Negotiations between Warner Music Group and YouTube over renewing the licensing agreement for the record label's music videos broke down Friday. Early Saturday, Warner, the third largest record label, removed videos from the Google-owned video site.

The impasse comes at a time when all four major labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music, and EMI, are renegotiating their licensing deals with YouTube.

"We are working actively to find a resolution with YouTube that would enable the return of our artists' content to the site," Warner said in a statement. "Until then, we simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide."

YouTube has become an important revenue stream for at least one of the top labels. This week, Rio Caraeff, Universal Music's digital chief, told CNET News that YouTube has generated "tens of millions" of dollars for the recording company this year, up 80 percent from last year.

Caraeff said that Universal and YouTube enjoy a strong relationship and that the companies are trying to expand their relationship beyond music videos. A source close to Universal said that the label will likely book nearly $100 million in video-streaming revenue--most of it from YouTube.

Read more: news.cnet.com 

Labels: video, Warner Music, youtube

Google’s mobile phone OS “Android,” will soon be updated with several new features as a part of a major roadmap update. One of those features will include support for a video recording mode that will also let users share the content. The update, code-named “Cupcake,” has many speculating what that video sharing feature will actually look like. Some have suggested the possibility of being able to upload videos from the phone directly to YouTube. Now that’s something we would like to see!

One of the only drawbacks to Apple’s widly popular iPhone is its lack of support for video recording. Of course, you can jailbreak your iPhone, a process that removes the restrictions put in place by Apple, and then install your preferred video recording application on your newly free device. However, the regular “Joes” of the world who are purchasing the phone don’t necessarily know how to do this or care to learn. If the “other” big smartphone offered video recording support, that would be a great selling point. (Then they would just need some apps.)

Read more: readwriteweb.com 

Labels: Android, Google Phone, phone, video, youtube

Back when YouTube launched its new HD video support, we (and many of you) lamented the fact that there was no way to find all the available HD content. Well, YouTube has now fixed that oversight with a new HD section to showcase all the high-def videos available on the site.

To go along with the the new HD section, YouTube has also started displaying high-def movies in a larger video player that occupies the vast majority of the page. Naturally you can still use the fullscreen option, but with the larger player it isn’t as necessary.

Read more: wired.com 

Labels: HD, player, video, youtube

YouTube is driving more than traffic to music labels like Universal Music Group. Rio Caraeff, EVP of UMG’s eLabs, told CNET that YouTube is adding “tens of millions of dollars” to the recording company’s bottom line: “(YouTube) is not like radio, where it’s just promotional ... It’s a revenue stream, a commercial business.”

The video site shares revenue with record companies like UMG from ads appearing with their music videos, as well as user-generated clips featuring their artists’ tracks. UMG’s eLabs division has brokered such deals with YouTube and others, including MySpace Music, over the past three years, and has made about $100 million dollars off its music videos as a result. By Caraeff’s account, YouTube has been responsible for a large chunk of that (which should make UMG doubly happy, since it, like some other labels, took a small stake in YouTube as part of the content-sharing deal). And while that’s great for the labels, what about Google?

Read more: paidcontent.org 

Labels: music, video, youtube

See and hear family and friends right inside Gmail

• Chat more ways than ever from within Gmail

• Look and sound your best with high quality audio and video

• Get started easily -- all you need is a webcam

Learn more: Gmail Voice and video chat 

Labels: chat, Gmail, video, voice

YouTube, the largest video-sharing website, will show full-length films from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's archives.

The partnership is aimed boosting advertising revenue for both YouTube and the Hollywood studio.

It will result in the launch of a video-on-demand channel called Impact, dedicated exclusively to action films, TV shows and clips.

"I think it will grow into a nice little business," said Jim Packer, co-president of MGM Worldwide Television.

He told the BBC that YouTube made an ideal partner because of its 280 million monthly users.

"I think YouTube has something that a lot of sites don't have.

Read more: news.bbc.co.uk 

Labels: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, video, youtube

Google finally takes advantage of 2007 Adscape purchase

Google is the undisputed king of internet advertising and it is always looking for the next big advertising market to jump into. Expanding its advertising market is one of the main reasons Google introduced the open source Android OS for mobile phones.

In March of 2007, Google plunked down $23 million to purchase video game advertising firm Adscape. Everyone knew when the purchase was made that Google would be entering into the video game advertising market sooner or later.

