Thursday, 7 June 2012

Bonnaroo: Live on YouTube this weekend

Stock your cooler with sparkling water and hook your laptop up to a big-screen TV -- YouTube Presents is bringing you the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival all weekend, starting this Friday at 1 p.m. CT/11 a.m. PT. Tune in to youtube.com/bonnaroo to watch three days of non-stop musical performances, in partnership with DELL.



And we mean non-stop. In its eleven years of existence, Bonnaroo has transformed from a haven for jam band aficionados into one of the premiere places to experience live music. The headliners alone are massive -- perhaps you’ve heard of Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Phish? But the sheer diversity of artists is also astonishing: over 45 artists will be participating in the webcast, and they range from hip-hop and retro soul to continent-spanning collaborations. Check out the webcast schedule, or whet your appetite with this "Bonnaroo 2012" playlist.



To celebrate the festival’s return to YouTube, we’ll also feature playlists from webcast artists including Soja, the Punch Brothers, the Debo Band and fun. throughout the weekend. And keep an eye out for an exclusive video premiere from the heavily (and justly) buzzed band Alabama Shakes tomorrow. It may just knock your socks off.

The festivities start promptly at 11am PT on Friday on youtube.com/bonnaroo -- see you there, people.

Sarah Bardeen, music community manager, recently watched “Bonnaroo 2012 - Ben Folds Shoutout."

Wednesday, 6 June 2012

The IOC to show live coverage of the London 2012 Olympic Games on YouTube in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

This summer, from July 27 to August 12, the world will turn their attention to London to watch the daily trials and triumphs of the greatest living athletes at the Summer Olympic Games. Today, we’re excited to announce that millions of Olympic fans from across 64 territories in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa will have a chance to watch the games live from London on the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/olympic.

In total, the IOC’s YouTube Channel will offer fans in these countries over 2,200 hours of high-definition sporting event coverage from London 2012, including all the medal finals.

People in countries including Singapore, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya (full list here), can tune in to the IOC channel on their desktop, tablet, or mobile device enjoy live coverage of the events as well as highlight clips free-of-charge. The IOC channel will have 10 HD live-feeds from the Games, running from 9am to 11pm London time, plus a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel. There will also be highlight reels and full videos of events after they’ve finished — all organized by the day, medal event, or the sport.

For those not in these particular countries, you can already watch historic clips from past Games on the IOC channel and teasers from London on the London 2012 YouTube Channel. Hopefully, these will hold you over until the triumphant entrance of the athletes at the Opening Ceremony on July 27.

Tommy O’Hare, sports content partnerships manager, recently watched TK,
“Flying Finn Ritola signs off with fifth gold - Amsterdam 1928 Olympic Games.”

Tuesday, 5 June 2012

Sing it! YouTube opens the door for more songwriters, publishers and content creators

On YouTube, musical artists and acts from the established to the experimental can share their talent, find new fans, and sing their hearts out. And we’re committed to making sure their works can reach the widest audience, and that the singers and songwriters will continue to be appropriately compensated for these works that we all love so much.

Today we’re happy to share that we’ve reached publishing deals with BMG Rights Management, Christian Copyright Solutions, ABKCO Music, Inc., Songs Music Publishing, Words & Music, Copyright Administration, Music Services, Reservoir Media Management, and Songs of Virtual - which means more of the great music you all love on YouTube, and more opportunities for artists to make money. These publishers represent works from artists like Adele, Cee Lo Green, Foo Fighters, The Rolling Stones, Sam Cooke, and many others.

Our Content ID system allows music publishers to identify the works of songwriters whether the compositions appear in an original sound recording or in a cover version, using information provided to us by the publishers. This means that more songwriters will be able to share in more of the revenue that the YouTube community’s creativity yields. Content ID is used today by 3,000+ partners including every major US music publisher, record label, network broadcaster, and movie studio.

