As 'Gangnam Style' hits 2B YouTube views, music fans should cheer. Really
By contrast, the No. 2 most-watched YouTube video is Justin Bieber's "Baby," far behind at just over 1 billion views.K-Pop"has been exploding for 20-odd years, and its export has been more andmore successful," said Bess. "'Gangnam Style' really kicked off amassive wave of [K-Pop video] consumption. We now see 90 percent ofK-Pop is consumed outside of Korea." As a genre, K-Pop videos exploded in viewership on YouTube to more than 5.5 billion in 2013 from 600 million in 2010, Bess said. As K-Pop has become more popular, so has YouTube itself.This content is rated TV-MA, and is for viewers 18 years or older. Are you of age?YesNoSorry, you are not old enough to view this content.Play The de facto home of Internet video hasjust turned 9 years old, and as of a year ago people were watching more than 6 billion hours of video a month on the video site. That's a 50 percent jump from 2012, and YouTube says that it's far surpassed that number since then. Of the 1 billion people who watch YouTube videos each month, nearly 40percent of them are watching via phone and tablet, and 80 percent arewatching from outside the US. Collectively, they upload around 100 hoursof video per minute. YouTube wouldn't break out music video statistics, but it's not hard tosee how important the site has become to the successful musician orband, and vice versa."I think there will be more mega-hits to come," Bess said. Korean pop music views on YouTube.Google/YouTube Engineering success at YouTube "Gangnam Style," which derives its name from awealthy neighborhood in Seoul but has a sardonic tone that's all Psy, has become the most-watched video of all time in less than two years. On reaching the milestone, Psy provided CNET with a statement: "Two billion views...They are very honorable and very burdensome numbers...With the appreciation, I will come back soon with more joyful contents!!"YouTube executives estimate that the video has inspired more than half a million more imitations, parodies, and homages. It was the first video to reach 1 billion views at the end of 2012, and it has garnered almost 100 million more views in 2014. Psy's also got a second song rocketing up the YouTube charts: "Gentleman" isboogieing skyward with nearly 700 million views in just over a year. It also holds the record for most views in a single day at 38 million views."I keep hearing these stories of odd J-Pop [Japanese pop] songs becoming major football anthems in South American countries," said Bess. "How did this happen? We spend a lot of time and money making the recommendation more nuanced."YouTube music partner manager Isaac Bess stands in front of the video site's logo at its San Bruno, Calif., headquarters.Seth Rosenblatt/CNET It's not just an attention to detail that drives YouTube's side of the success story. As evidenced by encouraging people to take itsvideo quality test, YouTube places a lot of importance on delivering the highest quality streams possible without freezing, said Andy Berkheimer, engineering director at YouTube. "We're really excited about 'Gangam Style' reaching 2 billion views," he said, "but we are already planning for a world where there's hundreds of thousands of videos that reach billions of views." Berkheimer said that YouTube's engineering success depends on three factors. It relies on a continuous stream of data on the network, telling YouTube's servers whether the network path is congested or not; adaptive bitrate technology, so that the stream quality fluctuates but keeps buffers and freezes to a minimum; andshrinking the size of the video by using the VP9 codec. Even with that future-forward technical approach, YouTube doesn't want to alienate any of its users. Berkheimer said that the site will still use the more restricted H.264 codec as "a billion devices" rely on it. "There will be no singularity," he said. Psy's success: Signpost to the future of music A technological singularity might never occur, but musicians appear to have nothing but love for YouTube right now. Much of Psy's success, said Public Enemy producer and music technologist Hank Shocklee, can be attributed to how people have come to view YouTube's playlist feature as a de facto streaming service. "My son, who's 15, he has a whole different take on what YouTube is," Shocklee said in a phone conversation. "It's his radio station. They find out more about what's coming out faster than anybody. It eclipses any other means of exposure."Andy Berkheimer, engineering director at YouTube, stands in front of a wall of screens highlighting the success of Psy's "Gangnam Style" at the company's headquarters.Seth Rosenblatt/CNET That exposure not only helps new artists rise, but rekindles interest in musicians who may have fallen into obscurity. Allan Merrill, who wrote the 1975 rock standard "I Love Rock'N'Roll" with Jake Hooker and their band The Arrows, said in phone call from his East Coast home that YouTube has reminded people that the song existed