YouTube Sold Out -- Is It Going To Seem Like A Sell Out?

YouTube, a sellout?

YouTube lost its revenue-free hipster vibe when Google acquired it -- which was just fine for users -- but will YouTube become so cluttered with corporate propaganda that it loses its cool?

This is the latest -- YouTube is teaming up with Coca-Cola (you can't get more blue chip Fortune 500 than that) to introduce video greeting cards for the holidays. Sure, video greeting cards sound cool, but isn't user created video all about not needing a corporate sponsor? YouTube is smart to partner with some of its most popular video creators, but the Coke brand is certainly going to be visible!

The teen pop star is over -- at least on the Billboard charts -- and the top selling performers are not in their teens (unlike five and ten years ago) but more likely in their 20s, 30s, and even in their 60s (think Barry Manilow, Bob Dylan, and Tony Bennett). And a lot of it has to do with the fact that the younger folks are downloading (often illegally) and the older guys are buying. According to the Recording Industry Association of America's new numbers -- from 1996 to 2005 the number of 15 to 19 year-olds buying music dropped from 17.2 percent to 11.9 percent -- while the over 45 group grew from just 15.1 percent in 1996 to 25.5 percent in 2005. I suppose baby boomers have always been a big music generation. Good thing for the music industry they're not as savvy about illegal downloads!

_{Questions? Comments?} [e-mail]