YouTube Stars!

As mentioned in our last post, the second San Franciso YouTube Gathering took place last weekend. There have been many videos uploaded that show what happened at the event. Here is a collection of some of the best videos of this YouTube Gathering.

First, an interesting new item. It has just been reported that Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, recently stated that live streaming video would be added to the list of featured offer by YouTube by the end of this year. Of course, these capability is already available to users of StickAm and LiveVideo. In fact, I watched parts of the live feed of the event on LiveVideo last weekend! I put up the link to this live feed in our last post; I hope you got a chance to check in and see what was happening! Live streaming video is just another reason to sign up with LiveVideo, even if you already have a YouTube account. Please click on the blue "Less Tube. More You!" ad in the upper left corner of this page to go to LiveVideo.

In one of the videos below, a new website is mentioned - TubeCloud. Go there and enter a YouTube channel name and it goes in the cloud. The more people that enter that channel, the bigger the tag in the cloud. Its basically a tag cloud of YouTubers. Click here to nominate my YouTube channel on TubeCloud. Here's another person to nominate on TubeCloud, TiffanyJoAllen. She's a rising YouTubStar singer that we've mentioned here before.

Now, on to the San Francisco YouTube Gathering Video! (Beware of language in some of these videos!)

Labels: Castaa, community, eNation, gathering, kenrg, olgakay, PeriUrban, renetto, smpfilms, tlg847, YouTube Gathering

posted by KennyCrane at 2/29/2008 04:57:00 PM 1 Comments

We get lots of messages asking us to look at YouTube channels and videos. I'll post some of the messages and videos here today. Comment on this post with YOUR favorite YouTube channels, or email me at KennyCraneATbellsouthDOTnet.

First some YouTube News. Venetian Princess (who turns 24 today, Happy Birthday!) just announced that she has been cast in a recurring role in an upcoming TV series! Congrats, Jodie!

Magibon, the real life anime character who uploads vids in the MRirian channel, jumped 7 spots in the Weekly Top 100 Chart. She just released another video, named 14, and it's 41 seconds of her looking sweetly but silently into the camera. It already has well over One Hundred Thousand views!

The Second YouTube Gathering in San Francisco is happening this weekend! Can't make it? Watch it LIVE! Chris (supricky06) is doing a Live Feed of the YouTube event on LiveVideo.com! Right now, Chris and SamProof are walking around San Fran and have just entered a Circuit City. It's 4PM Eastern time on Friday and there's about a dozen people watching right now. Tune in and check it out! If you want to chat with everyone, join LiveVideo by clicking on their ad in the upper left corner of this page. Thanks!


Now, on with the show. Here are some messages we've recently received from YouTubers telling us about YouTubers that they enjoy watching. I am passing these recommendations on to You! Check these people out!

The first message comes from Obedient Waves, a musical duo of Billy and Joanna who describe their style as Garage Rock. Since I love 1960s Garage Rock, I decided to check them out. They don't sound '60s but they are pretty good singers. Here's their message to me, followed by a video of one of their performances:

Hi Kenny...
YouTube Stars! What a great idea for a blog. We love it. However, there is one small problem. Where's mention of Obedient Waves and our weekly YouTube series, ROCK & ROLL 4 PRESiDENT? Surely you could not have overlooked the most smokin' garage rock on the tube... No worries. It's a big place. And it's never too late... http://www.youtube.com/obedientwaves
Have a happy holiday!Peace...
Obedient Waves




The next message comes from my good friend Sean who has always supported what we do here at YouTubeStars. Sean was involved in running the popular TubeRavers forum and now runs the SilverStains forum. Here's his message, followed by the most popular video by BexBoop878, his recommendation.

gotta say, there's plenty of singers on yt who have impressed me...but this lass has a gift!http://uk.youtube.com/profile?user=bexboop878
I featured some of my fave vids of her on silverstains.com at http://www.silverstains.com/index.php?topic=117.0
thought you might like to consider her for a mention on YTS :D
Anyway, hope you have a great xmas, and incredible new year!




Here's a recommendation all the way from Denmark. Anna raves about Debbje in this message, followed by Debbje singing "Bitch," which is her most popular vid.

