YouTube’s latest music ad campaign celebrates the diversity of its user base. In promoting YouTube Music, which launched in the U.S. in November, the company’s clearly decided that one of its most competitive advantages is its base. Despite the rise of Spotify and similar sites and apps, YouTube is still the biggest streaming music site in the world. From Adweek:
“We are proud that YouTube gives everyone a voice and a place to belong. This campaign reflects those values, together with the wonderfully diverse people who come to YouTube every day to find, watch and share music,” says YouTube CMO Danielle Tiedt. “We want these spots to shine a light on this diversity and individuality, while also showing how anyone can find something to love on YouTube Music.”
That’s charming and all, but YouTube’s got other issues that may not necessarily be solved with a masterful thrumming of heartstrings.
Music apps are a commodity. They basically all do the same thing, with variances so minor that it’s hard to convince people to try new ones. And while YouTube Music was born with a competitive advantage—the fact that lots of people already use the video service to play music—it’s facing a lot of the same industry problems that other music platforms have.
Per fresh research from MIDiA, YouTube rights payments to artists totaled $740 million in 2015, up 11 percent from 2014. This sounds like a plus … until you consider that total views rose by 132 percent—meaning that artists who were paid $0.002 per stream in 2014 got half that the year after.
This means that as users grew, YouTube opted to pay less: Ad revenue is faltering as streams rise.
Credits
Client: YouTube
Agency: Anomaly New York
Production company: Park Pictures
Director: Lance Acord
Photographer: Olivia Bee
Editorial Company: Arcade Edit
Editors: Jeff Ferruzzo (Kristen, Alex), Brad Waskewich (Afsa, Jaysn), Ali Mao (Tina)
Editorial Assistant: Dan Gutterman
Executive Producer: Sila Soyer
Producer: Fanny Cruz