YouTube Gets More Into Music Discovery

Music videos used to debut on national broadcast television to 64 million viewers during a Diane Sawyer interview with the artist. Now they premiere on YouTube.

The internet’s largest video sharing site with a potential audience of at least 141 million unique monthly visitors, seemingly far less bureaucratic red tape and licensing hurdles than traditional media outlets, and a negligible burden of near zero distribution costs for content creators has made an ideal home for artists – from Gaga, Bieber, and Black to that indie band I liked before you did – to showcase their latest moving picture releases.

All of the above has made YouTube a fantastic destination for music discovery, which the musos at YouTube are finding new ways to foster and embrace.

Last week, YouTube released its first in an ongoing series of weekly articles dedicated to discovering new music on the site. Music Tuesday is a textual offshoot and analysis of the featured selections at YouTube.com/music and YouTube’s Music Tuesday playlists. The posts discuss the editors’ choice music videos and dive into the why of how those videos became the chosen ones. In the words of Sarah Bardeen, YouTube’s Music Community Manager:

We’ll share the videos that have us tweeting obsessively, playlists which delve into all the great new (and old!) music scenes percolating on the site, and even the occasional streaming album premier. Sure, we’re only scratching the surface of YouTube’s vast musical universe — but you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

That starting somewhere includes a lawn party with Dig for Fire, Duran Duran throwbacks, and Pharoahe Monch album premiere. In the words of YouTube commenter Josh Strobl:

Uh yea, badass. Good to know the people at Youtube have a good taste in music.

I agree.