Social networking through music streaming services

While CD sales have been declining for a number of years now, digital sales are jumping up. iTunes and Amazon are by far the most important actors in this market, but music streaming services grow significantly every day. Let’s have a quick overview of a couple of streaming platforms and their intertwining with social medias.

Written by Arnaud Mittempergher

A survey reported in August in the Wall Street Journal has shown that nowadays most american teenagers use Youtube and the radio to listen to music legally. While this raises an important question about the future of the music industry (read more here and also here), this also says something interesting about the way many young people consume music.

First of all, many of them don’t want to pay for their music anymore (besides online streaming, illegal downloading is still widely used). Then, surfing on Youtube might also underline the fact that it’s important for them to be able to discuss and share tracks with their friends (something iTunes doesn’t provide at all). Considering the latter, it is interesting to note that Myspace was first a social networking service, and it then turned out to be the biggest platform for music artists between 2005 and 2009. However, now that its popularity is slowly sinking, Youtube and other music streaming services are gaining greater popularity.

A big part of Youtube is dedicated to expressing ideas and opinions in the comments and sharing music on other social medias (on Facebook for example)

I’ve decided to focus this article on one of them, possibly the most popular at this time: Spotify. Other successful music streaming services rely on the same concept as Spotify does, but they are either less socially integrated (Rhapsody), or don’t have as many tracks available (Soundcloud or Reverbnation).

Spotify is basically a music application that gives you an instant access to any song you want to hear. It’s a completely legal freemium software. Indeed, users can either use the software for free, with limited hours of usage per week, or pay a monthly fee to have unlimited access. This fast-growing music streaming player revolves deeply around music sharing, as Myspace and now Youtube do. As its CEO Daniel Ek said, “we think music is the most social thing there is, and we think people want to interact with music.”

That’s why Spotify has a really deep social media integration, especially with Facebook. Both actors work hand-in-hand, each sharing benefits in this relationship. Facebook always wanted a music service: it can now keep its users on the network whilst they listen to music. As for Spotify, it can now reach the millions of Facebook users.

Spotify got “engaged” to Facebook last year

For Spotify, the act of sharing music is “really, really important for our business”, said Daniel Ek. “We’ve found that the more social our users are — i.e., they’re sharing music — the faster they grow their own music library. [And] the faster they grow their music library, the faster they become paying customers.” The video below gives you a clear understanding of how Spotify is socially integrated within Facebook.

Using Spotify with Facebook is really simple and intuitive

On the next screenshot you can see how my Facebook page looks like after I used Spotify. The music I shared appears on the left-hand side with my personal comment, the music I just listened to appears on the right-hand side.

An example of Spotify on Facebook

Besides Facebook, Spotify is also well integrated within Twitter and Tumblr. However, these social medias are not the only ones. Which is why Spotify also provides http links to any song, so that you can post it on your website or your blog. The song is then directly played on Spotify.

EXAMPLE : Saez – Pilule

Another interesting website I came across is thisismyjam.com. The idea is very simple : every user has its own page, on which he can publish the songs that he likes. His friends can then comment and share his songs. Like Spotify, this service revolves a lot around social interactions (learn more about it here).

Each song is commented by friends and “followers”

It’s also interesting to note that thisismyjam.com has its own Spotify app, meaning that you can follow your friends’ jams within the Spotify software. You can also click on the artists’ names to see all their tracks on Spotify.

One can easily access all the songs that friends have posted on their thisismyjam accounts

Long story short, the streaming industry is an exciting one where you can find you favorite tracks and listen to them for free until you get fed up. Could you dream of better?

For starters, it is a reliable and interesting alternative to CDs and digital sales. Since its launch in 2008, Spotify has paid over 250 million dollars of royalties to the music industry and Youtube pays “millions of dollars” every month to the largest music labels. Who would do that if music streaming wasn’t a profitable business, satisfying tons of users?

Furthermore, I realized that the concept of music and sharing go hand-in-hand, which is something those streaming services have well grasped. As Chris Gayomali wisely wrote, “the exchange itself is the part about “social” that people genuinely enjoy…Whenever you play a new song for a friend in your car, you can’t help but feel great when they like it too”.

It’s the same social drive that explains the success of streaming services such as Spotify : its popularity also relies on the exchange. Not only is it a way to gain new users through the word-of-mouth, sharing is simply a big piece of fun in music!

What about you, do you also use Spotify? If not, what’s your favorite way of listening to music online? Or do you prefer to own the albums of your favorite artists?

Tutorial: the use of social networks (Twitter and Facebook) as a journalist

Both Twitter and Facebook cannot be ignored any more when talking about the World Wide Web. Thus are they surely to be considered when using the amazing internet tool as a journalist. Let’s now have a look at how to get the best of it!

Guillaume Laurent

The social networks, by the number of subscribers they gather, are a rich source of information, as well as an amazing showcase. Therefore, it can be used by journalists in a number of ways: to always be aware of what is going on and interesting people, to try to get people to give their opinion about a subject, to get some feedbacks about an article, or to extend one’s readership and number of followers. In the interest of being more accurate, I’ll focus here only on the use of Twitter and Facebook Here are the few tips you will need to be an efficient social network journalist!

Three things to know when using social networks as a source

1-      Verification must without contest be your main concern when using social networks as a source. If social networks can often be much quicker than traditional Medias to provide a story, they cannot be trusted, and the journalist must look around to see if other users or legitimate sources providers can confirm the story.

2-      You have to develop your own trusted network within social Medias. Getting the wider choice among a group of users you now are trustworthy is a powerful asset for a journalist using social networks.

