Overview
Objectives
- Recall the significance of American Idol and the role it plays in both American popular culture and the careers of the musicians who perform on it
- Examine how YouTube has offered opportunities for musicians to be “discovered”
- Explain how streaming audio services such as Spotify and Pandora operate
- Describe some of the controversy from musicians surrounding streaming audio services
- Consider how reality television programs affected the careers of specific rock musicians
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website launched in 2005, where individuals and corporations freely upload, view, rate, share, comment, and subscribe to corporate and user-generated video content such as clips of television shows, movies, music videos, video blogs, music videos, and educational videos.
Artists have obviously realized that YouTube could be beneficial both for exposure and revenue, and take advantage of the enormous exposure it offers by releasing their official music videos on the second most popular site in the world, where as of February 2017, more than 400 hours of content is uploaded every minute, and one billion hours of digital media are watched every day. It is not surprising that by 2013, Billboard began taking the number of artist’s YouTube video views into account when calculating music charts such as the Hot 100 and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.
Although YouTube is home to a wide variety of content, from home videos of animal antics to unlicensed copies of copyrighted films, it also offers aspiring musicians the opportunity to disseminate and promote their talents. One of the first musicians who was discovered via their YouTube videos was the Canadian singer Justin Bieber. In 2007, when Bieber was twelve years old, his mother began posting videos of his singing on YouTube. In the videos, Bieber sang covers of a variety pop and R&B songs. In 2007, talent manager and marketing executive Scooter Braun was perusing videos on YouTube and stumbled upon Bieber’s performances. He located the young man, became his manager, helped him record several demos, and secured a recording contract.
How Justin Bieber was Discovered
With You - Chris Brown Cover - Justin singing
From the beginning of his career, Bieber has been an enormously successful artist. Recorded in 2008, and released in November 2009, the extended play (EP) album My World had two singles, "One Time ♫," that reached the top 20 in five countries’ singles charts and "One Less Lonely Girl ♫," that peaked in the top 40 of the US Billboard Hot 100. He was fifteen years old during the writing and recording of the album, and turned sixteen just before its release. In 2010, Bieber’s debut studio album My World 2.0 was released and sold millions of copies—he co-wrote most of the songs on the album, including the number 1 singles "Baby ♫" and "Eeenie Meenie ♫" His album Purpose (2015) has sold over 3 million copies. YouTube continues to be an important part of Bieber’s success even after he was signed to a major label: between April 2010 and June 2012, the music video for “Baby” was the most-watched video on YouTube, garnering over 750 million views in just over two years.
Bieber has remained a commercially successful artist, releasing several albums and collaborating with a variety of different musicians. His early hits "Baby" and "Eenie Meenie"—mentioned above—featured rappers Ludacris and Sean Kingston, respectively. He has also worked with Jaden Smith, Nicki Minaj, R. Kelly, and Chris Brown, among others. Bieber is one of the most-followed users on the social media platform Twitter.
Braun’s discovery of Bieber through YouTube and Bieber’s subsequent success inspired many musicians to promote themselves and their music on YouTube. Noticing the wide reach of this enormously popular social medium, record companies also began using YouTube as a means to search for new talent. Although Bieber was the first and, to date, the most successful musician discovered via YouTube, other bands and artists have achieved significant sales and recognition through their YouTube videos. For example, Dutch singer and songwriter Esmée Denters released her debut album Outta Here in 2009 on Interscope Records, and Filipina singer Charice Pempengco released her first international studio album Charice in 2010 on Reprise Records.
"The difference between Spotify and Internet radio services like Pandora is that Spotify is interactive. You can sample the complete catalogue of most artists' recordings."
"I think YouTube has destroyed the genre barrier. People can be into Justin Bieber and Eminem at the same time. It's a good thing."
