Sunday, June 3 at 7:00 pm, join filmmaker and YouTube sensation Len as he shares short vignettes of his travels on planet Earth and the stories behind them. In 2007, Len uploaded his first video on YouTube, $250,000 in My Pocket and I Still Can’t Get a F%^*!$g Cab! Five years and almost 400 videos later, his channel has surpassed 10,000,000 views, including have the No. 1 most-watched video in the world for a day. For more ticket information and details of the event, visit the Northwest Film Forum website.
SHARE YOUR FOOTAGE WITH “LIFE IN A DAY”
YouTube
Want to be part of a revolutionary filmmaking experience? Life In A Day is a historic global experiment to create a user-generated feature film, shot in a single day, by people around the globe. On July 24, participants have 24 hours to capture a glimpse of their lives on camera. The most compelling and distinctive footage will be edited into an experimental documentary film, produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin Macdonald. The film will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and will be available on YouTube. Click on the above link for more information.
YOUTUBE LAUNCHES PARTNER PROGRAM FOR INDIE BANDS
Wired
Independent musicians who are accepted by YouTube “Musicians Wanted” section may be able to quit their day jobs soon if their music videos and live musical performances draw enough views through a new feature of Google’s YouTube Partner Program. Artists will also make money when their YouTube videos are embedded on external websites, including music blogs. This could turn into a significant source of revenue for independent bands and labels that make videos people want to see and music they want to hear. Any and all comers are invited to submit their videos to the new section of the Musicians Wanted site. Read more about the program in this article from Wired magazine and then apply to be a part of it!
“BASS ACKWARDS” COMING TO YOUTUBE TOMORROW
IndieWire
Three new American independent feature films from the 2010 Sundance Film Festival will debut on YouTube even before audiences get a chance to see the movies at the festival in Park City, UT. Among the three films launching this Friday for VOD rental online is Linas Philips’ “Bass Ackwards.” Also available are Michael Mohan’s “One Too Many Mornings,” Todd and Brad Barnes “Homewrecker,” and last year’s Tze Chun’s “Children of Invention” and Louie Psihoyo’s “The Cove”. YouTube, which is sponsoring the Festival’s new NEXT section for lower-budget indie films, reached out to filmmakers and signed non-exclusive revenue share deals with the filmmakers, making their movies available only during the festival for a $3.99 three-day rental price.
WARNER MUSIC GROUP STRIKES DEAL WITH YOUTUBE
Pitchfork
Back in December, a breakdown in negotiations led Warner Music Group to pull all its music from YouTube, which has seriously damaged our ability to hear any song ever just by typing it into YouTube’s search engine. (Warner artists like Death Cab for Cutie weren’t too thrilled about it, either.) But now Advertising Age reports that Warner and YouTube have completed a deal to allow the label’s music back on the site (via Rolling Stone). So: We’ll no longer have to hit up MySpace or DailyMotion or OnSmash or any of the other bajillions of video websites to watch Warner music videos! According to Advertising Age, Warner is also in talks to join Vevo, the music video site that YouTube and Universal Music Group are planning to launch.
THE NEW ECONOMY: GOOGLE CALENDAR, YOUTUBE, TWITTER
Billboard
Just about every music industry panel will touch upon new tools available to record, distribute, market, organize and communicate. But Google’s Calendar and Documents? The free online services had fans at Thursday’s American Music Conference panel titled “The New Big Picture: Managing in the New Economy.” “I can organize better with my artists with a viral calendar,” said manager Tim McFadden. “I run my entire business off my Blackberry, basically. Each of my artists has their own calendar.” Free and/or simple was a recurring theme on the panel. Steed talked about the way Julia Nunes, an AC Entertainment-managed artist, has used cheaply recorded videos on YouTube to gain followers and even promote upcoming concerts. Paul Jacobson of Eventful encouraged people to give the fans the power to make crucial decisions. Make sure information is easily shared, he told the audience, so people can actively promote you.
HOW CAN MEDIA FIRMS KEEP PACE?
Hollywood Reporter
What started as a panel discussion about how media companies make money off the Internet evolved into a discussion of how entertainment companies — even such recent entrants as Google, Hulu and YouTube — remain relevant as the pace of change accelerates. Moderator and Disney president Robert Iger framed the first part of the debate by questioning how to get enough money out of new media to keep paying the costs of producing and distributing television shows, movies, games and other content if consumers think they are going to always get everything for free online. “Will we ever be able to monetize our content on new platforms as we did on traditional platforms?” he asked his four panelists, all of whom were from the cyber side of the equation. Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired magazine, said the question implies that everything will always be free, but that isn’t the case. “Free and pay are going to co-exist and compete,” he said. Anderson used the example of music. There is lots of it available free on the Web today, but many people still pay to download from iTunes and other sources. He said that is because iTunes is not just selling music, “It’s selling convenience.” Iger asked Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, how Google was going to get back the money it paid to buy his company. He said that it is adding new formats beyond just showing videos to find the answer. Hurley said YouTube also has added more new applications and formats — including transactional sales — in the first half of 2009 than it did in all of 2008 and that it fine-tunes its model daily, sometimes hourly.
YOUTUBE ANGLING TO OFFER PREMIUM MOVIE RENTALS
Wired
YouTube, the net’s home to homebrew videos, is looking to go pro with new, widely sought-after major studio films, according to The Wall Street Journal. Unlike all of the rest of the content on YouTube, most of these videos will cost money, said the Journal, and will only be available to rent. Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Sony Corp., and Warner Bros. are each in talks with YouTube to offer premium movie rentals on a time-limited, streaming basis, according to the article, with the details of each arrangement varying slightly.
WARNER MUSIC, YOUTUBE STILL TALKING ON DEAL
Billboard.biz
Warner Music Group is still in talks with video sharing site YouTube to license its artists’ music videos even after all its major rivals have renewed their deals. EMI Music, the smallest of the big four music labels, quietly renewed its deal with YouTube in February after Sony Music Entertainment and ahead of Vivendi’s Universal Music Group. Universal Music renewed its deal with YouTube and announced a wider plan to partner with YouTube to create a stand-alone music video website called Vevo. The site is expected to be launched later this year. Warner Music, which ironically was the first major music company to sign a deal with YouTube, is now the lone hold-out from renewing its partnership with the hugely popular website.
YOUTUBE BOOSTS LINEUP OF FULL-LENGTH MOVIES, TV SHOWS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SOME MAJOR STUDIOS
Custom Wire
Google Inc.’s YouTube said Thursday it is vastly expanding its library of full-length movies and TV shows it offers online, while also launching a new advertising service and adding about a dozen new content partners.The offering, which went live late Thursday, marks a further departure from the fuzzy homemade clips that made the Web site popular and is the latest move in YouTube’s attempt to boost sales and profits.
