Music videos get many millions of hits each day on YouTube, but how do all those views fit together? That’s the question a team of Italian researchers sought to answer in a recent paper titled “Follow the algorithm: An exploratory investigation of music on YouTube,” which studies the patterns that link together digital music videos
The research team, led by Massimo Airoldi, tracked user behavior by following a path of “related videos” generated by YouTube’s algorithm. “This article presents an exploratory study of the network of associations among 22,141 YouTube music videos,” reads the study’s abstract. “As YouTube’s recommendations are predominantly based on users’ aggregated practices of sequential viewing, this study aims to inductively reconstruct the resulting associations between the musical content in order to investigate their underlying meanings.”
To put that in layman’s terms, the study’s goal was to create “clusters” of related music videos that are often watched by the same users. Ultimately, 50 of these clusters emerged: Some of them, such as “pop hits,” “rock 90s,” and “country,” are closely tied to existing musical genres. At the same time, a second group of clusters caters to viewers who look to establish a specific mood through their musical choices. Those categories include “relaxing background music,” “epic music/soundtrack,” and “music for babies.”
When linked together in a single matrix, the clusters fall into two rough halves, with genre-based clusters on one side and mood-based clusters on the other. Pop music, for example, is much closer to rock and country than it is to music for babies. The most significant link between these two supergroups — that is, the cluster chosen both for mood and genre purposes, is the “Piano/Violin Cover” category occupied by artists like Lindsey Stirling.
For additional analysis of the study, head over to New York Magazine.
Twitch is rolling out a brand new feature called Clips that will enable users to capture and share notable moments from within streams.
Hitting a new ‘Clips’ button on the video player — which looks like a director’s clapboard — will initiate a 30-second recording, writes product marketing manager Noreen McInnis in a company blog post. Twitch will capture roughly 25 seconds of video before and five seconds after the record button is pressed.
“You can make as many Clips as you like, so go ahead and hit the button a couple times to make sure you clip the best 30 seconds from the stream,” according to McInnis. “Then just copy the URL or use the links to spread the hype, because once you close the Clip window, your Clip will be gone.”
Users who have received Clips can either join a stream that’s already in progress or, if it’s a recorded broadcast, continue watching right where the Clip left off. Users’ Twitch IDs will remain at the top of every video that they capture “so you’ll always get credit for being the first to spot something great,” McInnis writes. The name of the broadcaster will also appear underneath the Clip, as well as the name of the game that they were playing and the title of the stream.
The feature is currently available to viewers on certain Partnered channels, and is slated to roll out platform-wide in coming weeks.
Rooster Teeth is branching out from its base of video game-related content, and one of the shows through which it will expand its horizons is Camp Camp. The animated series about a boy named Max and his experience at an unusual summer camp will premiere on June 10th as part of Rooster Teeth’s “Summer of Animation.”
A press release describes Camp Camp (which was first announced at the beginning of April) as “South Parkmeets Gravity Falls.” The show’s trailer introduces viewers to some of the offbeat characters they will encounter should they tune in.
Camp Camp will first be available to Rooster Teeth’s paying “sponsors” one day before it arrives for the studio’s registered users and seven days before it reaches general audiences. A Rooster Teeth sponsorship costs $4.99 per month.
Other shows in the Summer of Animation include Red vs. Blueand RWBY Chibi. The creators of Rooster Teeth’s animated lineup will chat with fans in a live stream that will begin at 8 pm ET on June 9th on the Rooster Teeth website.
Eli Roth is getting in on the “influencer film” trend. The horror director’s Crypt TV platform has partnered with the talent managers at Big Frame for a series of “up to six shorts” that will be feature the latter company’s digital-native creative partners in prominent roles.
Each of the shorts will be produced by a digital media star; those stars will also direct or star in the project they produce. The resulting horror films will then be presented to Crypt TV’s audience, and the ones that receive the warmest reception with be adapted into longer formats. The goal, as Roth said in a press release, will be to create “original genre stories” that showcase the “presence and personality” of their central figures.
