Image from: Yahoo! Music - new.music.yahoo.com

In a recent article I read on Yahoo, Rock ‘N’ Roll Might Be Over, Says…U2?, the popular (insert musical adjective) group, U2, explains that Rock ‘n Roll as we know is it a dying breed. Even more, the group’s bassist, Adam Clayton says:

“What is rock ‘n ‘roll in this changing world? Because, to some extent, the concept of the music fan–the concept of the person who buys music and listens to music for the pleasure of music itself–is an outdated idea,”

Alright alright, so the traditional music fan doesn’t exist. I wholeheartedly agree. But I think there are way different reasons as to why this is, and I personally think they are good.

First, to say that the traditional music fan is dead, or in essence, the music industry itself, is pure ignorance. People love music today just as much, if not more than yesterday, the day before, all the way back to the beginning of time. Although I’m biased, I don’t think people can really get tired of music. However, in regards to the music INDUSTRY..? yeah things are changing, but things always change!

In all reality, music HAS to change especially with the speed in which written publication has changed. Think maybe 8-6 years ago. If you had no clue how to create a webpage and write HTML, what would have been your best bet in publishing something that you wrote? The newspaper? Damn, I never thought I’d write something that more then 5-6 people would read. But I was in 3rd grade. Basically, publishing something you’ve written is as easy as clicking a button on a webpage. In relation to the music industry, that should seem unreal! And scary!

With the introduction of YouTube (the music player) people have been uploading remixes of crap they’ve done (heck I did one with Michael Jackson and Rhianna last year), covers, or even original compositions that sound pretty much as good as a lot of the stuff that companies are making major money with. The whole idea behind finding the next ‘American Idol’…. is it really that hard? I would hope it isn’t. That show just takes out the work. With all the people who say they hate capitalism, you’d think this would be a growing trend… but people like drama on television I guess.

Music today is more accessible. People can download T-Pain apps on their iPhone, or learn how to play guitar on YouTube! People can sample other works, and make cool mash-ups or remixes themselves, and above all, be proud of it! When professional musicians feel their music is changing, they should be happy, because only then, will they know that their fans are banding together to move music in more and more directions. And its all happening organically.

So to make my long story short, I think musicians today who have a hard time with people having fun with music..(ie: musicians who hate Guitar Hero… HELLO! Of course its not like playing the real thing, but is Madden anything like playing football? Is Halo anything like shooting aliens? Is NBA Live anything like playing in the NBA? I don’t think so!)… should just take a chill pill. As technology continues to evolve and shape the way we live, peoples tastes will change, but so will their involvement. Music is turning into an art form where people can continue to evolve and shape the real and beautiful artistry of it! Stand alone pieces? Elvis, the Beatles, Mozart, Chopin, Shakespeare, DaVinci, Monet, Rowling, and U2, just to name a few, all have created great works of art, but the inspiration and ideas their works instilled in others, should be an art form in and of itself. That is progression!

Peace

For example, for all you Michael Jackson lovers out there, this is a totally cool ‘Demo’ version of PYT, originally on the Thriller album.

I almost like this version more than the original. Just chill and relaxed. Can I have a plush couch with some modern retro art and mood lighting?

Want more? This next song is a classic.. I mean it… Truly a great classic. I heard Lou Rawls sing this back in high school when I played trombone in the jazz band (He was quite a bit older… I’m not old!)  Have any of you Social/SEM gurus out there participated in the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, ID? Probably some of my favorite memories from back in the day. Oh, and our band took home 1st one year… mind you there were only 8 or 9 other bands in our division, but still!

Lou Rawls singin You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine

You’re gunna miss my lovin!

Peace

I’ve long held the belief that people who post comments on videos on YouTube are slightly dumber then the average person. Or maybe a lot dumber, I think it depends on the video. Yeah, I’ve commented a few times on videos, and I can sometimes see the urge to really express my soulfelt opinion, but then I realize, “whats the benefit?” Usually, if I say something, it is because I want to correct another comment where the person may not have known 100% of their facts. I’ll never say something like, “Wow!”, or “Haha” or “LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.” I’ll save those for you know who.

YouTube loves YouTube comments though. Maybe not, I’m merely guessing, but giving people the option to hate or love something, allows everyone and their dog to see the full benefit of putting something up on YouTube. It is a traffic generator! Remember when Google admitted to not knowing how to monetize YouTube?… Have you seen it lately? I think they may have figured something out, or at least are close. And how do we promote repeat visitors. Hell, never mind, that is already in the bag.

So traffic generation… wait a minute, lets go back to our stupid commentors. Take a look at some cool and interesting videos on YouTube. Chances are, those videos you thought were cool and interesting, are not cool and interesting to me. That being said, you’ve now uncovered the true greatness that is a YouTube search. Let me tell you the reasons why a YouTube search is better then a Google search.

1. Results are in picture format

Yeah, thats pretty much it. If you are looking for something in YouTube, you probably already know what it is, and what it will look like. Its a damn video! (Now I realize there are Rick Roll’d videos out there, and spam crap, but lets just forget about that stuff for the time being) Search in YouTube is pretty efficient, so I personally have to venture a guess and say that the people who click on videos and realize that the video they clicked on is not what they were looking for… are slightly more stupid then the average user. Even more so, people who click on videos because they know they’re going to hate it, but want to watch it anyway… don’t you have something better to do?

