Over the last few days there has been a lot of talk and discussion surrounding Ashton Kutcher and CNN. First he manages to get almost as many followers on Twitter as CNN (almost 900K). Then he challenges CNN to a race to get to 1 million followers first. If he wins, he’ll “”ding dong ditch” Ted Turner’s house.
This made me think a bit about Ashton and his original tech startup the Blah Girls. Blah Girls launched with a lot of press and publicity (mainly due to Techcrunch and Michael Arrington), but now it seems to be a very basic gossip blog with a cartoon attached.
Blah Girls produce a weekly vidoe who is pretty much a catoon spoof. The videos are very well develop and quite cool. However, these videos and Blah Girls in general doesnt seem to be getting much traction at all. The Blah Girls Youtube channel has over 3,500 subscribers but each video seems to be lucky to get more than 1000 plays. Plus for some reason YouTube has given Blah Girls a partner page, but they dont seem to meet the requirements of being a YouTube partner (apart from the fact that Ashton is quite well known).
Back to the site itself it seem that is had an initial push at launch but then has been slowly growing at the same pace as a normal gossip blog. The site has a great design, but there seems to be a huge gap of white space between the video section and where the actual blog starts. Ashton I really think you need to take a look at the design and try to piece it all together a bit better. Additionally, Ashton why arent you twittering about Blah Girls on your Twitter stream? Im sure 1m followers will really help you in pushing your site to the next level faster, plus you have a benefit that no other gossip blog has, your already bloody famous!
Internet Statistics company Compete is set to launch a new site with enhanced features on the 15th of April. The new service is rumoured to have an enhanced interface with dynamic graphs, daily digest and more. Check back to Crenk on the 15th for a complete run down of the new features.
I’m sure the majority of our readers have already heard about the new music video partnership between Universal Music Group and Google (Youtube). I thought I would just quickly recap and add in the press release and then discuss why this is a great idea.
The full press release is below for you to digest, and naturally we’ll have more analysis next week.
UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP AND YOUTUBE TO LAUNCH REVOLUTIONARY PREMIUM MUSIC AND VIDEO SERVICE
VEVO – UMG’s Premium Music Service Powered By YouTube To Launch In Coming Months
NEW YORK, NY and SAN BRUNO, CA, April 9, 2009 – Doug Morris, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company and Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc., today announced that UMG and YouTube, a Google subsidiary, are working together to launch VEVO, a music and video entertainment service that will feature UMG’s premium video content.
In addition to VEVO, YouTube has renewed and extended its successful partnership with UMG that allows users to continue creating and watching user-generated videos containing UMG sound recordings and Universal Music Publishing Group’s compositions on YouTube through various territories around the world. The two companies will also share advertising revenue on YouTube and VEVO.
Launching later this year, VEVO will be a premium online music video hub built for consumers, advertisers and content owners that will blend UMG’s broad catalog of top artists and content with YouTube’s leading edge video technology and user community. YouTube will provide the technology infrastructure that will power VEVO and host UMG’s extensive library of professionally-created music videos on the new site. On YouTube, this content will be exclusively available through VEVO.com and a new VEVO channel through a special VEVO branded embedded player.
“VEVO will bring the most compelling premium music video content and services to the world’s single largest online video audience,” stated Mr. Morris. “We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world. And this traffic represents the most sought after demographic for advertisers, especially as advertising dollars continue their shift from old media to new. VEVO will be uniquely positioned to monetize this opportunity and a host of others as we grow it to become “the” destination for premium music video content online. For music lovers who want the best in music videos, the VEVO experience will be second to none. At the same time, VEVO will expand the premium video marketplace, generate new revenue streams for content creators, and provide brand advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to get in front of a highly engaged audience. We couldn’t be more excited about the huge potential we see in the VEVO service.”
“Technology has allowed fans to discover music in endless ways while creating new business opportunities for artists and labels alike,” said Mr. Schmidt. “At Google, we are committed to promoting greater innovation and choice and are thrilled to be working with UMG in what will surely be an exciting new service for consumers, advertisers, content creators and the music industry at large.”
At launch, people will be able to access UMG’s entire catalog of premium music video content, including professionally-created and full-length videos on VEVO, as well as artist-generated content and user-generated content hosted on YouTube. VEVO will also serve as a syndication platform, expanding the reach of the VEVO brand. This innovative platform is aimed at providing consumers the very best in digital music content while further extending UMG’s lead in the direct-to-consumer market.
Presently, UMG’s YouTube video channel has more than 3.5 billion views, making the UMG channel the most watched on YouTube.
Google has been struggling for a long time about how to actually monetize YouTube affective. Most advertisers aren’t happy about their ads being shown next to user generated content, while at the same time YouTube costs are skyrocketing and they cant afford to keep going the way they are.
Thus, Google has acknowledged that it is much easier to sell advertising next to controlled quality content, and that is why they have now partnered with Universal Music Group and is about to launch this new music video service. A music video portal is much needed on the internet and Universal don’t have the technology skills needed, but they do have the content, so that is where Google comes in. Additionally, Google is an advertising company, that is what they do and they do it very well.
