YouTube improves comments, offers royalty-free music to creators

Google's YouTube has announced some improvements for videographers and others posting clips on the site. 

The YouTube Audio Library is making available 150 royalty-free instrumental music tracks to use with videos (or for any other creative purpose).  The service allows users to search by mood, genre, instruments and length.

YouTube's also making some new features available for those using comments.  Moderators can allow comments that fans care about to float to the top of comment lists.  They can also allow automatic blocking of unwelcome voices and inappropriate keywords.

Source -  Google Makes 150 Songs Royalty Free In Videos, Turns Comments Into Conversations,  Online Media Daily

Google, Yahoo Interest in Pay TV?

News reports suggest that YouTube (owned by Google) is getting ready to charge for access to some of its specialty channels, and Yahoo has been in contact with Hulu about a possible bid to buy the premium video service.

Hulu has been on and off the market for the last few years.  When its owners first tried to auction off the service, deals fell through when networks wouldn't commit to continuing to license their content to Hulu.  This dropped the value of the service significantly, well below what the owners sought, so Hulu was pulled off the market.  A few months back, the network owners once again said they'd be open to selling the service, a number of groups expressed interest (including Amazon). 
  Yahoo has been seeking entry into the subscription video on demand (SVOD) market recently.  It had a deal in place to purchase a majority stake in Dailymotion (a video streaming service owned by France Telecom) - until the French government vetoed the idea of foreign majority ownership.  Reports have Yahoo's CEO Marissa Mayer, making initial contact with Hulu execs; but any talks are still in the early stages.  Yahoo's, and Mayer's, interest in online video was evident at a recent Wired conference:

“I think video is really important … video is something that we’re all innately designed and born to experience, everyone is born being able to watch and to hear,” she said. “Video is just this amazing format.”

 YouTube is already the biggest player in online video, but as a free hosting and streaming service.  What's new is a story in the Financial Times that states the service is ready to implement a pay wall for select specialty channels - possibly within a few weeks.  The official YouTube response to the story was that there was "nothing to announce" at this time - well short of a denial.  What YouTube insiders told the FT reporters was that YouTube was

“looking into creating a subscription platform that could bring even more great content to YouTube for our users to enjoy and provide our creators with another vehicle to generate revenue from their content, beyond the rental and ad-supported models we offer.”

  What that suggests is that the service is exploring, and probably already developing, a subscription / pay wall system that could be applied to specific channels/content providers.  The system might help some high-demand YouTube specialty channels with revenues, but it's more likely that YouTube wants the system in place to help attract new premium content channels such as movie studios and sports leagues.  In other words, those content creators that are now licensing content to various SVOD operators, and are thinking about cutting out the middleman and marketing direct to viewers.
  YouTube was quick to calm fears, promising that the vast bulk of user-generated videos would remain free.

I see these as reflecting the growing awareness of the importance of online video and licensing in the expanding TV viewing marketplace, and moves to help online  services position themselves to take advantage of that corner of the market as it expands.

Sources -  Yahoo's Mayer Has Met With Hulu Execs in a Preliminary Look-See at Premium Video Unit,  AllThingsD
Would Consumers Pay For YouTube Channels?,  VidBlog

Exploring New Markets - YouTube takes to the skies

One of the benefits of the emerging digital economy is that it's opened up a lot of potentially new markets for content distribution.

YouTube's signed a deal with Virgin America airline to put a selection of its premium streaming content on flights throughout the U.S., starting Dec. 15.

“We’re inspired by the quality of content our creator community is developing for YouTube, and we’re excited to get it in front of people in new ways. Partnering with Virgin America is one way we’re doing this. We feel the innovation and energy of both the YouTube and Virgin America brands align well,’ says Danielle Tiedt, YouTube’s chief marketing officer.

For now, at least, the move is more of a promotional test than a fully commercial service. A limited number of shows from premium YouTube channels will be made available, without commercials. As one reporter quipped, "the impression that little YouTube programs are on an equal footing with networks or theatrical big releases—and that’s exactly the message (YouTube) wants to deliver."


