News -
27/11/2013
Music 4.5: The Rise of Video - Rockol's report (Part One)
Music 4.5 hosted an event on the Rise of Video yesterday which highlighted many of the positive, exciting aspects of the boom in online video consumption but also the ongoing issues and debates around its importance and monetisation.
The event which took place in London brought in a number of high-profile executives representing a wide cross-section of industries from both the recorded music side and the technology side. Chaired by Caroline Bottomley, founder of music video commissioning service Radar Music Videos, speakers included Scott Cohen, Co-Founder at The Orchard, Robert Kaye founder of MusicBrainz, artist Laura Kidd, Eric Mackay from Vevo and Jamie Searle from multi-channel network Base79 amongst others.
Offering a wealth of knowledge thanks to 10-minute presentations delivered by all the sparkers present, The Rise of Video started with a presentation by Jean Littolff, ex managing director of Nielsen Music, delivering an introduction on the subject of online video stats. He remarked that YouTube is in the top 6 destinations online with people spending 3 hours and 40 minutes on the platform on average and visiting 11 times per month. By comparison the BBC’s UK streaming service iPlayer sees usage of 1 hour and 15 minutes per month with 7 sessions per user in that timeframe. Littolff remarked on the importance of viewing all music consumption services as overlapping and not siloed. According to his stats for example 75% of Spotify users also use YouTube, whilst 11% of YouTube users also use Spotify. Online is a key access point for re-living the emotion of a concert after the fact but the truth is that most videos found today are bad footage shot by fans. The question is, how can more money can be generated from the emotional response people have to an event like a concert?
Following Littolff the head of European Partnerships EMEA at YouTube Candice Morrissey took the stage to talk about the platform and its revenue models. Advertising in this case is the key and she remarked on the fact that YouTube manages to serve ads not only within its own platform but also on all embedded content. Content ID plays a massive role in the monetization of content on YouTube, allowing creators to get paid for videos that are using their content either partially or in its entirety. The system scans 400 million videos every day looking for copies to establish the correct retribution chain. Gotye, Baauer and Psy all benefitted from Content ID-generated revenues with their hits.
Artists were represented at the event as well with independent Laura Kidd from She Makes War sharing her approach when it comes to disseminating video online. She refuses to use advertising to draw traffic to her YouTube channel and is achieving very healthy numbers for a one-person operation (she manages herself). Kidd has a background in video so it came natural for her to use that medium to express herself and her music, in turn generating a captive audience on YouTube.
You can always count on Scott Cohen to shake things up and the executive at The Orchard got the room thinking about micro content. It’s not about foregoing long-form or short-form content, it’s about complementing it with 15 seconds videos that people will take the time to watch. If they like them, they will move onto your longer videos: micro content is the best way of creating engagement with users and is perfect to get them “addicted” to you.
Francesco D’Orazio from the analytics company Face presented a comprehensive look at the spread of memes with on Twitter. Psy, Bauer and Chris Hadfield’s version of “Space Oddity” all had different spread patterns and different "influencers" involved in their dissemination. The analysis of the spikes in shares for these viral videos can provide a great great tool in the prediction of the popularity curve for similar phenomenons.
The panel that resulted from these presentations “Is Video The New Audio” showcased the evolution of the industry in catering for audience demand of videos. According to Cohen the music industry has become a very sophisticated business and we cannot pretend things are as linear as they used to be in the past. YouTube is becoming the medium of choice for teenagers (according to Littolff) and it’s seen as potentially the real “new Myspace” as it makes it really easy for people to browse content (according to Laura Kidd).
The panel also analysed the potential of subscription models coming into the fold as part of the YouTube experience but there was no consensus as to whether that could constitute a real supplement of the network’s bread and butter which is advertising.
The takeaway from the panel is that Video is indeed the new Audio especially for younger generations, and that above all YouTube reigns supreme in the distribution of content and in the engagement of its audience through content. Are teenagers ever going to feel the need to pay for content that can be had for free on YouTube at the cost at most of 15 seconds of your attention? That’s the million dollar question.
