Music Institutions

If you think about the many ways in which, as a society, we listen to music, then you can begin to see the vast impact of institutions in our life. We never watch a music video that is directly from the artist but always through an institution, whether it be YouTube or MTV. Without them, we wouldn't be as musically diverse as a whole and wouldn't be exposed to the music of other cultures and countries. 

Statistics:

• 35 Hours of video footage is uploaded to the site every minute.
• Over 13 million hours of footage was uploaded during 2010
• More video is uploaded every 60 days than the three major US television networks produced in 60 years
• Each week, YouTube receives the equivalent of 115,000 full length feature films in uploads
• 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US 
• YouTube is localised in 25 countries over 43 languages
• The base age demographic for YouTube is 18-54
• Over 2 billion YouTube videos are viewed everyday
• YouTube mobile gets over 100 million views per day, meaning mobile is only 5% of YouTube's overall usage
• In 2010 there were over 700 billion video playbacks
• A full 10% of YouTube videos are in HD
• There are 7000 hours of full-length movies and television episodes available on YouTube
• 2 billion video views per week are monetised
• Hundreds of partners are making six figures per year
• 94 of AdAge's top hundred advertisers have run campaigns on YouTube
• The total number of advertisers using YouTube has increased ten-fold in the last year
• There are currently over 10,000 official partners
• Content ID - YouTube's automated system that serves as s copyright violation watchdog- scans a 100 years worth of content everyday
• 1000 partners are now using Content ID
• Over one third of YouTube's total monetised views come from Content ID
• Over 5 million people have found and subscribed to a friend's channel using YouTube's friend-finding tools
• Every auto-shared tweet results in six new YouTube.com browsing sessions
• More than half of the videos on YouTube have been rated or commented on by users
• Everyday, millions of clips are 'favourited'

As you can see from the statistics, YouTube is a phenomenon in today's society. It allows people to share views and thoughts, watch weird and wonderful occurrences and provides a platform for artists to spread their music. Many artists today not only advertise the release date of their song but also the video release on YouTube. Because of the growth in music video's being released on YouTube, VEVO was created in 2009. VEVO is a music video website incorporated within YouTube. It is a joint venture between Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media with EMI licensing its content without ownership stakes. This means that VEVO offers music videos from three of the 'big four' major record labels. There are over 45,000 music videos on VEVO. However, currently VEVO is only available in the US, UK, Canada and the Republic of Ireland. It was said to go global in 2010 but as of August 2011 it is still not available worldwide. 

YouTube is also interactional due to its web 2.0 format. Anybody can upload content to the website about whatever topic they choose (abiding the sites rules.) The viewers of the video can then comment, like/dislike, rate and favourite the video and so from the website, consumer research can be deducted. This is good for artists as they can get first hand reactions to their music/video easily and efficiently simply by looking at their demographics. No matter where you, you can access YouTube due to the sites Mobile app. This means people on the move can access videos as well as people on the computer. It is also available at all times and so is a main competitor to other institutions.

MTV was the very first Music Television channel. It was the first channel to play music video's 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means that it holds high cultural value in our society and will always be seen as the breakthrough of music video's in the eyes of many people. MTV was first launched at 12.01am on the 1st August 1981. It's opening consisted of footage of the first space shuttle launch countdown of Columbia, which took place earlier that year, and the launch of Apollo 11. This was followed by the words 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll' and the original MTV theme song. 'Video Killed the Radio Star' was then played. 

Although MTV has huge cultural value over the people who witnessed the early years of MTV, the younger people do not see its significance in the music industry. This is due to the fact that from the early-mid 2000's MTV reduced its number of music videos significantly. In 2000, music videos were featured up to 8 hours a day, whereas, in 2008 there was an average of just three hours of music videos per day. The internet was said to be the cause of this reduction. They began to air only in the early hours of the morning or in a condensed form on the Total Request Live show. However, in 2008 Total Request Live was scrapped. MTV decided to encourage its viewers to visit its website for music video coverage. They also created many sister channels in which they play music, such as MTV Rocks and MTV Hits. These continue the old MTV way of music: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 


As the years passed, more and more music channels emerged, such as Kerrang and Magic. These channels seem to focus on one genre of music, for example Kerrang plays rock music, which increased audience choice. Thinking of this, I believe that our video would be most compatible with NME. NME (abbreviated from New Musical Express) mainly air Indie music which suits the style of music of 'Kids.' It is a relatively new channel, first airing in 2007 and is a British channel. It stems from NME Magazine, which has been operating since the 1960's and so is a key part of the British music scene.


'Kids' would also be aired on MTV due to the channels international status (NME only operates in the UK) and it's hit status as it has reached the charts in many countries (including the US and UK)