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50 Cent to judge first YouTube Rap Competition

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youtuberap.jpgYouTube announced its second major music promotion, the YouTube OntheRise Rap Edition. This follow-up to last year’s highly successful YouTube Underground contest is the first of three genre-specific music competitions. This first installment seeks to discover the best rap and hip-hop artists in the United States, inviting unsigned talent who aspire to be professional artists to submit their own original music videos.

Artists can submit original videos that best represent their talents from August 10 through August 17. 50 Cent, Common and Polow da Don will help judge the contest and will select 20 finalists to be presented to the YouTube community on August 29. The YouTube community will then vote on a final winner who will be unveiled on September 7.

Here’s the OnTheRise RAP Edition ’07 by 50 Cent.

Originally posted on July 30, 2007 @ 3:19 pm

Eyespot launches Media Campaign Platform to empower advertisers and brands

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eyespot.jpgEyespot announced the launch of its Media Campaign Platform, a powerful new addition to the Eyespot application suite, which enables brand managers and advertising firms to directly harness the energy of social networks and user-generated content. The system allows for the creation of interactive video campaigns that will associate brands with both Hollywood and other professionally produced content.

In the rapidly evolving Internet economy, Eyespot’s Media Campaign Manager is a market first that empowers the creative industry and communities to initiate their own interactive video sharing campaigns directly with consumers. The unmitigated appeal of UGC is available alongside a significant array of premium content supplied by producers, networks, studios, and record labels to engage with new customers, increase brand recognition, and further exploit existing brand loyalty.

The Media Campaign Manager’s robust campaign creation system is specially suited to the needs of advertising and marketing firms. This online suite requires no technical expertise and is an easy-to-use administrative content management system that only requires the oversight, leadership, and decision making of a brand manager or marketing director.

Originally posted on July 31, 2007 @ 12:35 pm

Bebo premieres Internet drama series

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katemodern.jpgShooting continues on location around London on the brand new internet drama series KateModern, commissioned by, and screening exclusively on leading global social networking site Bebo.com.

The brand new web-based series is the UK spin-off of the hugely successful Lonelygirl15, the world’s most popular interactive drama series. For KateModern, Bebo joins forces with Lonelygirl15’s team of pioneering online storytellers, paving the way for the ground-breaking series to be the next big internet phenomenon.

Having debuted on Bebo 24 July, KateModern stars newcomers Alex Weaver as Kate, Ralf Little as Gavin, Tara Rushton as Charlie and Jai Rajani as Tariq.

Progressing daily, a series of exclusive video blog installments are posted at KateModern.bebo.com, linking viewers through to each character’s profile page for still more content. Following its premiere on Bebo, the video blogs are then rolled out via www.LG15.com, YouTube and other websites.

Originally posted on July 30, 2007 @ 3:41 pm

DailyMotion inks deal with TV production company RDF USA

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DailyMotionParis-based video sharing site DailyMotion, one of YouTube’s biggest rivals, has closed a deal with popular TV production company RDF USA to expand its collection of professional video content.

Known for ABC’s “Shaq’s Big Challenge”, an American reality series featuring Shaquille O’Neal, RDF USA enters the online video scene for the first time, and by partnering with DailyMotion, they get an access to 37.5 million unique users around the world.

With DailyMotion being launched officially in the US last month, YouTube could be facing a big threat. DailyMotion overtook YouTube last May in France; and got 3.2 million unique users in the U.S. second to YouTube.

“While it will clearly be very difficult for any video site to replicate what YouTube has accomplished, DailyMotion.com is stating the strongest case at the moment, both domestically and internationally,” said Erin Hunter, executive vp media and entertainment solutions at comScore.

Max Benator, head of RDF USA’s digital division, commented: “It’s really exciting because they have amazing traffic. It’s been untapped by the entertainment community, so we see this as a great opportunity to be one of the first producers to get access to those eyeballs.”

Originally posted on July 28, 2007 @ 3:16 am

1 out of 5 American internet users watch online videos

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Pew Internet1 of 5 Americans view video over internet everyday, a study made by Pew Internet and American Life Project says.

Essentially, this Pew study shows that on a typical day, 19% American adults watch some form of video, news being ranked number one followed by comedy vids. According to Mary Madden, senior research specialist at Pew, people have gotten comfortable with the idea of using the Internet for video, especially news outlets which are among the first to deliver online video.

Also, about 50% of video viewers within the 18-29 age bracket watch clips on YouTube, 15% view MySpace, in contrast with only 7% who turn to a cable or network TV site.

Apparently, having a high-speed internet access is an important element in accessing video sites. It turns out that 25% of those with broadband connection watch video on a regular day, while only 9% with dial-up connection do so.

This telephone survey of 1492 internet users was conducted Feb 15 to March 7.

Originally posted on July 26, 2007 @ 4:11 am