me, I definitely take it into consideration, and appreciate it as a valuable viewpoint that I myself haven't thought about. I would then consider it, and think of the theories of if it will or won't work.
Can you discuss any long-term goals or aspirations you have for your YouTube channel?
I wouldn't call it a long-term goal, but since I'm pivoting out of being seen as a tutorial person, the goal is to delist my previous videos, and overturn my current subscribers. This will happen with the more videos that I create. I also do wish to get a house for myself, so I can be entirely free, and have full creative expression, rather than to be limited in the space I am currently in.
What are some pieces of advice you can give to people just starting in the industry?
You can try and you can fail, but if you do not learn and improve, there's no point in trying again.
If you are confused about what you have to do to improve, break down what the objective of the platform is, and find out What they expect from you. Slowly but surely, you will find the answers when you look outside of your own perspective, and more into how the audience would react to you.
Special Shoutouts:
Schama Noel, Derral Eves, Image-Line, Anybody else that provides knowledge.
Contact Justin Omoi:
Credits:
Story By: Navendra "NaviTheRemixer" Boodhan
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