Monday, July 29th

Video Killed the Radio Star

We've got music videos on the mind after last week's slew of releases and announcements. One Direction surprised everyone and no one by garnering 10.9M views of their VEVO release for "Best Song Ever", beating out Miley Cyrus, whose video "We Can't Stop" had held the one-day record at 10.7M views. Apparently innocence still sometimes beats shock and awe. Kanye debuted his video for BLKKK SKKKN HEAD which was created with Internet and smartphone users in mind - viewers can adjust the speed and take screengrabs at any moment. While Kanye's video focused on making the video experience more personal, Bruno Mars proved that a music video can also be communal with his project www.treasuredance.com. A collaboration between Atlantic, Creed, Instagram and Ok Focus, Treasure Dance "gives fans a fun way to be creative around the song" says Thanh Nguyen (Digital Marketing, Atlantic Records).Oh, and Google Glass gave this band an edge when filming a live version for one of their tunes. In other video-related news, music mogul Russell Simmons was in the headlines last week with the announcement of All Def Music, a YouTube-oriented "record label" founded in partnership with Steve Rifkind & Brian Robbins. The focus of the new venture is to identify and develop artists exclusively via YouTube, one of the world's fastest growing media platforms... meanwhile content monster Gary Vaynerchuk launching his own talent agency for Vine stars. Speaking of Vine... did you guys catch this? More video news below plus some other music tech highlights from the week...