AJREarlyReleases

AJREarlyReleases is one of the most popular AJR fan channels of all time and likely the most known. The channel had typically posted a variety of different types of AJR content, including occasional news updates, social media posts from the band, lyric videos, edits, and other forms of content. The current iteration of the AJREarlyReleases channels had been made back on February 13th, 2020 and was put into use that same year on April 28th.

AJREarlyReleases is one of multiple channels by the same individual (TimberHines123), all related to AJR content. Other channels include AJREarlyReleases2, AJRInstrumentals, and AJRAutoMashups.

Creation

AJREarlyReleases had been created all the way back in March 8th, 2019 as a place for the archival of AJR content. This time-period of the AJR fanbase had seen barely any fan accounts, with only 3 prominent ones at the time (IsNotBroken - FanofAJR, AJRe-uploads, and a third channel). IsNotBroken - FanofAJR had focused on concert videos (and still does as of writing on 2024-01-20), while AJRe-uploads and the unnamed third channel had focused on uploading old/removed content by the band before being terminated.

These channels served as inspiration of the AJREarlyReleases channel and the content it had posted focused on posting old/removed content, as well as instrumentals, the latest news/updates for the band, early releases (hence the name of the channel) of music and other content.

YouTube History

AJREarlyReleases (v1) - March 8th, 2019 to July 9th, 2019

The first iteration of AJREarlyReleases had been formed in March 2019 uploading a variety of content, becoming well-established in the community. Said content which became prominent on this first iteration of the channel included early 30-second teasers to every song on Neotheater, the cover art to Neotheater early, official instrumentals, and unreleased content.
On July 9th, 2019, the channel had gotten terminated just a mere 12 hours after its discovery of the "Go On Take A Chance" music video, a major breakthrough for the community in the discovery of old AJR content.

AJREarlyReleases (v2) - July 9th, 2019 to April 28th, 2020

Following the termination of the first version of the AJREarlyReleases account, a second one had been made with the same name on that same day. It continued on with the same type of content as the first iteration. The channel had a series titled "AJR - Missing Songs" where a variety of content had been posted, including old content such as 212 / the AJR EP songs / Let It Snow / others, unreleased content such as Fisherman / A Brand New Day / others, and older IRL media such as the webisodes and old acoustic covers. The account had gained an even larger following than the previous variant, due to posts most prominently involving the early release of Bang!.

AJRAlternateVersions - July 30th, 2019 to April 21st, 2020

The termination of the first AJREarlyReleases channel had caused the focus of the channel to be more specified. With the specification of content, other types of content had been pushed into other channels. AJRAlternateVersions had been made for this reason. AJRAlternateVersions had been made into a place for alternate versions of AJR songs could be published. This includes clean versions of AJR songs which weren't easily accessible as well as radio edits for songs, as well as other things.
Due to a lack of interest within this channel's type of content, it had been shut down on April 21st, 2020 and the content on the channel got saved and repurposed in the future.

AJRInstrumentals - July 30th, 2019 to April 25th, 2024 ||| October 3rd, 2024 to now

The termination of the first AJREarlyReleases channel had caused the focus of the channel to be more specified. With the specification of content, other types of content had been pushed into other channels. AJRInstrumentals had been made for this reason. This channel had been known for being the premier source of official instrumentals, acapellas, and stems for AJR songs.

AJREarlyReleases (v3) - February 13th, 2020 to April 24th, 2024 ||| October 2nd, 2024 to now

The third iteration of the AJREarlyReleases channel had been made back on February 13th, 2020 following the 2nd iteration of AJREarlyReleases uploading "Bang!" early. This had been made as a backup in case anything happened to said 2nd iteration of AJREarlyReleases.
The channel started being used in April 28th, 2020 following the termination of the 2nd iteration. The channel had started off with similar concepts and topics as the prior two channels, until a message from Ryan Met in May 2020, which can be seen below.
- "Hey, I really don’t want to be rude because I appreciate all of our fans’ support, but I want to let you know: we don’t appreciate you posting our old songs and videos. There’s a reason we took them down, and we work really hard on our current music. Your Instagram and YouTube and other sites really make us unhappy. I’m sure you’re a great person and we appreciate you being a fan, but it bothers us to see leaked videos being posted over and over again. I hope you understand!" - Ryan Met / May 17th, 2020
Following the message from Ryan, the channel's content had shifted into a brand new scene. AJREarlyReleases has uploaded numerous types of content for the band since, such as the latest news/updates, live performances and concert videos, memes/funny videos, as well as others. Although there had been an instance where older content had been uploaded due to statements made by the band during the OKO Tour breakdown production, there have also been recent attempts to help prevent leaks of music related to OK ORCHESTRA and The Maybe Man.
Since then, the AJREarlyReleases account on YouTube has become the largest fan account for the band on that platform, reaching a milestone of 10,000 subscribers on September 9th, 2021 and currently having nearly 50,000 subscribers on the platform (as of 2024-10-07).