The only creator who has been announced as a participant in Crypt TV and Big Frame’s incubator is Wes Armstrong, whose six-second videos have gained more than 300 million loops on Vine. “I’ve always wanted to do horror and comedy films, and this collaboration has lined up perfectly for me,” said Armstrong in the release. “I can’t wait to share the end result of our hard work with CryptTV and Wuz Good’s collective fans.”
For digital influencers who wish to star in their own film projects, the horror genre has emerged as a viable route. Recent tales of terror led by social media standouts include Sickhouse, starring Andrea Russett, and The Chosen, starring Kian Lawley.
The short films will be released in July on Crypt TV’s Facebook page, which has more than 1.2 million fans.
It’s PewDiePie’s Diamond Play Button, and he’ll cry if he wants to.
The world’s most-subscribed YouTube star has a bone to pick with the platform in a half-serious — thought notably heated — video posted to his channel earlier today. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg wants YouTube to send him his Diamond Play Button — which the company announced at last year’s VidCon as a means of recognizing creators with 10 million subscribers.
Kjellberg, who currently counts over 44 million subscribers, has yet to receive the plaque. “Listen YouTube, I had enough of your bullsh-t. I’m calling you out right now,” he shrieks in the faux-rant. Kjellberg then tells his legions of fans — his so-called ‘bro army’ — to target the company on social media using the hashtag #givepewdshisdiamondplaybutton. “I want that sh-t trending on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr. Harass them anywhere — Instagram — I don’t give a f-ck.”
He’s been waiting so long, Kjellberg jokes, that he will only be satisfied if YouTube meets his demands, which now include four Diamond Play Buttons smothered in glitter and delivered by a beautiful bearded man on a horse with a written apology.
YouTube, for its part, had the perfect response to Kjellberg’s tantrum, tweeting him a single diamond emoji. The company also hands out Silver Play Buttons to channels with more than 100,000 subscribers and Gold Play Buttons to those who have passed the one million subscriber threshold. (Kjellberg has both of these, but notes that his Gold Play Button was destroyed by FedEx in transit. “This is clearly trash,” he says of the broken plaque. “Like, what am I gonna do with it? I’m legit pissed.”)
So when should Kjellberg ultimately expect to receive the award? YouTube says that qualifying creators should look out for a notification on their channels in the month after they hit the milestone. After a shipping address is provided, YouTube says, the awards take eight to twelve weeks to process and ship.
Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
This installment of YouTube Millionaires is brought to you by Epoxy.
A young vlogger from Orlando is rocketing up the YouTube ranks. Her name is Natalie, and her channel is Natalie’s Outlet, on which she shares DIY projects and lifehacks, shows off her favorite looks, busts beauty myths, and generally uses a plethora of formats to entertain her young, predominantly female audience. Natalie has now passed the million-subscriber milestone, so we chatted with her about her success:
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?
Natalie’s Outlet: I’ve never had many friends so, to me, it feels like one million best friends! My Outties are the most special thing to me and I want to tell them that they’ve brought so much light and happiness into my life.
TF: What made you decide to get into YouTube?
NO: I was in my third year of university and school was sucking the fun out of my life. In order to quench my creative side I decided to go for it. To me, it had always been a dream I had been too afraid to even say out loud. To know that I have one million incredible people on this journey with me is a dream come true and I am so grateful.
TF: Who are the creators who have most influenced your channel?
NO: Too many to name a few. I think I’ve developed my own style and I’ve been inspired by others to always be myself. I think it’s important to fall in love with your personality first before others can and it took me a very long time to learn to do that. Once I did, I found out many more people were subscribing to my channel.
TF: With so many beauty/lifestyle vloggers on YouTube, what would you say makes you unique?
NO: I like to keep it raw and personal. You’ll notice at the beginning of my videos I used to over edit everything. I now leave in my mistakes, bloopers, and all my random thoughts, and that has helped me connect more with my audience. I’ve learned to flaunt my weirdness and that’s why my Outties are a part of the weirdest internet family.
TF: What has been the most unexpected way your life has changed since your channel became popular?
