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Harlem Shake and what makes a meme

To explain or describe the Harlem Shake meme is beyond the scope of this post.

(But sidebar: I’m enjoying it way more than Gangnam Style, in terms of having patience/interest in seeing every cubicle’s interpretation. Constraints = creativity, because #art.)

Anyway, thought I’d share this great graphic from YouTube’s Trends blog.

4,000+ Harlem Shake videos/day!

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via YouTube Trends:

One of the unique directions the trend took rather early was spawned by the staff of Maker Studios, who created what’s currently the currently most-viewed version from their office. While it could have just remained a college-kid fad, Maker’s version helped signal that the trend was something any organization or office could be a part of…

something anybody can be a part of. That, my friend, is the difference between something that’s just viral, and something that’s a meme.

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Gangnam Math

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  • Standard rate YouTube pays to video owners for every 1,000 views: $2
  • Estimated total YouTube revenue received by Team Psy: $1,707,884.15
  • YouTube’s estimated cut: $1,366,307.32 (Based on rates provided by Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, a top YouTube partner.)
  • Psy’s estimated revenues from U.S. digital music sales of “Gangnam Style”: $243,720 (separate from YouTube)  (Per a calculation by entertainment lawyer Steve Gordon, applying standard American royalties to the 2.7 million copies the song has sold.)

numbers /via New York

artwork /via kpopconcerts

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I love how YouTube marks videos as “watched.” But they don’t do it consistently. Wouldn’t it be cool if the marker carried over to the same videos when you see them in other contexts? In the screenshot above, you’ll see how some videos in feed are marked. But the very same marked videos, in the same session, are not marked in other views. YouTube, please mark a “Watched” video everywhere on the site, no matter where I bump into it. :D Note to all other video sites: copy this! Think about it- With text links- it’s common for a visited link to change color. We’re accustomed to be able to skim and avoid clicking on same thing twice. Would be so cool if we could fully adopt this pattern for video, too. 

I love how YouTube marks videos as “watched.” But they don’t do it consistently.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the marker carried over to the same videos when you see them in other contexts?

In the screenshot above, you’ll see how some videos in feed are marked. But the very same marked videos, in the same session, are not marked in other views.

YouTube, please mark a “Watched” video everywhere on the site, no matter where I bump into it. :D

Note to all other video sites: copy this! Think about it- With text links- it’s common for a visited link to change color. We’re accustomed to be able to skim and avoid clicking on same thing twice. Would be so cool if we could fully adopt this pattern for video, too. 

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I’m watching the #RNC speeches on YouTube. (Like any Internet romantic, I don’t have cable.) Anyway… Youtube.com/politics is impressive. They have a menu with major news organizations (not just major TV networks), and you can choose to watch coverage from any of them. They even show a lil’ “live” indicator next to the networks who have a livestream related to politics right now. (The live tweets filtered-per-org are cool, too.)

I’m watching the #RNC speeches on YouTube. (Like any Internet romantic, I don’t have cable.)

Anyway… Youtube.com/politics is impressive. They have a menu with major news organizations (not just major TV networks), and you can choose to watch coverage from any of them. They even show a lil’ “live” indicator next to the networks who have a livestream related to politics right now.

(The live tweets filtered-per-org are cool, too.)