Is YouTube Generating Music Stars?

I guess with folks dissing MySpace and the Sandi Thom incident souring fans on the idea of an internet-generated music superstar, it makes sense that YouTube is the new meme on the block. I’ve been digging all the tracks from Panic! at the Disco that I’ve heard on Sirius, but I saw an article cross the wire that claims they were “discovered” on YouTube.

Is that true? Anybody got the real skinny on that for me?

One response

  1. YouTube is definitely hot. Just put something up at http://www.indiemusician.com/music_business/2006/06/youtube_how_to_.html which talks about some guys who apparently had 16,000,00 downlosds (I have not verified this) via YouTube. Part of it was that the label supposedly owns several porn sites and put the music video on those sites.

    Sounds like rumor, but I think it would be a good strategy to get your music in front of people. Not that porn people want to buy music, but if your band had some skilled designers and SEO people, or access to them, you could design a site for “boy band fans” and then hip them to your new “in the style of N’Sync” video when you had traffic to your site.

    I am looking for bands who have had big success with YouTube and will keep you posted.

    By the way, the video I mentioned had Gnarls Barkley, which is a huge album, so it makes me question is there is something more to this than we know…similar to all those MySpace and American Idol champs. A good story, but…