The wedding entrance dance video that swept across the internet like a flash flood is revealing some interesting lessons in the business of YouTube copyright claims.  Chris Brown’s song, “Forever” is used without permission in the video and his label could easily have sued or removed the video with a copyright claim.  However, they decided to harness the power of the viral video and install and buy-now link for the hit single, reaping huge rewards in the process.

For the label, it’s all about the Benjamins, but in the future will this tactic encourage inventive re-appropriation of musical material, even beyond [...]

While we frequently write on the alternative music coming out of China, including punk and “chinagrass,” there is no denying the the power and overwhelming popularity of Mandopop. Take a look at China’s current top 5 music videos and see if you can hear any similarities…
Jerry Yan – Say I Love You at KTV

Evonne Hsu – Sleepless

Richie Ren – Good Medicine Tastes Bitter

Penny Tai – Dilemma

Jackie Chan & Zhou Hui – Film of Myself

[via ChinaMusicRadar]

The release of the iPhone 3GS, now capable of shooting decent 30 frames per second video, has lead to an explosion of video content—according to YouTube, a 400% increase per day since it launched. But also according to YouTube, many of the videos have been of the Well, let’s just test this out… variety, with uploads such as “At grandpa’s house,” “At a wedding,” and “squashing a can.” Not exactly riveting cinema. But already, creative minds such as the filmmakers at Showdown Productions LLC, a small Ohio group, have put the new tech to good use. The Showdown team recently [...]

UK Digital Agency Devilfish, have come up with an interactive music promo for musician Julian Perretta’s track ‘Ride My Star,’ using Augmented Reality.
“We used a combination of Flash and Papervision to create the 3d scenarios. This was then developed in Augmented Reality, which uses Flash, your webcam and a special printed “icon” (tracker) to create a fully immersive, interactive video.”
The viewer has to print and hold up the tracker facing it to the camera. Suddenly the big experience starts!
If you don’t have a webcam, here is a demo of someone watching the video.

-Contributed by Daniel Camprubi

Bloc Party has gone the way of crowd-sourcing for their latest video. Made up of mostly fan-submitted mobile phone footage, the video for the group’s song Ares (Villains Remix) has a great raw feel, pulling together a colorful cross-section of different perspectives. Watch the results below.

[via Metro UK]

The economic downturn has forced cost-consciousness into the way high fashion is being presented. The Economist reports that during last week’s NY Fashion Week, several designers slashed the $100,000+ cost it takes to do a 20-minute catwalk show out of their budgets, opting instead for more straightforward things like having their models interact with crowds in small gatherings. This forced creativity has also led to new digital-based innovation as more members of the global haute couture community ditched fashion shows altogether in favor of launching music videos and internet-based campaigns. What’s interesting is that some of these changes might become [...]