Good Ol' Days of YouTube

Remember the good ol' days...you know like just over a year ago.  A time when you could watch YouTube videos without ads blocking the lower quarter of the screen.  A time before you had to watch the same Geico commercial before 3 videos in a row.  A time before Vevo where you have Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber staring at you even though you are watching Marilyn Manson videos.  And speaking of Vevo, I like how the record companies nuked their own artists sights with copyright take down notices to force traffic to the new Vevo site...and yet the new Vevo sight doesn't even have 25% of the artists' videos, that was a nice touch.  Those were the good ol' days...days when you could just enjoy some videos.  I don't mind YouTube, the artists, or even record companies trying to make a profit.  I just wish it wasn't so annoying or the ads fit better with what I was currently watching.

But there are times when it all comes together in a zen-like, perfect moment.  Why yes, watching a Slipknot video does make me want to order a pajama-gram.

"Honey, I had to get you a pajama-gram when Slipknot sang 'I'm gonna laugh when I'm buried alive'!"  Thanks YouTube, you are always there for me.

Sometimes you want to headbang, sometimes you want to buy a pajama-gram...sometimes you want to do both.

It's a Love / Hate Relationship

I totally love that youtube offers access to all this music that I haven't heard in a really long time (or ever)...but I also hate it quite a bit.

I hate watching music videos...yes, I know that is what youtube is all about video, but most the time I just want to listen to the music.  I think video ruin more songs than they help.  I guess I like to interpret songs in my own head.  I don't need a video to tell me what to think or feel, the music should do that by itself.  I especially hate this when listening to new music that I haven't heard before.  If the music can't stand on it's own without a video it is garbage.

Duplicate videos...how many times can the exact same video be uploaded over and over?  Endless.  I know youtube has code that can detect if a video uses copyrighted music that the rights holder doesn't want used, I am sure they could also easily detect duplicate videos.  Let's thin this crap out and make it more usable.  Let's keep the highest quality copy of the video.  So who gets to keep their video?  Either the owner/copyright holder's official site, or the first one to load it.  Stop giving me 44 options and them all be the same video.

Sound leveling.  Much like TV there needs to be some kind of sound leveling where each song flows better into each other.  I think be getting rid of duplicate vids could help some of this, but not all.  Sometimes it is a train wreck listening to a playlist.

Speaking of playlists - name them correctly.  I know these are all user made, so it is not youtube's fault, but seriously people when you have a playlist named "Megadeth" I expect Megadeth and only Megadeth.  I don't expect or want Slayer, Metallica, and Iron Maiden thrown in there.  If I wanted that I would search for "Metal Mix" or something like that.  I like all those bands but sometimes I just want an hour fix of Megadeth.

A better advanced search function that lets me easily choose between "official" and fan-made videos.  I actually kind of like the fan-mades that are just the album cover and the music because this is how I often listened to albums as a kid.  Record on the turntable, staring at the album cover.  But many of the others are just crap and distracting...I wish I could just bypass them.

Work with all the music companies to get all their official videos online.  I hate when a music company only has like 3 videos when the artist has 10.  It is just strange what they choose to load and not load.  Record companies - you paid to have these videos made, lets see them.

Those are a few of the things that would make my youtube experience better.  Just hoping, I guess.