   It's also a good starting strategy if YouTube wants to commercialize their services later.  As Chris Anderson suggests in Free, it can be useful when introducing a new product or exploring a new market to offer free sampling, so that people can test the waters and start forming their own thoughts about the content/service's value.

Whether short-term promo or long-term market development, it's good to see media outlets exploring potential new markets, and exploiting multiple revenue potentials for their content.  At least it's indicating that they're no longer trying to hold onto the old market structures and behaviors.

Source  -  YouTube Goes on a Trip,  Vidblog

Money for Nothing From YouTube

OK, first let's get past the latest YouTube OMG metric - people around the world upload an average of 72 hours of video every minute to YouTube.  And many are finding ways to make money off it.

  Christine Erickson has a post on the Mashable Social Media blog that talks to some of the bleeding edge profiteers about what it takes to be a profitable YouTube Channel.  The post includes a number of videos, and the main pieces of advice are variations on the standard approach for media success.

• Content is King - the obverse of GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out).  Be innovative, interesting, and care (a bit anyway) about production quality.  Also, to get a channel on YouTube you have to select and identify a content category.
• Be Original - coming up with original ideas is good, but getting a copyright is critical. To be eligible for monetization, YouTube states that “you must own all the necessary rights to commercially use all visuals and audio, whether they belong to you or a third party.”
• Patience and Consistency - One hit wonders rarely make much.  And when your video is competing with 4 billion others, it takes a while to get noticed and build an audience base.  Speaking of which...
• Promote Yourself - YouTube rankings use a wide range of metrics to decide where your site or video comes up on a search.  Connect your channel with social media outlets - and use social media to connect with audiences and engage them - build a relationship that will keep them interested and coming back for more.
• Equipment -  You don't need film studio or professional broadcast standard equipment.  Lots of cameras and smartphones can shoot HD quality video.  But look into cameras with options for connecting microphones, and investing in some good microphones, tripods, and lights.  Going for editing software a level beyond what comes bundled can also be a good idea.

But read (and watch) the whole thing.

Source  -  How to Make Money From YouTube,  Mashable Social Media

Latest YouTube Stats

The average number of videos watched on YouTube each day continues to grow, now passing 4 billion.  That's twice the number watched in May 2010, and four times the volume reported in October 29.  It's not just the viewing that's exploding - currently, an average of 60 hours of video are uploaded to the site every minute, up from 10 hours-per-minute four years ago, 20 hours-per-minute in May 2009, and 35 hours=per-minute in November 2010.
  Despite these numbers, it's still not clear whether Google is turning a profit on YouTube yet.  Only 1 in 10 of the videos watched in any week are "monetized." Analysts suggest that YouTube's revenues are on the fast track, rising from $825 billion in 2010, to $1.3 billion last year, and is predicted to surpass $1.7 billion this year.  While that sounds like a lot, the storage and server costs to host, handle, and distribute all that content to the world can't be cheap.

Source - YouTubers Watch 4 Billion Videos per Day,  The Social Graf

YouTube expands support for Professional Content

YouTube recently indicated that it will expand its relationship with professional production companies, investing another $100 million to create programming exclusively for YouTube, and designed for viewing on mobile devices, computers, and connected-TVs.
  YouTube's VP of Global Content, Robert Kyncl, announced the first wave of YouTube "artist channels" featuring original programming at this year's CES show.  Kyncl predicted that online video will drive 90% of all online traffic within a few years, and that by 2020, 75% of all media channels will originate on the Web.

One question is whether YouTube will rely on advertising to monetize that original content, or whether it will create a subscription service like Hulu+. 

It's all about ads -- as Google knows well, according to Forrester Principal Analyst James McQuivey. "When millions of people watch something, advertisers will happily pony up the cash to sustain it," he said. "Since YouTube content is relatively cheap to produce -- $100 million may sound like a lot to you and me but for video production, it’s a drop in the bucket -- Google doesn’t need advertisers to spend as much as they do on TV content to come out ahead."

