Is Greyson Chance's serendipitous Youtube rise a ruse?

It is hard to believe an unknown elementary school student could do so much on his own. “Someone in that corner knows what they are doing,” Snyder says. The boy’s success points to a deeper trend. “Never before have so many individuals had the opportunity to achieve Warhol’s 15 minutes of fame without major labels or media companies. Just a FlipVideo, YouTube account, and a song” he says. The numbers are surprisingly tipped in favor of those who understand this.

According to Web analytics site TubeMogul, only 33 percent of videos on Youtube have been viewed over one million times. Fifty-three percent have fewer than 500 views.

This means that approximately 46 percent of all videos on YouTube have been watched over 500 times.

“So in theory at least, “ Snyder adds, “there is actually a 40-plus percent chance that a video uploaded to YouTube will be watched over 500 times.”

As these young online phenoms accumulate – think Justin Bieber and the 23-year-old Taiwanese singer, Lin Yu-chun, who recently wowed online international audiences with his interpretation of a Whitney Houston ballad – the entire entertainment landscape is being flipped around, says Fordham University professor and author of "New New Media," Paul Levinson. “Literally anyone can try their hand on the Internet,” he adds. More and more, he says, the music industry as we know it will be less about talent discovery and more about distribution.

”It is,” he says, “the most revolutionary change in history.”

If such a professional-quality, coordinated PR campaign raises the specter of yet another online ruse, Beckett himself says that’s yet another fallout of where the online environment has come in a few short years.

“If Greyson Chance has a stealth campaign being professionally run, it’s really hard to find that out now,” he says. “Everyone knows what to do to make
it appear real.”

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