Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with YouTube

Can we earn money through our online guitar lessons?

Gomez_in_the_South — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:14:46 -0800

Is there a way to earn revenues through our guitar lesson videos online? Myself and a couple of friends create guitar lessons which are currently posted to Youtube. We enjoy helping people to learn the guitar as well as the positive feedback we get.

We would enjoy it even more if we could earn some revenue from our efforts. Most of our lessons are based on popular songs. We show the chords and will play the first few notes of each section of a song.

Are there any services where we could post our videos and get some income?

We're based in South Africa so the Youtube partner program isn't an option for us. If we were in the US/UK would we be eligible for the Youtube partner program? I remember that Justin's videos were temporarily suspended quite a while ago but he is obviously very active currently.

Help! I need some Beatles!

etc. — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:41:44 -0800

Making a Beatles DVD from YouTube videos. Looking for suggestions for clips. For our family's second annual MAKE our Christmas presents party, I drew my sister-in-law. She's a huge Beatles fan. She owns a fair amount of albums and reads every book about the Beatles she can get her hands on, so I was thinking of grabbing a bunch of YouTube videos and making a DVD compilation. (I'm also going to make a few other things, just in case you think this is too weak from a maker standpoint.) I realize they won't be HD quality (to say the least), but she won't care. She's not web savvy, so she'll never find this stuff on her own and would just be happy to have it.

The question is, if I want to make a 30-45 minute DVD, what YouTube videos should I grab? I searched YT for rare Beatles stuff, but I quickly realized--being only a casual fan myself--I don't really know what would turn a die-hard fan on.

I thought this would be a fun beginning, and I think this Lennon song would be great too, but after that I'd love to hear your suggestions. Rare stuff in general would be great, but fantastic clips of their more familiar stuff would be fine too. I'm thinking I'd like this to be more music video than a behind-the-scenes documentary, but I'm happy to hear all vid suggestions.

She's the kind of person who would put such DVD on in the background and play it over and over. If you were her, what clips would you want on such a DVD?

Much obliged for your help.

What music is used in this funny Youtube video?

johnd101 — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 09:06:50 -0800

What music is used in this funny Youtube video? See Video I'm looking for the music used in this YouTube video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_QRjEGqDCw
Video Link

or can you suggest something similar?

Thanks!

A Two-Part Question About Italian Dialects and The Mechanics of Breaking Glass Windows

jason's_planet — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:51:50 -0800

This is a two-part question about a video on YouTube. The first part of the question is about the Sicilian dialect of the Italian language; the second part deals with the mechanics of breaking a glass window with a crowbar. (You don't have to watch the whole video if you don't want to; there are two sections I'm curious about and each one only runs for a few seconds.)

Here's the video: the opening sequence of the early-seventies Italian crimesploitation flick "Il Cittadino Si Ribella", featuring the song "Goodbye My Friend."

Now, at about :51, there are a group of hooligans trashing an apartment. One of them happens upon a poster on the wall with the words "Italiani Ribellatevi". He mutters something that sounds like "Italiani Ribel-ad" before he tears it off the wall. Is this meant to be Sicilian dialect? I ask because it reminds me of the bits of New York Italian slang I've heard here and there, with "Gallamad" for "Calamari" and so on and so forth.

From 1:50 to about 2:10, there's a scene where a guy smashes a shop window with a crowbar. Prior to doing so, he wraps the crowbar in newspaper. Now why would he do that? Is that for personal safety? Is the newsprint supposed to protect him from shards of broken glass flying back at him? Or is there some other reason?

So there you have it. A question involving the Italian language and breaking glass windows. And the song "Goodbye My Friend." I submit that this question is unique in the six-year history of Ask MetaFilter.

As always, many thanks in advance.

Best of the Web of Sound 09

Potomac Avenue — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 07:46:58 -0800

What are some amazing virally-disseminated music songs from the internet from 2009? Every year I put together a blog post of "the list of the best/weirdest/catchiest internet-disseminated and -popularized songs from this year. They don't necessarily have to have been recorded this year, nor do they have to have an amusing video or animation associated with them, though that certainly is a major bonus.

The more obscure and memey the better: I'm not looking for just the most popular, though I can guarantee Kutiman's Thru-U is probably #1.

Thanks in advancement!

