How YouTube Changed the Music Industry

It used to be the goal of an artist to get his or her music video played on MTV, today the goal of an artist is to have his or her music video go viral on YouTube.  YouTube has really changed everything in the Internet—it is currently the second largest search engine on the web, after only Google (Elliot).  This means that people are using YouTube for more than just videos and entertainment—they are using it for educational and informative reasons as well.

In 1981, MTV network was launched as a cable television channel.  The first ever music video to be played on MTV was The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” (Graham).  Video DJs (VJs) were a new phenomenon with the birth of MTV.  The VJs were unknown who were hired just weeks before MTV was launched (Armstrong).  One VJ recalled learning of the impact the VJs had on pop culture when he went to a “middle-America meet-and-greet,” and he found out that the people waiting in a line around the mall were waiting to see him (Armstrong).  MTV was revolutionary in this aspect of a new field of entertainment.  One of the first artists to gain popularity through MTV was Duran Duran when they performed on MTV’s New Year’s Eve Bach in 1982 (Armstrong).  They gained airplay, popularity, and exposure just by appearing one time on MTV.  Duran Duran was not very well known in the United States at the time, however they “dominated the rest of the year…with their hyper-stylized clips for ‘Rio’ and ‘Hungry Like the Wolf’” (Armstrong).  Michael Jackson was the first black artist to get heavy airplay on MTV; his “Thriller” video debuted in 1983, “a 14-minute homage to zombie horror flicks” (Armstrong).  The very first VMAs came the next year, starting the tradition of scandalous occasions at the VMAs was Madonna with her performance of “Like a Virgin.”  She was “rolling around on the stage…[delivering] come-hither looks straight into the camera…while humping her discarded veil, and flashing her panties and garters” (Armstrong).  Madonna’s VMA performance caused a great deal of controversy, much like many other events that have happened at the VMAs, for example Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke’s performance of “Blurred Lines.”

MTV has seen many different fads and styles come and go.  The network was probably one of the first to show the American people the new trends.  Every Sunday night for two hours, Dave Kendall hosted “120 Minutes,” “the music-video version of college radio” that gave airtime to artists like Kate Bush, the Cure, and XTC (Armstrong).  In addition to giving viewers a look at alternative music, in April 1987, MTV began playing heavy metal music on Saturday nights (Armstrong).  The next year, “Yo! MTV Raps” started, which featured “in-studio interviews (by hosts like Fab Five Freddy, Doctor Dre, and Ed Lover) and performances by everyone from MC Hammer to N.W.A. Due to growing demand” (Armstrong).  Rap artists gained exposure through MTV Raps; the program was so popular it began airing six days a week before concluding in 1995 (Armstrong).  MTV was a cutting edge cable channel.  In 1991, along with BET and Fox, MTV aired “the controversial video for the first single from [Michael] Jackson’s Dangerous album [which] was immediately criticized for its four-minute ‘panther’ sequence, in which Jackson repeatedly grabbed his crotch and destroyed a car painted with racial slurs. (After the video was banned, Jackson released a non-panther version… Featuring a cameo by Macaulay Culkin)” (Armstrong).

Moving away from strictly music, MTV branched into reality TV in the mid-1990s.  “The Real World” first aired in 1992; the third season was set in San Francisco, and “the producers actively searched for an HIV-positive person” for the season (Armstrong).  It was especially important during theses years because “AIDS was viewed as a death sentence” (Armstrong).  The producers found safe-sex activist Pedro Zamora.  He was 21 years old and HIV positive.  Viewers were captivated; when he died the day after the third season ended, “it was national news” (Armstrong).  This is just one example of how widespread MTV had become by this point, after only twelve years on air.  “The Real World” creator Jonathon Murray said, “I don’t know if [The Real World] changes minds… But it certainly opens minds” (Armstrong).  In addition to reality television, “Beavis and Butt-head” was another non-musical success on MTV’s.  In 1996, they made “Beavis and Butt-head Do America” which debuted at No. 1 with $20 million.  Musically on MTV, Britney Spears’ music career was launched on MTV with “…Baby One More Time” in 1998.

In 2000, Johnny Knoxville started Jackass; a show in which Johnny Knoxville and his friends tested ridiculous stunts, “like Butt Stapling, Pogo Stick Skateboarding, and Beard of Leeches, [they] sacrificed their bodies in the name of idiotic entertainment” (Armstrong).  More reality television came to MTV in the early 2000s, the Osbournes and Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson had their own reality shows about their lives.  The Osbournes, led by Sharon and Ozzy, were filmed at home to show how famous people act at home.  Nick Lackey and Jessica Simpson were the classic opposites-attract; this trait made them desirable to MTV.  Jessica Simpsons’ infamous Chicken of the Sea Tuna incident happened in the very first episode of their show, which is a humorous anecdote that is still talked about today.   However, as their reality show increased in popularity, as did their movie and musical offers, as well as public scrutiny, the show struggled through a second and third season before concluding in 2006 with an off-camera divorce (Armstrong).  “MTV created the celeb sitcom, a genre that has since included the sublime (Newlyweds), the ridiculous (The Anna Nicole Smith Show), and the beyond-all-comprehension (Britney and Kevin: Chaotic)” (Armstrong).  “Laguna Beach” was MTV’s version of “The OC,” but instead of having actors, “Laguna Beach” featured actual teens living their lives in Laguna Beach.