before Joan Jett covered it in 1982. "What YouTube does for me is it globalizes my career," Merrill said. "It takes a fragmented career and puts it into a solid ball. I get fan mail from China, and Russia, and the Ukraine -- all over the world. YouTube is great for that." "People are making fan sites for me in Polish," he said, chuckling. "This is what the companies want to block, when each one of us becomes important," said Shocklee, whose work has been notable not just for creating hits, but hits with a social message. YouTube is becoming the connective tissue that links music, musicians, and fans, with YouTube and its parent company Google replacing an invasive middle-man recording label with a more laissez-faire approach. In some cases, YouTube's Bess said, "we're creating a digital music economy where there wasn't one." He explained how in Nigeria, a country without the iTunes Store or a CD market, bootlegs are popular, but ex-pat Nigerians in London now can get the latest Nigerian music immediately over YouTube. "The idea that somebody can sing in Korean and make it the most popular song of all time globally speaks to the power of reducing barriers, the democracy that our platform lets percolate up to the top," he said.YouTube's Wall of Fame at its San Bruno, Calif., office, showcasing people and characters from the site's greatest hits.Seth Rosenblatt/CNET Shocklee agreed. "The internationalization of pop music is nothing new, as Western rock has been liberally borrowing from other styles for decades," he said. "But this latest wave is driven by the democratization of pop, thanks to the cross-national accessibility of YouTube." The idea that YouTube is simply replacing the big record labels didn't sit well with Shocklee, even if the site is building a more formal streaming music service."Musicians are not seeing income from videos, but we've never seen income from videos," he said. "The fact that you can get some income from videos [now] is a big plus," he said, but it's not the point.To Shocklee, who has helped define a generation of music, the potential of YouTube to reach everybody on Earth will continue to change music even beyond where it is today."You're not defined by the studio anymore. Your artist q-rating is not based upon how official your situation is," he said. "It's about how it resonates with the public."And what musician doesn't want to be heard?Update, 8:40 a.m. PT: Adds comment from Psy.Update, 11:55 a.m. PT: Corrects spelling of Oppan.
Nokia launches music-phone bundle in U.K.
Nokia launches music-phone bundle in U.K.
Nokia launched a new music service Tuesday in the U.K. that bundles free access to music with the purchase of a phone.The new service called "Comes with Music" offers users of certain Nokia phones a year's subscription to the company's music service. The program will initially be offered through Carphone Warehouse in the U.K., but Nokia has plans to eventually roll it out globally.Nokia first announced the Comes With Music service last year. The service essentially bundles access to digital music with the purchase of a new handset. The first phone to use the service is the 5310 XpressMusic device. With the free one-year subscription to the service, Nokia users can download as many songs as they want and keep the songs even after the subscription expires.This is a clear differentiator from other music stores and services. Apple's iTunes requires users pay for individual songs or albums. Verizon Wireless and Real have launched the new Rhapsody music store for mobile phones. It also allows subscribers to download and listen to as much music as they like for $15 a month. But once users stop paying the subscription fee, access to the music disappears.Like the Rhapsody service, Nokia's music service allows subscribers to share their music with other subscribers.It's not known yet how much Nokia will charge for the new 5310 XpressMusic with the one-year music subscription. Carphone Warehouse currently sells the prepaid version of the 5310 for about $145, including $18 worth of talk time. T-Mobile USA has subsidized it for about $50 with a two-year contract, making it much cheaper option than Apple's iPhone 3G, which costs$200 with AT&T's subsidy.Nokia is clearly going after Apple with the launch of the new music store and the bundled offering. The company, which is the No. 1 maker of cell phones in the world, sees services as a key component of its strategy going forward.While Nokia's music store is much smaller than what is currently offered by iTunes, the company has managed to sign up three of the largest music labels, Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group. Nokia hasn't said when it will begin rolling out the Comes With Music bundle in other countries. The Nokia Music Store is currently only available in a handful of markets, including much of Europe, Singapore and Australia. U.S. customers will likely have to wait awhile before they can get access to the Nokia Music Store or the Comes With Music bundle.
