Hello. This is Jongshin Yoon. 
This is an interesting scene. Can I capture this?  
I know you are caught up with busy schedule in these days. Thanks for sparing your time for us today. How have you been? 
I have had repetitive routine for the last decade pretty much.
Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin, company works, TV shows and a bit of parenting jobs·This is what I have been doing for last 10 years.
I was connected to you via Youtube by subscribing Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin. You just began a solo broadcast titled as Talgokki (Music Thresher).
Could you please briefly walk us through since some of us might be familiar with it?
Initially, Talgokki was meant to update new release from Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin.
After three years of archiving musical contents, I reached to the point where I cannot talk about Talgokki without addressing the Monthly Project.
Musicians tend to release new albums once in one or two years, hoping that it would make a big hit in 2-3 weeks.
That pattern was pretty common among the musicians during 90s and early 2000s.
Some succeeded while the others did not and they lived up their career with a few hits.
Chances of me making continuous hits lowered with diversified taste of listeners, which made me quite anxious as a musician in 40s.
Then I realized that marketing myself once in several years wishing for jackpot is critically risky to a creator.
I declared myself to release new music on a consistent basis regardless of its public success.
That is how I ended up kicking off Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin in 2010.
I announced to release a new music every month whether the public likes it or not, which might sound hysterical.
I thought it was straightforward, rather than being strategic.
I came to realize how much archiving can provide after consistently doing it for three years.
It taught me the power of consistency during both busy and non-busy times.
I did not find the power of my monthly project while I was doing it.
After three years, I started to talk about it in TV shows to give the public awareness.
Then they visit my Youtube channel and end up finding 30+ songs and add them on their playlist.
This leads to introducing a bulk of my new releases under the Project to music websites.
They are easy to be categorized. In fact, Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin is a new category.
I kept doing it and it passed 10 years now.
I believe last August released the 100th song under the Project.
Some made big hits while other did not, but it did not matter.
Because Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin itself has gained attractions and the public started to wonder how I can possibly release new song every month.
Then I thought it might worth capturing how I produce my music ? from inspiration to output. That is how Talgokki started.
I divided my own video recording into several video clips and upload them in Talgokki channel.
I started with music and it ended up creating another video contents.
I started Talgokki hoping to compose music for someone far away from me.
My initial plan was to make music for Bruno Mars whom I have never met before.
Making music by all means and deliver it to Bruno Mars. That was my goal.
Bruno Mars was literally too far away so I decided start off to make viral in Korea first then move on.
I can contact BTS by a call, but I decided to come up with music for BTS first since they are a global figure.
Actually, I have never been in contact with BTSs agent.
They are already global figure and in my mind, they are not easy to be reached.
So I started to make music for BTS and uploaded videos clips that captures the process in Talgokki.
Thankfully, BTS fans enjoyed watching them and Talgokki has now gained publicity.
Ed Sheeran is up next after BTS episode. I am going to make music for Ed Sheeran whether he likes it or not.
Talgokki shares how I get inspirations for my target musicians, come up with musical contents and complete songs.
Creation seems to be unattainable process if you only view the end result.
I wanted to share with the public that it is an interesting process in fact, the way to come up with inspiration is not too difficult.
The videos have fun parts also. That is pretty much what Talgokki is about.
Talgokki seems to be a combination of music, education and variety show and you introduce yourself as half-century old Youtuber. How is it like being a Youtube creator?
Although being consistent is crucial as a Youtuber, it is not easy to consistently upload new contents as a part-time Youtuber.
You know I also have other things to do. I try to live up to my promise though.
I feel attracted to Youtube as a platform in these days because it provides borderless exposure, enabling unlimited possibility.
It sometimes can be a downside. Anyway, well-made contents can easily be shared on a broader basis.
I think it is about being consistent rather than all-in concept. Youtube should be a part of your life.
I can easily create new contents simply with a smartphone these days and Youtube enables it.
Youtube recognizes my tastes because recommended videos are increasingly fall under my preferences.
I have pets at home and I watch Kang Hyung Wook (reputable pet trainer) videos.
Youtube keeps throwing new contents at me and I kept watching them. I am watching way too much National Geographic channel these days.
It is scary on the other hand. It began with 10 or 20 minutes and ends up with 2 hours.