The verdict is that Vevo is a great idea and it has been much needed for some time now. Hosting and bandwidth costs associated with Universal on YouTube will now be moved over to Vevo and because advertising revenues are going to be much higher, it will be more efficient for Google to offset costs with these videos. Revenues will increase and bandwidth will be moved away from YouTube and into Vevo, but this isn’t going to help monetize YouTube videos more effectively, it is just a diversification tactic.
For the last two years we have been developing RouteNote at Insomnia Media, and in that time have been closely keeping an eye on digital music news and where the shift is going. I thought I would write a quick post and let everyone know my favourite digital music blogs to follow.
Hypebot – Hypebot is written by Bruce Houghton and is a daily report on the last news in the digital music space. Bruce is also the founder and president of Skyline Music (booking agency) and Skyline Consultancy in which he is a music and technology consultant to many music startups.
Digital Music News – Digital Music News is the news and information authority for music industry and technology executives. Digital Music News is founded and edited by Paul Resnikoff. Paul writes daily posts on Digital Music News and also send out a dialy newsletter to industry executives called the Daily Snapshot.
Billboard.biz – Billboard.biz is the digital music arm of the Billboard website. Billboard.biz discusses digital music news with normally at least 10 articles per day. Articles on Billboard.biz don’t just come straight from the USA they as encompass International digital music news, so that you get the full picture.
Digital Audio Insider – Digital Audio Insider is written by David Harrell, who writes digital music news from an artists perspective. David is in a band based in the UK and they use all kinds of different digital music stores and partners to sell/stream their music, and David’s writings are a great insight into what the average artist is thinking and what they are looking for.
Coolfer – Glenn Peoples has worked in the music industry for over eight years and founded Coolfer.com while working and living in New York City. Coolfer was a total ad free blog which is pretty unheard of these days. A week or so ago Glenn announced on his site that he would stop writing because he was offered a new job over at Billboard.biz asSenior Editorial Analyst, so you can now read his work over there.
There are so many place out there these day that want to help you make money from your online videos. Here is a list of top video ad networks in the marketplace at the moment.
Auditude is a new video and advertising platform that has just received more funding. Auditude is an end-to-end solution for premium video. For websites we’ve built an ad platform for managing complex video monetization rights, for content owners we empower widely syndicated video while maintaining control over your assets and advertising, and for advertisers or networks we provide scale in premium video.
Brightroll is the first premium video ad network, and the most comprehensive. With this widely distributed platform we’re able to maximize the value of your available inventory. We have aggregated the largest portfolio of highly branded and large volume video advertising on the Internet. With this widely distributed platform we’re enabled to leverage content, demo, context, behavior, and traffic volume for the benefit of our advertiser and publisher partners.
Videoegg serves ads, you get paid every time a user engages with one of our rich media ad units on your site. Everyday Videoegg delivers millions of impressions to users across leading social networking environments, video sites and gaming applications. We develop rich user profiles that enable advertisers to start with the right audience. Our unique video advertising formats and targeting approach deliver higher engagement rates for brands and more relevant ad experiences for consumers.
Roo Media is now KIT Digital. KIT Digital is a pioneer provider of video distribution solutions in online, mobile and set top box environments. We provide strategic, technology and content services that connect our clients brands with their target markets, in an ROI positive manner.
Brightcove is an on-demand online video platform. Designed for use with professional websites, Brightcove provides everything you need to publish and distribute online video. Working with professional video has never been easier. Harness the full potential of your content through innovative and flexible online video advertising options. By integrating with leading ad servers and custom 3rd-party ad solutions, you can stay focused on your ad strategy while we handle the technology.
Adap.tv empowers online publishers to efficiently monetize and grow their online video business. The Adap.tv OneSource video ad management platform provides a simple, transparent way to manage and serve ads from multiple sources, in many formats, to capture the full revenue potential of online video content. Fine-grained control and detailed reporting help publishers maximize their online video performance. All through a single, highly efficient platform.
YuMe is a large video advertising network, representing over 400 premium video sites with over 500 million monthly streams. We are unique in that we are both an ad management platform for publishers plus a video advertising network that provides advertisers with the audience scale and premium reach they desire.
Tremor Media is a leading global online video advertising network, providing Fortune 1000 brand advertisers with the reach and scale of more than 1,400 top-tier publishers. Tremor Media can work with you to monetize your site’s traffic with higher CPMs than any other ad network. In addition to our revenue solutions, Tremor Media provides cutting-edge technology for Web publishers that are ready to grow their business through online video advertising. Our Acudeo video monetization platform enables publishers to leverage their video assets and effectively manage their in-stream ad delivery, creating new, high value inventory.
Husky Media allows publishers to generate revenues by placing videos into its own new overlap window and then sells the backgrounds as advertising. Husky works with any video player and doesnt require the videos to be your own, you can make money from any video played on your website.
