Happy birthday to you, YouTube. Given its scale now, it’s strange to think it’s only eight years since the video site launched in May 2005. “Today, more than 100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute,” announced the company in a celebratory blog post, although there’s no advance on the previously-announced figure of 1bn monthly unique visitors to YouTube. The anniversary came as YouTube announced a brand new feature that, although focused on retail brands for now, may have some intriguing music implications. The feature is a new channel gadget that “will enable shoppers to seamlessly move from browsing how-to videos and featured products to finding which retailers carry them, check availability, compare prices and make a purchase”. Lifestyle channel TRESemmé is the first to test it, with e-commerce links appearing in a sidebar next to its haircare how-to videos. But with product placement increasingly prominent in music videos by major artists, you can imagine how the idea might work for them too.
Tools: platforms to help you reach new audiences
Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…