Disappearing sound when I try to watch videos. Why is this?

jenfullmoon — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:58:07 -0800

Disappearing sound on the computer. ONLY on Hulu, YouTube, playlist.com, but not mp3's. Complication: not having administrator privileges to deal with it. When trying to watch/listen to Hulu, YouTube, and online music players, sometimes the sound just stops working on the computer (running Firefox, happens both on Linux and Windows boxes). I haven't changed a darn thing on the settings, and playing mp3's works fine. But there will be no sound on anything video-related when it was working fine before. The only thing that fixes this is rebooting the computer. Happens on all of the ones I use regardless of platform.

Anyone have any idea why this happens, what causes it, fixes I can do without rebooting or being able to install fixes for it myself?

How do I do right by a giant, evil media corporation

Jon_Evil — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:44:55 -0800

How can I go about contacting CBS to ask for permission to post clips from 1970s talkshows on Youtube/Podcasts? I'm involved in promoting a book whose author is long dead, but he was interviewed by Donahue and Oprah in 1979 about his research. (it involves human sexual response and the differences between sexual and interpersonal relationships).

I've done extensive google-fu and can't find an office or a number or an email of anybody to ask.

We have the tapes all ready to go up onto the Tubes, but don't want to get into any legal trouble / promise customers content that we can't actually provide. Both the Donahue and Oprah interviews are about half an hour long, and were part of regular broadcasts.

The proceeds of all the book sales will go to charity, so it's not like anybody will be making money off it.

Though Oprah has her own media empire now, the show she had in the 1970s was "People are Talking" and not "The Oprah Winfrey Show" so I think CBS has the rights and not Oprah.

All I want to do is upload some band videos

chocolatepeanutbuttercup — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:31:51 -0800

Recommendations for converting a 35-minute DVD to discrete segments so I can post it on youtube? I have a 35 minute DVD of a music performance that I want to chop up into individual songs (six, I think) and upload to youtube. Please give me your recommendations on software that will do this. It's a local band and not copy protected. I've been trying to work with Auto Gordian Knot but I'm finding it a little more complicated than that name would seem to imply. Thanks for your help

Too niche for the hive mind?

Baldons — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:52:11 -0800

Recommendations for "let's play videogame X" videos? I'm enjoying some of the "let's play" videos on youtube - it's like movie commentaries on dvd, but for videogame playthroughs. It can be fun! This is good, for example - first timers doing Gunstar Heroes, not knowing one thing about it, discovering things. Do you have recommendations about interesting, funny, outrageous, surprising "let's play videogame X" videos?

Adsense Nonsense

man down under — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:58:31 -0800

How come Adsense revenue is so random? I've recently joined the YouTube partnership program and as such have started to have some pennies trickle in. ($16 so far...retirement here I come!)

I've noticed that the amount I earn is seemingly unrelated to page impressions, click thru and all that jazz. I mean it obviously influences it, but not in any consistent way.

Today for example I made about 50c for 1200 page impressions and one click (KERCHING!) but a couple of days ago I had nearly 1500 impressions, a whopping 4 clicks and less bang for my buck - only 35c.

What gives? What's the hidden factor?

If you want me, I'll be at the airport polishing the new private jet...

Help me make a compilation of songs made popular via Youtube.

theButterFly — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:51:00 -0800

I am looking to make a compilation of music that consists of songs that owe their popularity to Youtube. What songs does the hive mind recommend? i want to put together a compilation of musical tracks that owe their popularity to youtube. They could be things of a viral nature like "Chocolate Rain" or songs that gained a following due to youtube like "Here is Goes Again" by OKGO. What songs would you suggest?

Help needed with powerpoint upload to youtube

TheBones — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:23:45 -0800

Question on changing a powerpoint to a movie and uploading it to Youtube. I have created a powerpoint presentation and saved it in the .mov format and tried to upload it to youtube- no go. Imported it into quicktime pro and saved it in avi format, uploaded it to youtube, but youtube didn't keep the timing of slides so all slides went through at 1 slide per second instead of the 1st at 5 seconds, the 2nd at 10, the 3rd at 15 seconds, etc.

I have a mac and don't, currently, have access to quicktime pro, just the regular quicktime.

Any thoughts?

YouTube doesn't work, except when it does.

mikoroshi — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 23:20:16 -0800

Why isn't YouTube working? For the past few months YouTube just doesn't work on our desktop.

Latest version of Flash is installed on latest version of Firefox, java is so tuned on it's making obscene suggestions to other scripts. I've tried turning NoScript and AdBlock off, no dice.

