(C) 2011 YouTube

By now, you’re probably one of the 130 million people who have watched Rebecca Black’s YouTube hit, “Friday.” Wherever you are on the critical spectrum, from “I can’t believe she had the nerve to post this” to “What a wonderfully cute pop song,” you have to admit the video is popular.  In that fact I see a glimmer of hope for the commercial viability of new, unknown musicians.

As we all know, the music industry is a commercial wasteland. Very few new artists can get a toehold, let alone make a living at it. Blame the Internet, blame industry greed, blame a dearth of new ideas, whatever…  Who or what is responsible for the situation is not my concern. I would like to see a renaissance in the music business, both for entrepreneurs and artists.

Rebecca’s song gives us a clue. It has a high entertainment value, be it for morbid curiosity or honest appreciation. Is that worth one of your dimes? I think so. That’s a lot of dimes, and $13 million is a lot of money. Split among artist, production and distribution, it would make everyone involved very happy. Let’s say you paid the dime every time you watched the full length, HD version of a YouTube clip. (The short versions and standard resolution versions would remain free.) If you paid for one clip per day, you’d add about $36 to your annual entertainment budget. A lot of people could afford that.

I know, micropayments are not a new idea. Applying them to YouTube clips is a worthwhile application of it. And who knows, it just might rejuvenate the music industry.