The YouTube Trends Dashboard

YouTube has come up with a new analysis tool call the Trends Dashboard that lets you see exactly what people are viewing and sharing in multiple ways. The Dashboard also gives you a picture of some of the gender and age demographics of the views. Here's what it shows:

  * Select by gender
  * Views or Sharing
  * Select by age group
  * Select by city, country, or globally
  * Comparison of any of the above

The trend information only portrays viewer habits over the last 24 hours, and videos uploaded over the last 28 days.

The Trends Dashboard can be a great informational tool if approached from the right perspective. If you want to learn what's working in a particular area, you can dial it up to take a look. Even better is that you can then analyze the top 10 videos to gain an overview of the production techniques that worked in those particular cases.

Because the timeline is only over the last 24 hours, it's best if you watch the trends for a while (I'd say at least a week) just to be sure that you're not getting a false impression. And keep in mind that many videos are viral because of their cuteness (cats and babies), weirdness, or just plain outrageousness, which is difficult to duplicate. That being said, it's a pretty cool tool.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

The Latest Giveaway - The Music Producer's Handbook

I'm giving away copies of The Music Producer's Handbook to two lucky winners.

The winners will be chosen by a random number generator on January 12th and will announced on this blog and via Twitter.

Here's the entry info for the giveaway.

You Can Be Sued For Your Tweets

Tweeting is great for a lot of things, but you still have to be conscious of what you're writing. Tweet the wrong thing that someone feels damaging to them, and you can now expect to be sued. According to the Hollywood Reporter, in what looks to be a precedent setting case, Courtney Love is being sued for libel for some of her tweets. It took a while to catch up to her (the case starts on January 18th), but here's what happened.

On March 17, 2009, Ms. Love reportedly unleashed a stream of libelous insults via Twitter at fashion designer Dawn Simorangkir, who was demanding that Courtney pay her for some cloths she designed for her. Over a 4 day period, Love tweeted that Ms. Simorangkir was, among other things, a drug-pushing prostitute, and accused her of stealing. Here's an example:

"She has received a VAST amount of money from me over 40,000 dollars and I do not make people famous and get raped TOO!"

To make matters worse, the Hole frontwomen took the fight to other social media platforms as well, continuing the tirade on MySpace and Etsy.com. As a result, Simorangkir eventually sued for defamation.

There's never been a case like this before, but we all knew it was only a matter of time. No matter what kind of media, as soon as someone feels that you've unleashed an untrue statement about them, the attorney's fee meter starts to ring.

This may have been the first time court action has been taken because of a tweet, but you can be sure that it won't be the last. Be careful what you tweet out there. It can come back to haunt you.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

5 Viral Video Rules

I read an interesting article today called "How To Break All The Rules Of Viral Video - And Still Go Viral." The premise of the article is that what really makes something go viral is to break the rules. But you can't break the rules until you know what they are, so here's what the article spelled out.

• Rule #1 - Keep It Short. It seems pretty obvious, but videos have a much better chance of going viral if they're short, mostly because that's what our attention span demands these days.

• Rule #2 - Speak Clearly. Once again, it's pretty obvious. If you have any narration, you increase your chances of virility if your viewers can understand it.

• Rule #3 - Avoid Copyrighted Material. Copyrighted material can make a video stop in its tracks just as it gets some viral momentum due to a take-down notice from the content owners attorneys. You might get away with it; then again, you might not.

• Rule #4 - Reinvent Yourself. According to the article, try a different approach for each video. I'm not so sure I agree with this. If you have a style that works, you might be better off to brand yourself with that style.

• Rule #5 - Be Timely. You have a greater chance to go viral if your content is about something currently popular, although there are perennials like cats and babies that never seem to go out of style.

Ok, these are the rules. Now shoot a video that's nothing like them (except for #3, keep doing that) and you'll have a good chance to go viral.

Check out this link for the entire post.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

5 New Anti-Piracy Strategies

Depending upon who you ask, pirate sites like Bit Torrent can either help or hurt your career and your music sales. There are those that feel that being pirated makes you legitimate, and even increases your sales by the fact that new fans will want to support the artist after discovery.

That idea isn't shared by any copyright manager (at least not publicly), as they only look at the bottom line of sales, royalties and commissions being hurt as a result of every pirated file.

But actually stopping the pirates is a lot tougher than it sounds. Usually a copyright holder/manager will send a take-down notice, which sometimes gets results. The RIAA (the music industry trade association) actively sued the very people that did the downloading, which wasn't very productive in the end. And some copyright managers simply made a deal with the pirates when possible, figuring that at least a little money was better than none at all.

But 2011 might be different as 5 new strategies will be tried to combat file sharing sites, according to an article in Torrent Freak.

1) Cease the Domain. This hasn't happened until now but everyone, copyright holders and pirates, feel that it's inevitable and 2011 is the year it begins.

2) Added Pressure On Webhosts. Companies that host file sharing websites have already been leaned on heavily by the Dutch government with some success. Expect other countries to follow their lead.

3) Force ISPs To Block Sites. This has been tried with limited success in Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands and Ireland, but usually ends up being a temporary impediment as the blocks eventually are circumvented. The idea is that someone trying to access a pirate site will give up after a few tries if it's blocked and then will never come back.

4) Cutting Off The Money. By cutting off any donations or payment processing, you hit the pirates where it hurts the most. Expect the use of blocked financial resources to increase.

5) Pressure On Advertisers. This can be used in conjunction with #4. It's easy for an advertiser to get spooked and pull out when threatened by anything except more views.

The US government in conjunction with the various trade associations and large copyright managers appear to be finally getting the tools needed to really put a hurt on pirate sites. Now we'll find out for sure if pirating actually helps or hinders sales and career visibility. 

See the entire article on Torrent Freak.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

65% Pay For Digital Content Online

Happy New Year everyone. Let's hope that your 2011 will be better that 2010.

While it seems to be the popular perception that people are unwilling to pay for digital content, a recent study by the Pew Internet organization seems to contradict the notion. In fact, they found that 65% of people online have paid for some form of digital content or subscription.

The study discovered the following:

• 33% of internet users have paid for digital music online
• 33% have paid for software
• 21% have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers
• 19% have paid for digital games
• 18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine, or journal articles or reports
• 16% have paid for videos, movies, or TV shows
• 15% have paid for ringtones
• 12% have paid for digital photos
• 11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it
• 10% have paid for e-books
• 7% have paid for podcasts
• 5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games
• 5% have paid for “cheats or codes” to help them in video games
• 5% have paid to access particular websites such as online dating sites or services
• 2% have paid for adult content

What's more, they found that those who purchased digital media paid between $1 and $10 per month, with some purchasing as high as $30 per month. The digital content that most people were willing to purchase online were (in order):

• Music
• Software
• Mobile apps
• Games

So while we may have a generation of internet users who expect content like music for free, there are still a lot more out there willing to pay for it. As with everything though, the content has to be really good and at the right price to be attractive.

Read an overview of the Pew research article here.

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You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.