HEY Kenny!
Anna from Denmark here!
I took the pen to write to you how great I find your blog about youtube!since I am a big youtube watcher I always enjoy spending some time reading what you write or point out.
I was reading just before your interview of Jennifer Newberry and although I think her voice and style is nothing bad I felt the urge to suggest to you that there is another songwriter on youtube that(in my modest opinion)was much more worth an interview and some space on your blog.
Her youtube channel is www.youtube.com/debbje and I do believe she has the Xfactor: amazing voice, original songs that could really make it to the big audience,good looks and a kind of artistic way of presenting herself.
Well I have said too much,but who knows, maybe you want to have a watch and get her featured in your blog?

it was nice to talk to you
Greetings from cold Copenhagen
Anna




Amy writes to say that she sees that we take recommendations, and she has one for us who is similar to someone we recently featured here. Read what she says about BabyPorridge then watch the vid she recommends in her message:

Mr. Crane,
In your blog I saw a post where you took recommendations. I'd like to point out a girl i've watched grow on youtube. Her channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/babyporridge .
She's quirky and intelligent, and is somewhat like Hayleyghoover who you featured in your latest post, except that Nikki (babyporridge's real name) is also a singer-songwriter. Her latest video "THIS IS NOT A SONG, THIS IS AMBITION" is a cute, introspective look at her old ambitions, and she performs an original piece in that clip too. The editing is very crisp. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=vC4P_IkHE-A
I also recommend this video - http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JNRAAqYS7es
Most of her collection is an interesting blend of spunk and a maturity beyond her years.
Thanks for your time.
-Amy R.




We already have more recommendations in the queue but we'll stop here for now. If YOU know of a great YouTuber that you want to tell the world about, please comment about them on This Post, or email me at KennyCraneATbellsouthDOTnet and I'll get them in a future post, right here on YouTubeStars!

Labels: babyporridge, bexboop878, debbje, obedientwaves, recommendations

posted by KennyCrane at 2/22/2008 02:05:00 AM 0 Comments

There are many videos on YouTube for and about Valentine's Day. Here's a link to a list of them. Find someone to love today and give them a hug, send them an email, IM them, or just leave a nice comment on one of their videos. We love all our readers; thanks for visiting YouTubeStars! :)

One piece of news, then we'll watch some videos. There is an interesting debut this week on the Weekly Top 100 Chart. No, I'm not talking about Barack Obama, although his BarackObamaDotCom channel did debut this week at number 86. I'm talking about MRirian, a young Japanese lady who often does very little in her videos - many times she doesn't even talk. Why is everyone watching and subscribing? Because Miss Magibon looks exactly like a real life Anime Character! She has huge eyes, a small pointed chin and an adorable smile. If you haven't seen her, follow the link above - or visit the Top 100 Chart and click on her, she's number 100 this week. See why she has over 23 Thousand subscribers and over One Million Profile views!

Now, here are a few videos that have nothing to do with Valentine's Day! Enjoy them anyway. :p


Who is Kina Grannis? Kina is a talented young singer/songwriter/guitarist who recently won a major contest with huge exposure! Here's the scoop from Kina's Profile:

Doritos Crash the SuperBowl WINNER!
www.twoweeksforkina.com
faqs:
- what ARE you??? half japanese :)
- what kind of guitar do you have? taylor 814-ce
- where are you from? orange county, ca
- how old are you? contrary to what you might think, i'm 22,
not 16 :)
- do you have any cds? yes, they can be purchased from
www.kinagrannis.com or on itunes!
- how can i contact you? *not* via youtube messaging,
preferably. it's gotten very backed up and it's hard for me to keep track of
messages on there. i do my best to respond, but it's difficult and slow. so this
is better: kina@kinagrannis.com
*OR* comment on my blog http://www.twoweeksforkina.com
/blog/index.html and i will try to respond in the next post!
if you're looking to buy some cds, you can find me on itunes
or order them from my website: http://www.kinagrannis.com

This video is a montage of clips from other videos, along with information about Kina and the Doritos Supper Bowl contest that she WON! Kina is beautiful but she is also smart and talented. Watch this video and meet Kina!



This is such a catchy tune! Kina sings the verses and harmonizes with her two sisters on the chorus. Warning! This song will be stuck in your head. Listen anyway, it's great!