You are Youtube creator and active user as well.
I have to be a user to be able to create new contents. I never knew until I launched Talgokki.
I typically work with two staffs to create videos and I understand why they come up with sensational thumbnails.
I never knew I made that kind of face while recording it and I also learn from vocabularies that choose.
You need to get the viewers immersed in the beginning for more clicks.
All these things I learned after the age of 50 and that is even more interesting.
Listen carefully Youtube dreamers. You gotta love the platform first and sensational thumbnails come afterwards.
Thumbnails should be catchy. Thumbnails that don﹑t catch attention are functionless.
Love the platform first then thumbnails.
Let us move one to the next topic music. You have been a musician over 30 years.
It is rare to find someone committed to a single field for a period of time.
I bet you have experienced dynamic changes in Korean music history. What is the most memorable and mean the most to you?
I was born in 1969 and made a debut in 1989.
I am very fortunate to have experienced 90s as a musician because when the market boomed.
In 90s, people would find the way to listen to my music as long as I made good music. SBS did not even exist at my debut.
Am I too old-fashioned? There were only KBS and MBC.
If you are well rated by them and some radio channels, you did not need to much worry for 6 to 12 months because selling 1~2 millions of album was doable.
At that time, your album didn't have to be top rated. 30th, 40th, or even 100th ranked album had their own market.
Korean music market in 90s was renaissance where musician in many different kinds all prospered.
Chronically, it was followed by 1988 Seoul Olympics with economic prosperity. People could afford to spend more in music.
Musicians during that time were able to face different audiences.
Moving in to late 90s and 00s, musical tastes became further diversified, triggering even more explosive music such as H.O.T.
I saw and experienced how teenaged fans reacted to the birth of new kind of music. MP3 was another big change to name one.
Some might now know what MP3 is
Illegal music downloads or MP3. I thought they will destroy us. That happened in 1998 and 1999.
In mid 2000s, we were able to fight back and illegal music streaming started to decrease replaced by multiple platforms.
I kicked-off Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin in 2010, but it almost took 3-4 years to turn my consideration into action.
For example back in 90s, I spent two years to make new album, which normally would stay in the market for next 6-12 months.
So I marketed them pretty hard.
However in nowadays? If I release new album in online music streaming website and doesn't go viral within a week, that is it.
I sensed a big change here. I thought I need to change the way to market and disperse my contents.
One of the big advantages that these platforms can provide is that it gives me an idea of diverse tastes of the public.
Previously, I thought everyone likes my music if my album is sold more than 1 million copies.
I do not appreciate the term the National Singer. Cho Yong Pil does not represent Korea.
He is the best to his fans. But we always have mistakenly related the top ranked singer to as the most beloved singer in the nation.
But that is such an illusion. Some might like some might not. People all have different preferences.
Being loved and supported by 10-15% of the population makes you a celebrity, not National Singer.
I was unaware of this until platforms exposed what people actually like and how diversified they are.
I assumed it would be mostly females who watch contents on the platforms, but it turns out that males are slightly more engaged·.about 51-52%
The emergence of different platforms was groundbreaking for us.
Platforms help me view things objectively based on data.
I thought I did not have much female fans because I do not see them much at my concerts, but it was not the case. 
I realized that I had been mistaken over 20 years during my career.
Although I was happy because the misunderstanding, data clearly tells me that my music is most beloved by pessimistic males.
This is a big progress to every artist because in old days, we just bought CDs without having to provide emails.
I never did research on my customer data.
I could have done if I was determined, but I never thought that accumulated data would provide something this valuable.
It was crucial for me how to react when I realized that I had been deluded by my fan group over 20 years of my musical career
Musicians in next generations should be able to identify who like their music or not.
One thing in music thou. Knowing my customer base and having them engaged are different things.
That is how I started my Monthly Project, creating my own behavioral patterns.
Changes come with crisis, but you can turn them into new opportunities depending on how you view them.
In your case, I think you had insights to turn them into opportunity.
I told you that I don﹑t have much insights.
Like I said earlier, I had to do whatever it takes and I was fortunate that things worked out.
I was a musician at early 40s at that time and my career as a musical artist was going down hills.
I gave up spending two years for new albums.
Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin was my last resort and the key was that I was consistent over three years.
