NOTICE:
This content is in the "archives" of a retired blog called Gadgetopia. It has been moved to this subdomain as it is no longer considered relevant to the site. It is being hosted here for a indeterminate period of time. Its existence at this URL is not guaranteed, and it may be removed at any time. If you would like to refer to this content in the future, you are encouraged to save it to your local file system.

Some content from Gadgetopia was moved to the technical blog on deanebarker.net

The Monetization of a Viral Wedding Video

Originally published by "dbarker" on 2009-07-30 07:56:00Z

I now pronounce you monetized: a YouTube video case study: You know that awesome wedding video that’s sweeping the Intertubes?  When it first came out, I thought for sure there was going to be some copyright issue over the song.

But, it turns out the guy who owns the copyright was crazy smart.  He claimed monetization rights of the video, got a cut of the ads of YouTube, and overlaid download links to the song on the YouTube video.  The results are impressive.

The rights holders for “Forever” used these tools to claim and monetize the song, as well as to start running Click-to-Buy links over the video, giving viewers the opportunity to purchase the music track on Amazon and iTunes. As a result, the rights holders were able to capitalize on the massive wave of popularity generated by “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” – in the last week, searches for “Chris Brown Forever” on YouTube have skyrocketed, making it one of the most popular queries on the site

[…] in the last week, over a year after its release, Chris Brown’s “Forever” has again rocketed up the charts, reaching as high as #4 on the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon’s best selling MP3 list.

Comment by "Peter" on 2009-08-03 10:42:00Z
sweet! I'd love to add videos and make money when people click on the amazon/itunes link!!
Comment by "Augustine Fou" on 2009-08-04 13:30:00Z
conspiracy theory: video was real, but viral effect was manufactured to help drive sales and polish Chris Brown's image Here's the evidence, what do you think? [http://bit.ly/8K9pW](http://bit.ly/8K9pW)