The most bizarre thing is, every 12th or 15th time we boot up, YouTube works....until the computer gets turned off again.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm at a loss.

Please advertise to me.

shakespeherian — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:50:17 -0800

Is there anyplace online to find whatever television ad campaigns from a specific company happen to be playing nationally in the US currently? A friend of mine was recently in a Honda commercial and has started getting residual checks, so she knows that they're airing. However, she doesn't know what the commercial is about or anything that's said in the ad, and I don't know that it's particularly interesting or funny enough to have popped up on YouTube. She does know that the spot is called 'Think About It,' but apart from that I have nothing to go on. I'm not asking anyone to find the commercial for me, but is there any way (other than staring blankly at the teevee for hours) that I can attempt to track down this commercial?

ID a tune on Youtube

derbs — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:33:44 -0800

Can anyone ID the backing track on this youtube clip? You would absolutely make my day if you could find this one.

Once on youtube, always on youtube?

bumpkin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:53:31 -0800

How to remove a video featuring myself from Youtube or Myspace. Put otherwise: do I have any rights to this? I emailed Myspace to remove a video that profiles me and that was used for marketing for a college I used to work for. Their bot promptly responded with requests for information re: copyright. I did not create this video, but as far as I know, I did not sign away any rights to it (at the time, I cooperated with the making of this rather cheesy, now embarrasing work). Am I just going to have to live with this? I would link to the video in question, but I rather far too google-able as it is right now....

Short but action-packed films?

np312 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:51:24 -0800

Please help me find short films (animated or live action) that I can watch online. Difficulty: only looking for action/adventure-themed shorts. I'm trying to find short films online (10 minutes and under) that involve fight scenes, heists, explosions, car chases, etc-- all the tropes of action/adventure movies. If it happens to be set in a sci-fi world = extra awesome. I know this is rare since short films usually have low budgets.

I'm NOT interested in excerpts from feature length films.

I've already watched the Aeon Flux shorts from Liquid Television, and the BMW short films. What else can you recommend that I'd be able to watch online? Thanks in advance!

Why are browser-based videos so slow on my computer?

dephlogisticated — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:22:11 -0800

Why are browser-based videos so slow on my computer? I can play high-quality video files off of my hard drive without any difficulty. But watching a video a fraction of the size and resolution in my browser (such as a Youtube video) results in constant skipping and stuttering, even after the video has loaded completely. Why is this? Is there anything I can do to fix it, short of a hardware upgrade?

Why Should You Use Social Networking at Work?

Jaybo — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:06:47 -0800

Many workplaces ban social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and so on. What are some of the reasons workplaces should allow (and even encourage) staff to use social networking sites? I'm particularly interested in the case you would make to someone in the healthcare field but examples that are applicable to other areas, especially those that may ban social networking site for privacy or productivity reasons, are welcome as well.

YouTube is painfully slow at home. Help!

GilloD — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 06:34:25 -0800

YouTube is unbearably slow. What gives? My internet in South Korea is incredibly fast. I can swing a megabyte a second no problem. Where I am running into a problem: YouTube is at a CRAWL. It can take upwards of 45 minutes to snag a 5 minute video. Downloading a video to desktop chugs at around 9 kb/s. I was inclined to think that this was just a location issue, but it's fine at multiple other locations I've been to.

Poking my nose around the web I saw plenty of other people the world over have had this problem and every single one of them either hit a wall and got over it or had to jump some major technical hurdles to solve it. The major concern seemed to be which server YouTube was serving videos off of, although I couldn't quite make heads or tales of the very tech-y solution.

I already swapped my DNS to the OpenDNS servers as per someone's suggestion: No dice.

So, have you had this problem? How'd you solve it? Where should I start looking?

I just want everyone to hear my Nickelback covers.

robotot — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:50:28 -0800

Why are there so many covers songs on youtube? I've searched for "acoustic covers" on youtube, and read youtube's policy and I can't reconcile the two.

Obviously, performing a cover on youtube is copyright infringement. Do the majority of these youtube users get away with it 'cos the rights holders don't care, or would they all have got permission?

What are your favorite youtube mixes/mashups which feature streams of quotes from tv/movies/news etc. set to music?

therubettes — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:10:02 -0800

What are your favorite youtube mixes/mashups which feature streams of quotes from tv/movies/news etc. set to music? More specifics inside. I loved this recently posted video in this post . It features clips and quotes from Ghostbusters, Citizen Kane, The Simpsons, 2001 etc. etc. etc. set to a dance backing track, the quotes rhyme and sound like they have been auto-tuned to fit with the music. In a nutshell I am looking for more of precisely the same.