Since the late 1990s, there has not been much music on MTV.  The last big hit to come out of MTV was “…Baby One More Time.”  While the channel is still quite popular, it has shifted its focus from music to entertainment.  When watching an MTV show, the music in the background will get a pop-up advertisement telling the viewer who the artist is and what the song is called.  For the most part, these artists are unknown and they tend to stay that way.  Artists who get played in soundtracks on MTV don’t instantly become famous, as the case would have been in the early days of MTV.  One of my favorite quotes about MTV comes from the song “1985” by Bowling for Soup; “Springsteen, Madonna/Way before Nirvana/There was U2 and Blondie/And music still on MTV.”  The song was released in 2004, right around the same time as “Laguna Beach” was airing, so long after music was being played on MTV.

The first version of iTunes was launched in 2001.  iTunes began as SoundJam MP, a Mac OS compatible MP3 player.  Launched in 1988, SoundJam was purchased by Apple in 2000.  Apple then began the process of developing SoundJam into iTunes 1.1.  The initial iTunes let users “import songs from audio CDs, turn audio tracks into MP3 files, organize…audio files into playlists, play Internet radio broadcasts on your Mac, and transfer MP3 files between [a] Mac and stand-alone MP3 players” (Breen).  As iTunes was gaining traction, a slightly older MP3 sharer was beginning its decline.  Napster ran from 1999 to 2001; it was shut down due to the illegal nature of the site.  It was essentially downloading MP3s without paying for them.  Although Napster was shut down rather rapidly, the technology was then out there for other tech-savvy Internet-users to duplicate the technology.  The Napster technology is one of the strongest competitors to iTunes, but iTunes is still the number one retailer of music (“The iPod Decade”).  This is because it’s very hard to measure how many illegal downloads happen on the Internet, but even if one could, not everyone who downloads music another way than iTunes uses the same alternative.

iTunes reached 10 million song downloads in September 2003; in July 2005, iTunes reached 500 million downloads (“Apple: A Jobs Timeline”).  In February, Apple announced that 25 billion songs had been sold through iTunes (Monaghan, and Garlinghouse).  Apple surpassed Walmart as the number one retailer of music in 2008 (“Apple: A Jobs Timeline”).  iTunes has always brought in money, even with the price of an individual song increased in early 2010.  iTunes songs used to cost $0.99, however in 2009 songs started to cost as much as $1.29.  Apple does not set the price of the song; that is up to the label (Hughes).  Most labels chose to raise the price of their songs to bring in more profit, however the labels noticed slower sales initially (Hughes).  The top eight most downloaded songs on iTunes are “Hey Ya (Radio Mix/Club Mix)” by OutKast, “Vertigo” by U2, “Bad Day (Album Version)” by Daniel Powter, “The Sweet Escape (feat. Akon)” by Gwen Stefani, “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay, “I Got a Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas, “Party Rock Anthem (feat. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock)” by LMFAO, and “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepson (Lowe).  These songs come from a variety of genres, but they’re all very popular within each genre, so it makes sense that they are the most downloaded songs from iTunes.

Musicians are using YouTube to be noticed, much like MTV in the 1980s.  The goal of every struggling musician today is to go viral.  Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepson, and Rebecca Black are just a few examples of artists who got started on YouTube.  Carly Rae Jepson actually got started because Justin Bieber tweeted “Call me maybe by Carly Rae Jepson is possibly the catchiest song I’ve ever heard.  Lol” (Twitter).  Whether or not this tweet actually came from Justin Bieber, or if it was a managerial decision (Bieber and Jepson have the same manager), “Call Me Maybe” went viral.  Within six months she had 200,000,000 hits on YouTube; between May 2012 and October 2012, “Call Me Maybe” was getting over one million hits per day (CarlyRaeJepsonVEVO).  “Call Me Maybe” is also the eighth most downloaded song on iTunes (Lowe).  The fact that Carly Rae Jepson expanded from her YouTube fame is very important evidence in how much YouTube impacts the music industry.  The majority of viral videos that get the most web views are music videos by unknown artists, commercially produced music videos are not counted as viral, in my opinion.  Examples of viral music videos are “Call Me Maybe,” “The Fox” by Ylvis, “Gangnam Style” by PSY, and “Friday” by Rebecca Black.  All of these videos are silly, fun, entertaining videos, and they have lead to immeasurable success for the artists.  “Gangnam Style” is the most watched video on YouTube of all time, it has nearly two billion views.

