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The key here is whether Victory gets treatment any different from other brands because of his investment - which would be pretty hard to argue based on that video's title unless you're also saying that he has similar stakes in Valeton, Cordoba, Blackstar, Martin and Squier/Fender.
In fact, the presence, relative ubiquity and exclusive-first-look-videos of Victory amps in their videos is no different to the way (for example) Blackstar were treated by the channel back in the day when they were something new.
For the argument that Andertons are just selling stuff, so get over it: There's a reason we have rules, regulations and laws around advertising and selling goods and services, and when they're getting broken or bent out of shape, clearly something has gone wrong. IMHO not a particularly big deal in this case, but equally there's no point in attacking the YouTuber who shone some light on it either; it's better that this has come to light and consumers can be aware of it.
I suspect some of the arguments in this topic are based more on a love/loathing of Andertons than the actual situation.
That's basically the same criticism that's being levelled at Lee, yet nobody seems to have a problem with it at TPS.
1. TPS was originally broadcast on the gigrig channel
2. They might not mention it every video but Mick refers to things like: "Dan's power supplies" often or "to plug Dan's products a bit"
3. Dan's social media handles are "danielthegigrig" and the like
4. You go on the gigrig website Dan's name/face is plastered all over it - you don't have to hunt around guitar forums to find out there's a connection
Could they do with a comment in the video description or mention it every video? Sure, that would be better... But it's a hell of a lot more transparent than Lee's involvement with Victory.
EDIT: Also look at: youtube.com/@ThatPedalShow/about - it clearly states the relationship:
"We are…
Daniel Steinhardt Boss man at TheGigRig, a company dedicated to helping guitarists and bass players achieve constant inspiration from their tones. Daniel has also been a professional guitar player since he was about, ooh, eight."
Totally different kettle of fish!
This sums the whole situation to me tbh
You're right that it's more transparent, but it's still relatively obfuscated.
At the other end of the scale, you have Linus at LTT, who mentions his investment in Framework every time he reviews a laptop (the caveat being the distinction between a review and a demo, of course).
* - Which brings up the question of whether KDH already knew about the relationship before he started looking into it, then one day decided that it was about time that Lee Anderton should be the target of one of his videos. He's not a journalist, so he doesn't get paid to go into all of the research that'd be required if he can't make a scandalous video about it. If it had turned out that the partners in Victory were all no-name finance dudes...no video, no money. That being the case...feels very, very shady to me.
I'm not watching his video its a none story and I don't want to give him a view extra because anyones mantra that is 'I annoy people on the internet' its pointless wasting precious minutes on him. His videos are made to for monetary gains only and he does this by targetting the heavy hitters like Beatro, Lee and Chappers etc. Good luck to him, I would suspect he was pissed for being the spectacled ginger nerd at school playing dungeons & dragons that got bullied....or maybe his middle name really is Dougal.....next.
Was it a little bit weird that Lee referred to Victory and the “guys at Victory” in the third person when he was in fact part owner of the business and, though not involved in the day to day running of it, would be considered by most people to be one of the said “guys”? Yes. Maybe he genuinely believes all the positive stuff he has to say about Victory amps, but he would definitely be considered by most people to be potentially less impartial towards them that he would towards some other brands they carry.
Was all this deserving of a 30-minute “expose”? No.
Was it deserving of multiple threads on thefretboard? Probably not.
The opinion on KDH is irrelevant in my view, play the ball and not the man - what he stated in his video appears to be factually accurate (albeit with dramatization and a leading tone, but that's a different discussion). Again this comes down to the quote before (in reverse):
Just replace Andertons with KDH
That's my point - it's not readily apparent at the time of watching the videos with the product in that Dan is the owner. That's the part that matters, and that's the respect in which I'm saying it's basically the same situation.
However, to be absolutely clear, I'm not suggesting that anybody should go after Dan. I'm saying it doesn't really matter in either case because of the way the products are presented.
...except that 99% of people only know about KDH from his innuendo-filled videos made after he's decided to take aim at somebody else for his own gain.
It's totally OK to draw conclusions about that kind of behaviour, because he's made it his entire online persona. As I said in the post you quoted, the only explanation is that he picks a target and then looks for a way to make them look bad and give them no choice other than responding online which will make them look even worse 90% of the time, or not responding at all and making him look right.
That's the way this has worked for over a decade in other genres on YouTube, and it's a transparent ploy used by creators who have nothing positive to add to the world but want to increase their view count. And yes, I take an extremely dim view of the kind of person who'd think that causing somebody else stress and ruining their reputation is an acceptable way to make money.
What's surprised me most is the number of comments about Victory amps being shit. I've never tried one, and I wouldn't know a good amp from a bad one to be really honest, but I've always been under the impression Cornford amps were well regarded and that Victory was (more or less) a continuation of Cornford. You live and learn.
That is demonstrably untrue - this is on the homepage... You'd almost have to be actively trying to avoid seeing him TBF.
I think it's quite clearly a very different scenario to Victory
Sure, if you scroll down four pages (past the products that you were there for in the first place). As opposed to what most people will do when looking to buy something, which is to click "shop" (which is also the first result in Google, above the homepage, because it's a sponsored link).
What I find toxic about that is they sort of push the myth that you need everything on isolated power. The power thing is overstated in their videos IMO. They might genuinely believe it, who knows
I've spent far more time listening to pedal noise than would be considered healthy or normal. I found that a good PSU is crucial but from there you can daisy chain a bunch of basic, low-current stomp boxes without any perceptible difference in performance. Some pedals absolutely do need isolated power, and they will let you know about it
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
How about the demo videos that are on each product page (and corresponding shop pages)? Surely you don't actually view this as the same as the Victory scenario really?
EDIT: Apologies to Dan for the rather unflattering screen grab...
I also don't think that people are looking at this objectively because they like one party and dislike the other. It's fairly obvious the approach to the whole Victory thing raised some important questions about the ethical position of it all, and the impartiality of the video comparisons, blindfold tests etc which Lee has now acknowledged and explained in a satisfactory way and essentially apologised for it. Everything has been explained, lessons have been learned and there isn't any bad blood between KDH and Lee so that's it really, isn't it.
Been uploading old tracks I recorded ages ago and hopefully some new noodles here.
I watched a few minutes of one ages ago, his supercilious pompous presentation put me right off.