Nokia launched a new music service Tuesday in the U.K. that bundles free access to music with the purchase of a phone.The new service called "Comes with Music" offers users of certain Nokia phones a year's subscription to the company's music service. The program will initially be offered through Carphone Warehouse in the U.K., but Nokia has plans to eventually roll it out globally.Nokia first announced the Comes With Music service last year. The service essentially bundles access to digital music with the purchase of a new handset. The first phone to use the service is the 5310 XpressMusic device. With the free one-year subscription to the service, Nokia users can download as many songs as they want and keep the songs even after the subscription expires.This is a clear differentiator from other music stores and services. Apple's iTunes requires users pay for individual songs or albums. Verizon Wireless and Real have launched the new Rhapsody music store for mobile phones. It also allows subscribers to download and listen to as much music as they like for $15 a month. But once users stop paying the subscription fee, access to the music disappears.Like the Rhapsody service, Nokia's music service allows subscribers to share their music with other subscribers.It's not known yet how much Nokia will charge for the new 5310 XpressMusic with the one-year music subscription. Carphone Warehouse currently sells the prepaid version of the 5310 for about $145, including $18 worth of talk time. T-Mobile USA has subsidized it for about $50 with a two-year contract, making it much cheaper option than Apple's iPhone 3G, which costs$200 with AT&T's subsidy.Nokia is clearly going after Apple with the launch of the new music store and the bundled offering. The company, which is the No. 1 maker of cell phones in the world, sees services as a key component of its strategy going forward.While Nokia's music store is much smaller than what is currently offered by iTunes, the company has managed to sign up three of the largest music labels, Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group. Nokia hasn't said when it will begin rolling out the Comes With Music bundle in other countries. The Nokia Music Store is currently only available in a handful of markets, including much of Europe, Singapore and Australia. U.S. customers will likely have to wait awhile before they can get access to the Nokia Music Store or the Comes With Music bundle.
CES 2009- Home audio wrap-up
CES 2009: Home audio wrap-up
The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show is history. As far as the home audio world is concerned, the product lineup and trends were pretty much right in line with our predictions.Wireless speakers: Panasonic showcased the SC-ZT1, a unique "4.4" speaker system with wireless speakers (except for that pesky power cord, of course). But the bigger trend was wireless subwoofers: Samsung, Philips, and Polk Audio (among others) all showed surround systems with wireless subs, enabling more flexibility when placing them in the room.Network audio: Whether it was more affordable tabletop Internet radios from the likes of Sanyo and Acoustic Research or impressive streaming audio systems from Linksys or Philips, network audio was on the rise in 2009. If you don't want a dedicated network audio product, that's OK; products like Samsung's Blu-ray home theater systems have Pandora streaming built-in, obviating the need for other hardware. And the pre-CES announcement that Apple's iTunes Store is going DRM-free means that all major music download purchases are now basically free of copy protection, making streaming between multiple devices easier than ever.iPod- and iPhone-ready: Compatibility for Apple's iPod is essentially ubiquitous, but manufacturers are offering some incremental improvements. LG and Panasonic are including slide-out iPod docks (rather than add-on cabled cradles) on many of their home theater systems, while Pioneer's AV receivers offer improved on-TV screen navigation for attached iPods and iPhones. Blu-ray compatibility:Samsung and Panasonic offered the first home theater systems with built-in Blu-ray players in 2008, but they were expensive systems that were full of compromises (namely, the older Blu-ray spec). The picture is much improved for 2009: systems from JVC, Panasonic, LG, and Samsung are all Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) compliant, and many offer additional content from the Internet (Netflix and Pandora on Samsung; Netflix, YouTube, and CinemaNow on LG; Amazon and YouTube on Panasonic). Samsung upped the ante with Wi-Fi options available via an add-on dongle. Single-speaker audio and virtual surround: Another trend that's showing no sign of abating in 2009 is single-speaker and virtual surround systems. Polk Audio, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, LG, and Sharp were among the manufacturers showing either speakerbars, 2.1, or other configurations that aim to deliver a 5.1- or 7.1-channel experience from one, two, or four speakers. A related trend: more audio systems are being touted as wall-mountable, presumably to sit underneath a wall-mounted flat-panel TV.The high-end: While we mostly stuck with mainstream brands and products, rest assured that there were plenty of high- and superhigh-end audio products on display at this year's show--everything from $1,400 headphones to stereo systems that cost $300k.CNET chose the Pioneer VSX-819H AV receiver, the Panasonic SC-ZT1 wireless speaker system, and the Samsung HT-BD7200 Blu-ray home theater system as the finalists in the Best of CES Home Audio category. The Pioneer receiver delivers an impressive feature list (three HDMI inputs, lossless Blu-ray audio decoding, onscreen iPod navigation) for less than $300--one of the best bang for your bucks, and especially compelling given our current economic woes. The Panasonic represented an interesting approach to wireless speakers. And the Samsung (pictured above) was an impressive combination of trends that encapsulated the show:Blu-ray Profile 2.0, virtual surround sound, built-in support for network services (Pandora, Netflix), along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatibility, all wrapped up in a unique-looking design.
