Are Free Bandwidth And Distribution Bad? Ask Susan Boyle
from the oh,-they're-not-getting-paid? dept
Five years ago, if there was a show called Britain's Got Talent (it only showed up two years ago), and it had a sensation like Susan Boyle, it would have had a hard time putting it online. It could have signed up with an expensive hosting service to stream the video, but also would have needed to make a choice about what technology to use (RealMedia? Quicktime?), which would have made it difficult for many people to actually watch it. The bandwidth costs of having people download or stream the video would have been quite high as well. Chances are, they wouldn't have bothered. It just would be way too expensive, with too little a response. Yet, now, thanks to YouTube, they can do it entirely for free. That's amazing. Susan Boyle is an international sensation thanks to YouTube. Without YouTube, she would have been a local UK sensation at best.But, you have folks at the NY Times who seem to think that it's a bad thing, because the producers of the TV show aren't making any advertising revenue from the clip being on YouTube. No, but they've created a huge singing sensation that is getting attention from millions of people. If they can't figure out how to make money off of that in the long run, they don't deserve to be in business. However, it still amazes me that anyone thinks that because a video is up on YouTube but not making money, it's somehow a bad thing. The producers of the show are getting free technology, a free community of watchers, free bandwidth and free promotions that wouldn't have been possible just a few years ago. And this isn't enough?
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Filed Under: free bandwidth, free promotion, online video, susan boyle
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However, that's not what the content industry cares about. All the content industry cares about is getting paid. All the producers of Britain's Got Talent care about are getting paid. They're in this for the money, not to help Susan Boyle become world famous.
This is sort of like the Anita Franklin incident. She thought she should be paid for doing nothing. (Well, nothing other than wearing a hat, which is something she chose to do.)
Here we have the producers wanting to be paid for Susan Boyle's fame, even though they did nothing more than produce their show, which is something they would have done anyway.
To put it another way, it's not enough that the producers get paid for the work they did. They have to ensure that no one else earns money from what they did. It's a zero-sum game. "You get nothing, we get it all, even if we did nothing to deserve it."
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Contracts
Looking at Susan, I would expect her in a studio doing voice-overs/adverts or even in a stage show. Money to be made.
Advertising is not the only revenue stream.
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Newspapers: Free Profit Opportunity
We will be providing keyword links to each act and the winners selection. The keyword link functionality can easily be added to your website. The instructions to readers are simple: to view any of the performances go to ournewspaperwebsite.com and type in the associated keyword ... eg. the keyword: Boyle will open the Susan Boyle performance, the keyword: Winner will open the selection video. The complete set of keyword links will be available this Thursday ... simply enter the keyword: BGT at www.frapple.com.
Some newspapers may want to embed the videos on their own websites ... simply tell us the URL's and custom keywords you would like to use ... there is also an opportunity to display a link sponsor message, for up to 5 seconds, while the video is being fetched. Oh, and you can brand the keyword identifier label anything ... POSTLink, SunLink, GoWord ... or whatever.
Promote YOUR website, keep readers away from Google, find a link sponsor or display a self promo or public service message.
For more information my contact info can be accessed with the frapple keyword: baz
There are absolutely no strings attached to this offer ... we will be totally transparent. This is just a great opportunity to again prove keyword links work.
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Youtube and similar sites changed that for ever, and that is a good thing, not just for consumers but also for content creators.
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If the average Joe could be bothered to think about the long run, we wouldn't be in a recession right now...
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Need for profit
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Bird cage covering is just too expense based on the return you get.
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Nice to see you trolling about. Have you found a hobby yet? This does bring up an interesting counterpoint to the copyright fight. These sites that use google to drive traffic yet pay nothing for it are stealing from google. Granted it's not something physical but Google could be making money off of every person they drive to the website. At a fair 5 cents per person that comes out to...oh dear something in the billions. Leave Google alone RIAA, you're too stupid to realize you're biting your own hand. Wait until google starts to delist you for it like they could.
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most businesses don't understand
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Re: most businesses don't understand
I know based on previous posts you have made on this site. That is a valid source of information, my bad. Continue making blanket statements with very little evidence.
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If I read a book on tape, does that make me a content creator? I would reserve "content creator" to the person who wrote the book.
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Then surely you could be replaced by anyone else in reading the book aloud? Including (gasp!) a voice synthetizer? Oh wait...
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She is a content creator only that she delivers a vocal performance, nothing more. She doesn't write the songs, she doesn't add anything new. She is a pleasant singer, but really not startling different from the hundreds of others who have sung those same songs.
Remove the song as written, the music as performed by others, and she is just a girl with a nice voice and nothing to say.
As for the publicity angle, let's just say this will rankup there with Mr Chocolate Rain, goatse, and a few other internet oddities that stay on the publics mind but does in the least sway them to do anything else.
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Greed
Greed is king, there is never "enough".
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