YouTube Wants In On Music Video Action, Talks To Labels
By: Spacelab Research Staff YouTube has seen the light on music videos and has announced intentions to distribute "every music video ever created."
Speaking to Reuters, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen said "What we really want to do is in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube. We're trying to bring in as much of this content as we can on to the site."
They'll offer the videos for free, using a different strategy than iTunes or Microsoft's upcoming deal with MTV called URGE, where users can buy and download copies of videos. YouTube will offer the videos to watch through their web site, and let people come back and watch them as many times as they want, like the rest of the content on the site.
YouTube also offers a more community-oriented, Web 2.0 vibe that allows people to rank videos based on popularity, create personal playlists, and recommendations. This could allow users a more socially democratic way of rating videos and bands, as opposed to long-standing practices by the music industry that often have involved paid placement and false impressions of popularity.
