The most viewed channel on YouTube

According to this Business Week blog, an allegedly 16-year-old girl named Bree’s YouTube channel, lonelygirl15, is the most watched channel. This topic is being discussed at length at various places, and many talk about it as an effective viral marketing tool. But my interest in this story has got nothing to do with marketing or promotion; otherwise this post would’ve appeared on my content writing blog. I’m more interested in this text from the Business Week blog:

Lonelygirl15 is not “real,” but, contrary to some early speculation, the videos are not part of a viral marketing campaign dreamed up by some major advertiser, nor some music marketing company, nor a promotional stunt set up by one of the Viacoms or NBCs of the world.

Rather, it’s the product of a coterie of smart and not-yet-massively-famous performers (and, perhaps, others). These people, or their representatives, have had discussions with at least one major company regarding a deal to produce what I take to be short-form serial stuff on the Web.

And said coterie may be closing in on (or has already gotten) representation from a major talent agency.

Last year I had a long discussion with my friend who was struggling to become a lyricist in the Mumbai film industry. I’m not going to talk about how well or bad he writes, but the Hindi film industry (I don’t know about other film industries) works a lot on favoritism and reference. Unless you’re already a big name, or unless a big name backs you, it’s very difficult to settle there doing a “non-glamorous” job. So I’d been telling him to explore other ways to promote his talent. He didn’t pay heed and now he’s back, broken and depressed.

The Lonelygirl15 team, if the blog is to be believed, are mostly out of work actors trying to promote their skill using the tool that is easily available to them — YouTube. Bree — whether it’s a real name or not — is now a known face, and a cute face to boot. And herein lies the key to success: use the available resources to promote your skill or service, and this was what my friend never did. He never got his songs and lyrics published in magazines and anthologies. He doesn’t have visiting card. He doesn’t have a website. He’s never tried to collaborate with local singers who are constantly looking for good compositions.

Another friend is a journalist and he perhaps doesn’t even know what a blog is.

I think they should both learn from the current YouTube phenomenon.

Update: here’s a nice viewpoint at chartreuse (BETA) that debunks the idea of artists from video casts (people who publish their videos on the Internet) trying to cross over to the mainstream media, for instance, films and television. A slightly disagree. I think any medium can be used to achieve whatever you want to achieve. The author says:

The transition from Internet video star to television star is going to be harder than television star to movie star.

I agree there are TV stars and there are movie stars. I’ve often observed they look pathetic in front of the movie stars when they actually act in a movie despite being famous and much-liked on television. But it has got nothing to do with media. It depends from individual to individual. There are many TV stars who have made it big in the movies and there are many blogger journalists who got good jobs in the mainstream media, and vice versa.

I think people, and artists, who use the Internet as a medium to express or perform are more in touch with their audience. So when they enter the mainstream media (a time will come when the reverse will happen, I’m sure) they are better equipped to deliver what people really want and expect of them.