NO: People ask me this all the time and honestly, NOTHING HAS CHANGED. It’s silly but when I was admiring other YouTubers for reaching a milestone of a million I always thought how much cooler their lives were. Now that I’m in this position, I’m just as shy and I get just as frustrated at times with things that don’t go right on my channel. I continue to learn and evolve but my life remains the same, which I am very thankful for.
TF: Where do you get ideas for your Beauty Hacks series? What sort of research is involved?
NO: I realized I wanted to bring entertainment with value to my channel and my beauty hacks videos allowed me to do just that. I’ve always been the kind of person to research the weirdest beauty trends online so I decided to start testing some of those out. I also developed Beauty Busters, a show that features me testing out Internet beauty hacks, seeing if they work, and showcasing more of my personality in my videos.
TF: What’s the most unusual beauty myth you’ve ever tested?
NO: OMG how can I choose?! I have so so many! The video I had the most fun filming was “Dangerous Beauty Hacks No One Should Try,” because the hacks were ridiculous. To give you an example, one of the hacks was to lighten your eye by using lemon juice! You’ll just have to watch the video to see the results.
TF: What has been your favorite part of your involvement in #LifestyleGoals?
NO:#LifestyleGoals was a full weekend of pure fun, traveling, and meeting both my Outties and incredible creators like SofiaStyled and Promise Phan. It was one of those experiences I will treasure forever.
TF: What’s next for your channel? Any fun plans?
NO: My channel will definitely be shifting into a new category, which I am currently in the process of planning. It will include my typical videos like hacks, beauty busters, and “test it out” videos, but something really fun is on its way.
This installment of YouTube Millionaires is brought to you by Epoxy, the premier company that helps multi-platform creators and digital networks distribute videos, engage with fans, measure success, and grow their communities across the social web. Check out Epoxy’s new Sharing Studio, a place for quickly creating and distributing native social content from your YouTube channels.
After being released in 50 countries across the globe to critical acclaim and $100 million at the box office, an animated adaptation of The Little Prince finally has a U.S. release date.
Netflix, which picked up the film after Paramount dropped it one week before it was slated to premiere in theaters, will begin streaming The Little Prince on Aug. 5 — which is when it will also arrive in theaters, according to Entertainment Weekly. Ahead of the release, Netflix has created a brand new trailer for the film, which you can check out below.
The Little Prince combines both CGI and stop-motion animation, and features the voices of Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, James Franco, and Ricky Gervais. It tells the story of a little girl living in a grown-up world, whose eccentric neighbor introduces her to the extraordinary world of The Little Prince.
“I really saw the movie as an opportunity to pay tribute to the power of the book,” director Mark Osborne — of Kung Fu Panda fame — told EW. “Not just adapt the book word for word, but a chance to adapt what the book means to people, and how it affects their lives.” He also noted the film’s “uncommon” release pattern.
In addition to The Little Prince, Netflix has several other high-profile movies slated to debut this summer, including its second film with Adam Sandler, The Do Over, as well as several indie flicks it picked up at Sundance, including The Fundamentals of Caring and Tallulah. In September, the streaming service will become the exclusive home to all Disney films within the same window that they would normally air on pay TV networks like HBO, Showtime, and Starz.
Between May 2nd and May 13th, the College Board hosts the Advanced Placement (AP) exams, which serve as the culmination of year-long AP courses that offer benefits to students once they enter college. Acing these tests tends to require a lot of cramming, and for many students, YouTube is a capable study aid. Specifically, Hank and John Green’s Crash Course channel saw a 41% increase in watch time in the period surrounding AP exams.
The 41% jump is based on Crash Course’s total watch time during the month-long period between April 13, 2016 and May 13, 2016, compared to the previous 31-day period. A visual demonstration of that increase can be seen in this chart, which a representative for Hank Green shared with Tubefilter:
As you can see, there are also small dips in Crash Course watch time that occur about once a week. The first one happens around January 9th, a Saturday, which suggests that weekend periods are slower times for the channel. Could it be that student viewers turn away from Crash Course when they are out of school? That hypothesis is backed up by the fact that, for many other channels, Saturdays and Sundays are considered good days to post videos. At the same time, the Green brothers seem to prefer to save their lessons for school days, though they do offer up the occasional weekend upload.
