Before Christmas, associate degreealysts at an outfit known as SocialBlade noticed that YouTube had slashed the read counts for channels in hand by Universal Music and 2 in hand by arch rival Sony Music, SonyBMG and RCA Records. Universal had slightly over one billion views affected off associate degreed Sony confiscate an virtually identical range from its 2 sites. This successively was picked up by the Daily Dot web log, which type of slipped in a very bit a journalism, turning the numbers into news, before fending off into the environs of Black Hat World, wherever there has been an energetic dialogue on the subject of YouTube read counts a lot of usually.
Daily Dot offers no proof that the music majors square measure coupled to inflating viewer counts, however will sit down with someone WHO used the name Tapangoldy, WHO till recently had oversubscribed YouTube viewer counts. Tapangoldy is someone whose appellative had cropped up within the forums, prompting the Daily Dot to raise if Tapangoldy is "tied to Universal, Sony, and RCA?" Except the site's conclusion is such a link is "something we will not presently confirm". Oh well.
Anyway, what's true is that Google, YouTube's owner, has undergone one among its periodic cleansing exercises wherever it checks viewer counts against its terms of service. Over at another forum discussing constant topic (some people square measure busy out there) there's so what seems to be a Google government posting that recent changes in were "an social control of our viewcount policy". which might be enough to create you surprise what it's that Universal and Sony had done to envision YouTube strip a billion views from every of their YouTube totals. As anybody WHO has watched Gangnam vogue is aware of, a billion views could be a heap. notably once it's a true billion.
Anyway, quick forward to nowadays, and also the Daily Dot story is back, conspicuously on the MailOnline website as mentioned, with references to the Daily Dot and every one the supply material cited up to now. MailOnline is generally careful in its writing, however tries to finger Universal and Sony, noting in its 1st paragraph: "The world's biggest recording firms are stripped of 2 billion YouTube hits once the web site cracked down on alleged 'fake viewers'." however once surfing the tedious business of reaching Universal and Sony, it seems there's a unique rationalization - and one already revealed before Christmas - on venerable music business website signboard.
Universal and Sony have, since 2009, been moving their music videos far from their YouTube channels and over to Vevo, the music business website the 2 firms own with some investors from United Arab Emirates's capital. YouTube, meanwhile, thinks that's solely right to count channel video views for videos that square measure still really gift on the channels - which implies that whenever YouTube got spherical to reviewing the music majors' channels on its website, a huge cut was perpetually about to be so as. The majors like Vevo as a result of they own it, and find a much better deal from advertising oversubscribed there, associate degreed with an calculable four billion videos served up monthly there, Vevo is maybe doing OK, thank you.
Of course, the matter with this prosaic rationalization is that it's a lot of less exciting. far better to connect a story a couple of fall in viewer counts to the foremost half-baked little bit of conspiracy theorising. as a result of on the web, partial facts + total conspiracy = further traffic.
Two billion YouTube music video views disappear