I advise other musician not to make things complicated when his career starts to be blurry.
There is no such thing as an ace card. Just be consistent and do it over and over and it will work out after all.
You said being consistent was the key factor.
But I do not think consistency will bear fruits without contents that worth watching.
Musical trends obviously have changed since your debut. Do you still listen to new releases?
I don﹑t tend to listen too much other songs..only to the extent to read the trend.
Because over-exposing myself to other contents influences me.
One of my philosophy is that there is no single trend.
I think trend is something that media creates. There are creator and analyst.
The later also often succeeds from time to time, but I saw more of unsuccessful cases.
I equate analysis-based creator to follower.
That might work in advertisement or marketing, but not in our field.
People seem to have diverse preference, but they all lead to certain areas.
Usually top ranked contents are referred to as trendy, although they are preferred by only a portion of group.
So I do not force myself to listen to other songs.
I do not analyze Top 20 song of the week or month. It only disturbs me.
I think this is what makes your songs original.
Especially people sympathize with your lyrics, although you described it pathetic earlier.
Recently, you complied your lyrics and published a book titled as I Learned Seasons from You.
As I was reading the book, some of the lyrics really hit home. I wonder how you can come up with these ideas.
I try to use simple words. I highly appreciate loving feelings at every moment, which I put into words at my lyrics.
But they are not anything special. You all have the same feelings.
What lyricists do is to remind you of those feelings with words.
So I try to keep hold of those common feelings and describe them into 2-3 lines.
I take lots of short notes at every moment, not to miss any single feeling that can fade away.
Sounds like you try to keep your emotions on all the time.
Let me throw a harder question. What is your favorite song and why? You have too many hit songs.
Surprisingly, I do not much like my hit songs.
I am thankful for my hit song, but they are not my favorites.
I like songs that tell my story. One of my songs is called Birdman.
It is about the life of an artist and how he felt over 20-30 years by keep playing on stage and releasing new songs.
I got inspiration from watching the movie Birdman where Michael Keaton acted.
That is how Michael Keatons life looked like.
You make surprise hits at early career and when you finally feel like you know what music is about..no one is looking for you.
That is our life. I also went through the same thing.
Lyrics I wrote in 20s does not sound mature, but somehow people like it.
My song Birdman is about the mind of an artist facing the public and that has been my favorite so far.
Just like in the movie, you feel discrepancy when your favorite does not match to what the public prefers.
Sounds like Birdman will get more clicks today.
You are engaged in diverse fields, yet, at the same time a father of three kids.
Work Life Balance is a new social agenda and something that Googlers are very interested. I wonder how you maintain it.
I do not force myself to achieve Work Life Balance. My principle is to prioritize based on my preference.
For example, I always find solution on the things I wanted to do and vice versa for the things that I do not prefer.
What is important is to build circumstance that enables it. We cannot always do things that we want.
So I prioritize them. It could be home, company or artistic works.
I guess it is both fortunate and unfortunate that artistic creation always has been my top priority.
I rather spend time at studio to write songs than doing something else.
That eventually leads to business and I am invited today to talk about it.
Work really started to get busy in 40s and 50s so the downside is I am less engaged to my family.
You feel yourself is less engaged with your family?
Yes. So I do not make much objections with less speech rights.
That is the way to keep your family happy. You should all keep it in mind.
Quiet dad nurtures great children. You should not nag your kids when you are less engaged.
You only end up being criticized. You should not dare to ask such thing as Are you really sure about it?
All dads in this room. You should listen up.
If you are uncertain, you had better be completely uncertain.
If you are like in between, you are likely be those fathers at Sky Castle (Korean drama).
There is one question that we ask to every guest. It is AI.
How do you think that AI makes impacts on music or entertainment industry as whole?
I do not understand the mechanism of AI, but I feel like it came out of nowhere and is right on my face.
Youtube is video based. My kids started to search video instead of text based search engine to get information. It was shocking to me. 
At Superstar K, there was one guitar player who played John Mayer song well.
One day, I wanted to play a song with him so I wrote the code and send it to him. But he said he does not know how to read code. It was an easy one.
He watched John Mayer video in Youtube and simply imitated it. It took him a week.
But he was so good. That is Park Jae Jung. He plays guitar and does not know how to read code.
