Muziic’s 16 Year Old David Nelson Responds To VEVO YouTube Controversy
(UPDATED EXCLUSIVE) It's been a busy week for Muziic's 16 year old co-founder David Nelson. First, Nelson cleverly used YouTube's openly available API to add VEVO's music videos to his music discovery site. Muziic.com. But VEVO and YouTube (who share the same API) were none too pleased and issued a terse statement condeming Nelson's seemingly legal actions. In an email to Hypebot, on Wednesday afternoon, Nelson shared his response and as he wrote, got "a few things off of my chest".
From the start I have appreciated the concept behind Vevo – there's really no two ways about it, artists and labels need to be fairly compensated. I respect the fact that those behind Vevo recognize that the business model must change. I believe that Vevo will be very successful with what they're looking to do.
While I have not been formally approached by any of the labels, I am more than willing to work with them to help build a better business for all parties involved. I'm willing to look at all options, including revenue sharing.
Prior to Vevo's launch, I reached out to the company in effort to provide an open channel of communication and express my interest in streaming Vevo content. Unfortunately, I received no response. I do believe that if we had correspondence, this situation could have been entirely avoided.
I was as shocked as anyone when I realized there were not yet any "pre-roll" advertisements for Vevo content in the API. As an opportunist, I knew this would be a great selling point for my site (that is part of my job, of course). Another portion of my job that I take very seriously is innovation. Muziic has been groundbreaking in the area of free, on-demand streaming.
I believe social interaction and community participation are two major components to a successful music service. The Muziic Facebook application provides users with the ability to easily share songs, albums, radio stations and user-created playlists with friends.
Muziic is my passion, and I take it very seriously.
David J. Nelson
Muziic CTO / Co-Founder
Nice one David!!! This just places emphasis on the fact that the “twits” from eLabs are behind VEVO …a bunch on incompetent backward thinking nerds. The music business would be better off keeping the whole VEVO staff (those from eLabs) playing solitaire instead of rethinking the wheel.
stay strong, david. this is the 21st century, and it takes efforts like yours to make a difference.
“I believe social interaction and community participation are two major components to a successful music service”
sounds like we should talk 😉
Vevo just needs to put David on the payroll & have him teach the old dudes how the social web & engagement actually work.
ALL major & indie labels should be staffed with Digital Natives. That goes for commentary on popular blogs aswell…they are the ones who truly get it.
Props to Bruce because he has added Kyle Bylin to bring that fresh perspective to this blog!
– Danny
Many institutions limit access to their online information. Making this information available will be an asset to all.
Does anyone remember the scene in The Sopranos when Meadow brings home her “mixed Race” friend Noah?
David has come face to face with the old world. It’s pretty sad actually. The truth about how this whole thing can be turned into a positive is so very obvious. Alas, the old guard is not really interested in positivity. We need to realize that and proceed without them. Lets just hope that David and others like him who know the way forward don’t get whacked by those who insist on guarding the rear….cause if they do we’re all in for another dark age.
brendan b brown
wheatus.com
“Digital Natives” might have an idea of how things should be in an ideal world, but working on the inside of one of these companies requires a lot more than idealism. Idealism doesn’t pay bills.
Vevo screwed up – of course they don’t want people to watch the videos without the ads that pay for the service, the whole thing is an advertising play. All the people who think that access should be free, all you can eat have obviously NEVER had to pay a bandwidth bill.
Vevo’s mistake is in not figuring out better ways to involve affiliates, like Muziic, so their viewership increases. More eyeballs = better ad revenue. They think Vevo will be a destination which they’ll control – they think it will be a new MTV. If they were truly smart, they’d make it easy for every blog and website to not only carry their videos via embed, but they’d SHARE ad revenue with the ones who drove the most traffic.
Once, again, the music business says “No thanks and fuck you” to someone who could actually help them. Ironically, what this kid did is way cooler than the actual Vevo service, and it didn’t cost untold millions of dollars to do it. That’s the really priceless nugget in all of this.
This article explains a bit more
http://www.themusicvoid.com/2010/01/muziic-versus-vevo-david-and-goliath-or-mutually-beneficial/
Vevo doesn’t work in my country
Epic win for David, fuck vevo, who is obviously pissy because they didnt think of it first. I work extensively in the music industry and they are a dying breed, they refused to alter aything about their revenue or distribution model for damn near a century, and their dated and archaic laws have lost their effectiveness in this digital era. I for one say good riddance, if its not muuzick, its some other site that will pop up in its place using their own incosistencies and weaknesses against them.