The potential for such channels to drive viewing is amply illustrated by the Machinima channel, which is said to deliver more than a billion video views monthly to more than 116 million viewers around the globe.

Sources - YouTube Invests $100 Million in Original Programming,  OnlineMediaDaily

More Outrageous Online Video Use / YouTube metrics

The latest comScore Video Metrix report on global online video viewing continues to show the rapid growth in online video use.  They report that during October, 2011, about 1.5 billion people aged 15 and older watched more than 200 billion videos online.  YouTube continued to dominate the market, delivering 88+ billion videos (43.8% of the market), with the second largest source for online videos, Youku Inc. (China's version), delivering less than 5 billion.
 The highest numbers for online video viewing were in Canada and the US, followed by the UK, Turkey, and Germany.  Viewers in Canada watched an average of 303 videos a month, with US viewers coming a close second with a 286 average.  UK viewers averaged 268 videos a month, and viewers in both Turkey and Germany averaged around 250 online videos watched in October.  Online video viewing also continued to be ubiquitous, with a reported high reach of 93.6% (of all Web users) in Turkey, and the U.S. coming in at the 8 spot with 88% of all Web users watching at least one online video a month.

More evidence of the burgeoning impact of IPTV and mobile media.

Source: 200 Billion Videos Viewed Online in October; YouTube Delivers 2 out of 5 Worldwide,  Research Brief, MediaPost Blogs

YouTube Turns to Creating Programming.

Post contributed by Chelsey Hallett -


YouTube currently has the largest video audience in the world and is the second most-visited website today. Therefore, YouTube has become one of the most successful sites in the history of the Internet. However despite these stats, YouTube is a free service created from user-generated videos. Since YouTube cannot advertise whatever anyone decides to upload, it does not create much revenue.
   Robert Kyncl and Tom Pickett have helped lead YouTube in its successes for the last seven years. Together, they have come up with a plan that will give YouTube more power than other competitors in the online video industry. The plan is to turn YouTube into a cable operator and network. YouTube would be implemented in production and distribution and essentially an equal to Comcast. However, the major difference between the two is that Comcast has 22.4 million subscribers and YouTube has 800 million.
   “I can’t think of anyone more important right now in the entire industry . . . they’re up there with the biggest of the bigs,” says R.J. Williams, who runs an entertainment industry-focused channel on YouTube called Young Hollywood.
   Kyncl and Pickett have a vision to transform YouTube’s current platform into a “generator and seller of quality content” and package this content to sell to advertisers. The content will be packaged through channel strategy. Kyncl and Pickett want to organize the site’s content into categories such as sports, food, music, that will serve like channels on a network. Through this process they believe they can find content worth selling.
   A second part of this plan is YouTube’s recent purchase of Next New Networks, an online video production studio. Along with producing content, it also serves as a training system for upcoming video producers. Another idea for producing revenue is through streaming major studio movies. They want to compete with iTunes and Amazon by having them available for rent.
   The purpose of turning YouTube into a programming giant is to use the advantages of being the largest video site to produce revenue. How can this be done better but through content produced by the general audience? They are the ones who chose what they want to view. It is a genius plan thanks to Kyncl and Pickett.

Source: Beyond Cat Videos: Is YouTube on the bring of becoming a programming star?,  Adweek.com

Abandonment Issues

The last week has seen some significant moves by major players abandoning efforts in the mobile / connected media markets.
The most recent is Logitech's announcement that it is pulling out of its deal manufacturing its Google TV set-top box.  CEO Guerrino De Luca called it's near year-long effort to sell the Revue set-top box based on Google-TV software a "mistake of implementation of a giant nature."  Issues with the implementation of Google TV limited demand, and a price drop from $250 to $99 per unit didn't help.  Logitech reportedly lost $100 million on its Revue player in the last year.
The Logitech withdrawal leaves Sony as the sole remaining hardware firm incorporating Google TV.  The Google TV software is included in some of its connected TVs.