3-      You must be systematic when using social Medias as a source. By doing the same ritual times and times again, you will gain a more accurate judgment about what is said on social networks, and thereafter win a lot in efficiency.

Social Medias as a source for journalists – Oriella PR Networks

Three things to know when using social networks to gather opinions

1-      Think about your personal experience on social networks. In which circumstances would you give your opinion? Which kind of question would you actually answer and which kind you wouldn’t? It will give you a valuable clue to guess how to manage your audience and get the best of it.

2-      Before looking after opinions, you have to decide if you want to get a number based statistic answer or rather a few interesting witnesses. You will get more answers with a question that can be answered only by “yes” or “no”, but an open question will often give you more information to deal with.

3-      Create a debate. To give their opinion about a specific subject, people must feel concerned, disturbed, annoyed or enthusiasm. Therefore you should give a direction to your question, give something of yourself to push your followers to react. .

Three things to know when using social networks to get some feedbacks about one’s articles

1-      Getting a lot of feedbacks can be dangerous for your website. If you want to advertise using social networks you will have to be ready to assume de consequences. I mean managing properly de comments posted on your page or website. Otherwise, spamming or provocative answers will quickly suffocate the debate.

2-      Before advertising on social networks, you must be aware that everything you will post, included answers to readers, comments or random posts, will be considered as a part of your work and evaluated and criticize in this sense. There for having separates account for your private life and your job can be very useful.

3-      Post pictures and videos to get attention. Even if your work is mainly based on writing, you will have to use pictures and videos. It will surely get you more feedback, and images are what modern internet journalism is all about.

Three things to know when using social networks to extend one’s readership

1-      “Tweet your beat”, the advice was given by Lauren Invik, from the social medias specialized website marshable.com. If you want to get some authority on social networks and bring in something more than the millions of other users, you have to be a specialist. That means tweeting or publishing on Facebook only when you know exactly what you are talking about. Giving your opinion on random subjects is not a plan for a good social networks journalist.

2-       Being a specialist also includes being among the first to get the news about your favorite subject. Therefore is it necessary to give to your audience more than your own stories. Using in a wise way the retweet or share opportunity will help you a lot while trying to please your followers and make your account attractive.

3-      Link as much as possible your publications. The hashtag and the “@” button are crucial not only to reach a wider public, but also to show your sources and make your information safe and valuable. Websites like tagboard.com are based on the use of the “@” and de hashtag and often used by people to look for news about a specific subject.

So, fellow journalists, have you already been using successfully social Medias in your work? Would you add some advices to the previous shortlist? This article is meant to be updated and enhanced by your contribution!

To become a perfect social Media journalist: more advices with this Youtube vidéo from BeatBlogging.Org

More on the subject with this France 2 TV show about Twitter brodcasted in 2010

Famous people and social media

Nowadays, social media have become a “must have”. A “must have” for us, simple citizen of the world, to be part of the worldwide communication process. But, for those we call celebrities, social networking is a powerful tool. Indeed, using social media, famous people reach directly the public. A strategy directed to involve their fans in their daily life and by the way to get more success and popularity.

Obviously celebrities need their fans to support and grow their careers. Imagine for a second you were someone famous, wouldn’t you want as many fans as possible? Sure you would have loved to. So entertaining the fans is part of the job. And by sharing on social media aspects of their life, stars let people be part of it. A great opportunity to escape from the boring everyday life fans have to deal with. Let’s take a concrete example: Lady Gaga is completely addicted to social networking. She currently tweets and interacts with her fans she calls her little monsters. And instead of just posting her moods, pictures or advertisements, she makes the effort to answer the comments. Another example is Justin Bieber. The young singer who was discovered on YouTube is a child of social networking. So interacting with the public is a way to thank people for giving him his chance.

Twitter top 10 in July 2012
Source: www.socialtimes.com

Facebook top 10 in July 2012
Source: www.socialtimes.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing the real reality

A lot of information isn’t provided by the paparazzi anymore but by the stars themselves on their social networks profiles. Today, famous people especially use Facebook and Twitter but many others like Youtube and MySpace are also popular. Using those networks, stars have various purposes. It can be to promote their campaigns, invite the public to an event but also to let the world know other sides of them before the magazines do.

Social media have given these people a new power. Tired of being hunted down by paparazzi who often turn the reality in a way to have a scoop to sell; celebrities have found a way to communicate what they want. Thanks to social networking they can show the real person without any Photoshop, censoring or cuts. They can simply be themselves and show the sides of their lives they want to show without silencing their words. Social networks have allowed these people to get down from the untouchable pedestal of celebrity and become human. Yes, by using those networks they are just behaving like normal citizen of the world.

Youtube top 10 in July 2012
Source: www.socialtimes.com

Google+ top 10 in July 2012
Source: www.socialtimes.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good but also bad consequences

Although there is a lot of good that can come from social media, there is also some bad. As an example we can cite Tom Daley, an English diving star. During the London’s Olympics, someone twitted him a bad comment about his father’s death. That’s one of the reasons why some famous people make the decision to stay private and avoid social networks and direct contacts with their fans. According to me, you can avoid troubles fixing a limit not to go through while revealing your private life to all. Like avoiding sharing the too personal events.

Another problem is the fake profiles. Lots of accounts are made by simple citizens who pretend to be the celebrity they represent. Therefore to avoid any kind of disappointment, fans must be aware and choose the social network profile to visit or follow with a great deal of care.