AJREarlyReleases2 - October 20th, 2020 to April 25th, 2024 ||| October 3rd, 2024 to now

AJREarlyReleases2 served as a backup to the current 3rd iteration of the AJREarlyReleases channel, made in case it was taken down. However, due to the third iteration lasting the longest time and the shift of content that had occurred there, AJREarlyReleases2 now serves as a place for lesser content now viewed as insufficient for the main AJREarlyReleases account, such as lesser-known performances, alternate versions of AJR songs (clean versions, radio edits), and other forms of content.

AJRAutoMashups - June 29th, 2021 to now

The AJRAutoMashups channel had been a place to test experiments related to mashup content. Using AI technologies, the channel uploads auto-generated mashups of AJR songs, allowing for mashup makers and fans to see the possibilities of mashups between songs and the advancement of AI technologies.

False Terminations of YouTube Channels - April 24th, 2024 and April 25th, 2024

On April 24th, 2024, AJREarlyReleases was falsely terminated from YouTube following what YouTube claims is "abuse of the copyright infringement webform". In reality, the situation is much more complicated.
- As explained by TimberHines123 in full on the AJREarlyReleases Discord, they had worked with the AJR Street Team in taking down old and lost AJR media alongside pirated content of the band as well. This had involved sending media of the sorts to the street team to handle themselves alongside taking down some of the content themselves. Dozens of examples of this media on several platforms, including YouTube, Discord, SoundCloud, Odysee, PeerTube, Google, and others.
- They had submitted copyright infringement requests to Google over a document containing dozens of links to pirated content, including lost/old AJR media alongside downloads to demos and releases. A Google Drive complaint was submitted on April 19th with files being taken down 3 days later.
- Timber therefore sent a copyright complaint for the document and the video advertising it on YouTube, and was met with a termination by YouTube.
On April 25th, 2024, AJREarlyReleases2 and AJRInstrumentals were terminated from YouTube for being associated to AJREarlyReleases.

Retirement Announcement - May 6th, 2024

On May 6th, 2024, Timber officially announced their retirement from the AJR fandom via Discord, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. The 4-image social media post outlines a brief history of the channels and explains the reasoning for the retirement, stating the following:
- "But all of this considered, I think my time is up. I have been thinking about quitting for months and months. There were times where I have wanted to quit in the past. May 2020, December 2020 and June 2021 were prominent times, but there have always been conversations I have had with that possibility of my time being up. Fairly recently, I thought about my future. Seeing major creators quit to focus on their own life made me think about what I wanted in life. Do I see myself doing this forever? The answer became evident to me when the channels recently got terminated. I love this community and I still do, all of the amazing people I have met and just the overall sincerity of most are overwhelming. But I think it’s the end for me." - TimberHines123, May 6th, 2024
The post explains that the plans for the accounts are as follows:
- The social media accounts (such as Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok) will mostly be left dormant, with the accounts not being transferred to new ownership.
- AJREarlyReleases Discord will have new ownership in a transitioning process, with the oldest 3 staff members receiving full administrative permissions while Timber stays the actual owner for a while.
- If the YouTube accounts come back, those will become dormant as with the other social media accounts, with the possibility of infrequent posts.
- Archives of both AJREarlyReleases and AJRInstrumentals can be found online.
  - AJREarlyReleases Archive - https://odysee.com/@AJREarlyReleases:8
  - AJRInstrumentals Archive - https://odysee.com/@AJRInstrumentals:0
AJRInstrumentals1 - July 14th, 2024 to now
- Following requests from dozens of individuals to reupload the instrumentals onto YouTube (as well as several individuals attempting to take the name and the content directly without permission and/or credit), AJRInstrumentals made its return onto YouTube with the uploads of the album instrumentals on July 14th, 2024.

The Return of the Channels - October 2nd, 2024

On October 2nd, 2024, YouTube officially reinstated AJREarlyReleases onto YouTube, followed by AJREarlyReleases2 and AJRInstrumentals the following day. Discussions with YouTube Support had led to their Internal Team recognizing that their initial termination decision had been made by mistake.
- "I have forwarded the additional details you shared and after the follow up review request that we sent, I am very delighted to let you know that your channel AJREarlyReleases has been reinstated! We routinely review all submissions to our webforms for signs of potential abuse and your takedown requests were incorrectly flagged in this process. As a result your channel was terminated. On further investigation, it does not appear to be abusive." - YouTube Support Team, October 2nd, 2024

TimberHines123

TO BE ADDED.

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