Then I realized that it is a new generation. Our generation learn to play guitar from workbook or tutors.
I guess it has pros and cons. New generation lacks understanding in musical theory, but is very intuitive.
Anyway, Youtube is almost inevitable in this generation and how it recommend relevant contents is based on AI right?
As a musician, I think AI is a big matter in a good way.
We used to market new contents to unidentified public, to be precise, to the entire population.
We used to market ourselves at TV shows that were practically watched by the entire population.
That was analog era and those TV shows were powerful in fact.
To be a bit pessimistic, I think our generation did not even know their preference.
They were like a white paper and producers could paint it with contents they wanted.
As contents provider, my idea is that we no longer need to appeal to unidentified public in AI era.
Why? Somebody will find it out for you.
All you need to do is to throw your contents to the pool because those who like you are all here.
I believe marketing will further develop with the advance of AI.
Yet, many contents creators are marketing against unidentified public.
They spend a lot on market and bankrupt because they could not sustain the cost.
You only need to market 100,000 people, but spend the budget to market 10 million. It is costly!
Marketing stays effective only one or two days. If you data says otherwise in first two days, you are done.
Every K-pop producer dream of BTS or Bruno Mars. Speaking in terms of possibility, they should not.
In my case, I am technically capable of capturing certain fan groups.
I sometimes make jackpot like the song Like It. But it was a result of consistently producing contents.
I did not compose Like It looking for jackpot. It just happened. Like I said, I was consistent and good things happened sometimes.
One lesson that AI give to composers is that we do not need to impress everyone.
Find the platform that captures group of people I can influence.
You set the target audience and keep producing new contents for them.
Who knows? You might hit jackpot if you are lucky.
If you aim to conquer the world with your contents as a creator, you should take it back.
I think AI makes yourself aware of how capable and influential you are.
Youtube technically delivers my contents to the audience and if you make object assessment of yourself with help of AI, I think it helps pave your way as a creator.
Thankfully, I have been engaged in archive based music for about a decade. Beginning from 2017, I felt I get stronger each month.
For example, media started to talk about it and the Project started to generate increasing revenue.
Only we know about it. It does not go crazy viral, but subscribers are steadily increasing. I always check the view clicks and comments.
There is a song with 150,000 view clicks and it became 170,000 all of sudden.
I call this hidden streaming. It is a sign that things are flowing into the way I intended and that is the virtue of the Project.
I think creators with long term view can benefit from AI.
You marked too many keywords and sayings.
I think our sales team can learn lesson today.Consistent development of contents.
Mass marketing is no longer effective. It is replaced by target based marketing.
This is where you can make it feasible.
Exactly. I think it would be very effective. How do you want yourself be remembered?
I started to get this question since several years ago.
First of all, it is not up to me. It is up to those who remembers me.
I cannot manipulate their memory in a way that I want them to be. It is useless.
I am enjoying a good life as I expected. 
Some says I am not too serious. Some days I am creative. Some says I am a good father.
I do not want their comments to be manipulated. What is important to me is to follow my life with my feelings.
I guess I will be one of the comments that people described earlier.
As I get older, one of my life principle is not to look back my milestones.
I have seen many artists writing their memoirs.
They all deserve to write such memoirs, yet, I still think it is much worth to think about time that has not arrived than remembering what had already happened.
Also, I do not think I would be completely honest with my past and polish my milestones.
I guess I can find all my pasts in Youtube and they can find it there.
You can search me at Google. It is all summarized and that is me.
I mean I should think about tomorrow at the age of 84.
Looking back past makes me feel pathetic.
I think Google searches will eventually create another individualized contents.
I think people can remember me based on how it is archived at Google. Google automatically sort things out right?
I guess it is a digital based memoirs.
The way you described is inclusive of both past and future and I find it brilliant.
Last question.
You have already been engaged in various fields. Is there any other area you want to be involved?
I want to explore the world before I get too old.
I spend all my life in Korea so my songs and lyrics are very local.
I spent 50 years of my life in Korea.
So I do not know how it feel like being an alien. I never studied abroad.
The longest I was away from Korea was a month when I traveled. 
So I want to experience how it feels like being a foreigner.
To be precise, I have never been lonely.
