Thus, songwriters for the likes of Beyoncé and Leona Lewis can presumably expect a windfall, too. Indeed, YouTube are promoting the programme using kooky US duo Pomplamoose, whose terrific new cover of Lady Gaga's Telephone attracted 1m views in its first week online ( bit.ly/pompgaga). It seems likely that covers artists will be accepted, given that re-creations of already famous songs account for the vast majority of amateur musicians' view counts. YouTube hope the programme will enable amateur musicians to quit their day jobs, without needing a record deal: they'll also be able to plug their tour dates and CDs/merchandise on YouTube's new musician pages, hammering yet another nail into MySpace's coffin.Īs yet, Musicians Wanted is only open to US musicians, although it's expected to open out to British musicians soon.
The idea is that unsigned musicians apply for the scheme, and those who are accepted then make money from advertising around their videos. YouTube is clearly aware of the importance of independent musicians to the site, choosing last week's South By South West festival in Austin to launch its new Musicians Wanted programme ( /musicianswanted).
Since uploading a video of herself singing Kelly Clarkson's Beautiful Disaster in December 2006, she's attracted 239,000 subscribers and racked up an astonishing 100m video views. And the British act with the most YouTube subscribers isn't Muse (109,000) or Leona Lewis (108,000), but 22-year-old webcam songstress Mia Rose ( /miarose). Nottingham singer Kulpreet Virdi ( /user/kkv91) has amassed 6m views for her bedroom covers of Taylor Swift and Rihanna, while her fellow 18-year-old balladeer, Scotland's Rebecca Shearing ( /bexboop878), has had 16m views for hers. What's surprising is how many British musicians have enormous YouTube followings, but remain largely unheard of. And, this week, that YouTube account had its 150-millionth view. The boy, Justin Bieber, quickly developed a huge YouTube fanbase, got himself a record deal and sold 1m albums before turning 16 earlier this month. A t the beginning of 2007, a 12-year-old Canadian boy entered a local talent competition, and warbled songs by Ne-Yo and Lil Bow Wow. The precocious scamp didn't win, but he did set up a YouTube account ( /kidrauhl) to post videos of his performance.
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