More cool tech: Microsoft Surface

So who’s on YouTube: My Chemical Romance – “Teenagers”

“Teenagers” video by My Chemical Romance.  This band is a true force on YouTube, one of the most popular, if not THE most popular.  They get millions and millions of views. 

Mossberg interview w/ Chad Hurley + Steve Chen

News: WSJ writer Walt Mossberg interviewed the YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.  According to a PC World account, Mossberg grilled the two cofounders about copyright issues.

YouTube back up in Morocco

No official word on why it was blocked.  More.

EMI, the last of the 4 major labels, enters YouTube’s fold

News:  EMI and YouTube agreed to a licensing deal to allow EMI artists’ videos on YouTube.  YouTube users will also be allowed to make “mashup” and “remixes” of some (if not all) of EMI’s videos.  EMI’s artists include David Bowie, Coldplay, The Decemberists, Fatboy Slim, Gorillaz, Lily Allen, and Norah Jones. (More)

Analysis:  This is big news.  YouTube now has deals in place with all of the 4 major labels.  (No lawsuits from the recording industry.)  That’s quite an accomplishment for YouTube.   

Esmee Denters update

At 8:30 p.m. (a little over 48 hours since 1st posting), Esmee Denters’ video with Justin Timberlake hit 442,445 views. (YouTube’s system of counting has a lag time, so the number is probably more.) But when will it hit a million?

Apple TV will run YouTube videos, sort of

News: Calling YouTube a “worldwide sensation,” Steve Jobs said the new Apple TV (which lets people play anything on iTunes on a TV) will run YouTube videos with a June software update. Unfortunately, the videos are selected by Apple for access. Apparently, the full library of YouTube videos won’t be available until the fall. (More here and here)

Analysis: Someone has already developed a plug-in for Apple TV to make it run YouTube videos. See the video below and the website for A Series of Tubes. I’m not sure if it’s better what Apple will be offering.

I did test out the Apple TV this past weekend.  It didn’t have YouTube capability, and I’m still not sure how good YouTube videos will look on a large screen.  The resolution of most YouTube videos is made for a small screen.  When you blow it up, it could be much more blurry.   (More here)   Fortune Magazine writer Brent Schlender has already called the Apple TV a failure.

YouTube down in Morocco

News:  Since May 25, YouTube has been unavailable in Morocco.  Some people in Morocco suggest that the government has blocked the site due to videos critical of Morocco’s actions in Western Sahara.  But the state owned Internet service provider says it’s just a technical glitch, while the government has no comment.  (More)

Esmee Denters update

News: After 24 hours, the Esmee Denters-Justin Timberlake video on YouTube has hit the following marks (at around 2 pm):

1st Top Favorited video (today)

3rd Most viewed (recently) – 102,685 views in 24 hours

2nd Most Top Rated (today) – 1,550 ratings near 4 1/2 stars

2nd Most Discussed (today) – 1537 comments

UPDATE 2 (at 8 p.m.)

1st Top Favorited video (today)

3rd Most viewed (recently) – 221,557 views in a little over 1 day

3nd Most Top Rated (today) – 2,176 ratings near 4 1/2 stars

1st Most Discussed (today) – 2227 comments

2nd Most Linked (today) – 68,409 links

YouTube testing new, sleeker video player

News:  The blogosphere is buzzing with news that YouTube is testing a new, sleeker video player.  The new player will do something that Google’s video player already does right now:  you can fast forward immediately to any part of the video (you don’t have to wait for progressive downloading anymore).  Also, the new player has a very sleek looking user interface that gives you thumbnail screen shots of “Related videos” flashed across the bottom of the screen of the video you are watching.  You can see the new look here and here.

Analysis:  I’ve been waiting for the fast forward function to be improved on YouTube, since Google already had that capability (using an updated version of Flash video).  The addition of screenshots of Related videos at the bottom of the video screen looks way cool.   

YouTube hires music editor

News:  YouTube hired a music editor, Michele Ktel, to help manage YouTube’s growing music presence.  Here’s how she described her new position:  “I’ll be working hard to make sure that YouTube is the music destination you expect it to be, and I’ll be launching a few new channels to make it even easier for music fans to track down their favorite videos and discover new ones (with plans to include a few highly original sock-monkey serenades). Think of me as the one-stop-record-shop for YouTube’s music community.” You can email her at music@youtube.com.  (More)

Analysis:  Another sign of YouTube’s impact on different industries.  The new position makes a lot of sense.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you know there’s a lot of music talent to be found on YouTube. 

Esmee Denters performs with Justin Timberlake on YouTube: “What Goes Around”

Unbelievable. I hate to ruin the feeling of shock and amazement I had when first watching this video, but Justin Timberlake is playing piano and singing background for Esmee Denters. She really gets revved up with one minute left in the video. Justin says at the end, “She sings my own song better than me.” I agree. That was so unbelievably, mind-blowingly cool. I love it! Let’s see how long it takes for this video to get a million views.

Photo

Terra Naomi, mini-documentary, Part 5

Terra discusses how her life has changed since being discovered on YouTube.