I had friends and family during hard times. I have never been alone.
I had that complex as a creator.
I have been comfortable. Of course I went through hard times, but I felt loneliness at a very comfortable place. I was not a foreigner.
So living as a foreigner? Or traveling?
I do not want to travel to reward myself.
I want to live as an alien when I am younger and create contents with new experiences.
That is my dream and I guess I need to give up certain thing to make it come true.
I admire that you still maintain young mindset.
My wife tells me to do saying that it does not make much differences because I spend much time outside.
I wish best luck with your new dreams. Let us move on to Q&A session.
I am a Youtube technician. First of all, I am sincerely thank you for sharing great words today. It helps both my work and life.
You have a great understanding how AI works and it can impact your work.
Have you ever imagined that someday AI will train itself based on your archived songs to come up with contents that are similar to yours?
The reason I ask this is that you started to prepare yourself back in 2010 to cope with these platforms. I wonder whether you are doing anything on this.
I had a chat about this with some people. This might really come true for movie actors.
For example, imitating faces of certain actors.. This is possible, but we deal with creating contents.
It is in my brain. I think AI can imitate my previous writings.
I guess I am too calculating. AI would pay me to utilize my data?
If it is profitable and works with me, I am fine. 
Because AI would be using my copyright for its analysis. I am okay as long as I am fairly compensated.
Secondly, I think human brain will further develop once we face AI threats.
I believe there are rooms of change in my previous songs.
Composing mechanism has been passed down since 17th century, especially melody works.
If AI composure becomes the reality, I am certain there are things I can do as a creator given the circumstances.
If Google ends up composing songs, I guess making a partnership will not be a bad idea.
Creators imagines what would happen in AI era.
AI may or may not create new song based on historical records.
It is not easy to presume that certain composer might have written certain songs.
I think composing songs that are similar to mine is possible by analyzing his or her composing patterns.
I think doing business with Google is a good idea. I am positive. 
I think creators over 30 years of experience share the same concern in emergence of AI era.
I tell my musician friends that they need to be specialized.
They need to be symbolic in certain fields, although it might seem narrow.
I believe musicians with no characteristics would get hurt once AI era becomes reality.
Because AI would not select your contents if it is too general whereas something that is unique and symbolic will be pursued.
This is foreseeable. With that, you need to specialize your strength and stay on top of it.
This is crucial in artist marketing. Finding irreplaceable niche market.
For example, let us say sadness or rainy day in musical category.
For example, there is a song called Like Rain Like Music. My song should be on the list that people can easily recall on rainy days.
You cannot artificially change it overnight but if you do it over and over, you become symbolic.
This is important to musician with 20-30 years of career.
Otherwise, general artists without unique characteristic can be disadvantageous.
Artists from various fields get together and often talk about it.
Including musicians, novelist, movie scenario writer and director.
What would we do once AI becomes true reality?
We imagine possible scenarios rather than practically prepare ourselves.
Being a specialist is crucial regardless of time and the key is to capture what the audience wants and deliver contents to meet their needs.
This is a different dynamic with AlphaGo.
Why? We evolve as well. It is different from computing possible moves in Go game.
I guess the infinity is what makes contents special.
Certainly. AI based creation is our motivation.
I guess AI also would be motivated from our new contents.
I imagine someday that we will keep compete with AI in this manner.
Any other question?
I told you that my followers are male. Women are not interested in me.
You are my favorite artists and I am very nervous as I speak. I want to ask about creator.
You said your jackpots were not intended and just happened, but I think it was strategic.
You hire a designer to set your theme of the year. You have an annual plan for your Project whether it is remake or duet.
I heard that you compose songs to sustain a quarter at a time.
In that perspective, I think infusing strategic thinking is difficult as a creator.
What is your key factor of strategic approach in creation? 
Musical tastes are too diverse and hundreds of contents are released every day.
To be a bit extreme, you are silly if you expect or aim a jackpot. My goal was to minimize loss.
I guess my case is different because I have other source of income from non-music fields.
My example does not fit to other pure musicians because our starting lines are different.
I built my career as a musician and fame over the past 20 years. Facing AI era without such legacy make them feel vague.
To be more precise, I believe jackpot or winning strategies are all lies or fraud.
