Loads of our partners across Europe are taking advantage of the YouTube Partner Program, and becoming hugely successful on YouTube. We've asked some of these partners to share their experience on YouTube and within the program, and to shed light on how to best utilize the platform. This month’s featured partner is MaximNoise. Read on for his story and best practices!

Introduction
Please tell us a bit about yourself. What is your name and your channel name? Where are you from? Who makes up your fan base?

Hey, my name is Max. I’m from Neuss (NRW) and that’s why I’m called MaximNoise (pronounced like "Make some noise"). My artistname stands for "making noise for the good thing", because love makes no noise and it’s also the name of my YouTube channel, where I upload my music videos. Just like my music, these videos are pretty different and unique, featuring all kind of music styles: rap, pop and even some rock tunes. My fanbase is made up of men and women, both young and old, but all open-minded.

History
Please tell us how it all started. How and when did you start creating videos? When did you decide to be active on YouTube and become a partner? What was your first video on YouTube?

For a long time I only recorded music and travelled around Germany to do gigs wherever it was possible. I sang at weddings, birthday parties, in youth clubs and so on. When I realised there was something big going on on YouTube, I created my account to "book" the channel name "MaximNoise" but at first I didn’t create or upload any videos at all. In 2009, I created the first video for my song "Spiel auf Zeit" and the reaction of the community was incredible. From that moment on, I got a lot of ideas for videos, as well as help from friends to shoot them, and I also improved my editing skills!

Channel
Please explain your channel. What's the story behind your channel? How did you come up with your channel concept?

The story behind my channel is that music videos are a good way to support the feeling of a song, and videos (especially on YouTube) can be easily shared, commented and rated by a massive community. I never had a musical concept, so my channel features all kinds of music, from doubletime rap songs to melodic cheesy pop songs - also the topics are pretty different. Without the music videos, a lot of people wouldn’t be able to experience the content as fully as they do right now.

For example the three most popular videos on my channel are all very different.
"Herz-in-Takt" (650.000 views) is pretty sociocritical and emotional. Without the music video I’m pretty sure it would only be one song out of many, but with the support of this video, it became a song that inspired thousands of young people all over Germany. Evidence of this is the community-video where over 300 girls and boys joined me and sung this song with me.

Many people said I would never be able to top the success of "Herz-in-Takt" but I have a song called "In den Augen deiner Mutter" which got almost half a million views in only 4 months, as a flow based rap song. It’s my second most successful music video on YouTube.

The third most successful video on my YouTube channel is "Nur der Nase lang"
which talks about a good feeling and the possibility to just follow your own path and you’ll find the reason of being :) It`s a collaboration song with Nicki. I wrote it for us and it has got over 300.000 views in a year.

YouTube Partnership
Please share your experience of being a YouTube partner. How has being a YouTube partner helped/changed your business and personal life? Were there any surprises? What are your plans for the future of your channel and YouTube partnership?

Becoming a partner meant I had some additional income, which helped me to invest in video equipment and to travel to special locations, making more interesting videos. Many young people use YouTube as a media player for everything, and thanks to the YouTube partner program, I was able to earn money every time someone listened to my songs. This is a concept for the future. By creating better videos, more people paid attention to my music and in January 2011, I started selling my music on itunes. This helped me become even more independent with my music.

Success
How do you define success? How did you become successful on YouTube? What were your goals for your channel, and how did you achieve them? What strategy would you recommend to newbie partners to be successful on YouTube?

I think success is being confident with what you’re doing and getting feedback from people who love what you do. It’s important to have special ideas and the chance to make them a reality - which is often not a question of having money or anything. You should start small to become big - work with what you have and with time you will improve.

Creative Inspiration
Please tell us what inspires you. Do you have a particular creative aesthetic? Are there other YouTube channels you watch or creators you admire?

I’m pretty addicted to YouTube. Because there are lots of people using YouTube, there is unbelievable creative potential to entertain the world. As YouTube is part of my life, it’s also something that inspires me. I like to watch interviews of "Clixoom", funny videos by "DieAussenseiter" and of course music videos of the super talented "nicolascage09" aka Nicki.

Key Takeaways
Anything you want the YouTube audience to know about you, your channel or being a YouTube Partner?

I think I’m a guy who would have never got a chance in the "music industry" because I don’t have the mainstream look and my music is so different in every song. YouTube played a huge role in making me successful, because of its incredible range. You don’t have to convince everybody of your art - YouTube helps you finding the ones who like what you do :)

MaximNoise, YouTube Partner, recently watched “Lego Creeper (5.000 Lego-Bricks)”