YouTube is courting the music video industry with the hopes of “in six to 12 months, maybe 18 months, to have every music video ever created up on YouTube,” (says co-founder Steve Chen). I haven’t made my fondness for YouTube a secret, and I specifically hope that they’ll be working with music video providers from around the world. The ability to have such a clear window into other cultures is one of the service’s greatest strengths (even when stretching the limits of copyright).
It also brings to mind the idea of “network effects,” where the more people gather around one technology the more popular it becomes. I think it’s reasonable to argue that people are more likely to think of particular sites for content, rather than an owners site. If this is the case, people might be more likely to go to YouTube for music videos rather than MTV, or to Google Videos for Government Archives content. Here, the network effect operates by people identifying a type of content with a service. The more popular that service becomes for that content type (regardless of ownership), the more individuals will gravitate there–even if that service has a lousy interface. Content owners may loose some of their control, but exposure may also be greatly increased.