By Lea Huszno

The impact of YouTube on journalism

By Fabien Grenon

Do you know YouTube? Of course, every Internet users over the world know YouTube. It’s the most important website of video sharing.  Consumers may think of YouTube mainly as a place for watching laughing babies, funny cats or music videos. But for some time yet it has become a big news outlet as well, posing new challenges to media organisations. What are these new challenges? What is the real impact of YouTube on journalism? Here I will try to answer these questions. 

Since its inception in 2006, YouTube has become increasingly popular. Today, it’s the third most visited website in the all web after Google and Facebook. The statistics show that YouTube also has become such an extraordinary resource for media organisations and journalists in their everyday work.

YouTube as a new source of information:

There are plenty of definitions of what is a social media. In my opinion, Wikipedia give a good explanation on the question. The online Encylopedia notably says:

a social media is an interactive platform via which individuals and communities create and share user-generated content. 

According to this definition, YouTube is clearly a social media as Facebook or Twitter. As on any social media, anyone can participate. So, you can easily create an account on YouTube to spread videos. I’m on YouTube, Barack Obama is on YouTube, RTS, CNN news and ABC news are on YouTube… It’s a major place where citizens, politicians, journalists and specialists can share videos and interact with each other. Therefore, YouTube can represent sometimes a good source of information. Let’s see an example.

• The example of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami :

There are many examples which made YouTube really important for journalists. But one of the last major examples may be the Japanese earthquake and tsunami in 2011. A lot of videos were made during and after the tragedy. Few hours afterwards, first eyewitness videos appeared on YouTube.  The most popular videos notably came from surveillance cameras or citizens’ mobile phones.

A survey from Pew Research Center launched on the subject shows that 39 % of these videos were from citizen, while 51 % were from news organizations. But some of the news organizations videos appeared to have been originally shot by citizens rather than journalists. Those videos posted on YouTube were used as a main source of information. For example, we notice that’s the case of ABC TV News of March 11, 2011.

It’s not necessary to watch all the video to notice that the most of the sequences of the tragedy were shot by citizens during the natural disaster. ABC news used this video shot by citizens to show what was going on in Japan, because they just didn’t have any other images. Is it the only reason ? Not really : by their authentic and spectacular nature, the videos posted by anonymous on the Internet contributes also to enhance the impact. Journalists and media organisations are clearly taking advantage of citizen content. YouTube is initiating a change in journalism as a source to offer a new kind of visual journalism, as the Pew Research center’s survey revealed it.

Youtube as a new channel of information:

YouTube is such a fantastic tool for journalists or media organizations. With over 800 million unique users of YouTube each month, in 43 countries and in 60 languages, the platform of videos sharing can attract a lot of people, more than any television, radio or newspaper over the world. So media organizations have decided to use YouTube not only as a source but as a channel of information too. Let’s illustrate with examples.

• The example of RTS

RTS (Swiss Radio Television) has its own channel on YouTube. In this case, the platform of videos sharing represents an opportunity to extend its programs. RTS has realized the power of YouTube to reach more people and to increase its audience. So RTS has integrated YouTube in its own website as an extension to watch more videos.

Then, when you go on the RTS YouTube channel, you can find programs that you missed or top stories. This YouTube channel is also a good opportunity to broadcast radio talk shows which are filmed, like the well-known and humorous ”120 secondes” on Couleur3. RTS realized the importance of multimedia and YouTube is a good place to combine audio and video content.

Therefore, the case of RTS shows that YouTube can be used as an extension to watch more videos or videos that you missed.

• The example of YouTube Reporter’s Center:

 Citizens are becoming increasingly important in journalism notably thanks to social media as YouTube. Media organizations have realized this change. So a channel was created on YouTube in 2009 to teach citizens how to upload more and better videos. Its name is YouTube Reporter’s Center. The YouTube Reporters’ Center is a resource to help citizen journalists learn more about how to report the news, how to use efficiently their mobile phone, how to look like a real journalist. On the channel, some of the nation’s top journalists and news organizations share on  instructional videos with tips and advice for better reporting.

Therefore, the case of YouTube Reporter’s Center shows that YouTube can be used as a channel to train citizen journalists.

• The example of The I Files:

The I Files is a new channel on YouTube produced by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) and launched on 2nd August 2012. The I Files channel selects and showcases the best investigative videos from around the words. There are a lot of well-known contributors behind like The New York Times, ABC, BBC, Al-Jazeera for instance.  Behind this collaboration, all these media organizations want to show they realized journalism is changing. Nowadays, citizens are becoming increasingly important in investigative journalism. So, they use YouTube which is a major platform for citizen journalism to provide videos in a attempt to bring some much needed attention to the new form of investigative journalism.

Therefore, the case of The I Files show that YouTube can be used to draw attention to the importance of YouTube in journalism today.

Conclusion:

Journalism field is changing. All the examples I mentioned show that YouTube is becoming increasingly important in the new form of journalism. And there are still plenty of other examples that I could mention. Journalists and media organizations are trying to adapt to this new journalism. Today, YouTube can be used in different ways : as a new source of information and as a new channel of information. But what tomorrow will bring? YouTube was born 7 years ago, it is a very young platform that can still evolve and offer new resources for journalists and media organizations in the future.

What’s your opinion about the impact of YouTube on journalism? What do you think about the future of YouTube in journalism? I let you leave a comment…

And to see how I worked, how I organized my research, how I checked my sources, I let you go on my own blog => Fabien’s Blog

“Innocence of Muslims” and the freedom of expression: what are the limits?

