YouTube

When I started this blog I didn't expect it to be dominated by videos from YouTube.com and similar video sites. In fact, I don't think I was even aware of YouTube when I made my first posting on December 14, 2005. YouTube was barely eleven months old at that time, and the flood of jazz videos that was soon to engulf it hadn't begun.

Nevertheless, as so often is true on the Internet, YouTube experienced astonishing growth, going from almost nothing to one of the top 20 web sites in the last six months. In fact, a graph of YouTube's traffic on Alexa.com shows that it took off in December 2005, the same month I started this blog. Once I began to realize how much that had been inaccessible to the world was being uploaded onto YouTube, this blog took a sharp turn toward videos rather than text. I get references to many of the videos by reading jazz discussion sites where members provide links to the videos. Don't ask me where they find them!

I know that many of the videos I post are copyrighted, but the owners of the copyrights can monitor YouTube and demand that YouTube take down a video that is copyrighted. If a video link in my blog doesn't work, you can reasonably assume that that's why. However, many copyright owners may chose not to interfere. After all, this is a form of advertising for the artists, and who is to say that viewers would have purchased the videos (assuming they even are available) if they didn't have access to them on YouTube?

If you want to learn more about YouTube, click here.