Would You Pay For Youtube?

Slashdot asks Would You Pay For Youtube?

"A couple of weeks ago, Google's CEO mentioned to investors that they might start charging YouTube's users for viewing content: 'With respect to how it will get monetized, our first priority, as you pointed out, is on the advertising side. We do expect over time to see micro payments and other forms of subscription models coming as well. But our initial focus is on advertising. We will be announcing additional things in that area literally very, very soon.' With the recent Disney-Hulu deal, Google is under increasing pressure to generate more revenue and at the same time attract more premium content. That means we might see payment options coming even sooner than expected, with control over the pricing models being handed over to the studios providing that content, like the way Apple caved in over variable pricing on iTunes. This raises an important question: would you actually pay for premium content on YouTube and other sites, or will this draw viewers away to other video sites?"

Would you?

Show & Tell : A Response to Josh Leo's Video Blogging Philosophy Post

Josh Leo wrote a Video Blogging Philosophy post the other day, where he sets forth what makes a vlogger/vlogging great.

I agree that having feedback from an engaged vlogging audience is ideal. I agree that striving to make good quality video content is a preferable motive to just seeking Internet fame.

However, I would slightly alter one of the statements made about vloggers who just sit and talk to the camera.

Josh Leo said this:
Showing is Better than Telling: The youtube revolution has led to an increased number of people sitting in front of web-cams talking about their experiences. This goes against [the] whole Idea of using video as a communication medium. Don’t sit there and tell me that you walked through a beautiful field of flowers, show me the field, let me hear the sounds, let me see the colors. Video is a visual medium, we must use it to its full potential. (emphasis mine)

Though I appreciate the idea behind Josh Leo's call for showing instead of telling, I would say that we should experiment with both showing and telling.

Talking Heads videos have their place; some topics are better presented in that kind of simple, minimalist environment.

I don't mean to be rude, but perhaps the frustration with some of these videos is less the fact that the people are just sitting there, and more that there are so many of these videos (millions), often to the exclusion of any other kind.

It may be the lack of variety in the vlogging community that is upsetting more than anything else.

In this vast video blogging world there is room for both combing the cornfields and cozying up to your Canon every once in a while.

Just experiment more.

What do you think? Are Talking Heads videos completely worthless? Leave a comment below.

Impressions After Participating in Video Blogging Week 2009

Video Blogging Week 2009 , posting one video every day for a week, was great. In addition to making my own vids, I, of course, watched lots of other vloggers' creations.

Some vloggers warmed your heart with tales of family, others wowed you with their technical talent, still others entertained just sitting in front of the camera cracking jokes.

The vlogging world always has a fresh take on everyday life. And during Vlogging Week we get even more of that special something.

This year, I decided to get off the proverbial couch and join the merriment.

How I've fared in VBW09 is for someone else to decide. But I'll tell you this.

There comes a point in the week (after you've used your sleeping hours to slave over raw, blurred, shaky-hand footage that you will never use unless you are reenacting a drunk scene from COPS) when you think "how much more crap should I inflict on the public?"

Then you realize it's still Day 1.

Where's that couch?

Round Stuff - VBW 2009: Day 7

I took photos of round things.


Music: Edit - Straight Heat

Xtranormal - Video Blogging Week 2009 - Day 6

Played with Xtranormal.com