I also am a fan of things like ThePartyParty.com and auto-tune the news.

I would love your favorite videos which feature:
Lots of quotes.
Lots of juxtaposition.
A good dance/rock beat.
Absurdity.
Use of auto-tune possibly (not a deal-breaker).

I am not a fan of Lenny's Dental Plan or clips which originate from sites like YTMND I find them too repetitive. Also for clarity am I not looking for mashups of songs like Eminem mixed with Michael Jackson.

I have tried to find the cream of these myself but 99% of what I find is repetitive crap, so I have come to you. Hope this question is not deemed too slight by the mods.

Why do I want them? I listen to them constantly while I am working I find that they don't distract me, but somehow provide a relief for the boring work I am doing. They move so fast and have so many references in them that I don't get bored. The beat usually helps me to stay motivated.

Avoiding Youtube Parter program copyright headaches.

Nixie Pixel — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:05:16 -0800

How can I make sure that Youtube's copyright requirements are met in order to monetize videos via its Partner program? Hello, I was recently offered the opportunity to monetize one of my videos (and perhaps more in the future) on Youtube via their Partner programs. The video is mostly a review of the Xbox 360 version of Magic: The Gathering, and includes screen shots from the game, though there are some funny parts such as me dancing to music.

Link to video here.

I am also planning on making a video where I take a popular song with changed (game-related) lyrics, and have enlisted the help of a musician to make slight adjustments to the arrangement of the song, though basically it is still a cover.

My questions have to do with the fact that it is impossible to get in touch with someone from Youtube directly - what exactly do I have to do to meet their copyright requirements? Youtube's site is convoluted and at times gives differing answers on the subject. An excerpt may be found below:

Youtube Partner criteria.

So the questions are part legal, part Youtube specific.

Is taking a publically-provided screenshot of a game and using it in a video (showing it minimally) considered "fair use?"

Is using the melody of a popular song, but creating a new performance of it and new lyrics, considered "fair use?" That is, do I hold the copyright to this if create the derivative work?

Are song parodies considered "fair use?"

Finally, since Youtube checks this for all monetized videos, can anyone help me understand the specific requirements they have for what is and is not acceptable, especially with regards to using game screenshots (do I have to have taken them myself?) and musical parodies I create.

Thank you!

I'mANoob..Tube

Mael Oui — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:08:44 -0800

Technostupid question filter: How to make unwatchable YouTube files from the Temp Files folder watchable on my computer? I watch loads of stuff on YouTube daily. Sometimes I download videos directly using KeepVid, but usually I don't bother. It used to be that I could navigate to my Temporary Internet Files folder, and all the videos that I had watched would be there. They'd be listed as something like 'get_video,' and I would drag each to my desktop and add '.flv' to the end of their name to watch them. I never had a problem watching YouTube videos (with VLC) this way.

Now all videos show up as .flvs automatically but none of them play. For instance, I now have 'video[1].flv' to 'video[11].flv' in the folder. Clicking on the files opens VLC, but there's no video or sound. There's just a bar scrolling through the would-be duration of the video (the time does display on the bottom bar of the window). Are these .flv files useless? Are any of them watchable or can they be made to be watchable? Why is it that I could get the files to work on my computer before by manually adding '.flv' but now actual '.flvs' (from YouTube) won't play? Am I making any sense? Is there a free, safe program that will make these videos watchable? I guess I'd prefer a small file converter program than another video application. I don't think VLC's to blame..?

This is on a Win2k computer. I'm still using an old IE to access YT. And I'm on very slow dial-up. *gulp* I LOATHE asking tech questions.. be gentle!

Help me find the name of this obscure musician!

DeltaForce — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:15:55 -0800

Help me find the name of this obscure musician! A few months ago, I came across a youtube video, a song by a guy who has written a very, very large number (hundreds) of songs and albums over the past 30 years or so. The guy must be about 60 years old now, from what I can remember from his wikipedia article.

I can't remember what his name is and my google-fu is failing me, and all I can remember about the song is that it is about him not wanting to go out, that he'd rather stay home. The video is of him performing the song on a tv show from the 70s and the drummer is wearing an elephant mask of some sort.

I realize this is vague, but it's really bugging me! If you need any more info, I'll try and provide what I can.