Earlier in the week, Adobe announced that it was abandoning future development and support for Adobe Flash players for mobile devices.  While not giving a lot of details behind the move, there were hints that some of the elements of HTML 5 provided player opportunities surpassing Flash in mobile uses, and Adobe did stress its commitment to contributing to HTML 5 development efforts.  They also indicated that abandoning further mobile Flash development would free Adobe to pursue work on mobile apps.  One apparent advantage in the move is that Adobe can work on a single code platform (HTML 5), or on developing apps for a small number of mobile operating systems (primarily Apple's iOS and Android), rather than having to develop plug-ins for a wide range of hardware chip and operating system implementations.  The move may have a short-term impact on Google's YouTube, which has relied heavily on Flash as a video platform and format.  The move may limit mobile access via Android and Windows-Mobile based mobile devices, at least until new YouTube player apps can be developed, or YouTube can convert the millions of Flash videos it hosts into alternative formats.  Apple already has a YouTube app that translates Flash into alternative formats for viewing.
In a separate announcement, Adobe announced that it was abandoning further development of Flash Mobile Player for connected TV systems and other digital home devices.  This was also a blow for Google TV, which had relied heavily on Flash players for its video content.  In the announcement, Adobe explained the move - "we believe the right approach to deliver content on televisions is through applications, not a web browsing experience, and we will continue to encourage the device and content publishing community down that path." 

Overall, it's not been a good week for Google on the mobile video and connected video fronts.

Sources:  Logitech CEO - Google TV was a 'gigantic' mistake,  Fierce Cable
Adobe to abandon Flash plug-ins for mobile,  TechRadar.com
Adobe to abandon Flash on Connected TVs, too,  Mashable

YouTube Stars cash in

A recent post on SearchBlog looked at how some top YouTube stars and producers are pulling in more than $100,000 a year supporting and facilitating interactions between brands and targeted audiences through their content and channels, and/or through merchandising.  And YouTube wants to help, offering a Playbook with new strategies, tips, and optimization techniques.


Another example of how people are learning how to monetize new media opportunities. 


Source: "How YouTube Stars Make More Than $100,000 Annually", SearchBlog

YouTube to stream Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits

Last week, YouTube announced that it will stream two upcoming big music festivals, with sponsorship by Dell and AMD.  YouTube will stream the first day of the sold-out Lollapalooza (early August in Chicago) on its front page.  In September, YouTube will stream the Austin City Limits festival in Austin.
YouTube will feature a "Lollapalooza" week in connection with the festival, and has indicated that there will be a primary live stream of performances, and a secondary stream with interviews and coverage of backstage areas, enabling YouTube to showcase multiple artists each day. Videos from the festival will remain on the YouTube site for four weeks after the festivals.  YouTube plans to integrate the streams with Facebook and Twitter feeds to promote interactivity.

YouTube's initial move into streaming music festivals was local favorite Bonnaroo in June, 2010.  Since then, it's had sponsored music festival streams for two other, smaller festivals in California.  Other sites have been streaming music festivals this year - Vevo streamed acts from this year's Bonnaroo festival, and NPR plans on webcasting this year's Norfolk Folk Festival and Norfolk Jazz festival.

Sources: "YouTube Starts to Look Like a TV Network,"  AdWeek
"Lollapalooza YouTube Stream: Site Will Also Offer Coverage of Austin City Limits," Huffington Post

Google I/.O Announcements - Now a medium

Google is sponsoring a big event for tech types and reporters, called Google I/O.  Among the announcements are several indicating Google is making serious moves into both the content and mobile markets.  Here's a glimpse at some of the big announcements:

Google Music (or at least "Music Beta by Google) was launched, offering users the ability to upload 20,000 of your tunes initially, providing a cloud hosting service similar to Amazon's that would allow you to stream from your library to any device supporting Flash.  The full launch of a music store was delayed by issues in getting licenses from major record labels.
Engadget has a comparison of streaming music services.

