Player Piano isn’t the most popular channel on YouTube, but thanks to its bright, colorful sets and some seriously impressive piano skills, it has picked up a devoted following. Now, the musical show directed by Tom Grey and starring Sonya Belousova is entering the next phase of its growth, and it’s starting with a frequent fan request. The latest video on the Player Piano channel is a cover of the “Moon Theme” from the NES video game DuckTales.
As is the case with other Player Piano videos, the “Moon Theme” cover combines a unique, custom-designed piano with Belousova’s virtuoso performance. This time, the piano is shaped like an NES console, in order to drum up nostalgia among the channel’s audience.
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That audience has already supported Player Piano in a big way; in 2015, it delivered more than $71,000 to Grey and Belousova through Indiegogo so they could continue making videos. In 2016, the channel’s dynamic duo will continue giving fans what they want, but Grey and Belousova have big plans: They are developing a live show based on their channel, and they will produce more narrative content in the same vein as a “Legend of Zelda: Live Action Teaser” they released last year.
Grey and Belousova are fascinating creators, so we sent them a few questions about the direction of their channel:
Tubefilter: Finding the funding you need for your videos doesn’t seem like it’s been easy. That being said, how does it feel to know you’ve made it this far?
Tom Grey: Player Piano was developed with the view of creating high-quality musical adventures around pop culture, and so with that goal we have always focused on shooting videos that deliver on a high level – from the new arrangements, the direction, set design, to being able to emotionally impact the audience with a cool fan experience. As a result, our business model has focused less on the basic YouTube ad revenue model of constantly posting new videos to generate income – and more about curating one-off tributes that honor franchises and forging partnerships. It’s always been quality over quantity.
Overall, we have relied on generating our own funding through angel investments, crowdfunding and sponsorships – which may be a little risky for some people, but it’s all worked out so far, and it’s been as easy as it has been challenging. The fans’ response has been phenomenal and 2015 has really skyrocketed the Player Piano brand to a position where we are already developing a few sponsored packages for this year. Somehow our approach has produced a highly responsive and loyal fanbase and new revenue streams like live events, sheet music sales, etc…so it’s certainly paying off.
TF: What would you say is the essence of your channel?
TG: Player Piano is all about ultimate fan experiences, in both musicality and cinematics. This is what we strive for throughout the channel and I think it shows from the response from audiences and brands. A good example of this is the Doctor Who video that we did. I wasn’t exactly what you’d call a Whovian at first. I certainly remembered Doctor Who as a child, but never got into the new series.
When we decided to make a video based on it, I consumed every episode of the 9th – 12th Doctors and watched quite a few of the originals too. By the end I had a great appreciation for the franchise and knew that the fans were drawn to the different Doctors – to their costumes and personalities. Hopefully the end result sees the level of tribute into these details, and people know we really cared about the source material.
Sonya Belousova: It’s all about the music for me. Having been working in the Hollywood film scoring industry for some time, I am absolutely in love with the film and video game soundtracks. If I’m not writing a film score, I’m most likely listening to one. Also, what is great about working on a project such as Player Piano is that it fully engages my composing and performing sides. Simply transcribing someone else’s music isn’t creatively appealing to me on any level, so when I arrange music for Player Piano I always need to find a fresh and creative way of doing that, a new “tone” for the original piece, a unique spin. This, along with Tom’s presentation, is our signature voice in all of our videos.
TF: As Player Piano grows larger, and you release more sponsored videos, what steps are you taking to ensure you stay true to your independent roots?
TG: Luckily our experience with sponsored videos has been great thus far because we understand the process. Our content provides for natural brand integrations, meaning that we’ve designed our videos from the ground up to be brand friendly. If we make a video based around Star Wars, our fans don’t get angry that we’re selling out…because that is already the type of video that we make. As fans ourselves, we strive for the best audience experience and so Sonya and I aren’t afraid to say no to something that doesn’t resonate.
SB: We ultimately stick to projects we believe in because we do invest the time in on both sides. Even before filming, I have to work on the arrangements or composition, music production, engineering and mixing, etc. Sponsored videos do provide a wonderful opportunity for Player Piano to be actually focusing on creating a great content rather than on scrambling the budget to create one. Our production values are consistently high, and so we focus on that and make creativity our first priority.
TF: How do you plan to recreate the cinematic quality of your videos within a live stage environment?
TG: I have ideas on this…
SB: It’s not that much different. All the key elements are still the same, great music, great performance and a little bit of Tom’s magic.
TF: What plans do you have to expand beyond the current Player Piano format? If so, what sort of videos do you plan to make?
TG: We’ve already started moving into narrative projects. The biggest play from our side has been our Live Action Zelda Teaser on our channel, which has generated millions of views. We’ve started to move forward on the bigger Zelda film. Our other narrative videos have also done well.
That all being said, our next steps will be driving into feature films and narrative series. Sonya is a composer and I’m a filmmaker with a writing background. We have designs in that direction. We’re only just beginning to roll the dice…
SB: I’m always involved in a variety of different projects. Last month, I had a spectacular premiere of my third ballet, The House of Bernarda Alba, recorded the second half of my piano album produced by 6-time Grammy winning Jorge Calandrelli, attended the SXSW Film Festival promoting a film, wrote music for a Disney project, arranged Disney’s Ducktales: The Moon Theme for Player Piano, held a master class at the Berklee College of Music for film scoring students, and did a feature story for The Huffington Post. That was one hell of a month!
In the past I’ve been invited to perform my Player Piano original arrangements for a 70-piece orchestra and 30-piece choir featuring piano solo at a sold out crowd at the Anime Expo, as well as opening my panel with Stan Lee at Comic Con. And of course, we have just announced our live concert for 2016. More details coming up soon…
For more information about Player Piano, check out the show’s official website.