In September 2012 the film the “Innocence of Muslims” does the tour of the globe on YouTube. The results: the Middle-East is set alight. To mock the prophet Mahomet is a crime for some but a freedom of expression for others. Facing western and middle-eastern outrage, YouTube and Google block the access to the video in several countries. These precautions engender debate. Freedom of expression on Internet and the responsibility of the giants of the web: where are the limits?

• The “Innocence of Muslims”, an easy provocation.

Badly directed, poor dialogues and dubious effects. The video the “Innocence of Muslims” is a trash on the web like many others and deserves to remain where it belongs: in the bin. But it’s the life of Mahomet we are talking about and the internet did its job: instantaneous information. The movie is translated in arab, posted, commented on social networks and soon enough broadcasted on the islamist channel Al-Nas. The brazier is set.

In no time the muslim world is protesting against the supreme insult. The touchiness of the believer allows the extremist networks to exploit the anger. The riots begin in Egypt and gradually spread over the Middle-East and then the world. The boiling point: the attack against the american embassy in Libya killing the ambassador and three other people.

The outcome: the rubbish “Innocence of Muslims” is a hit. It has been watched by all and is in the heart of diplomatic relations around the globe. The director hit the target: his name makes the front pages.

• The freedom of expression on Internet, an excuse?

The attacks on Islam have always caused a tantrum. Is it still surprising? In light of this unrest many proclaim the freedom of expression so dear to western democracies. However we are no longer dealing with the old world system. The “Republic 2.0” erases borders. Internet is a network that doesn’t give a fuck about national sensibilities.

The world lies before our eyes but we cannot control it. The western freedom of expression rubs against the muslim world creating sparks. Talking about freedom of expression is one thing, transferring it to Internet is another.

• The freedom of expression, a theory.

The 6^th of July 2012 the Human Rights Council passes a symbolic resolution: the freedom of expression is henceforth established as a universal right. The international community applauds the decision. Unesco is working on an Internet regulation in line with Human Rights. An ambitious endeavor in light of Internet’s disdain of laws.

But in practice things are not so simple. The impact of the “Innocence of Muslims” destabilizes the principles that the international community has adopted only months before. The cause: Google has decided to block the access to the video in several countries. A selective attitude which raises questions.

• The giants of the web make their own laws.

At the time of the broadcasting of the anti-islamic movie, many governments demanded of Google to delete the video, including the United-States. The answer of the giant of the web was plain: the freedom of expression is its business. Nothing will be blocked. All the more Google and YouTube never advocated themselves as editors but as content hosts. A practical way of removing all responsibility from this type of political attack.

You may not like everything you see. Some of the content here may offend you—if you find that it violates our Terms of Use, then click the button that says “Flag” under the video you’re watching to submit it for review by YouTube staff. If it doesn’t, then consider just clicking on something else—why waste time watching videos you don’t like? YouTube Community Guidelines

But Google changed its mind. “Reports Without Borders” made an inventory of the countries in which Google and YouTube blocked the access to the video. In Egypt and Libya the anti-islamic movie is not available because of the extraordinary situation. In Indonesia and India the video is blocked in accordance with the local regulations. In Switzerland a simple warning appears before the movie.

Have the web companies become responsible? The associations the fight for the freedom of expression on internet do not agree. According to Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) this attitude is dangerous:

It is disappointing to see YouTube turn its back on policies that have allowed it to become a such a strong platform for freedom of expression. We hope that this new-found enthusiasm for pro-active censorship is a temporary aberration rather than a sign of things to come. EFF reactions

Is internet considering censorship whenever it fancies or is it really a question of responsibility? Internet journeys the world much faster than mentalities change. Should we rethink the web, control it or let each one face it with their own sensitiveness?

By Coraline Pauchard

Youtube videos: now on your mobile!

Youtube is a website created in 2005 by three former Paypal employees. This site enables people to display all kinds of videos. This website changed in time: it enabled people to upload longer videos, and lately, it also enabled people to watch video is 3D. In 2007, Youtube mobile was launched. To use it, you need a mobile phone that plays streaming videos like most 3G phones do. As Youtube mobile is a data intensive application, it is strongly recommended to have an unlimited data plan. Otherwise, you will end up with a huge bill!

Youtube for Mobile 2007

“YouTube is really starting to broaden their reach by letting people get this content through means other than their main website”

In 2010, a brand new layout for Youtube mobile got out. With a more attractive design and way more functionalities, this new app is ready to seduce the customers.

Advertisment for Youtube mobile 2010:

Developed by Google Inc., this application is free and compatible with most of the smartphones. It was downloaded between 100,000,000 and 500,000,000 times in the last 30 days.

Youtube mobile 2010

Due to the incredible popularity of Youtube mobile, I decided to test it myself! Here are my pros and cons:

Pros:

• you can watch more videos than with the earlier version.
• you can post and read comments easily
• you can record and share your home made videos

Cons:

• you don’t have a clear view of your subscriptions
• There is no personal viewing history
• the screen is too small

Conclusion:

I don’t think this new app is really useful. Of course it can keep you occupied when you are waiting for the bus, but it is not really pleasant to watch videos on such a small display. Most of the new functionalities created for smartphones are legitimate (emails, facebook, twitter) because they allow people to keep connected with each other.

However, Youtube is used for entertainment and this main function has been very well integrated to the new app. As you can record short movies with your cellphone camera, youtube mobile enables you to share them instantly (as shown at the end of the following video).

Youtube for mobile user’s guide:

Further information about youtube and youtube mobile:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/mobile?hl=en

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.youtube&hl=en

YouTube Sensation

How great is the Internet? You can become famous without having to leave your room… Today, thanks to social networks and the Internet, any anonymous person with talent (or not) can become famous by posting amateur videos on YouTube. Let’s look at this phenomenon.  Anonymous teenagers in the need of recognition, dreaming of celebrity put online a video of what they do best. A way to become famous democratized by the Internet. Not only is the talent of the person important, but today most importantly is how people react to it and speak about it on social networks.