We have added this post to Digg.com! Please click this link and Digg this!!! Thanks!



Okay, here's a video that has a little something to do with Valentine's Day. It's about beauty. Studies have shown that people are more likely to rate a face as beautiful if the person depicted has clear skin and symmetrical features. This is an indication to our subconscious brain that the person is healthy and would most likely be a good mate to raise a family with. If you use computer technology to morph together a bunch of real people's faces, you'll get an averaging of features which creates a composite with symmetrical features. People will most likely rate this composite as beautiful. Watch the video for more!



PeriUrban just keeps on making cool music videos! This one features Peri singinging his original song as he plays along on his acoustic guitar - but wait, there's more! Peri always sings and plays his guitar, but this time he added a very cool electric guitar track that adds a real rockin' kick to the tune. His singing is strong; it starts out mellow enough, but then Peri gets loud and raspy - driving home his point that the videomaking community is always changing as time goes by. Please keep checkng back here at YouTubeStars for the latest in what's going on in the YouTube community; thanks!

Labels: Anime, beauty, bowl, contest, Digg, doctorcastille, Doritos, kinagrannis, Magi, Magibon, MRirian, PeriUrban, super, superbowl

posted by KennyCrane at 2/14/2008 02:33:00 PM 0 Comments

Parents, please read these two articles that I recently wrote for the LookingForClues website. One is titled "Prescription Drug Abuse - A Parent's Guide" and the other is titled "Sex on YouTube - A Parent's Guide." They are both short but informative articles and contain information that you need to know!

Here are the article descriptions from the LookingForClues website:


Danger!
Have you talked to your kids about the dangers of Prescription Drug Abuse? Teen drug use is down for most drugs, but Prescription Drug Abuse is on the rise. Heath Ledger just died from an overdose of Prescription Drugs. Make sure your child knows the dangers of Prescription Drugs. Read our article titled Prescription Drug Abuse - A Parent's Guide to learn the facts, then speak to your kids about this important topic!

Beware of This!
Do your kids watch videos on YouTube? As a parent, you should know that YouTube is more than just clips of funny cats and laughing babies. There are many things on YouTube that your children should not see. Read our article titled Sex On YouTube - A Parent's Guide and learn about the seamy side of YouTube from a man who has been writing about YouTube for almost two years.

Labels: abuse, articles, drugs, LookingForClues, prescription, sex, YouTube

posted by KennyCrane at 2/08/2008 01:19:00 AM 0 Comments

It's Super Tuesday! Who will be the Democrat candidate? Who will be the Republican candidate? I don't know! If you're looking for a political blog, this isn't it. If you're looking for interesting and entertaining videomakers and their videos, this is the place to find them! We've been bringing you recommendations on YouTubers and YouTube videos since June 2006. We have over 100 posts on this blog. We've talked about almost 200 videomakers. We've mentioned over 300 videos. Please Subscribe to Email Updates of this blog (Use the box on the left below the Links) so you can stay up to date with YouTube News and the latest and greatest YouTubeStars!

So what's up with YouTube? Is the video sharing service still the hottest thing online? Is it still gaining new users/viewers? According to this January 21st TV Week story, YouTube's traffic decreased for 2 weeks in a row in January. Now, this February 4th TV Week article reports this about YouTube, "For the week ending Jan. 27, the world’s biggest video site drew 30.7 million unique visitors, about on par with the week before..." It appears that the number of people visiting YouTube has plateaued. But if we look at the number of subscribers for the Top 100 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels, we can see that the number of subscribers keeps growing for almost all channels on the chart. How can this be? If the number of visitors is not increasing, then either the visitors who do visit YouTube include many who are signing up and subscribing to channels for the first time, or current YouTube members are subscribing to more and more channels over time. I know I fall into the second category. I didn't subscribe to many channels for the first several months of my YouTube life. But now, 18 months into my membership, I subscribe to 366 channels!