In May of 2007, Google filed a patent for video game advertising technology that would monitor the player's in-game behavior and attempt to serve ads based on their needs. Privacy advocates took issue with the patent because Google said that monitoring would include in-game chats. Presumably, on Google's part, the in-game chat monitoring would be used for serving up ads for something like Taco Bell if a player said they were hungry.

Read more: dailytech.com 

Labels: Adscape, advertisements, advertising, games, video

Back in May, YouTube and its parent, Google, came under fire from Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) for allegedly harboring videos produced by Al Qaeda. On Wednesday, YouTube took a step to address these concerns, modifying its community guidelines to prohibit the posting of content that incites violence. Although Lieberman applauded the move, the fine line between violent content and news and proliferation of Internet video sites suggest that the whole exchange has more to do with PR than the fight against terrorism.
YouTube rebuffs senator's demands to remove Islamist videos

Lieberman's initial complaint focused on the presence of the Al Qaeda logo on "dozens" of videos found on YouTube. His open letter to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt charged that, "Islamist terrorist organizations use YouTube to disseminate their propaganda, enlist followers, and provide weapons training." Lieberman highlighted the community guidelines of YouTube, which prohibit "gratuitous violence," in calling for the removal of any videos produced by terrorist organizations. Some videos identified by Lieberman's staff were removed, but not all of them violated YouTube's standards, and so many remained.

Full story: arstechnica.com 

Labels: terrorists, video, youtube

UStream, Justin.TV, Stickam, Mogulus and everyone else trying to make a business out of live streaming can breath a little easier. YouTube, which had previously said it would start live streaming in 2008, won't be getting into the business this year. And it probably won't next year, according to a source familiar with its plans.

Outsiders have long considered live streaming as a logical next step for YouTube, which dominates the market for pre-recorded Web video. Co-founder Steve Chen gave credence to the idea himself in February when he told Pop17's Sarah Meyers: "Live video is something we've always wanted to do but haven't had the resources to do it correctly, but now with Google we hope to launch something this year."

Full article: alleyinsider.com 

Labels: streaming, video, youtube

Teenagers craving for attention resort to desperate, often reckless acts these days, and the case of a 16-year-old boy in Georgia is just one example of how these gestures can be taken to extreme, and have serious consequences.

The teenager released a video on YouTube that shocked the YouTube community and the entire world. In the video, he puts an 8-month-old baby on an inflatable pillow, jumps on the pillow and projects the baby across the room. The baby lands face-first before starting crying.

The entire scene seems very amusing for the deranged teenager, who wants to see if the baby can fly. He doesn’t feel any remorse for his actions, and advises viewers not to feel bad about laughing either.

Full story: efluxmedia.com 

Labels: teen, video, youtube

YouTube's huge lead in market share over other online video sites continues to get bigger, even as the over all video viewing market continues a decline. According to traffic analysts Hitwise, YouTube now sees 75.43% of traffic to the online video category; that's up 26% from it's May 2007 marketshare of 59.95%. The nearest competitor is still MySpaceTV, which was down a whopping 44% to 9% marketshare. (Full chart of top 5 sites below.)

In April we reported that YouTube's dominance in online video was bigger than Google's dominance in search (67%). The new Hitwise numbers raise a number of questions for us.

Full article: readwriteweb.com 

Labels: market, video, youtube

The new YouTube homepage answers the question "What should I watch today?" by recommending videos based on what you've previously watched, what your friends have "favorited" or rated, and more.

It's fully customizable so you can tailor it exactly to your taste. You'll have to be signed into your account to use this feature. Also this month, we added a search-suggest feature to the YouTube search box, so now you get query suggestions as you type. By offering these suggestions, we save you several keystrokes, reduce spelling errors, and improve the overall search experience on YouTube.

More: youtube.com 

Labels: video, Web, youtube

'A whole new industry' could be created around video advertising on the web, Google said, but it's not sure how

Google has said that it is still unsure how to make money from YouTube, the enormously popular video-sharing website it owns, but hopes to be able to do so soon.

Eric Schmidt, the search giant's chief executive, said it "seemed obvious" that Google should be able to generate "significant amounts of money" from YouTube, on which hundreds of millions of videos are watched every day, but that as yet it hadn't figured out how to go about it.

He also rejected suggestions that Google dominated the web, saying that it was outperformed by Yahoo!, the internet portal, in some areas, and added that in any case the company's goal was not "to monetise everything".