Sony’s new flexible, razor thin video screen

Hillary Clinton music vote mashup

Hillary Clinton wants YouTube users to select her campaign song. The video is a mashup video. Wonder if copyright permissions were obtained? Songs are here. Surprising no one nominated Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” (at least the non-profanity version). And that’s not meant as a slight on Hillary–the rap song is an inspirational one, read the lyrics: “You can do anything you set your mind to, man.”

So who’s on YouTube?: religion

Whether you believe in a God or not, this shows the influence of YouTube on religion.  Two Texas churches are posting videos on YouTube (see article).  I recall earlier in the year the Catholic Cardinal Rigali posting videos about Lent.  And some of the most controversial videos on YouTube have been ones critical of Islam (some of these are flagged by users, others are even taken down by YouTube).

I’m sure there are bunch other religious videos making the rounds.  Please comments if you know of others.

Video of the week, 2.0: YouTube Date

Since we have a long weekend, I decided to post a second pick for video of the week.  This is spricket24, she’s a pretty funny gal.

Video of the week: Renetto improves the Segway scooter

I love it!

The 5th Copyright suit: NJ turnpike sues YouTube for car crash video

News: Here.  Yep, you heard that right, the NJ Turnpike is suing YouTube.

Samsung lip synch contest — you can join by June 18

These kids are my favorite so far! But you probably can do a better lip synch job. Here’s the song you have to sing and rules.  You can watch the entry videos here.

So who’s on YouTube?: Paul McCartney + Natalie Portman, “Dance Tonight” video

YouTube’s prominent copyright warning

I’m not sure how long ago this warning was on YouTube, but now, before you upload your video, there’s a line that reads:

“Copyright Notice
Do not upload copyrighted material for which you don’t own the rights or have permission from the owner. ”

Maybe this was there before, but I don’t remember it.

YouTube now has free music to synch in your videos

News:  One result of the deals YouTube struck with the music labels is that YouTube has licensed music in audio files for you to synch in your own videos for free.  The number of songs is not that many right now, but YouTube says it will be bigger.

What YouTube encourages you to do is to switch the audio in your existing videos, so that you have authorized kmusic in them.  It’s called AudioSwap.

Analysis: Everyone should thank YouTube for doing this.  It makes life a lot easier.  The library of music needs to grow, though, for it to work well.

YouTube suspending users for “cover” songs?

News: I’ve seen some indications that YouTube may be suspending some user accounts for performances of covers of copyrighted songs–I’m guessing after receiving a DMCA complaint from the copyright holder b/c there are many cover songs still up that probably haven’t been complained about. Anafree’s account was temporarily suspended, but she’s back up. AngelicaV1 has been suspended. Please write in a comment if you know of any more.

BBC Interview with Chad Hurley

Here.

Eros Int’l brings Bollywood videos to YouTube

News:  Bollywood is the Indian version of Hollywood.  Eros Int’l is a major studio from India that has just opened up a channel on YouTube.

Stevie Ryan, aka “Little Loca” on YouTube, gets show on CW

News: OK, she’s only hosting a talk show about user-generated videos on the CW network (yes, exactly, where’s that?), but it’s still big news when YouTube users migrate over to the big media world. More here
Stevie’s got several different characters on YouTube — stevieryan, littleloca, The Real Paris, and Oolalaa.

Terra Naomi, mini-documentary, Part 4

Terra Naomi talks about her days as a student studying classical opera. It’s a time when Terra started doing drugs with a bunch of drug-addicted musicians in Detroit. She eventually went home to her parents and collapsed–they took her to rehab.  Terra vowed never to go back to that low point in her life.

The opera training explains a lot. That’s one thing that is distinctive about Terra’s voice. She sometimes sings soprano in her songs, and it’s so pleasant to listen to. (You can hear her range in “In The Summertime,” for example.)

The Pirate Bay to launch unregulated YouTube competitor at the videobay.org

News:   The Pirate Bay (great name!) will be launching a video site at thevideobay.org to compete with YouTube, only it will supposedly be pretty much unregulated and uncensored.  Everything will be left up to users.  No DMCA notices.  No copyright police. The site is still in beta.  (More)

Analysis: These are the kind of websites that should give big media pause before they think YouTube is their enemy.  It may turn out to be in big media’s best interest to have YouTube the most popular video site.

YouTube founders bet on user-generated content over big media

News:  Here’s the highlight from the recent AP interview with YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.  YouTube is betting on user-generated content (not big media productions) to be the mainstay of their business:

“What our users want to watch is themselves,” he said. “They don’t want to watch professionally produced content. There are so many people with cameras that have the opportunity to create their own content and so many more people with editing tools to tell their stories, we feel this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Because of its emphasis on grainy, homemade videos, YouTube isn’t worried about the efforts of NBC Universal and News Corp. to launch their own Internet video channel. Nor are they concerned about another site, Joost, which has gained the backing of major media companies like Viacom and CBS. Those alternatives all seem interested in providing slick, lengthy videos akin to traditional television programming rather than invading YouTube’s niche of serving up two- to three-minute clips, Hurley said. “We have never been about full-length programming. We have never been about high quality. We don’t really see ourselves building the largest audience by moving in that direction.”