Is there a better site to share videos on? Well, last year at this time, everyone was singing the praises of LiveVideo. It seemed that everything that didn't work on YouTube worked very well on LiveVideo - and their videos were in stereo, an improvement over YouTube's mono sound. Many YouTubers created an account on LiveVideo and many still post videos to both sites. LiveVideo even has some very entertaining channels that are not on YouTube, such as blonde teen vlogger Alex and the one and only Captain James T. Kirk (now Denny Crane), William Shatner. But YouTube has fixed some of its problems and it still has a much larger community than any other video site. Even so, it is a very good idea to sign up with LiveVideo! Don't put all your video eggs in one basket, show your videos on YouTube AND LiveVideo. Please click on the "Less Tube. More You!" ad at the top of our lefthand column on this page to check out LiveVideo. Get your account there TODAY!

What's up with Renetto? Is he teaming up with partners to create a better YouTube? Check out his long and emotional half-hour video, "Take a wild guess who I TAGGED... " and also his vid on organizing the revolt. Let's see where this goes!

In the meantime, several YouTubers are doing very well for themselves! We've talked about TiffanyJoAllen here several times. She is a young country singer who became famous from her Yodeling skills and is now becoming a YouTubeStar by posting country covers of pop tunes. Here's a chart of her subscriber numbers, as recorded by our FREE YTStats service:

02/03/2008 9137
01/27/2008 8596
01/20/2008 7859
01/13/2008 7047
01/06/2008 6216
12/30/2007 5417
12/23/2007 4620
12/16/2007 4024
12/09/2007 3327
12/02/2007 2766
11/25/2007 2264
11/18/2007 1677
11/11/2007 1156
11/04/2007 646
10/28/2007 356

Tiffany recently did a very interesting non-musical video about the little known dangers of braces. We'll see that video further on in this post.

VenetianPrincess recently won Samsung's national talent search, the Jukebox Hero contest. She was awarded $10,000 in prizes of her choice; congrats Jodie!!! Also, her music video will be played on the Samsung cell phone commercial, and she will be going on a televised promotional tour for Samsung across the country! Read more about the contest, here. Here is VP herself, talking about this news in a video:



Madeline, the How To Girl, has been on the Rachael Ray show! She's also been on a Wisconsin NBC affiliate's news show. Watch Madeline's behind-the-scenes video as she is filmed on the NBC show along with a Rachael Ray clip, here:



Now, here are 4 NEW videos by 4 talented YouTube ladies that we've talked about here before. Watch and enjoy!

UndiscoveredJulie had not made a video for 2 months and she was sorely missed! Now she's back to answer questions, make funny faces and sing a song. Julie always makes great vids with improv'ed sketches, cool accents and sweet songs. Subscribe to UndiscoveredJulie now!



Randrigh is back too! I love Roxy's music and her little stories that often preceed her singing. Roxy has been having tough times in Japan and that has led to some powerful new original songs. In her own words,

I was thinking about how when people find something beautiful, like a flower, they feel the need to take it and make it their own, tearing it away from its home and putting it in a glass vase (killing it in the process) admiring it until it dies and then having to throw it out...what a tragic waste of beautiful life!

I figure if we really loved something we would simply let it be, rather than wanting to have it and killing it in the process...
so I guess this song is about learning to admire things that we find beautiful from a distance rather than rushing to possess it and killing it in the process... it's also my way of saying that life, in any shape or form, is too precious to let it go to waste, especially for selfish reasons...

Subscribe to randrigh now!



TiffanyJoAllen is a rising YouTubeStar! As I mentioned above, she now has almost 9 thousand subscribers. Everyone loves her country versions of pop songs. But right now, lets watch Tiffany talk about a scary health issue she recently had to endure, due to her braces! Tiffany says,

Braces can make you very sick. Share this with your friends. Not being able to breathe is very scary and can be life threatening. I went
to so many doctors and had so much testing. I hope by telling my story I might save even one person from having to live this nightmare. Thankfully,I am well now since mine were removed. If you have questions please feel free to ask. I can share my experience but ultimately you will need to ask your doctor.

Subscribe to TiffanyJoAllen now!



We've been writing about Daraghna since she was "just little." Angharad had been away too; it had been 7 months since her last video, way toooo long! She's back with her version of Amy Winehouse's "Rehab." Enjoy her unique and stylish interpretation of this cool song, then watch some of her other videos. Subscribe to Darahgna now!

Labels: Darahgna, howtogirl, randrigh, renetto, TiffanyJoAllen, UndiscoveredJulie, VenetianPrincess

posted by KennyCrane at 2/04/2008 06:14:00 PM 1 Comments