Where are my Oscilloscope Views?
40For the past year or so, YouTube's put an increasing number of restrictions on my account, citing their policies against "inauthentic and/or reused content" and "spam and deceptive practices". Add that to copyright strikes and even legal threats I got in the past, and I've realized that keeping such a large library of other artists' music on this YouTube account is simply unsustainable. I still want to be on YouTube to share my own original work, and in the end, I think the only way to secure that possibility is to not have my account associated with potentially infringing material.
I cannot make another account and reupload everything there, since it's explicitly against YouTube's policy to try to get around their restrictions in that way. Setting the videos to private or unlisted probably won't do anything either.
If you operate a channel that contains other artists' work and you're concerned, just know that I've done many questionable things that likely alerted YouTube's system to suspicious behavior (i.e. enabling monetization on my original songs for a brief time, modifying a large portion of my video descriptions at once, making then deleting community polls, etc.). So as long as you aren't acting especially weird, I think you should be fine.
The reason why this was done so quickly and without any warning is due to a mistake on my part. In order for certain restrictions to be lifted from a channel, the channel operator needs to remove infringing material and apply for a manual review. While I was researching how to apply to get these restrictions off my channel, I mistakenly believed that I'd sent an application to YouTube. I was afraid of YouTube seeing that I'd changed nothing on my channel and doubling down with their restrictions, or worse. Thus, in a panic, I deleted everything. It was only after I'd done so that I realized I hadn't sent anything.
I deeply apologize to everyone who relied on me and this channel. This isn't how I wanted things to go, but what's done is done, and all we can do now is try to recover what we can and look forward.
I'd also like to heartily thank everyone who helped me archive the videos. You basically saved me and many others a whole lot of trouble.
If you're still wondering about the details, I originally had a much longer video up that I've since unlisted because I don't think it gets the important info across that well: • Where Have All My Videos Gone?