The event which took place in London brought in a number of high-profile executives representing a wide cross-section of industries from both the recorded music side and the technology side. Chaired by Caroline Bottomley, founder of music video commissioning service Radar Music Videos, speakers included Scott Cohen, Co-Founder at The Orchard, Robert Kaye founder of MusicBrainz, artist Laura Kidd, Eric Mackay from Vevo and Jamie Searle from multi-channel network Base79 amongst others.
Offering a wealth of knowledge thanks to 10-minute presentations delivered by all the sparkers present, The Rise of Video started with a presentation by Jean Littolff, ex managing director of Nielsen Music, delivering an introduction on the subject of online video stats. He remarked that YouTube is in the top 6 destinations online with people spending 3 hours and 40 minutes on the platform on average and visiting 11 times per month. By comparison the BBC’s UK streaming service iPlayer sees usage of 1 hour and 15 minutes per month with 7 sessions per user in that timeframe. Littolff remarked on the importance of viewing all music consumption services as overlapping and not siloed. According to his stats for example 75% of Spotify users also use YouTube, whilst 11% of YouTube users also use Spotify. Online is a key access point for re-living the emotion of a concert after the fact but the truth is that most videos found today are bad footage shot by fans. The question is, how can more money can be generated from the emotional response people have to an event like a concert?
Following Littolff the head of European Partnerships EMEA at YouTube Candice Morrissey took the stage to talk about the platform and its revenue models. Advertising in this case is the key and she remarked on the fact that YouTube manages to serve ads not only within its own platform but also on all embedded content. Content ID plays a massive role in the monetization of content on YouTube, allowing creators to get paid for videos that are using their content either partially or in its entirety. The system scans 400 million videos every day looking for copies to establish the correct retribution chain. Gotye, Baauer and Psy all benefitted from Content ID-generated revenues with their hits.
Artists were represented at the event as well with independent Laura Kidd from She Makes War sharing her approach when it comes to disseminating video online. She refuses to use advertising to draw traffic to her YouTube channel and is achieving very healthy numbers for a one-person operation (she manages herself). Kidd has a background in video so it came natural for her to use that medium to express herself and her music, in turn generating a captive audience on YouTube.
You can always count on Scott Cohen to shake things up and the executive at The Orchard got the room thinking about micro content. It’s not about foregoing long-form or short-form content, it’s about complementing it with 15 seconds videos that people will take the time to watch. If they like them, they will move onto your longer videos: micro content is the best way of creating engagement with users and is perfect to get them “addicted” to you.
Francesco D’Orazio from the analytics company Face presented a comprehensive look at the spread of memes with on Twitter. Psy, Bauer and Chris Hadfield’s version of “Space Oddity” all had different spread patterns and different "influencers" involved in their dissemination. The analysis of the spikes in shares for these viral videos can provide a great great tool in the prediction of the popularity curve for similar phenomenons.
The panel that resulted from these presentations “Is Video The New Audio” showcased the evolution of the industry in catering for audience demand of videos. According to Cohen the music industry has become a very sophisticated business and we cannot pretend things are as linear as they used to be in the past. YouTube is becoming the medium of choice for teenagers (according to Littolff) and it’s seen as potentially the real “new Myspace” as it makes it really easy for people to browse content (according to Laura Kidd).
The panel also analysed the potential of subscription models coming into the fold as part of the YouTube experience but there was no consensus as to whether that could constitute a real supplement of the network’s bread and butter which is advertising.
The takeaway from the panel is that Video is indeed the new Audio especially for younger generations, and that above all YouTube reigns supreme in the distribution of content and in the engagement of its audience through content. Are teenagers ever going to feel the need to pay for content that can be had for free on YouTube at the cost at most of 15 seconds of your attention? That’s the million dollar question.