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Caglar Yerlikaya is Senior Account Manager at BuzzMyVideos. He helps artists, creators and media companies grow their presence on YouTube utilising BuzzMyVideos’ unique technology and helping creatives unlock their true potential via tailored optimisation techniques.
How did you get your start in the music industry, and how it lead to the work you do today?
Having been a media/entertainment industry veteran for more than 12 years, I had a rather unusual start to my career working at HSBC Bank initially as a finance graduate from university.
Given my passion with music, arts and literature throughout my entire life, it did not surprise anyone that I published my first book despite working at a bank. Over a few years at the bank, it became pretty obvious that I had a calling from the Media Industry as my true career aspiration, so I left my job at the bank and started working for one of Turkey’s biggest newspapers as a journalist.
In between 6 years working as a journalist, I had the opportunity to expand my network in Turkey’s arts and media scene, having met with many musicians, artists, singers, song writers and industry professionals. In 2013, moved to London and in 2014 started working at BuzzMyVideos overseeing Artist/Creator Community and Media Publisher/Rights Owner relations and YouTube optimisation initiatives.
At BuzzMyVideos, I truly enjoy helping artists, creators and media companies grow their presence on YouTube utilising BuzzMyVideos’ unique technology and helping creatives unlock their true potential via tailored optimisation techniques. Coming from a creative background gives me an advantage to easily connect with artists and creators, and to apply BuzzMyVideos’ technology to their videos with the help of my YouTube expertise in a very authentic way, as I can understand and speak an artist’s language.
Is there a success story or career milestone that you are most proud of?
There are two main milestones in my career… One of them is thanks to BuzzMyVideos and the opportunity to have worked with reputable global music organisations such as Vevo, Warner Music, Atlantic Records, Beggars Group and many more…
“Music” as a content category is the one that excites and drives me the most! Needless to say, it is one of the most important content verticals on YouTube, so the opportunity to learn new ways to create, curate and share music on YouTube is constantly evolving and that is why I feel very lucky to be involved with content optimization projects that we run at BuzzMyVideos for Labels, Artists and Creators of the music industry globally. I think YouTube is one of the most exciting spaces to be at, if you are working for music and digital…
On a personal level, I can call a true career milestone as in my home country, Turkey, given my network in arts, music and media industry, and given my personal passion for music and literature, I never stopped creating and writing. I worked with a music songwriter and countertenor Nuri Harun Ates, and he released 5 songs that I wrote the lyrics for so far. The last one of these songs was sung by Sezen Aksu, Turkey’s biggest and most popular POP Star of all time.
The song became one of the best-selling singles in Turkey in 2018. This has been a very personal and important, sentimental milestone and turning point for me in terms of my creative career.
Outside of your work in music, do you have any other hobbies/ particular areas of expertise/interest etc.?
Arts, literature, writing and music are where I feel my soul fed on a daily basis. I continue to write song lyrics and improve myself in music. I also joined the crew of the YouTube series ‘The Disappointments’ filmed in Los Angeles as a digital creative. I support them with my digital and social media expertise. So far it has been a fun and totally different creative experience for me.
Are there any projects you’re working on or company updates that you’re most excited about?
At BuzzMyVideos, we have a very unique and sophisticated YouTube optimization technology. The level of the sophistication the technology holds can be confusing for creatives and artists,I am continuously thinking about new ways of making our technology available and more accessible to artists and creatives. We recently launched a Playlist Curation initiative, which I am working on marketing globally. https://buzzmyvideos.com/en/product-category/playlists/
I’m also involved in a global initiative to bring extra value to record labels that have big catalogues. I particularly enjoy this as I see clients having double to triple digit growth rates, and it is very rewarding. Just as an example, I’ve recently worked with a record label and their top artists such as Madonna, Led Zepplin, Dream Theater that got a significant views uplift on their archive by simply updating their Custom Thumbnails via our technology. These results make me proud of what we do for Artists.
Anything else to add before we end off?
Thousands of new songs are released every day by many musicians. It is not easy for independent artists and music companies to stand out among them. This may be stressful, but they have an incredibly effective tool like YouTube at their disposal.
Especially since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the rules of the game have completely changed. Although this process started as a troublesome and worrying process for the musicians at first due to their inability to perform on stage, it turned into an advantage in social media platforms over time. And it offered artists and music companies the opportunity to reach more people with their posts, online concerts, and live streams. For this reason, I recommend that both artists and music companies focus more on their YouTube channels and seek professional help for this. Even a small optimization on their YouTube videos, may have a huge growth that they can’t imagine.
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