The 2009 Consumer Electronics Show is history. As far as the home audio world is concerned, the product lineup and trends were pretty much right in line with our predictions.Wireless speakers: Panasonic showcased the SC-ZT1, a unique "4.4" speaker system with wireless speakers (except for that pesky power cord, of course). But the bigger trend was wireless subwoofers: Samsung, Philips, and Polk Audio (among others) all showed surround systems with wireless subs, enabling more flexibility when placing them in the room.Network audio: Whether it was more affordable tabletop Internet radios from the likes of Sanyo and Acoustic Research or impressive streaming audio systems from Linksys or Philips, network audio was on the rise in 2009. If you don't want a dedicated network audio product, that's OK; products like Samsung's Blu-ray home theater systems have Pandora streaming built-in, obviating the need for other hardware. And the pre-CES announcement that Apple's iTunes Store is going DRM-free means that all major music download purchases are now basically free of copy protection, making streaming between multiple devices easier than ever.iPod- and iPhone-ready: Compatibility for Apple's iPod is essentially ubiquitous, but manufacturers are offering some incremental improvements. LG and Panasonic are including slide-out iPod docks (rather than add-on cabled cradles) on many of their home theater systems, while Pioneer's AV receivers offer improved on-TV screen navigation for attached iPods and iPhones. Blu-ray compatibility:Samsung and Panasonic offered the first home theater systems with built-in Blu-ray players in 2008, but they were expensive systems that were full of compromises (namely, the older Blu-ray spec). The picture is much improved for 2009: systems from JVC, Panasonic, LG, and Samsung are all Profile 2.0 (BD-Live) compliant, and many offer additional content from the Internet (Netflix and Pandora on Samsung; Netflix, YouTube, and CinemaNow on LG; Amazon and YouTube on Panasonic). Samsung upped the ante with Wi-Fi options available via an add-on dongle. Single-speaker audio and virtual surround: Another trend that's showing no sign of abating in 2009 is single-speaker and virtual surround systems. Polk Audio, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, LG, and Sharp were among the manufacturers showing either speakerbars, 2.1, or other configurations that aim to deliver a 5.1- or 7.1-channel experience from one, two, or four speakers. A related trend: more audio systems are being touted as wall-mountable, presumably to sit underneath a wall-mounted flat-panel TV.The high-end: While we mostly stuck with mainstream brands and products, rest assured that there were plenty of high- and superhigh-end audio products on display at this year's show--everything from $1,400 headphones to stereo systems that cost $300k.CNET chose the Pioneer VSX-819H AV receiver, the Panasonic SC-ZT1 wireless speaker system, and the Samsung HT-BD7200 Blu-ray home theater system as the finalists in the Best of CES Home Audio category. The Pioneer receiver delivers an impressive feature list (three HDMI inputs, lossless Blu-ray audio decoding, onscreen iPod navigation) for less than $300--one of the best bang for your bucks, and especially compelling given our current economic woes. The Panasonic represented an interesting approach to wireless speakers. And the Samsung (pictured above) was an impressive combination of trends that encapsulated the show:Blu-ray Profile 2.0, virtual surround sound, built-in support for network services (Pandora, Netflix), along with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatibility, all wrapped up in a unique-looking design.
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