Adotube is a publisher-centric online video advertising platform that enables you to generate revenue by showing brand-name ads in your video content. Monetize your video content with unobtrusive targeted advertizing. You are in control of the presentation styles and video advertizing types.
Palm actually wants to get back into the smartphone race. Today the shares of Palm, Inc. (NASDAQ:PALM) rose about 15%. The company increased the size of their secondary offering and raised $83.9 million as part of the process. The company sold 23.13 million shares as part of the secondary offering taking place between now and March 31.
Palm was initially expecting to sell 18.5 million shares being held by investor Elevation Partners. Palm added the extra 4.63 million shares at a price of $6 per share. Through the offering, Elevation Partners made about $49 million. Palm plans to use the capital raised to push the hype of the Pre in the smartphone market.
So far the Pre is looking great but is this one product really going to put Palm back on the map?
There has been a lot of talk overnight about YouTube (owned by Google) not being able to come to a royalty deal with the PRS in UK, thus leading to all music videos being removed from YouTube effective immediately. Here are links to the statement about the situation from YouTube and the PRS.
I don’t want to just run through what many other sites and news sources are writing about, I wanted to discuss why a solution didn’t happen and what is going to happen next to both the PRS and YouTube.
YouTube and the PRS couldn’t come to a royalty deal mainly because the PRS were asking for a lot and they were providing no real information in return. The PRS were asking for blanked royalties but weren’t able to specifically say what artists would receive the royalties and what amounts they would receive. YouTube stated the following:
“PRS is now asking us to pay many, many times more for our license than before…we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback. In addition, PRS is unwilling to tell us what songs are included in the license they can provide so that we can identify those works…that’s like asking a consumer to buy an unmarked CD without knowing what musicians are on it.”
It is kind of like the PRS just expected YouTube to meet their demands no matter what they asked. In addition, on the PRS statement for some reason they mentioned Google’s last quarter revenues for 2008 in which have completely no relevance in this case. The PRS still seem to be using old methods to try to force companies into agreements that just simply aren’t realistic in this current economic climate. Remember that Pandora is not in the UK anymore because the PRS couldn’t offer them a decent agreement and forced them to basically close up shop in this country.
This leads me to believe that there is now a potential for YouTube to launch a spinoff site as already reported with all four major labels, which will attract high levels of advertisers and also possibly sidestep old music companies like the PRS.
It seems these days everyone is starting a twitter account. The newest company who has joined Twitter is Google. If you are keen to follow Google on Twitter then head over to their account. Additionally, if you arent following Crenk on Twitter then why the hell not!
I have been looking at our advertising page over at BuySellAds and have been wondering why stats over their estimates only 18,000 impressions when my Google Analytics says 51,000? I know with BuySellAds it take sometime to build up the stats, but our ads have been on the site for over a month and they still havent increased up to its real level.
Boxee has just sent out an email to bloggers alerting them that as of this Friday, they will be removing Hulu from their channel lineup. This comes at the request of Hulu. Apparently Boxee has been working to try to keep Hulu in their lineup for two weeks.
we love Hulu. they have built a great product and brand (including one the best Superbowl ads this year)… the response has been amazing. people love watching many of their favorite shows on Hulu via boxee. last week we generated more than 100,000 streams for them…
two weeks ago Hulu called and told us their content partners were asking them to remove Hulu from boxee. we tried (many times) to plead the case for keeping Hulu on boxee, but on Friday of this week, in good faith, we will be removing it.
Our content providers requested that we turn off access to our content via the Boxee product, and we are respecting their wishes…Without their content, none of what Hulu does would be possible, including providing you content via Hulu.com and our many distribution partner websites…For those Boxee users reading this post, we understand and appreciate that you’re likely to tell us that we’re nuts. Please know that we do share the same interests and won’t stop innovating in support of the bigger mission.
Boxee only just release onto Mac and Ubuntu on the 8th of January and now they have lost one of their major sources of content. The Boxee service is a very simple one, they provide movies, tv shows and music all in one simple location.
Over at RouteNote (a free digital music distribution service) they have started to offer some of their artists live session videos via bittorrent sites. RouteNote has partned with Mininova to provide their content on the Mininova platform for all users to download for free.
At RouteNote the belief is that bittorrent clients provide a great access to millions of viewers every month. With major labels currently fighting sites like The Pirate Bay over copyright issues, it is good to see that RouteNote is adopting this technology and trying to find ways for it to help spread the word of their artists and music.
My belief is that bittorrent trackers arent going to go away any time soon, and that the technology has great benefits and sometimes you just have to think outside the box to find revenues streams. Music on the internet is currently quite a complex market and in the future I think that download sales arent going to be a key revenue stream, and more sites will appear that have advertising models such as Spotify and Imeem. The era of CDs and albums are over, artists will have to produce great tracks not albums and then promote these either as paid downloads or for mass adoption which makes money in other forms.
Adap.tv
Over at 
