Retrospective: The Year Ahead for Retrothusiast (2025)

Looking Back, Moving Forward: 3 Years of Retro Nostalgia and What's Next

Happy New Year, retro enthusiasts! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season.

This Christmas, I took some time off to spend with family and decompress. It was a chance to relax and recharge, which was much needed.

Starting a YouTube channel while working full-time has been a challenge, especially when balancing family life. But one thing I love about Retrothusiast is that it encourages me to make time for the things I’m passionate about, like making music and exploring vintage music gear, computers, and other nostalgic electronics.

Before Retrothusiast, I only created music when I felt inspired. The problem was, I rarely felt inspired—I was usually too tired and worn out from the day-to-day grind. I didn’t set aside dedicated time for music, so I’d find myself squeezing in 10-15 minutes here and there during breaks.

For my fellow Prophet owners, you’ll know that 10-15 minutes is barely enough time for the Prophet to warm up and get in tune! Still, I managed to capture some interesting ideas, recording them on my phone. My goal for 2025 is to revisit and expand on those ideas.

I started Retrothusiast in November 2021. During those first few years, I only posted five videos as I was learning the ropes of being a content creator. Back then, I knew next to nothing about optimizing audio, setting up lighting, or editing videos.

Everything was shot on my iPhone, and I used iMovie to edit. In fact, my most popular video, “Why the Finicky Analog Prophet 10 Is Better Than Digital Keyboards,” was entirely created on my iPhone using iMovie.

That video inspired me to take the channel more seriously. The following year, I posted 12 more videos, and for a while, I was uploading one video a week. As I started consistently posting, more folks naturally began subscribing to the channel.

Now, I can clearly see a path to reaching 1,000 subscribers and becoming a YouTube partner. While it won’t replace my day job, it might help offset some of the channel’s expenses and allow me to acquire new gear to explore and create videos about.

When I first started Retrothusiast, my goal was to share my love for retro music gear, vintage computers, and electronics. So far, I’ve focused primarily on music gear on my YouTube channel, though I’ve thoroughly covered retro computers and games on this Substack.

Looking ahead, what do you want to see in 2025? More videos on retro music gear? Or should I start diving into my inventory of vintage computers? Maybe a mix of both?

I’d love to explore the music capabilities of my Commodore, Amiga, Atari, and Mac. Drop a comment with your ideas—I’d love to hear what kinds of content you’d like to see on Retrothusiast.

That’s it for now—a look back at Retrothusiast over the past three years and a glimpse of what’s to come.

Thank you to everyone who has subscribed, liked, and engaged with my videos. You’ve made this journey fun and incredibly rewarding.

I’m Matt with Retrothusiast. Wishing you all a wonderful new year, and I’ll see you in the next one!