YouTube & Video

The Rise & Fall Of Fan Created Videos

image from users.section101.com Crowdsourcing a music video is not new, but it does seems to be becoming more popular. Perhaps too popular. In the last week alone. Panic! At The Disco's held a Viddy contest and 1600 fans submitted clips for a new Michael Jackson video. With YouTube editing tools and Creative Commons footage, it's getting easier for fans to make a video. But are there so many fan created videos, that the concept has lost its novelty?

The latest band to ask fans to create a video for them, in a co-promotion with Mashable, is Junip . Fans can listen to the song on YouTube and submit entries.

There's more info on YouTube about how to enter. But as interesting as Junip's song is, a day and a half  after a full post on the highly trafficked site Mashable, the video has less than 1800 views. That in and of itself is not proof that fan created music video contests are passe, but does seem that they've lost some of their novelty. 

My guess is that hard core fans will always enjoy the opportunity to make a video for their favorite band, but running a fan video contest no longer grabs the attention that it did even a few months ago.

What do you think? Are fan created videos passe?

Bruce Houghton on 06/08/2011 in YouTube & Video | Permalink | Comments (4)
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  3. Fan created video projects work if the band already have a high profile and/or there’s a high value prize. If they have neither of those, then such projects only appeal to new directors – not new as is in Hot New Talent, new as in haven’t-made-a-proper-music-video-before.
    If an artist/ band have a limited profile and limited funds this is what works:
    Employ a director whose work they like and who can work with them to make one great video. They can then spend time promoting the finished, hopefully excellent result.
    Caroline
    RadarMusicVideos
    Create | Distribute | Promote

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