Dive Brief:
- Elton John and YouTube have teamed up for “Elton John: The Cut,” a talent search competition, according to reporting by Variety.
- The online search effort will look for talent worldwide to create the official music videos for three of John’s classic hits.
- The submission process runs from Jan. 9-23 with different creative elements required for each of three songs —“Rocket Man” submissions include animation, “Tiny Dancer” is live-action and “Bennie and the Jets” includes choreography.
Dive Insight:
The talent search competition points to how digital video platforms are ramping up their content strategies as more consumers spend time viewing online instead of in front of a television. It also underscores the strong role that music videos play for YouTube, a fact the company is trying to bolster by building stronger relationships with the music industry.
YouTube recently reached a settlement with the National Music Publishers' Association over unpaid songwriting royalties as the platform seeks to build a closer relationship with the music industry.
Advertising tied to music videos is an increasingly important focus for YouTube, which recently announced that it paid out over $1 billion to the music industry over the past 12 months in advertising revenue. YouTube said it expects music service subscriptions and advertising will contribute roughly equal amounts of revenue to the music industry in the future.
The Elton John competition is looking for video directors who can create video treatments for the songs, and a dedicated website offers tips and guidelines for would-be contestants. Along with hosting the competition, YouTube will fund the three winners as well as offer its YouTube Space facilities for the winners to create their videos. Judges for the contest include PES (Adam Pesapane), filmmaker and musician Kurt Hugo Schneider and director and choreographer Parris Goebel.
The talent search is interesting in that it is borrowing from a popular reality TV format online. The digital format is a good fit for a video competition and YouTube is a natural partner given its long-standing role in online video.