Justin Bieber is the most known example of this phenomenon. The American singer, who is today a worldwide star, started his professional career on YouTube. His mum posted a video of him on a local contest that was seen in a few days by millions of Internet users. Later he posted other videos of him singing R&B song, which is how his future agent Scooter Bruner discovered him.  He later sold his first album “My World” at more than 4 millions exemplary. Keenan Cahill who makes freaky lip-sync playbacks of pop hits, started his career on YouTube just as Justin Bieber. He is the new YouTube sensation, here is his story.

Keenan Cahill is a 16 years old American boy from Chicago, who suffers from the Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome preventing him from fully growing since the age of 8.

The boy lip-synchs current music hits and posts all that on his YouTube channel under the pseudo BeenerKeeKee19952.

 

Since October 2009, he became famous with a reprise of the Katy Perry “Teenage Dream” song made in summer 2010.

 

 

The video has been watched almost 5 million times between the 28 of August and the 14 of September. The performance was even noticed by the artist herself who thanked him on Twitter, which made him known for the 3 millions followers Katy Perry currently has.

The Perez Hilton website made by Perez Hilton a very influential American gossip blogger heard about the tweets and published the following news:

 

 

From this point on, the popularity of the kid did not stop growing.  Since then all his videos are hits and thanks to that many stars started to appear in his clips. He made for instance, a video with Nick Cannon, LMFAO, Jeremih, Lil Jon, or even David Guetta in his studio. All of these videos have been seen by millions of people. A video with 50 Cent that was made for the Chelsea Lately show on E! Entertainment, is as of today one of his most famous video with more than 31 million views:

He has a Facebook account that is partially closed for non-friends, but you can see that he has currently 4546 friends. It is actually possible to find 28 “Keenan Cahill” facebook personal pages, only one really belonging to him, other persons pretend to be him and have set up fake facebook pages. There also a large amount of Facebook pages concerning the singer, the biggest one has 141 200 “like”. It Contains comments about him from people all over the world.

 

There is also a large amount of Facebook groups but none of them exceeds 1000 members.

Keenan is also on Twitter, he updates himself his profile almost every day and has currently 103’978 followers.

For the past 30 days, 2236 tweets where made including the name “Kennan Cahill” most tweets come from fans all over the world that discovered a new video he made and share it with their followers.

Keenan Cahill started to film his videos with his webcam in his room. His videos could have been lost in all the clips YouTube contains, but destiny decided otherwise. His way to move, his mimics, and unique physic made him famous. On November 2010 his channel became the 72^nd most popular account in the category musician – World on YouTube. As an all his videos have been seen 70 millions time on his official channel only, without counting the copies of his videos circulating elsewhere on YouTube. Beginning to become famous he received a camera and started to make better quality videos, but on the other hand his videos started to be less spontaneous and more commercial. For example he appeared in an Ad for a product Jennifer Aniston is representing. Between the first videos in 2009 and the latest one posted with LMFAO in May 2011, the aesthetical evolution is quite striking. From the bedroom to the studio, a webcam effect, dark light, fixed central plan to a professional camera and more professional technic, better light, change of environment and several plans within one video. Now surrounded by two agents, Kennan Cahill has become a professional whose job is to make lip-synch playbacks. After winning the spotlight battle, he is promoting his “brand” himself everywhere by promoting local TV stations or other unknown singers looking for fame.

It makes no doubt that the fact famous people started to appear and comment his videos helped him greatly in expanding his brand. because it made people more interested in knowing who he is.

A buzz never happens over night and it takes time to reach a large population. As we can see with this graphic, showing the web search of “Keenan Cahill” over the last months. It started slowly at the end of September 2010 when Katy Perry tweeted about him and the playback of her song. The biggest pick can be observed at the end of last year because it reached a large amount of the population and everyone wanted to know who was this new  phenomenon people where all talking about. Since then the buzz has slowed down a little but it comes up again each time he is inviting a star to feature in his video. In this case there is no doubt that the fact famous people joined him in his videos helped him get so popular. and it will certainly continue like that for a while if he manages to get enough coverage but also renew himself taking advantage of the buzz he is actually getting.

Rebecca Black: How to be famous for being hated ?

Justin Bieber became famous thanks to Youtube. A music manager discovered the video posted by Bieber where he sings. The teenager was only 12 years-old. And now he is a famous pop singer. Rebecca Black also became famous last March with a Youtube music-video but not in the same way.

Rebecca Black is a 13-year-old amateur singer who became famous for her music video “Friday.” The lyrics of the song speak about “hanging out with friends and having fun.” And also being happy to be on Friday because the next day is the weekend. This music video was produced by Ark Music Factory, a California-based video company. Her parents paid between 2’000 and 4’000 dollars to the studios to cover the cost of writing the song and producing the video. The music video was first uploaded on YouTube on February 10th, 2011.

Part of the rise may be attributable to comedian Michael J. Nelson, who wrote a tweet on the song with a link. He has 19’000 followers on Twitter.

The blog Tosh.0 also posted a link to the video under the heading, “Songwriting Isn’t for Everyone.” The song became really famous a month later its upload on Youtube when the news blog The Daily What posted the video on March 11th, 2011. The song gained significant online notoriety this month not because it was appreciated but for its bad lyrics and the tone of the music. The voice of Rebecca Black is strongly transformed with auto-tune, a music program. The song was claimed to be «the worst song in the world ». Time.com, the online edition of Time magazine, called the song  “a train wreck” and “a whole new level of bad”.

