Some of the videos contain songs and YouTube associates the songs with copyright holders and provides links to buy mp3s of the original recordings. To me that seems like an ideal use of technology. I got to be goofy and sing a couple songs that provided sales opportunities for the copyright holders, and no one would opt for my silly versions over the originals. Pretty cool.

I recorded one video on a Sunday afternoon. Typical for me, on a Sunday afternoon, Miles Davis was playing quietly in the background. It didn’t cross my mind that the song was even in the video because I’m talking the whole time. YouTube’s tech detected the song, but didn’t associate it with the title and didn’t provide links to buy the MP3. They contacted me to let me know they couldn’t monetize it unless I could prove I had the right to use the song. That makes sense. It’s a video YouTube could remove completely and I wouldn’t care.

This morning I got this notice about the Making Gravity documentary:

Dear 00neal,

Your video, Making Gravity with Geoff Smith, may have content that is owned or licensed by IODA.

No action is required on your part; however, if you are interested in learning how this affects your video, please visit the Content ID Matches section of your account for more information.

Sincerely,
- The YouTube Team

I clicked the link to dispute the question about my right to use the song. I produced the video with the songwriter and copyright owner, Geoff Smith. It’s a documentary created to promote Geoff’s music. The dispute process was smooth and I expect a positive resolution.

It makes sense to me that Google’s algorithm would flag the content. Geoff uses the IODA (Independent Online Distribution Alliance) to distribute and protect his music. They provide independent artists with the same type of protection that major labels provide to their artists. Neither IODA or YouTube would know that Geoff worked with me to produce this documentary about Geoff producing his song That’s Gravity. Ideally, YouTube will check it out, and they’ll add those groovy links so people can buy copies of the MP3. It really is a great song.

It is a good thing that we’re upset by SOPA, PIPA, and stories about videos wrongly taken down from YouTube. In my experience, YouTube is doing a pretty impressive job balancing the rights of copyright holders with the desires of users, and they’re doing it without the interference of Congress.

Get a copy of That’s Gravity from Amazon for $0.99!

Listening to Jake Shimabukuro play Bohemian Rhapsody on ukelele is the closest thing I can offer if you’d like to drift off the sweet dreams induced by a lovely lullaby … but then … just as you’re ready to close your eyes with a smile on your lips, the TED audio logo will blast you back to being awake!

This instrumental Christmas medley was performed at Gateway in Southlake, Texas. I’m glad they posted it on YouTube as a stand alone performance because it’s all kinds of awesome! It makes me feel like the theme from Rocky makes me feel. With a blend of classical, hard rock and jazz riffs, this has to be the most eclectic arrangement of Christmas music I’ve ever heard.

I have this thing where if I hear a kid sing great, I cry. This video is a kid singing Adele’s Rolling in the Deep and it blew my mind. Justin Bieber started on YouTube. This girl should be the next vocal star to do the same. The group Vazquez Sounds is made up of three siblings, Angie (10, vocals), Abelardo (15, guitar/bass/piano), and Gustavo Vazquez (13, drums), and they are from Mexico.

I grew up in that southern conservative Christian tradition that taught that non-Christian music was all evil. My grandparents, who raised me, didn’t believe or teach me that. It was the churches they took me to. My grandparents owned rental property. One time a renter moved out and left a cable box behind. I got it and hooked it up in my bedroom. My grandparents had the local channels. That cable box gave me ALL the channels.

I believe in yin and yang. I believe we are two sided coins. You can’t experience what you like about me without experiencing what you dislike about me. As good Christian boy, I spent the most time watching Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker produced content. I loved them so much that I built an exact replica of their PTL set out of Lego. I even painted it to match what I saw on TV, and I sewed dresses for the girl lego singers. Drop the good Christian from the boy, and I gotta tell ya, I was very happy to get Cinemax on that cable box! Fridays after Dark I got naked women in my bedroom. My grandparents not know what they were missing!

Cinemax didn’t only bring naked women on Friday nights. It brought me the very first documentary I remember watching, Bring on the Night (1985). Sting was a successful artist with the Police, but he was driven to stretch himself musically beyond his pop potential. In the documentary as Sting prepared for his first solo show, he pulled together great jazz players to create a whole new musical sound. Even though I didn’t *listen* to secular music, I watched it on TV, especially on MTV. I watched this documentary over and over again and fell in love with the concept of “Behind-the-Scenes.” I also fell in love with the sound of the music Sting and his jazz players were creating.

