We’ve seen two big announcements from YouTube this past week.
The first is the launch of their new Music Discovery Site. Likely inspired by Pandora’s Music Genome Project, YouTube has launched a section of their site where you can enter an artists’ name and you’ll be supplied back with their videos as well as suggestions of other artists you may enjoy. Why is this smart? Not just because it adds a layer to an already robust site, but because YouTube’s most watched videos are already music videos.
I tested the service out with a relatively small artist, Allison Weiss, and YouTube immediately gave me a 6 music videos by Allison as well as a handful of other artists that some of which, surprisingly, I hadn’t heard of:
While the music industry is generally known for being slow to adapt when it comes to sharing content in the digital space, labels are working with YouTube. They were working with YouTube prior to the launch of the Music Discovery section of the site, and because Vevo has promised increased ad revenue, they’re likely going to continue working with YouTube as the Music Discovery section grows.
On another note entirely, starting today YouTube will expand its offerings so that consumers will be able to rent full length movies from Sundance Film Festival through January 31st. Five films from the 2009 and 2010 festivals will be available for rent via YouTube with Google Checkout managing payment. YouTube also has put out an open call asking independent filmmakers to join the rental program.
Here’s to new music and new movies in 2010! Thanks, YouTube!
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Thank you for bringing this up! We are looking into it now. Appreciate your feedback and thanks for reading!
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