The buzz around  the video revolves mostly from the the content of the lyrics, such as:

Kickin’ in the front seat
Sittin’ in the back seat
Gotta make my mind up
Which seat can I take?

and specially the chorus

Yesterday was Thursday, Thursday
Today it is Friday, Friday
Tomorrow is Saturday
And Sunday comes afterwards

From The Daily What, “Friday” music-video  was subsequently reblogged by other popular blogs like Huffington Post or Buzzfeed and shared on Tumblr and Twitter.

It is possible to share the video next to the Huffington Post article on Rebecca’s video:

On March 14th, 2011, # Rebecca Black emerged amongst the top trending topics on Twitter.  It was more negative reactions and hateful comments:

@RKingPan – What is this Rebecca Black song? Earbleed!
@ericjhagen – Thank you Rebecca Black, for ruining my ears every time I hear the word “Friday”
@jenhartry – which songwriter is responsible for Rebecca Black’s ‘Friday’? You should be ashamed of yourself!!!

The comment of Charlie Sheen summarized all the critics:

charliesheeny: Rebecca Black, we don’t hate you because you’re famous. You’re famous because we hate you.03/20/2011 52K retweet

By March 15th, the video became viral and had reached over 3 million views and by March 17th it reached 10 million views with the single reaching the Top 100 on iTunes. It reached the 45 th position of  best selling on the Apple music market.  A Wikipedia entry was created covering Rebecca Black and her highly-debated single. Rebecca was invited to an interview and to perform on the Jay Leno show on March 22nd.

March 30th, 2011, Rebecca Black’s “Friday” YouTube video officially surpassed Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in total number of user downvotes with over 1.1 million downvotes. And on the 11th of May at 7:30 PM: 135 985 122 people watched this musicvideo with 375 339 likes and 2 703 832 unlikes which makes it the video the most hated on Youtube. Ark Music chief, Clarence Jey, gave Black the option to remove her music video from YouTube, as the comments across social media sites like Twitter, grew increasingly more hateful. However, she decided against it.

Things went too far. Rebecca Black received death threats. The threats, one by email, one by phone, came shortly after the release of her video in February, demanding she pull the song from YouTube or else.  The Anaheim Californian Police Department are doing a investigation.

Some support her but others still laugh at these death threats on Twitter

The music-video was kept on Youtube but the comments were desactivated.

We can see that the trend on Google research followed the Youtube trend. There was a huge research for Rebecca Black on Google in the middle of March. After peaking at the buzz, research has diminished over the days.

She has her own official website, a Twitter page and a Facebook page. She has 112′ 134 people who like her Facebook page. 233’959 people follow her on her Twitter page.

   

 Many anti-Rebecca Black groups also exist on Facebook

In the first group that has 4’735 like, you can find a message like this one.

Rebecca Black has a sense of humor and explained the meaning of the lyrics on Funny or Die website

Many parodies (150 created in a month) were made on Youtube to mock the song. And several images have popped up with fried eggs photoshopped over Rebecca Black in reference to the way “Friday” sounds similar to “fried egg” in the song.

This is one of the first parodies. The name is “Saturday”. It mocks the lyrics and the video-clip. One of the critics is about the fact that teenagers of 13 years-old are driving a car.

On April 6, 2011 a parody by the Community Christian Church in Chicago was uploaded to YouTube performed by church member Sadie Black. The lyrics were adapted to fit a Christian theme. It was created  as a promo for its upcoming Easter services.

Meanwhile people were criticizing and mocking the song, Katy Perry made a cover of it during her concert on the 29th of April in Australia. The way she’s singing the chorus and counting with her fingers how many “fun” words she is singing seems to show that she’s also mocking the song.

Two months after the buzz, the Glee cast from the hit teenager TV show Glee on Fox (USA) made a cover of the song for the episode “Prom Queen” aired the 10th of May. Series co-creator Ryan Murphy explained to The Hollywood Reporter the use of the viral hit as a tribute to popular culture. He said: “There’s a rule for it that’s explained in the show. The Glee Club is hired to perform songs for the prom and they were told by the principal to please do popular songs that the kids know.  The show pays tribute to pop culture and, love it or hate it, that song is pop culture.”

And tweets followed on Twitter during and after the episode. Many tweets were about liking the cover of Rebecca Black ‘s song. There were also critics. This cover went on the Top 10 of iTunes the day after the episode was aired.

Even Rebecca Black commented the episode on her Twitter page

Conclusion

Like Forbes says, this story of the notoriety of the song is another sign of the power of social media – specifically Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr – in the ability to create “overnight sensations”. The Web had fun unleashing criticism  on the young singer. But did this song and this amateur singer deserve to be that hated? The song is not a masterpiece but I’m sure worse has been done. Some artists such as Chris Brown even support her. And we can see that people started to like the song covered by the Glee cast. 

The snowball effect of critics has been done by social media. The critics come even now on Twitter, but the buzz has now very much reduced. But the price of mockery seems to be confortable for Rebecca Black. While millions of Internet users make fun of her, the girl became rich. Forbes calculated that Rebecca Black earned 20,000 dollars for 30 million views.  Not counting revenues from iTunes.

I think this is her one and only “hit” song. If she releases another one, even if it’s bad, the “criticism effect” won’t be that viral as for the first song. We will see. Here, the singer has seen her dream come true: to be known for her song. But not in the way she thought.

