Thing is... according to readwriteweb this is THE most popular YouTube video to date. As at the time of posting it has received 123,089,726 views... 123 MILLION views. That said... I have watched it twice... but OMGoodness. If there was a "per play" fee attached to this vid... the chap wouldn't need to work again.
"Pay per play" is old world thinking... its the model the record companies use for their songs. What's crazy is Jud Laipply is giving away this video for free. Don't get me wrong... he makes money from this video through his day job as motivational speaker... people book him because he's that guy from YouTube... but he is still giving away his big bang - this is the finale of his act afterall - for nothing.
This is new world thinking. This is Radiohead giving their album away for a "pay-what-you-want" fee... or even free, if that's what you decided to pay.
Watch this:
Watch this:
Giving away your big bang may seem ludicrous but its the best promotion in the world. Google gives away a ton of good stuff... and still makes a lot of money through advertising and the like.
Whilst its not exactly the same thing... its the concept of free & the gift economy that I find attractive. I've downloaded Chris Anderson's audiobook (for free) and intend to give it a listen. I find this subject fascinating.
It made my thoughts gravitate... as most things tend to... towards the Gospel and how, for some, there is a cost associated with this Gospel - tickets for events, for example. I find it difficult to reconcile the "Good News for the poor" with a price that could potentially exclude the poor. Surely, if folks are to continue with the idea of "attractional" ministry then the literal barriers to entry should be as low as possible... if not free?
I love the fact that TED is happening as I type in Oxford... and whilst it is ultra exclusive and very expensive to attend in person... I can access the talks for free via their website or as a podcast on iTunes. I've yet to hear of a Christian conference doing the same.
I don't really have any answers, to be honest... but I am reminded of a phrase Brian McLaren used when I heard him speak in Glasgow (for a fiver)... he described the Kingdom of God in new terms... and used the phrase: "God's new love economy".
Don't forget about the Idea Camp!!
ReplyDeletehttp://theideacamp.ning.com/
It'll be streaming the August Justice Edition and will have videos available afterwards.
You can watch videos from the event earlier this year on Vimeo (including a recent video posted with Mark Horvath)
http://vimeo.com/user1367533
as an additional note... Evolution has fallen in numbers since the 2007 article. According to Mashable, the number 1 video now is an "illegal" upload of the Crank Dat Soldier Boy video - with 356 million downloads.
ReplyDeletehttp://mashable.com/2009/05/01/top-youtube-videos/
But it does appear that the Evolution of Dance is still the #1 user generated video - still VERY noteworthy.