#45, BlogTV Is Coming?

The Morning Is Coming, Waikiki, Hawaii, May ‘08, artistic view.

Let us try to guess if blogtv.com is going to become big in the next year, two, or maybe even sooner. At this time things are rather small and buggy. The stars of today are mainly several YouTube names: HappySlip, LisaNova, thewinekone, CharlesTrippy, DaveDays, SupaDupaFlyGirl, VenetianPrincess, KevJumba, WhatTheBuck, and many other names not yet familiar to my and most likely anybody else’s ears. The live views are about 150-250 for the YouTube crowd and 1-100 for the rest of broadcasters. Yes, they are called the broadcasters on blogtv. Issues are numerous; audio lag, missing audio, co-hosting problems, etc. Things are changing by the minute, and tomorrow some of the issues I am writing about may be solved. The skill level of many broadcasters varies a lot, from pretty good, through a reasonable, to pretty bad. Eventually those things are going to sort out, I hope. How long can you watch someone on blogtv? If the name is totally unknown – maybe five minutes, maybe less. With names more familiar from YouTube, that time may be close to an hour. It is the very first thing that surprised me; I did not believe that I could watch HappySlip for example for almost the full hour. She is perhaps the best of them all at this moment. You go girl!
Why do some YouTubers go to another medium? Some of them already peaked on YouTube and now the only way is down. You may disagree with me but look at the numbers. There are also somewhat smaller names that are most likely trying to expand their audience. This may help, or it may even change their direction altogether. We need to watch to see what happens next.
There is one additional aspect of the blogtv that is worth mentioning. Some people look much better on live TV then in their YouTube videos. This is somewhat surprising, and the video editing part may be responsible for that. Whatever somebody thinks of herself of himself, and edits videos according to that image, is not necessarily what the audience enjoys watching most. Amazing!
OK, so now the big question: Is this going to be big, or is this going to fold? It has potentials, but the live TV is more expensive than the YouTube video production, and ultimately the small guys are not going to last very long, but the big companies, although in smaller numbers, may become the number one user. Will revisit this subject in a year, I promise.

Breakfast: Wakimi salad from Canada, canned makrel fish from Japan, pickled garlic from Poland, multi-grain bread from California with The Laughing Cow cheese spread from Wisconsin. Grapes with seeds, and an organic orange. Lipton tea to drink, from India. No, I would never eat regular garlic in the morning, you are right. But this one is pickled, and smells quite good, unlike the regular one. Let me kiss you now!

Book: Carl Humphries, Piano Workbook, A Complete Course in Technique and Performance, http://www.jawbonepress.com, with CD, ISBN 978-1-906002-03-9. Playing CD with Audacity, http://audacity.sourceforge.net.