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What YouTube Just Did for Chris Brown…
Chris Brown has plenty of problems these days, though the latest viral video on YouTube is not one of them. No, this isn’t the recent apology video Brown delivered to the public. Rather, it’s a wacky wedding ceremony in which the procession dances to the beat of Brown’s “Forever,” a huge surprise to guests – and Brown label Jive/Zomba/Sony Music Entertainment as well.
The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” has already blown past 12 million views, and revitalized a song well past its prime. “‘Forever,’ a year-old song, hit number 4 on iTunes,” said Jordan Hoffner, director of Content Partnerships at YouTube, during a keynote presentation at the Digital Media Summit at UCLA on Wednesday. “This is a good story, these are the types of things we like to see.”
The song has slipped a bit on iTunes since the video first surged, though everyone is happy with the bump. Hoffner used the result to showcase the auto-identification system within YouTube that detects a song and triggers ad-based payouts to rights holders. The wedding dance bumped sales through buy links, a picture-perfect case for a company attempting to build bridges with more traditional media companies. “The owners of Chris Brown’s song were able to claim it through the audio technology, and then they were able to patch in another feature which was click-to-buy,” Hoffner described to several hundred attendees.
Okay, so nice story, but is any of this producing serious cash? Warner Music Group obviously thinks not, at least in the aggregate, and even Hoffner noted that one-off spikes are hardly a solid revenue stream. “We have to go from making these one-offs to something more ongoing so that people can do some planning around that over time,” Hoffner conceded.
And, for artists without a pre-established channel, the missed opportunities can be huge. The poster child for that is Susan Boyle, who now has one of the most-viewed videos ever on YouTube – and not a penny on the action. “Who knows what the ratings impact was,” Hoffner said, spinning a question on the lost revenues. Perhaps the Boyle situation shows that wins also have counterbalancing losses, especially for those unprepared for their fleeting YouTube moment.
Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff.
Ive seen a number of channels on youtube that are popular, such as one tongue in cheek one called hot facts girls, whch is just very attractive women presenting a plethora of facts on variosu subjects from history, to anatomy and geography. Another, which i noticed last year, which had a lot of aggregate marketing and satellite sites, merchandising etc, was SMOSH, which was a pair of young guys makign spoof ads, mini documentaries and ultra short films. A few of us sat down and approximated that those two may have made enough from all the sales, virals, etc to not have to bother with college and full time jobs.
It’s down to luck, clever ideas and KEEPING IT SHORT on youtube, which is endemic in the modern “i want it now” world, where ANYTHING in terms of interactive entertainment is only a click away. In fact, due to the original restrictions based on bandwidth and server capacities, a lot of people are probably now geared towards the 10 minute or less, slice of infotainment that is readily available. My own opinion , is that any PERSONAL entertainment ( that is anything that ISNT a star interview, film preview, or music vid), shouldnt be more than 6 minutes, after which many people probably lose interest.
It’s a bit of a worrying sign of the times , but then most of us have been conditioned to the “commercial break” style of programming, so 6 or so mins and an interruption has been endemic on t.v. for years.
I saw this video and like the 12 million other people I was moved. It was everything a wedding should be and if these young people are the future then everything will be ok.
Barry, you should attend one of the indian – that means south asian- weddings in the uk; once the booze and the dj starts, its wild