OK Go frontman Damian Kulash clears up something I’ve wondered about for a long time: why major music labels often restrict fans from embedding artists’ YouTube videos on other sites. Don’t they want awareness of these artists to spread? Don’t they earn revenue from YouTube’s advertising?
According to Kulash, the answer to the first question is “Yes, but not as much as they want revenue from those videos,” and the answer to the second question is, “They do, but it only works if you watch it on YouTube.com.” It turns out that video rightsholders don’t see any ad revenue from embedded videos, which is new information to me. I sincerely hope that YouTube is able to remedy that situation.
Something else Kulash says touches on something I deal with a lot at my job: the issue of whether to drive people to one site for content, or make that content available on as many sites as possible. There are pros and cons to both, and the option you choose depends on what you’re trying to accomplish. From OK Gos’ perspective, Kulash says “it is better for us to have 40 million hits on one site than one million hits on 40 sites. It makes it easier to advertise ourselves to potential sponsors, or it makes it easier for us to explain to a promoter in Albania why they actually do want us to come to their country.”
Wade Rockett 