Known on YouTube as The Kiffness, South African YouTuber David Scott has remixed a traditional Ukrainian folk song that was performed during the country’s war for independence in 1918. As stated in the credits of Scott’s video, “all earnings from this remix will be used to provide humanitarian assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces.”
In Ukraine’s Ministry of Social Policy, the YouTuber made his first payment of R169,245.00 on March 8, according to the Ministry’s website. To far, Scott claims that they have been able to generate R215,000 only via YouTube and Facebook, with the most significant contribution coming from music sales on Bandcamp.
As he said, “the great thing about Bandcamp is that people may pay whatever amount they want for the music, and it’s been incredible to see some people spending more than $100 for the tune.”
On the first day following its release, the film generated more than $7,000 (a little more than R100,000) in royalties from Facebook, Bandcamp, and YouTube alone.
The performer, who goes under the stage name “Kyviness,” said that every time you see an advertisement on a Facebook or YouTube video, half of the money that the advertiser paid for that advertisement is donated to the video’s author.
He goes on to say that YouTube and Facebook would pay artists between R10,000 and R30,000 for every million views they get. For a million listens on streaming networks like as Spotify and Apple Music, you can expect to pay roughly R30,000.
“Oy u luzi chervona kalyna” is a song performed by Scott and Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the frontman for the Ukrainian band Boombox (who cancelled his upcoming music tour of the United States in order to support his nation).
According to Scott, the cooperation came about as a result of The Kiffness’ international fan base; he has received a lot of video requests from Ukrainian fans since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
As a result, we went out to Andriy’s management, who graciously granted me permission to remix the video. ” According to the YouTuber, everyone decided that they would transfer all of the money to Ukrainian Aid.
The video has received 1.5 million views on YouTube and more than 6.7 million views on Facebook. In addition to Bandcamp, the tune is also available for download on Amazon, iTunes, and Spotify. Sales figures from these streaming sites were not yet available this week, according to industry sources.
Scott worked on the remix for two consecutive nights, and he was exhausted. He had originally intended to release a different video on the 4th of March, but instead chose to share this remix.
“It was necessary [to produce the remix] because I have a strong emotional attachment to the people of Ukraine, and I believed that the song might not only assist monetarily, but also in lifting their spirits,” he said.
This is not the first time that The Kiffness has produced a video for the Ukrainian market. Just a few days ago, the singer shared a remix of a G.K Chesterton quotation along with the hashtag #PrayForUkraine on Instagram.