The Real Gate Keepers

The entertainment industry is full of tastemakers and talented individuals but over the years the consumers have been exposed to the real gatekeepers of the industry. The Internet and companies like Napster started a revolution that got associations like the RIAA and The MPAA up in arms over their dissemination practices. No one ever expected music and movies to be totally free but somehow the Internet found a way. The RIAA and The MPAA became the only levee between the art that is made for the public and the methods of actually collecting dollars for that service.

Companies like ASCAP and BMI have a service that allows artists to profit from their art when displayed for public consumption but they don’t necessarily put you in a position to make that money. There services are essential if you want to have your music and videos played on television and radio. The main goal of these associations is to insure the artist and make sure the material he or she creates is protected and paid for at market value. The more a person delves into the entertainment business the less you identify with the consumer at least from a fan perspective. Industry professionals want consumers to pay fair prices and not pirate their product but the web makes it too tempting for many of them.

The MPAA And RIAA must be proactive about techniques that deter piracy and reward genuine purchases. People want value and with more and more content on sites like YouTube people are less likely to go buy a substandard album or even watch T.V for their music videos. Companies like South BY Southwest offer a superior product simply because they empower the artist. A place where you can debut a clothing line a movie, video game or and album is the perfect platform for the fast moving A.D.D culture we live in. I relay on the MPAA and the RIAA to watch out for my interests as a businessman but as a consumer I wonder if they have a remedy for the shift in technology and information sharing.

The Science Of Viral Vids.

Today I’d like to write about Kevin Allocca The Trend tracker for YouTube. Kevin’s Ted talk is titled “Why videos go viral”. I chose this presentation because the entertainment business is being filled with individuals discovered on YouTube. I was curious to see if there was a real formula to get over a million views. Kevin makes it clear that there is no formula but there are factors in creating a viral video.

First Kevin talks about tastemakers, which play an important part in the process. Almost every viral video has been mentioned, re-tweeted or posted on social networks. The “Friday” song by Rebecca Black is the perfect example the song had comedic potential so many tastemakers including web clip shows shared the vid and even did spoofs until the song topped out at 200 million views.

The other factor Kevin talks about is the unexpected. I believe humans are inherently inquisitive so they love to see things they haven’t seen before. People will flock to see a double rainbow if they haven’t seen it before but if you add unexpected funny commentary things can get interesting. We like to think about artists like Justin Beiber when we talk about artists who where discovered on You Tube and Kevin and I agree this will become more common over time basically making the web the place to have national auditions.

The last factor Kevin talks about is community. Web videos like “Prancersise “ and “Friday” lend themselves to hilarious spoofs that create great interactions within the general public. These interactions increase viewership even more.  So the consensus is who really knows which videos will go viral. What we do know is that the ones that do tap into all or one of these factors every time. This is great information for someone in the entertainment business because now we at least look for these factors in the marketing process to increase our chances of reaching a large audience.