Which brings me to the point in why we have idiotic YouTube comments. If there is something you like and you watch it, and you’ve seen someone else write a comment about why they don’t like it, you naturally are going to have the urge to explain why they are wrong. Most of the time, these conflict comments are sparse (remember YouTube search… we’ve weeded out the non-dummys). But the ones who want to hate, have made it in. Deng it!

Language below.. sorry.

Do you see sorta what I mean. This video by so and so, has these kind of comments, however, the video still has a rating of 4 stars. There are WAY more people who love this chick then people who just want to come on and say they hate her. Still, they’re willing to go on a board and tell everyone. Maybe they just want the attention. I dunno.

So, to make a long story short, if you find the need to make a comment on YouTube because you don’t like a particular video, ask yourself this..”Why am I here in the first place? Am I just being a hater for no reason?” And maybe you can get a few other people to calm their jets as well. Unless you’re just looking for attention, in that case, get a life.

Do you want to test out YouTube’s naturally excellent search? Do any YouTube search, and compare the number of videos with 4 or more stars to those with 2 or less, heck 3 or less! People know what they are looking for and like what they are looking for. No guesswork.. usually.

Peace

This is the first thing I see as soon as I go to www.YouTube.com. (I had to make it big to fit in with the theme of the huge XL in the logo) Although this was the first time I noticed this new feature for YouTube access, come to find out, its been out since June 2nd. You can see how up to speed I am.

Pleasantly surprised that I’d be able to see HD videos, in their full glory with little effort on my part, I chuckled with excitement and glee. Although some of the videos I was looking for were a bit glitchy at times, others seemed to work perfectly fine. Not quite sure the dilemma there, but rather irritating nonetheless. To take a quick look at my YouTubing experience last night, check out these gems…

Rick Ross’ Maybach Music 2 feat. Kanye West, T-Pain, and Lil Wayne is brilliant. I know its main stream, but the instrumental is so complex and ‘stadium status’ and for some reason, reminds me of video game music from 1998. Hot!

Target Women is a great series of videos produced by CurrentTV starring Sarah Haskins. The ideas typically take a selected topic every week… ie Wedding Shows, Chocolate, Cleaning, or anything else often stereotypically associated with women, and brings the humor out of their respected advertising campaigns.

And then we had to watch HGTV’s $250,000 Challenge.

Any ways, after watching a few videos on YouTube XL, I’ve come to realize that… As our modality of accessing the internet continues to evolve and change, so do our websites. Thanks primarily to the iPhone, many highly trafficked web pages now have Mobile versions, or less CSS’d and imaged versions, compared to their original state. Means faster and easier readability on your mobile phone of preference. XL on the other hand caters to those of us with internet connections to our large screen televisions, via anything from the Wii, or anything else that allows you to access the internet from your couch. “I’ve been at work all day.. why would I sit behind a computer at home to watch YouTube videos?” Sheesh.

While YouTube isn’t really a search tool (yeah I know it is), it does give a good representation for how search is developing. With statistics saying things like, ‘more and more people search from the cellphones these days then from their computer,’ there is a great disservice going on here between what is being said, and what is actually going on. I don’t know for a fact that more and more people are not searching online these days.. I do think that more and more people are search from their phones, though… or their TVs in my personal case. Search hasn’t shifted, it has just become more broad. Now stemming from my experience in SEM, maybe we should do a better job compensating for these new audiences rather then trying to fit them in with the rest of the crowd. They are converting on something totally different. Right? Often times… on nothing!

But as we begin to watch YouTube videos in our cereal bowls and from the backs of our hands, I think companies are really starting to realize they are having more and more reasons to venture into online advertising and publicity. ‘Hey.. I sell good cereal.. I’d like to be in your cereal bowl browser/app!’  Coming Q3  ’10.

Peace

Maybe sometime I’ll make a new video of some cool sheat or something. Maybe a movie! That’d be ridiculous. It’d be fun and awesome, but ridiculous.

Peace

It’s a cool song.

Also, for some reason my one comment has really inspired me to go back and work some more on some of my own things. I know I’m kinda lacking in the whole musical instrument/pianos/keyboard arena, but I have a few things, and maybe someday I’ll be able to upgrade my shit. Just something to keep in mind I suppose. No vocals though. I’m not a singer or a rapper… if you’d like a backing trackfor your own stuff, we can talk, but other than that, sorry.

And as far as my Project is concerned, as always I keep running into more and more issues that will eventually need to get resolved or figured out somehow. Recently, I’ve been working around the payment/selling issues behind running an e-commerce store. If I allow people to sell directly to other people, is there any possible way I can just move outta the way, and just let their transactions happen? I don’t think so. So… I’m gunna need to create a business account for where all this money flows in and out of. I suppose it’s similar to the Google AdWords/Adsense way of doing things. Once a certain amount of money is owed/made, they’ll write or charge you a certain amount. I doubt that money goes directly to the other person right? It’s coming directly from Google’s hands.. so in essence, they can take whatever they want and you have no choice but to hope you’re not being cheated outta a dollar.

See thats the issue. I don’t want my customer or clients to think I’m cheating them in any way.

Oh well.. I’m sure something will come up or at least I’ll just settle on something.