The Sting iPad App is a look behind-the-scenes of Sting’s solo career. It’s looks good on iPad. It has concert footage, interview clips, music video clips and audio clips. There are loads of photos accompanied by quotes and insights into how Sting’s unique musical style has unfolded over the last 25 years or so. I love Miles Davis and it’s cool listening to audio clips talking about Miles Davis. Even thought Miles has been gone for years, Sting still has his phone number stored on his phone.

Sting 25 opens like a PBS show without the voice over. The App is unobtrusively underwritten by sponsors. It’s a circular viewing experience. You can start anywhere, but the official starting point is footage from a concert celebrating Sting’s 60th birthday. That part is worth the download. It features performances by Bruce Springstein, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder.

Media content seems to be streaming from the cloud rather than stored in the App, and I had to wait on some buffering during video playback. Each little part seems to be a different media file downloaded on demand. It’s a constant endeavor of tapping to move to the next bit and then tapping to play that bit. Some video clips are repeated in different sections and most are cut in the wrong emotional place. Lots of the clips were just too short and ended in the middle of whatever moment was being captured by the filmakers.

I wish the editing was better and I wish the App had a “play all” option that would show all the content as one piece rather than as an endless bunch of fragmented pieces. It’s kind of like a prix fixe dinner if a server brought out a course and picked up the plate as soon as you took a bite. The overall experience is pretty much like extra features on a DVD, without the DVD.

Sting 25 succeeds in providing a behind-the-scenes look into the life and music of Sting. The live performances with Bruce Springstein, Lady Gaga and Stevie Wonder are something special. Music videos started as marketing material to get fans to buy music. Music Apps like Sting 25 will do the same thing.

It worked for me. I bought some Sting songs, which you can do directly from the App.

Timeflies is a rap due produced this rap song and video on their iDevices as a tribute to the greatest man who’s ever lived, Steve Jobs. It got me crying in a good way. Lyrics are here if you’d like to rap along.

Thanks, @Timeflies! Y’all did good, yo!

I was interested in seeing Lady Gaga’s opening monologue because it sounded different, and Gaga is interesting. I can’t imagine how she does all she does with the costume changes and piano changes and just the constant stream of never-ending changes.

This morning I’m listening to The Adam Carolla Show. Adam is interviewing Andrew Dice Clay who feels that Gaga’s VMA monologue is an homage to the Dice man. There conversation reminded me I wanted to see it, so I Googled it up and found it on The Hollywood Reporter embedded in an article entitled, Lady Gaga’s VMA Shtick Was ‘Embarrassing,’ Says Branding Expert.

I read the article and when I read these words, it made me wish I had a radio show…

“What Lady Gaga did left people confused as to who she is,” Amanda Guralski told E! Online. “She has developed a brand of outlandish clothing and outspokenness, being comfortable born the way you are, but the VMAs was a brand destroyer.”

I feel kind of sorry for this Amanda Guralski. She’s probably a lovely woman and her advice might apply nicely to people not in SHOW BUSINESS, but to say Gaga’s monologue at the VMAs “was a brand destroyer” does far more to destroy Guralski’s credibility as a “branding expert” than anything else. It’s like she doesn’t get that Gaga is theater! That’s what the Gaga brand is all about.

If you haven’t seen it, Lady Gaga takes the stage dressed as Jo Calderone, an Italian guy dumped by Gaga. There are moments of tension in the piece where the audience is wondering where this is going, but it turns out to be brilliant. Calderone talks about wanting to experience a real moment from Gaga and he says Gaga told him, “I’m not real. I’m theater.” sHe then walks over to a piano and does what Gaga does best. sHe sang with that amazing voice and tore up the piano. I had tears in my eyes.

Lady Gaga didn’t do a drop of damage to her brand. Nope. She further solidified her position as the greatest entertainer alive in one of the greatest live performances in the history of TV.

Watch it again…

It’s going to be a good show and I’m looking forward to watching.

Embedding is not allowed. You’ll have to click to watch on Youtube.