These new deals, along with the licenses from the many publishers who have opted in to last year’s deal with the NMPA / Harry Fox Agency, will allow us to monetize nearly all of the user generated videos with music on YouTube. Why is this important? When these publishers allow YouTube to run ads alongside user generated videos that incorporate their compositions, then the publishers, the songwriters they represent, and the record labels and artists using their compositions, all make money - so they can reinvest in their careers and keep making great music, and the music industry can thrive.

Elizabeth Moody, head of strategic partner development, YouTube Music, recently watched "Of Monsters and Men, Little Talks, Live from Music Hall of Williamsburg, 4/5/12."

Help these non-profit “On The Rise” nominees reach the homepage

Each month, we identify four YouTube partners whose channels have recently experienced significant growth but haven’t yet reached the 100,000 subscriber count for our On The Rise program. This month’s featured partners still have a ways to go to hit that mark, but we’re excited about the impact they’ve had on - and beyond - YouTube. Each of our June nominees represents a non-profit organization fighting for an important cause: strengthening art knowledge and creative thinking, finding a cure for cancer, preventing crisis and suicide among LGBTQ youth, and ending world hunger.

And these partners could use your help in a few different ways! As you learn more about these organizations, you can help spread awareness about the causes they represent so they can have an even greater impact. You can also help them grow their YouTube presence, starting with the opportunity for one of these partners to be featured on the YouTube homepage. Check out their videos below and vote for your favorite in the top right corner of this blog. In addition to your votes, each channel will be evaluated on criteria such as viewer engagement and channel optimization techniques to decide which partner will be featured on the homepage, Google+, Facebook and Twitter at the end of the month.

In past months past on the rise nominees, partners like Strskillschool and jakatak69 have gained many subscribers thanks to your support. The poll will be open until June 12th at 5pm PT, so don’t forget to vote for your favorite channel. Check back to see who secured the homepage feature on June 25th.

art21org
Founded in 1997, Art21 is an organization dedicated to contemporary art education and inspiring creative thinking. Their channel features episodes of their award-winning public television production, “Art21 - Art in the Twenty-First Century,” as well as shorter-format videos of contemporary art and artists.



su2c
“This is where the end of cancer begins” is the mantra of the Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) organization, which funds and unites scientists to speed up cancer research and find a cure. Their channel features videos promoting campaign PSAs as well as details about their research grant program and recipients.



TheTrevorProject
The Trevor Project was founded in 1998 to provide a lifeline for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth and has since become one of the largest organizations dedicated to crisis and suicide prevention for the LGBTQ community. Their channel features Trevor Project PSAs as well as celebrity interviews and “It Gets Better” videos.



WorldFoodProgram
The World Food Programme is the largest humanitarian agency in the world dedicated to the fight against hunger. Founded in 1961, the organization is part of the United Nations system. Their channel features videos from the Sahel Hunger Crisis and footage from their work around the world.



If you’re interested in checking out more rising YouTube Partners, visit our On The Rise channel, which features nominees, trending partners and monthly blog winners. You can also learn more about YouTube's nonprofit program and the 17,000 organizations in the program here.

Devon Storbeck and Christine Wang, YouTube Partner Support, recently watched “Cute Cambodian Kids Try to Say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”

Music Tuesday: Beach Boys, Regina Spektor & Danielle Ate The Sandwich

We’ve got a lot of music -- live and otherwise -- flooding the highways of the internet this week. Whether it’s new offerings from veteran bands (we mean you, Beach Boys!), a live performance by an indie-pop heroine, or the latest flowering of homegrown YouTube talent, we’ve got you covered.

The Beach Boys Return
The Beach Boys epitomized the carefree beach culture of the 1960s -- though few (if any) members of the band ever set foot on a surfboard. But the Beach Boys were always much more than a feel-good group: their 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds remains one of the most influential albums of all time. It’s suffused with baroque instrumentation and complex arrangements that were put in service of spectacular singles (“Good Vibrations,” “God Only Knows”); roughly half of all contemporary indie bands hail Pet Sounds as a spiritual forefather. After 16 years, the full (surviving) lineup of the band has reunited to record a new album, That’s Why God Made the Radio -- and their harmonies are as stunningly sweet now as they ever were. The band shares clips from the new album and salutes some of their favorite young bands today.