Teenage YouTube star Brooklyn McKnight, who makes videos with her twin sister on the Brooklyn and Bailey channel, is one of the high schoolers who has used Crash Course as an AP study aid. As she told Tubefilter:
“I often watch Crash Course whenever I need a refresher over a specific subject I’ve learned, or if I want to go over materials quickly before a test. I find it is most useful for me to sit and listen to someone else review everything that I’ve learned about a subject over the year, in a short amount of time, just in case I missed something. I’m also an auditory leaner, so watching while listening, instead of just reading, helps a lot! In the past year I’ve mostly watched the World & American History Crash Courses for my AP exams, along with many Chemistry-related crash courses! I can’t tell you how many times they have saved me when it comes to a final review for a test!”
Hank Green himself is well-aware of the jump his educational channel sees during AP season, and while he is happy to see the increase, he also sees the average high schooler’s preference for cram sessions as a questionable trend. “We’ve seen an AP test spike every since our first year of creating Crash Course,” he told Tubefilter. “Obviously, we love that people are using Crash Course to help them with school. It would, however, probably be best for everyone if they spaced that studying out over a couple weeks rather than just that last-minute cram session. We do see a slow creep up over a week or so, but it’s really the day before the tests that we get these crazy spikes.”
The last-minute employment of Crash Course may not be ideal, but there is no doubting the impact the channel now has on AP-testing students. Now that the exam period has passed, Crash Course’s watch time will surely return to its baseline level. Come next May, however, there’s little doubt it will accelerate back up to its cram-season high.
The proprietors of h3h3productions, a popular comedy and reaction channel, announced yesterday that they are being sued for copyright infringement by YouTube sketch artist Matt Hosseinzadeh in a suit they believe has ulterior motives. And while Hila and Ethan Klein say litigation could drag on for two years and that it could cost them as much as $100,000 to defend themselves, they ultimately decided not to host a crowdfunding campaign to fund the legal bill.
“Honestly, you guys have supported us monetarily and emotionally for so long,” Ethan said in the video announcement. “We can’t ask you guys for more money. All we can say is thank you so much for all of the love and support you guys have given us.”
And so one of YouTube’s most prominent creators and commentators, Philip DeFranco, took it upon himself to create a GoFundMe page on the embattled couple’s behalf. “In my and many others’ opinion, this is an attempt to step on freedom of speech via a broken copyright system and most people’s confusion over fair use,” DeFranco wrote on the page. “[Hila and Ethan] did not ask for viewers to support their defense fund with money, but this situation is bigger than them.”
In just 21 hours, the campaign has already raised the $100,000 that the Kleins say they need to defend themselves — from a total of more than 4,000 donors. And several of YouTube’s most prominent stars have contributed with big-ticket donations. In addition to Minecraft creator Markus Persson’s $8,179, DeFranco pledged $5,000, Markiplierpledged $4,000, Michael Green and Keemstareach pledged $2,500, and PewDiePieand JackSepticEyeboth pledged $2,000.
“Overwhelmed by this support,” Ethan tweeted in response to the community’s rallying call. “We are working with our attorneys to set up a fair use defense fund, so no one gets bullied like this ever again.”
DeFranco made a video about the “insane” lawsuit and expressing his gratitude to Hila and Ethan for fighting against a potentially dangerous precedent — especially in light of a recent ruling against the YouTuber Ray William Johnson. “If we are a community here on YouTube, and not just a smorgasbord of random channels that are one-offs trying to get views, we will stand with [h3h3productions].” Check it out below:
As its existing original programs continue to draw viewers, accolades, and awards, Amazon Studios is looking to add additional series to its library. Its next round of competing pilots will include adaptations of Meg Wolitzer’s acclaimed novel The Interestings and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished work The Last Tycoon, as well as six children’s programs.
The cast of Amazon’s adaptation of The Interestings will include Lauren Ambrose and David Krumholtz, with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell helming the pilot. The project, based off Wolitzer’s 2013 book, will chronicles several decades in the life of a group of summer camp friends.