YouTube is good for more than just getting noticed for musical ability; it’s also used for artists to show their personalities.  Lady Antebellum puts out Wednesday Webisodes, candid videos that show each members’ personality and sense of humor.  It allows the fans to get to know the artists—Todd Cassetty, president video production company says, “It was brilliant… Their fan base got to know them even before radio was blowing them up.  They were on the all the TV shows and people felt, ‘I know these people! I like these people! They feel approachable and real to me’” (Naujeck 22).  Another example of fans getting to know an artist from YouTube was the Auburn University challenge, “A Hug From Taylor Swift.”  In 2010, two Auburn University students started a website called ahugfromtaylorswiftcom and posted a video asking for a hug from Taylor Swift.  When Taylor Swift discovered these videos she began posting challenges back to the two students, and began a “call and response” type of relationship with them.  These challenges concluded with Taylor Swift travelling to Auburn University and giving a private concert for a small group of students, and she did it all on her own dime.  This challenge happened three years ago, and today the videos don’t have over one million hits on YouTube.  However, these videos allowed a small faction of her fan base to feel more connected to her as a person.

The idea to start charging fees for certain videos was launched in May of this year; in October, YouTube announced that channels with over 10,000 subscribers could charge between $0.99-$2.99 per month (Chaey).  YouTube already charges viewers a few dollars to watch certain movies and TV shows, but this would be the first time YouTube is charging to subscribe to channels.  If YouTube does start allowing channels with over 10,000 subscribes, that means that the majority of artist’s VEVO channels can start charging for views.  It will be interesting to see how this impacts the viewership of some of the most popular channels.  When the cost of songs on iTunes increased, the sales of songs decreased initially, however the sales are back up today.  I suspect this to be the case with YouTube charging viewers to watch certain channels.  However I can also see the channels not needing the money and not charging viewer to watch because the channels that have over 10,000 subscribers are the channels that have advertisements before them a lot of the time.

The YouTube had definitely changed the music industry.  Artists put out videos on YouTube through sites like VEVO; they are free in comparison to the music videos on iTunes.  YouTube allows fans to feel more connected to their favorite artists because when they post videos of themselves doing something, or saying something, the viewer knows that it’s actually them, rather than a tweet or a facebook message that could come from anyone.  Todd Cassetty says, “If you go online and there are 10 videos of an artist and one is of him walking his dog, it makes you go, ‘Oh, he loves dogs! I love dogs! We have that in common’… There’s nothing worse than going online to try to find something out about an artist and there’s nothing there [to learn]” (Naujeck 22).

            From MTV to iTunes to YouTube, the music industry is all about getting noticed.  Popular songs and artists were played on MTV to get exposure and reach a large audience.  The top downloaded songs on iTunes are featured on the iTunes Store page; this gives them more exposure to reach people who don’t normally listen to the kind of music they play.  Viral videos on YouTube are featured on YouTube’s homepage.  If the video is from an unknown artist it might be featured more prominently and with a bigger thumbnail; the commercially produced music videos, those from artists like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Britney Spears are advertised on a smaller scale under the music subcategory on YouTube.  Commercially produced music videos normally get tens of millions of views, the really popular videos might even get hundreds of millions of views.  Most of the music videos from the most popular artists will eventually gain hundreds of millions of views, however it takes time. The music videos that are released by the most popular artists have viral trends to their views.  For example, when Miley Cyrus released her “Wrecking Ball” music video, it almost instantly received over 25 million views in a day.  However this trend quickly dropped off, and the video has been receiving around one million views daily (MileyCyrusVEVO).  Another example of this is Katy Perry’s music video “Roar.”  That music video also almost instantly had several days where it received over 10 million hits daily, however the views dropped off, it has been receiving approximately 2.5 million views daily since its release (KatyPerryVEVO).

            An example of a music video that has not had such success on YouTube is Pitbull and Ke$ha’s video of their song “Timber.”  Although it was released less than a month ago, it has received around one million views daily since its release, gaining a total of 16 million views (PitbullVEVO).  It will be interesting to track this song to see if it gains more daily views or if it will remain with just over one million hits per day.  Another example of a video that is just now gaining traction is OneRepublic’s song “Counting Stars.”  The video was released at the end of May, however it only has 85 million hits on YouTube.  The music video didn’t get over one million hits daily until November (OneRepublicVEVO).  However this trend on YouTube does not match the trends on iTunes or Spotify, “Timber” is the second song on iTunes, and the first on Spotify.  “Counting Stars” is the fourth song on iTunes, and the fifth song on Spotify.  While “Timber” and “Counting Stars” do not have the YouTube hits to support the iTunes and Spotify downloads, “Roar” and “Wrecking Ball” are both still among the top twenty on both iTunes and Spotify, as well has having hundreds of millions of hits on YouTube.  With time, perhaps the YouTube hits well follow, however right now, they are only getting one million hits daily, which is no where near as many hits as “Wrecking Ball” and “Roar” received.

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