The Madrid tennis Open 2011

You are a tennis fan, but your studies or your job do not allow you to follow a tennis tournament because you can’t watch the matches on the television or on Internet in live… I have got the solution and i’m going to prove that it is possible to follow them thanks to the social networks! With Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, you can follow the news of the best players. Yes, you can watch all the best moments that you missed; it is very easy. Let’s take an example with the recent Mutua Madrid Open of tennis 2011. I’m going to summarize the open tournament with information coming only from tweets, facebook pages and YouTube videos.

The Madrid Open is a very nice tennis open, because it is the opportunity to begin the clay-court training for a lot of tennis players. The little altitude of Madrid enables to play really quickly. Just the week after, the tournament in Rome completes the training to be fit for the Grand Slam of Roland Garros. Brad Gilbert is a tennis analyst, coach and a best-selling author. He confirms us on Twitter that the clay-court season has begun.

But for the tennis fans, the event began a bit earlier. In fact, they could take part to the recruitment by competitive examination. By posting a video on YouTube demonstrating their motivation, they could win the chance to be the video blogger during the event.

MutuaMadridOpen was really active on Twitter, as soon as they annouced the opening of the event!

However, all the information twitted was a link to some YouTube videos. In fact, there is a special page on YouTube, where you could follow the news day after day, some interviews, the best shot points, and you could access to a video that summarize the day.

On the 30^th of March in the evening, the Mutua Madrid Open organized a gala dinner with a lot of tennis players as guests to celebrate the 10^th birthday of the event!

After the party, it is time to focus on the matches. The first day already had its first big matches and surprises, for instance the encounter between Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Nicolas Almagro. Even if the Spanish player was favorite because of his world ranking, the French Tsonga did not give the chance to Almagro to win (6-1, 6-3).

On the second day, we could notice a very nice shot in the match which confronted Andy Roddick and Flavio Cipolla. It was an incredible match, because Cipolla, the World No.160 caused the biggest upset of his carrer and beat the American Roddick in three gruelling sets: 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3.

On the 2^nd of May, after the first matches it was still time to guess, to analyse and to bet on who was going to win, who was the favorite and so on… Here Rafael Nadal was talking about his future matches. The Facebook page of ATP World Tour asked: Is Juan Martin del Potro the biggest threat on clay?

The next day, one of the biggest matches presented David Ferrer against Adrian Mannarino. After a long fight to win the first set, Ferrer completely fell apart in the second. But the third set showed a strong player, who wanted to win despite the humiliation. At the end, Ferrer delighted home fans by beating the Frenchman 7-5, 0-6, 6-0. They played with passion and had some amazing shots. For instance, this one:

Wednesday the 4^th, was also again a big day, because the best players were playing with the aim to go in the 1/8^th final. Here it is confirmed by the active tweets of ATPWorldTour.

On the social networks, we spoke a lot about the biggest players in the world. Nadal, Federer, Murray, but in this moment everybody focused on Djokovic. In fact, since the beginning this year, he seems unbeatable… Is he going to continue his serie of winning matches?

The deepest suspense happend during the match of Roger Federer against Feliciano Lopez… You could follow the match in live with Twitter:

While the other players won their matches quite easily, Federer had to fight. On the Facebook page of the ATP World Tour, they asked the poor fans if they were worried!

Of course, the fans were concerned, like on Twitter, a special group of tennisfanz!

But it was a great tennis day. The organizers were very happy and lucky, in fact, the best players were still in the run to win. The official Facebook page of the tournament exulted:

A lot of people were under the spot during the event, but not only tennis players. For instance, here we can see Ronaldo… He caught a tennis ball during the match!

The next day announced a bad news. The so long-awaited fight between Nadal and Del Potro was cancelled. The Argentine player had got a hip pain and had to give up.

But the show continued and the 1/4^th finals were coming soon!

After the qualification of Nadal, Federer and Bellucci for the semifinals of the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open, the World No.2 Novak Djokovic beat the crowd’s favorite David Ferrer. After an amazing match, he won 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.

See here perhaps the most exciting and bizarre point of 2011 so far:

On Saturday, the highlights were on the match Federer-Nadal. It was possible to follow in real time the match with the tweets of the ATPWorldTour.

A few moments after, it was the tour of Djokovic to access the final! And again, it was time to bet and to speak about the record…

What better than to relive the final with a summary of the best moments of the match. You will notice that one shot of Nadal was an historical one! Just enjoy!

By clicking here and here, you can access, with a Facebook count, to the photo album of the Tennis tournament, posted on the official Facebook page of the event!

After this huge new victory, Djokovic wrote a small tweet to thank the fans…

Next week, the Rome’s tournament can change the World tennis ranking… If Djokovic wins the championship and Nadal fails to reach the semifinals, Djokovic will become the first player other than Nadal or Roger Federer to hold the No. 1 ranking since February 2004.

Yes, it is possible to follow a tennis open with social networks. You just need to subscribe to the right tweets and to find the official Facebook page of the event. The Facebook ATPWorldTour is really nice to follow the whole tennis news. And you know that a lot of videos of the best moments are posted on YouTube, so you can work quietly and enjoy in the evening…!

Kate Middleton’s wedding dress: a fashion icon is born

In a traditional wedding, bride’s dress is always a terrible source of questioning: where did she buy it? How much did it cost? Does the colour is ivory, powdered or creamy white? Did she think of matching her shoes with? And, when finally the bride appears to the arm of his father, gossips are continuing even more: these gloves go to her delight, I like the lace but to cover all the dress with it is definitively too square, is not she breathless with her corset?