If anyone present that this team can make big win by adopting strategy ABC, I am not one of them.
My goal was not to lose and keep sustain.
I set up annual plan because my Project is long term.
For example in 2012, I decided to do music with only female singers and I did.
My Project looked fresh for first two years and the audience starts to be bored. That is why I need theme based planning to keep it look refreshed.
Then I would stop composing and get songs from composers that I admire.
Then theme based planning starts to look cliche then I adhere to the original intent of the Project once again.
The virtue of my Project is that it does not foresee too far. It runs with series of short projects.
For example, my longest plan lasted a year. A downside of annual project is that it prevents to include ad hoc events in my life.
For example, let us say a big event occurred in January and I cannot talk about it. Because the Project is already set for a year.
That happened several times. This is all I can think about, yet, I cannot write song about it.
You cannot sing love songs all of sudden.
Or having female singer to sing a song before its due puts much pressure then I have to sing it.
And it goes against preset theme. 
After the annual plan, I became engaged on monthly basis.
Songs accumulate over months and so do my feeling and they became my monthly diary.
I guess that is my plan if I have to call it. It keep changes.
Last question. Female fan at last.
Hello. Female fan finally. I am from ads team and often meet entertainment advertisers.
They have strong needs to market singers, but does not want it to be obvious.
In other words, they want to achieve 1 million views without making it look like an ads.
Could you please advise on approach to win their mind?
This is timely question. I will be collaborating with a company for my March Project.
I am quite good at it. Marketing that goes with flow.
For example, I have a song called Exhausted that talks about hardships of 20s. 
I composed the song to comfort 20s but 3 days after the release, one commercial made a video using my song for marketing.
It was obviously commercial, but apparently did not get much negative feedbacks.
I think it depends on how you make it. I worked with IKEA once.
Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin receives collaboration requests from companies three times a year.
Some comments criticize that they are commercial.
In that case, I just be frank. Commercial is commercial.
You know a commercial is successful when you get comments that your video is hyped.
I do not think users in these days are too sensitive to negatives.
If they do not like it, it is because it is poorly made.
If they like it, they speak highly of it. 
Some even simple enjoy the contents and do not buy products. 
They simply enjoy contents whether they are necessarily commercial or not. 
Last October, I worked with a chair manufacturer called Sidiz. They asked me to create a chair themed song.
I named the song Lean on you
Some pointed out that it is Sidiz commercial, but others were touched by the contents itself.
When I was first approached with the request, I stared at chair. 
You do not want to say this is comfortable or etc. It sounds too cliche.
Then I realized I always have leaned on my chair.
I also tried the company﹑s product, but did not want to describe the product itself.
I started to ponder what chair means in my life. I never thought about it.
You lean on chairs after all and that is how I developed the story.
It is obviously collaborated with Sidiz and I did not try to hide it.
You do not need to hide as long as they are well made. Youtube commentaries are hilarious.
Did you see my recent posting on facebook?
I was watching Harim live performance on Youtube and one of the comments was I watched Gung Ye video earlier and Youtube recommended Harin as relevant contents.
If Youtube is capable of recommending Harim as a relevant contents to Gung Ye, at least it is doing a right job from visual platform perspective.
Harim video can lead to Shaolin Temple. There are not much criticizing comments in these days. I tell my friend artists to enjoy the comments.
Some of them are hysterical. I think comments are very creative as well.
If you are dealing with advisers, I think people might all like it as long as they are brilliant. Our viewers are not naive.
You might get embarrassed by trying to hide something that is obvious.
That was the word of advice.
Unfortunately, it is time to wrap up.
By the way, there is a very good news I would like to share.
What is it?
Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin has 140,000 subscribers and is awarded Youtube silver button. 
Any word?
I feel like joining a professional baseball team.
There are creator with millions of subscribers and 140,000 is not comparable.
Yet this is very meaningful because I achieve 140,000 over 10 years.
98,000 subscribers are based on my efforts and the rest credit goes to ARMY (BTS fan club)
Thank you ARMY!
I wish you can continue to sustain until you are eligible for Gold and Diamond button. We support you.
Thank you. I will continue to have fun at Youtube with new contents.
This wraps up todays Talks at Google. Please subscribe Monthly Project Yoon Jong Shin.
