It's All About YouTube: 10 Years of Loyal Service to Music

Attention!!!

In this era of the worldwide web, we are not new to the video-sharing website, YouTube. Everyone, be it a prince or a pauper knows about YouTube and age is no barrier as even our grandparents and great-grandparents have all watched one or more of such videos on YouTube. For some YouTube is a source of entertainment by watching funny cat videos and listening to music while others especially amateur musicians use it as a platform to launch their careers. 

This service was created by former PayPal employees Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim registering the site on Valentines Day in 2005. It was bought over by Google for US$ 1.65 billion in November 2006 and now operates as one of its subsidiaries. As per Alexa, YouTube is the 3rd most viewed website in the world after Google and Facebook and 60 hours of video gets uploaded every minute with 4 billion videos watched everyday. YouTube is now a crucial component of the music industry and as it celebrates 10 years of loyal service to our beloved industry, here are 7 interesting facts I observed about YouTube in relation to music. 

1.     A Platform for Musicians

Many musicians and bands upload their original songs or covers on YouTube and this in turn gets them an audience, which includes music producers, and record labels who then sign them on if there is potential talent to be developed. The best example for this is Justin Bieber as Scooter Braun discovered him through YouTube. Other such artists include Karmin, Esmee Denters, Cody Simpson, Austin Mahone, 5 Seconds of Summer, Lindsey Stirling and Pentatonix.

2.     The Viral Phenomenon

Going viral in relation to music is when songs and/or music videos become very popular by circulating at a rapid pace over the Internet. And the main platform for this is of course YouTube. Justin Bieber already being a YouTube celebrity received wide attention when his hit single Baby went viral on the site, but as of now it is the most disliked video on the site as well. We cannot forget Rebecca Black with her disastrous hit Friday, which went viral mostly because it was so bad.

3.     View Count Sensation

Music videos such as Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball and Nicki Minaj’s Ananconda went viral over night with Wrecking Ball garnering 19.3 million views in just 24-hours, the record of which was broken by Anaconda garnering 19.6 million views in the same period. Moreover, we cannot forget the trends set by Baauer’s Harlem Shake, which sparked off millions of videos on the site, and PSY’s Gangnam Style, which holds the record for being the most viewed music video in the world with over 2 billion views and setting a global trend with the unique dance.

4.     The Streaming Effect

Billboard, the UK Official Charts and other national charts in the world also now calculate streaming music in forming the charts. Views on leading online music services among which YouTube is the most prominent are calculated to determine chart positions. This allows mainstream artists/bands and trending genres to gain an upper hand in claiming top spots on the charts. Nicki Minaj, Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Ariana Grande, Eminem, One Direction and particularly Miley Cyrus all benefit from the fact they are almost always trending on social media.

5.     The Parody Experience

While a musical parody is a not a new concept, YouTube takes it to another level, as now there is an accompanying video. Some of the most popular parody makers are Weird Al Yankovic, The Key of Awesome and Bart Baker.

6.     The Publicity Proficiency

While YouTube is great for musicians in most ways, it has its downside as a global forum opening the floodgates for constant criticism. As the center of social media for videos it is prone to gossip and scandals. While Miley Cyrus smoking weed on stage at an award ceremony or Lady Gaga adorning a meat dress are definitely publicity stunts, they have also backfired with parents as well as anti-drug and animal rights activists. However, some artists especially ones like Miley Cyrus will take whatever form of publicity they can get.

7.     YouTube Music Awards

As a tribute to its most popular category, YouTube hosted their inaugural Music Awards in 2013 with its second edition to be held in 2015. The winners of the 2013 edition in their respective categories are as follows:

-                Video of the Year: Girls’ Generation – I Got A Boy

-                Artist of the Year: Eminem

-                Responses of the Year: Lindsey Stirling & Pentatonix – Radioactive

-                YouTube Phenomenon: Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble

-                YouTube Breakthroughs: Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

-                Innovation of the Year: DeStorm – See Me Standing

Till the next stream…

At Ease!!!

Xposition - September 2013

Attention!!!

September although not as eventful as August did witness the inauguration of the much anticipated TomorrowWorld which is an American spin-off of Tomorrowland and its sister festival held from 27-29 September in Atalanta. It was an immense success with a strong lineup of renowned DJs including Armin Van Buuren, David Guetta, Tiesto, Axwell and Afrojack. 

Miley Cyrus stunned everybody at the VMAs in August when her twerking with Robin Thicke went viral, but this was nothing compared to the shocks and heart attacks her fans and critics received when the video of her new song Wrecking Ball premiered. The video depicts her swinging stark naked on a wrecking ball and even licking sledgehammers and what not. However, she broke the record for the highest number of views of a video on YouTube in 24 hours. 

As predicted Katy Perry's Roar dethroned Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines and held on for two weeks before being overthrown by Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball. She too held on for two weeks. Lorde's Royals has been at No. 3 for over two weeks struggling behind Cyrus and Perry, the popularity of the single may yet surprise everyone if it proves to dethrone these giants. In the UK Roar debuted at No.1 and it was Talk Dirty by Jason Derulo ft. 2 Chainz that managed to surpass it. OneRepublic's Counting Stars continue to struggle at No.2 and has been in the top 3 for the whole month. Other than that there has been no significant movement on either charts except for maybe Drake's Hold On We're Going Home which has also been in the top 10 for the whole month. 

Eminem's new song Berzerk takes us back to why we loved the white rapper in the first place. The song although failed to peak in the US debuted at No.3 and garnered critical acclaim. Britney Spears' Work Bitch with its provocative video entered the US charts at No.12. The song reminisces a combination of her hits Hold It Against Me and I'm A Slave 4 U. It will probably enter the Top 10 in October but there is doubt as to its potential as a No.1. While Berzerk and Wrecking Ball are to be released in the UK in October Work Bitch is to be released in the UK in November. 

Other songs that were released that are of any significance in the UK or the US in the past month are: 

1. Jessie J - It's My Party

2. Avicii - You Make Me

3. Rizzle Kicks - Lost Generation

4. The Fox - Ylvis

5. Mike WiLL Made-It ft. Miley Cyrus, Wiz Khalifa & Juicy J - 23

6. Robin Thicke ft. Kendrick Lamar - Give It 2 U

Drake's third studio album Nothing Was the Same debuted at No.1 on the US Billboard 200 and debuted at No.2 on the UK Albums Chart on the last week of September making it the highest first week sales for a hip hop album since Lil Wayne's Tha Carter IV in 2011. However, October will prove fatal for those attempting to go up against the debut of what many are calling the album of the year - Bangerz by Miley Cyrus.

At Ease!!!