In an interview with The New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, Mr Schmidt was cautious about how profitable YouTube might be, but said he believed the site could lead to "the creation of a whole new industry." He said his optimism was based on two facts: "We know people are watching it" and "We have the luxury of time to invest."

Full article: timesonline.co.uk 

Labels: advertising, video, youtube

Google, Looking to Monetize Video Site, Is Letting Content Producers Sell Advertising on Their Branded Channels

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Google has struggled to find the best way to monetize YouTube. The latest idea: Let content creators sell ads.

Professional content producers -- those who come equipped with their own ad-sales teams -- are now able to sell advertising on their YouTube channels. That includes the click-to-expand overlays that run across the bottoms of YouTube videos and display units on the page that hosts the video player. The revenue is split between the content creator and YouTube, just as it would be if YouTube sold the ads.

Full story: adage.com 

Labels: ads, Adsense, advertisements, advertisers, advertising, video, youtube

We're happy to announce a new way to add interactive commentary to your videos -- with Video Annotations. With this feature, you can add background information, create branching ("choose your own adventure" style) stories or add links to any YouTube video, channel, or search results page -- at any point in your video.

Uploaders have control over creating and editing an unlimited number of annotations on their videos. To start annotating, first make sure you have videos uploaded into your account. Log in, then go to view one of your videos. On the Video page, click the blue "Edit Annotations" button to the right of the video.

As you play your video, you can insert commentary by adding speech bubbles, notes and highlight boxes anywhere you want. You can also use the menu on the left to save a draft, delete commentary, edit start/stop times or add links to your annotations. Once you save the final version, click "Publish" to reveal your annotated video to other users. (Note: Video Annotations are shown by default, but the viewer can turn them off while watching a video through the "Menu" button on the bottom right of the video player).

Read more: youtube.com 

Labels: beta, video, youtube

Is Viacom really endangering the freedom of the net?

Viacom’s threat of legal action against YouTube for allowing copyrighted material to appear online has left Google forecasting the death of Internet freedom.

Google owns YouTube, and it has reacted furiously to broadcasting giant Viacom’s assertion that they had done ‘little or nothing’ to stop infringement.

Lawyers for Google state that the suit “threatens the way hundreds of millions of people legitimately exchange information.”

Full story: techradar.com 

Labels: lawsuit, Viacom, video, youtube

Andrew Kellett branded 'dumbest criminal'

YouTube has pulled the plug on a user after he used the video sharing site to brag about his criminal exploits.

Andrew Kellett, 23, was banned from YouTube and given an interim ASBO by Leeds magistrates after posting more than 80 videos in which he appears to commit a range of offences.

The videos showed Kellett leaving a petrol station without paying, taking class A drugs and being driven in a speeding car at more than 140mph.

The clips also show other people setting off fireworks in a wheelie bin and in a microwave oven in the road.

Full story: vnunet.com 

Labels: UK, video, youtube

Video is killing the radio and TV star as more and more people flock to the Internet to watch content on video sites like YouTube. Today everyone is buzzing about Flickr's jump into online video after the photo-sharing site announced a new feature that will allow its pro members the ability to upload video clips under 90-seconds and 150MB. This feature is restricted to Flickr users who pay the $24.95 annual membership fee, but anyone with an Internet connection can watch the short clips or post comments, unless the user enables their privacy settings.

Why the 90-second limitations? According to the site's help section, Flickr is trying something new by offering a place for videos that highlight special moments in your life, and not commercial content.

Read more: tech.yahoo.com 

Labels: Flickr, video, Yahoo

The video-sharing site will offer more information about who’s watching clips to uploaders.

YouTube is going to be sharing more statistics about the people who view video clips with those who upload them, according to an AP story. A new program called YouTube Insight could greatly help those adding clips in terms of advertising and when to schedule a new video, among other things.

The program debuts today, and Google hopes it will help it make some money from its $1.76 billion purchase. To date there hasn’t been a rush of people eager to advertiser on YouTube.

Read more: digitaltrends.com 

Labels: video, youtube

The YouTube Uploader is a small piece of software which will allow you to upload multiple videos without having to use the standard upload form. Click the "Install Windows Uploader" button to download and then run the installation program to get started.

The YouTube Uploader won't interfere with any of your other media software. The YouTube Uploader sends a unique application number and information about your installation ( e.g., version number, language) to YouTube when it automatically checks for updates.

Download: YouTube Uploader 1.0 

Labels: Media, uploader, video, youtube