Yet another monetization tactic from YouTube: click-to-buy. Through partnerships with companies like EMI and Electronic Arts, YouTube is adding links to iTunes and Amazon (DRM free) to download music and video games, with more options to come.
The links appear below videos from participating partners (such as this perennial classic from OK Go):
And Google says there’s lots more to come:
This is just the beginning of building a broad, viable e-commerce platform for users and partners on YouTube. Our vision is to help partners across all industries — from music, to film, to print, to TV — offer useful and relevant products to a large, yet targeted audience, and generate additional revenue from their content on YouTube beyond the advertising we serve against their videos.
The beginning looks like a good move with music and video game downloads, since these are established download arenas. Print, though, might be a bit more of a leap, unless we’re talking soft copies.
The click-to-buy program will be available to YouTube partners who use their content identification and management system—including on original UGC. You just have to use Content ID to claim the videos and leave them up on the site.
RWW says that music owners will also be able to put the click-to-buy links under UGC that uses their music without permission. (I doubt that the content producers would get a cut in that agreement.) But wouldn’t that mean, then, that they were granting permission at least tacitly?
source: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/10/youtube-unveils-click-to-buy.html