When you decided to get married in front of two billion of people, this is even worse. Human beings need to talk about questions so essential. What is the best way to do it in 2011? Watch the wedding with uncle Charly and aunt Eugénie, OR use social network. In this post, we are trying to discover how people can share their feelings, emotions and judgments about Kate Middleton’s dress by using Twitter or Facebook.

As we learned in reading this very interesting article about the “Digital Wedding” from Camille Hude, the royal wedding invaded Internet and the social networks. The story began on the 16^th of November 2010, when Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton announced their engagement in front of the subjects of the British monarchy. We could see the pictures of the future bridegrooms all around the world. The “fashion sphere” is in emotion in front of the dress worn by Kate. It was a navy blue dress in jersey silk, matched with her ring; Daniella Issa Helayel designed it. Fashion addicts discovered their new icon.

Since this day, speculations began about the dress Kate would be wearing for her marriage. The Facebook group “Kate Middleton’s Wedding Dress” was created the 17^th of November 2010, one day after the royal engagement. Today, the group count 54’241 members.

The British began pretty quickly to bet about everything and nothing. They gambled more than 22 million on Internet. They could bet on the song that would open the ceremony, the colour of the Queen’s dress, the weather report on the D-Day, the kissing time between the lovers, etc. But most of the bets concerned the famous dress: which will be the length of the train, which will be its colour and its material, and, of course, which designer will create this object of covetousness. The British Monarchy tried to keep the secret and it was almost a success. The Sunday Times gave the noun of Alexander McQueen’s fashion house the 6^th of March 2011. But the designer, Sarah Burton, lied and said that it was not true. So the bets were continuing until the D-Day, the 29^th of April 2011.

(Royal wedding scoop: the discover that Sarah Burton will designe the wedding dress)

Apparently, Sarah Burton would keep the secret more than everything (Tweet from Vogue, 10th of May 2011):

We discovered also some “fakes”, for example in Facebook. It was a real challenge to finally see the dress. It instigated the greeds.

The D-Day

Since the morning of the wedding day, the Internet users were in place. They spoke about the weather, the dresses of the guests, about the people who travelled in masses to London.

The couple Victoria and David Beckham made a big impression and engendered numerous tweets when they arrived at 10.35 AM. The hat of Madam and the hair cut of Mister did not leave the commentators impassive.

As Camille Hude explained, the wedding fascinated the whole world. The newspaper Le Monde, for instance, sent one of its correspondents for use tweeter throughout the day (Héléne Bekmezian told her route through London and posted 41 tweets in this day).

A special French account, “KateMiddletonFR” was created to follow the slightest actions of the princess. France 2, the French television, conceived a special place on its website for the wedding. It was really interactive; the Internet users could ask questions and the channel answered them. At the same time, France 2 listed the most important tweets, from the BBC, the account “KateandWilliam2011”, iTV-news or ClarenceHouse.

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At 11.51 AM, things became clearer when we perceived for the first time Kate going up in Rolls Royce to the church. People got crazy because they could just see her head and her bust; it was thus impossible to find out who was the famous artist who made the dress.

She arrived at Westminster at 12 AM. One of the official Twitter accounts of the monarchy, “ClarenceHouse” and the official Facebook’s page of the Monarchy confirmed that Sarah Burton, from the Alexander McQueen House, was the designer of the dress. On the television, the commentators specialized in the fashion gave their impressions and spoke very highly about the dress. They greeted the choice of Alexander McQueen’s House. The monarchy so paid tribute in one of its most talented stylist, died tragically last year. They were also admiring the elegance of the duchess of Cambridge. On internet, the reactions tell by thousands.

On the website of France 2:

First reactions (and first photo) on the “Kate Middleton’s wedding dress” on Facebook :

On the BBC (and also on the french TV), the “Yes” of the commentators before that of the bridegrooms:

Social networks became overexcited when people finally discovered the entire dress. Comments were very complimentary. Stunning, gorgeous or dazzling are probably the words mostly used by the Internet users. When we searched “Kate Middleton dress” on Facebook, we count 29 pages and groups. We only found two groups which were negatives: “Kate Middleton’s dress was $ 35’000, why? It was hideous” and “Kate Middleton’s dress was ugly”. The two groups have four members, so they are really marginal. Most of the spectators fell in love with Kate’s dress. It became a phenomenon; when we search “Wedding dress Kate Middleton”, we quickly find 6’000 stories about it on Digg.com.

In Switzerland, the dress was also awaited (Le Matin, the 20^th of April 2011). So, for its report on the TV Journal, TSR (Télévision Suisse Romande) choose to focus on this aspect of the wedding.

Specialists, like fashion designers or editor in chief of fashion magazines, also gave their opinions about the dress (we did not find a negative one) on the different channels and on Internet :

“I like the dress very much, simpler than expected: a combination just in between Grace Kelly and Queen Elizabeth dress. I love the modest veil with the Queen Mother’s Thirties scroll tiara and balanced volume of the whole gown. She’s radiant; she never was so beautiful.” Christian Lacroix

As soon as Kate showed her costume, a parallel was drawn between hers and Grace Kelly’s.

With the dress-story, we understand the importance of the social media in this “Digital Wedding”. The dress of the bride was kept as a secret of state from the British Monarchy. The suspense to discover this one was present for every (TV or Internet) spectator; it was a real story into the wedding’s story. As for her engagement’s dress, many copies of the bridal dress were already found. Sarah Burton was assaulted by lots of young betrothed. And since the wedding day, Kate Middleton’s outfits are pursued and analyzed in greatest details. The wedding dress is probably the beginning of a (love) story between Kate and the fashion magazines.