YouTube Presents Regina Spektor, Def Leppard and Jimmy Fallon
It’s just an insane week for live music on YouTube. By “insane” we mean awesome -- this week might just restore your faith in the planet’s limitless supply of talent. We kick things off with a live performance by Russian-born, Bronx-bred starlet Regina Spektor, who will be performing songs from her new album What We Saw From The Cheap Seats live today at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on youtube.com/presents. Then on Thursday at noon PT you can renew your commitment to RAWK with a performance and Q&A with pop metal gods Def Leppard. On Friday some dude named Jimmy Fallon will be performing -- check our schedule for all the details.



Danielle Ate The Sandwich: Faith In A Man
This homegrown talent has won a devoted following for her quirky videos and original songs. This week she’s back with a new album Like A King (put the album title together with her name to get the joke) and a new video for “Faith In A Man.” We dig the nod to film noir -- because who can hate on a video that uses words like “dollface” and “getaway sticks”? -- and we can’t get that song out of our heads. Furthermore, we don’t want to. Here’s to many more sandwiches, Danielle.



Sarah Bardeen, Music Community Manager, recently watched “CopperWire ‘Phone Home’."

Monday, 4 June 2012

Get your game face on: E3 is live on YouTube again

Gamers unite — we’ve got global live streaming coverage of the 2012 E3 conference starting June 4 at 9:30am PT. Thanks to the experts at IGN, the live stream will start with presentations from the biggest companies in gaming, then hit the convention center for three days of previews, interviews and hands-on gameplay.

 

Starting June 5, the E3 YouTube Channel will feature our annual Game Trailer Challenge, where you can vote on some of the top game trailers unveiled at the show. Come back June 19 to see your 5 favorite trailers from this year.



If four days of gaming isn’t enough to satiate your appetite, or you can’t catch all the coverage as it happens, check out up-to-the-minute video from IGN and lots of other gamers on YouTube.

Liuba Petkova, YouTube Gaming, recently watched “WipEout 2048 NGP: Wipeout Your Enemies Trailer.”

Friday, 1 June 2012

Syria violence, SpaceX Landing, Second Earthquake Strikes Italy

Everyday on the CitizenTube channel (and @CitizenTube on Twitter), along with our curation partners @storyful, we look at how the top news stories are covered on YouTube. Each week we post a weekly recap of the top news stories of the week, as seen through the lens of both citizen-reported footage and professional news coverage.
  • We were shocked at the deaths of dozens of children and hundreds overall during a week of horrific violence in Syria. (Warning: Scenes of an extremely graphic nature)
  • We saw millions across America commemorate Memorial Day by honoring those who died in service to their country.
  • We viewed the successful return of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to Earth, ending a 9-day voyage to the ISS with a splashdown in the Pacific.
  • We were saddened at yet more deaths in Italy, as a second earthquake rocked the North East of the country, killing 15, just days after a first earthquake hit.
  • We followed the presidential candidates on the US campaign trail as Mitt Romney finally officially clinched the Republican nomination by reaching the magic number of 1,144 delegates. 
  • We watched thousands of fans descend on Monte Carlo for the 2012 Monaco Grand Prix.
  • We observed the staging of colorful "slutwalks" across Brazil as thousands of women participated to promote LGBT equality.
  • We witnessed a fire in a Doha shopping mall claim the lives of 19, including 13 toddlers. 
  • Finally, we saw Twilight stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart cause a stir in Cannes as they attended film screenings together.
Come back to watch the news unfold on YouTube. 


Olivia Ma, YouTube News and Politics, recently watched "Station Begins Dragon's Release for Flight Home".