The Last Tycoon, which was published as an unfinished rough draft after Fitzgerald’s 1940 death, will feature its own crop of familiar faces, including Kelsey Grammer, who will portray one of the principal characters. The pilot will be Amazon’s second foray into the world of Fitzgerald. It previously premiered Z, a pilot that stars Christina Ricci as Fitzgerald’s wife Zelda. That project has been picked up for a full season.
“We’re focused on bringing customers compelling, must-see TV and we accomplish this by going directly to them for input,” said Roy Price, Amazon’s VP of digital video. “Our process has proven to work time and time again. Their feedback has helped create series that have become fan favorites among critics and customers.”
According to Variety, the eight pilots in this crop will premiere “next month.” From there, viewers will have an opportunity to offer their input, after which Amazon will choose which projects to greenlight and which ones to decline.
Bedecked in camo gear and a GoPro strapped to his head, the notorious YouTube prank star Vitaly Zdorovetskiy mounted the ‘D’ of the 45-foot-high Hollywood Sign yesterday evening and vlogged for roughly an hour with a huge banner reading ‘I’m Back’. Then, park rangers arrived on the scene, and took him into custody for trespassing. Another man climbing the hillside was also arrested, reports ABC7.
Zdorovetskiy was released yesterday evening after posting bail, though he could face a $1,000 fine and six months in county jail for the misdemeanor — as the sign, on Mount Lee, is closed to the public and protected by gates, cameras, park rangers, and LAPD officers.
The stunt could mean that a sequel is in the works for Natural Born Pranksters, Zdorovetskiy’s feature film with Roman Atwood and Dennis Roady, which premiered at the No. 1 spot on the iTunes comedy charts. “The villains missed me,” he reportedly told CBS from the back of a cop car. (‘Villains’ is the term he uses for his fans). “They really missed me, the villains. And I had to show them who’s back — Natural Born Pranksters. Nothing can stop us.” Before his arrest, Zdorovetskiy had tweeted that he was filming a “welcome BACK video”.
This is not his first brush with the law. In fact, he was arrested for the same exact stunt last year, according to CBS. Perhaps most notably, Zdorovetskiy ran across a soccer pitch in his underwear at the 2014 World Cup, for which he had to spend an hour in jail and pay a $100 fine.
The company has raised upwards of $50 million to date. That’s a lot, especially in today’s cold fundraising climate (which at least one prominent venture capitalist predicts is a temperature of somewhere between “super cold or El Niño or something different altogether”). And Victorious’ ability to raise that quantity of cash from the aforementioned top-name investors speaks to its apps’ growing resonance with creators and fans.
To be clear, Victorious’ 100 or so applications currently in market are not simply mobile vehicles by which to view content. They’re virtual spaces that have celebrities, movie franchises, or other influential entities at their core, but engage the loyal fans of those celebrities, movie franchises, or other entities and empowers them to create, share, and discuss their own content. “A YouTube star may just upload one five-minute video a week, but where do his or her fans go to interact and engage the other six days, 23 hours, and 55 minutes of the week?” Victorious CEO, Sam Rogoway asked rhetorically in a quick interview with Tubefilter. “We’re looking at what happens during that downtime and providing a place for all those fans to go to where they can express themselves and interact with one another.”
In other stats, Victorious says it has created no less than 15 apps that have charted in the Top 50 on the iTunes App Store in the past 12 months and those apps are doing far better than the industry average at bringing over fans from other platforms. 30 of Victorious’ apps have converted a given creator’s YouTube subscribers to applications downloads at a rate of at least 3% (conventional industry knowhow says this number is typically around 1%), while a few Victorious apps have attracted 10% of a given social media star’s subscriber base. If we take those numbers and use Lilly Singh (aka IISuperwomanII as an example), that means the Unicorn Island app currently has somewhere in the ballpark of 236,000 to 879,000 downloads.
The new influx of cash will help Victorious accelerate its global expansions and build more applications around an increasingly wide range of celebrities.
