Should I Use Different Thumbnails

[Logan Dougherty]

So I'm doing a music channel, where a lot of the stuff that I'm doing is just piano covers of stuff. I write some of my own material and for that I use different images that match with the idea, but for the piano stuff, I'm just playing the piano. And since they are covers, I don't know how easily I can use images related to the song I'm covering for a thumbnail because of copyright stuff.

 

[Meneno Gaming]

Making great thumbnails would catch more audience. Right now your thumbnail is really boring. Other than that Im subscribing because I can =P

 

[AlexGotBeats]

I haven't seen anyone get in trouble for it. Maybe because i and other ppl modify images. You can see the thumbnail i have here in my signature and on all other of my videos. I know other beatmakers like me do the exact same thing we just all have our kind of different style as to what we put on top of the original image for the branding.

 

[Logan Dougherty]

Okay, that seems like a solid approach. I'll at least look into changing around the thumbnails a little bit to make them look a little bit more appealing, even if it's just getting a picture of my keyboard in a little bit better lighting. Haha

 

[Brainbean]

Think of it like a book cover. I try to spend at least 1/4 of the time I spend making my video making my thumbnail. Sometimes it doesn't take that much time, but it is really important to make your thumbnail look good. Think about the video you choose to watch when you search YouTube for something. If you wouldn't click on your own thumbnail then it's time to make a change. I saw much better results after learning some Photoshop and remaking all of my thumbnails a few months back. If i spend 4 hours making a video I should at least try and spend a good hour making a really nice thumbnail.

 

[newage]

I agree with @Brainbean, what I would suggest doing if you want to pull people in is have 2 parts to the thumbnail. First part being either the game logo or main character to appeal to the gamers, the second part being your electronic keyboard to appeal to the musicians. Not to mention some kind of branding. You might need a logo of some kind or to start showing your face in the videos and using that in the thumbnails.

 

[Logan Dougherty]

Okay that's a pretty good idea @newage . I was thinking of doing something similar to that approach. Maybe something that is kind of similar to my profile picture on here, but better lit and just in the lower half, and then either a sideways word of the title for the more classical stuff (like Chopin in a cursive text) or an image from the game.

@Brainbean , with that method, it hopefully won't take too long per video but then it'll at least look more consistent and more appealing that way. [DOUBLEPOST=1466716912,1466706960][/DOUBLEPOST]So I sort of came up with something that may work sort of. The image at the top would be either that, or something related to the cover that I'm doing. I'm not the biggest pro at Photoshop, but it does look a little more sleek than the other ones I'd say. [DOUBLEPOST=1466720813][/DOUBLEPOST]@newage And then for a game, like the Halo one, I made this one here which even with my shoddy Gimp skills, does look much better than the original ones that YouTube suggested. Haha

I'm thinking I'll probably just stick with this template and change out the top image from each one so that it's still a consistent branding across all of my covers but each is a little bit more unique.