Google makes things count and it even has decent knowledge that its video portal, YouTube, gets 800 million visitors a month. Out of the said visitor count, a big chunk has their focus on music videos. The search engine giant seems to build on the preference on the viewers and accordingly attract more views and revenue.
YouTube would now offer its viewers an opportunity to purchase merchandise, concert tickets, digital downloads and more. The video portal has given its partners an opportunity to sell merchandise, concert tickets, digital downloads and more along with these videos. This might have many gunning in for the said opportunity, may it be the YouTube partners or viewers.
One can see YouTube’s presented first image on it below. They call this feature as ‘The Merch Store’, which would have the stuffs on sale, as offered by the YouTube partners. The company has incorporated its efforts in a unique manner, which would see many users having something or the other, to buy from the Merch Store. Along with the above said options, the company even has included unique experiences like meetups. A few examples listed by YouTube were through affiliates like Topspin for merchandise, concert tickets and experiences; Songkick for concerts; and iTunes and Amazon for music downloads.
YouTube plans to let its users make use of the new feature, wherever they may be, all over the world. However, it would take time as their blog post says that they will be ‘rolling out the Merch Store to music partners globally over the coming weeks’.
The step YouTube has taken, might not guarantee major success, but it can be rest assured that there would be many users who would buy stuffs from the Merch Store. But as far as its partners are concerned, the price would make a difference. It would make sense if the company takes only a small percentage of the price to cover its costs. But one cannot be assured that Google would opt for this option to only recover its costs. The same will have to be seen, as to what they finally decide on. The reason for the same is that Google has pumped in a lot of money from advertising and this again seems to be an effort to earn handsome revenue of it.
The YouTube blog had a note for those who are interested in learning more about the new feature. The extract for the same can be noted as below:
If you’d like to learn more, we’re hosting a panel on Thursday October 20 @ Noon ET at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, sharing stories with artists who’ve found success on YouTube. The lineup includes Dru Ha and Buckshot from Duck Down Music, Julia Nunes, Karmin, Portugal. the Man and Ryan Leslie, and an RSVP is available at the YouTube Creator blog.
YouTube further has been keen on getting in the music lovers, as it noted, ‘Whether you’re the main event, the opener or jamming from your living room, we want to give you the chance to find an audience and make music your career on YouTube.’