Not content with sound, Google also announced the addition of video and movie rentals to the Android Market, mirroring the recently expanded YouTube rental inventory.  Users can access the movies Via PCs and Google TV through YouTube-Movies, and will soon be able to use Android Market for play on smartphones and tablets running Android 2.2 or higher. In additions, purchases on one platform reportedly can also be accessed from the other.

Speaking of Google TV, the folks at Google announced that the Google TV platform will get an upgrade to the new Android 3.1 platform this summer.  The upgrade will provide users with access to the Android Market.  Google also confirmed that the Google TV app will be included in Sony, Samsung, and Vizio TVs offering internet access, and Logitech Google TV set-top boxes.

Sources: "Google Music Beta to stream 20,000 songs for free, official! (updated)," Engadget
"Android Market launches movie rentals, thousands of titles available to your PC, phone or tablet,"
Engadget
"Google TV getting Android 3.1 and Market this summer; Sony, Vizio, Samsung and Logitech onboard," Engadget

YouTube NextUp Winners Announced, 25 Creators Get $35k

From Martin Johnson -

YouTube announced the winners of its first ever NextUp Creators contest to identify 25 video creators to make up the network’s inaugural NextUp class. Each of the winning creators will receive $35,000 to help fund future video production as well as attend a 4-day YouTube Creator Camp (also a first) in New York City for “personalized training and mentoring to build their brands and improve their content.” The 25 winning creators, all of whom are YouTube partners, range from musicians to comedians to a trick basketball shooters, a makeup artist, a skateboarder and a screencasting Final Cut wizard.

 

Source: "YouTube NextUp Winners" TubeFilter News

YouTube Exploring Movie Rental Business

From Martin Johnson:

YouTube is prepping an expansion of its movie rental service that will include selections from major movie studios and serve as a serious competitor to Apple's iTunes, according to a report. Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers, and Universal, as well as Lionsgate and Kino Lorber have all agreed to allow YouTube to rent their films. 

"We've steadily been adding more and more titles since launching movies for rent on YouTube over a year ago and now have thousands of titles available. Outside of that, we don't comment on rumor, or speculation," a YouTube spokesman said via email.

YouTube has been dabbling in movie rentals for more than a year, but it has not become a major focus for the Google-owned video site.

Source: "YouTube Expanding Movie Rental Business" PCMag

YouTube to Offer Original Content

From Martin Johnson:

(Originally forwarded last week, my fault for losing it in email backlog- Ben Bates)

Google is planning to spend as much as $100 million to develop original content for YouTube as part of a site redesign around channels based on categories, according to a report published in The Wall Street Journal today.

YouTube is looking to introduce 20 or so 'premium channels' that would feature 5 to 10 hours of professionally-produced original programming a week.

The report would mark a change in strategy for YouTube, which has historically maintained that it is not in the content creation business. However, the company does have grant programs that enable partners to create content for the site. The site also allows people to create channels for specific content, but is not organized by topics, relying instead on a search box for navigation.

Source: "Google Sinking $100 Million into YouTube Content," PC Magazine

Latest "Wow" Stats on UGC and YouTube

• Every day, 150 years worth of videos are watched on Facebook.
• Every minute, more than 400 Tweets contain a YouTube link.
• Every minute, 36 hours of new video are uploaded onto YouTube.
• More video is uploaded on YouTube in 60 days than the three major US TV networks created in 60 years.
• More than 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the U.S.
• YouTube has localized sites in 25 countries, using 43 languages
• Last year, 55 million people around the world watched IPL (Indian Premiere League) cricket live on YouTube
• Google's speech recognition.software can translate YouTube videos and create captions in 51 languages
• There are more than 7000 hours of full-length entertainment films and shows on YouTube.
• As of February 2011, YouTube had 490 million unique users worldwide, who rack up about 92 billion pageviews and 2.9 billion hours of viewing a month.

YouTube on Mobile booms

YouTube announced that video plays on mobile devices (smartphones and other handheld devices) tripled during 2010, and now exceeds 200 million plays a day.  They've added the Vevo music video catalog (good news), and announced that it's new Android app will add pre-roll advertising.(good news for YouTube, perhaps less so for viewers).