Interview: Trap and Bass Discuss Building a YouTube Channel With Nearly a Million Subscribers
Trap music originated in the 1990’s from Southern Hip Hop and then in 2012 was picked up by EDM producers who began incorporating Trap music into their songs. Trap is all about dirty, aggressive beats and dark melodies. We reached out to the guys who’ve taken many underground producers and delivered them to the top of the Trap scene. See what Trap and Bass had to say to us.
Who/what/where/when did you decide to start a trap music channel? And why YouTube?
I ran a small music-hobby channel known as Dragoonscale while I was in High School. I graduated in 2012 and, in the summer of 2012, Trap started growing and I thought it would be a great idea to help underground producers gain more exposure. Trap and Bass was launched in June 2012 and, in July 2012, my partner Aaron Godding joined up with me. I picked YouTube because it was the platform I knew best and I preferred it as my music listening service.
Did you ever expect it to get this big? At what point did it really start to take off? Was there one specific thing that sparked the growth, or was it steady?
Definitely not, like I said it started as just something to help producers. I didn’t have the intention of it being a full-time thing but I’m glad it is, and I’m always grateful we can help so many producers and record labels. About two weeks in, the uploads from Luminox and Carnage started to gain a lot of traction and within a few months we had over 100k subscribers. After that it was a pretty steady growth with some large bumps with tracks from Aero Chord, Mayhem, Antiserum, and others.
How did you initially go about finding all your uploads? How has your approach changed over time?
My partner Aaron and I are avid SoundCloud users and would search through SoundCloud day and night looking for uploads, something we still do. We also allowed producers to submit to us. SubmitHub has definitely helped us find quality uploads and easily facilitate getting permission for our uploads. We’ve uploaded quite a few tunes submitted through SubmitHub.
Do you know of any stories where your Trap and Bass upload elevated the career of a trap producer?
The list definitely goes on and on for the stories that producers and record labels have shared with us. We’ve found a lot of producers that we’ve signed to our own label High Intensity Records and then released the content via major retailers and on the Trap and Bass YouTube channel which performs really well. Many of those producers have gone on to be signed to labels such as Monstercat, OWSLA, Spinnin Records, Firepower, and Ultra.
What has Trap and Bass got planned for the year?
Right now we’re migrating a lot of our playlists onto Spotify and Apple Music. We’re also considering opening up some new genres to feature on Trap and Bass.
What’s your pick for the best trap song(s) of the year so far?
I have so many favorites but my top three I would say are:
Nitti Gritti & Part Native — Snappin’ & Trappin ft. Harvey J
Flosstradamus, Fki1st, & graves — Came Up feat. Post Malone & Key! (Rickyxsan Remix)
LADONNIS — Hallelujah
Follow Trap and Bass
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/trapandbass
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trapandbass
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/trapandbass
Soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/
If you liked this, check out our interview with Songololo.
