Library Garden

Warner/YouTube Marriage, ‘Internet Tubes’ and MySpace, Again

September 18, 2006 at 9:59 am Robert J. Lackie

Another marriage between an entertainment giant and an exciting Web 2.0 startup:

It was announced this morning that the Warner Music Group, one of the largest recording companies in the world, has struck an agreement with YouTube to “distribute and license its copyrighted songs and other material,” although no $$ has been mentioned, yet. According to AP Business Writer Michael Liedtke via Yahoo! News, “both companies are betting they will be able to make money from the ads that will show up alongside Warner Music’s own videos as well as amateur videos featuring copyrighted material. To make the deal happen, YouTube developed a royalty-tracking system that will detect when homemade videos are using copyrighted material. YouTube says the technology will enable Warner Music to review the video and decide whether it wants to approve or reject it.”

I believe this will heighten YouTube’s already very popular status, although it will probably attract more ‘copyright police’ as well, but this is a bold move for Warner and seems like a great deal thus far for YouTube. I will be watching it, no pun intended. But talking about being funny, and since we are talking about YouTube, let me again highlight one of their videos:

You may have already watched the July 12th airing of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central and the episode about “This is the Guy in Charge of the Internet.” However, while I was reading about the very interesting new U.S News & World Report article What Parents Need to Know about MySpace: Your Guide to a Kid’s World on the Internet blogged about by The Shifted Librarian, Jenny also reminded me about this very funny YouTube video I watched earlier in the summer entitled “Internet Tubes” from the Daily Show. If you have a few minutes, you have got to watch it (or watch it again), as it is very funny and at the same time a bit sobering. Of course, John Daily “went out on a limb” in public to state that he believes “the Internet is a keeper.” OK, watch it and you will see what he and I mean.

And read Jenny’s post about the U.S. News & World Report MySpace article, Stephen Abrams comments on the virtual world, DOPA, and more–an engaging, intelligent read. Enjoy!

Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: Uncategorized.