Recently I was rather quiet in my blog. Currently I am writing my first research paper for SIGMOD which takes 90% of my resources. In my very limited time I had the chance to work on a very cool web project about which I want to share some insights and talk about today.
Inspired by the master thesis of Stefan Wilk about his research on navigable hyper video systems I had the idea of using Youtube navigation links and jpg graphics to create a DVD. I talked back to Robert Naumann and the guys from In Legend who were about to release a couple of music videos anyway.
Everone was convinced right away that the idea of not only putting a video on Youtube but creating the first Youtube Music DVD in the world was exactly what we wanted to do.
So here we go! The first video I’ll show here is the main Menu. It is the hidden track Remedy from the Ballads n Bullets record and consists just of a jpg. from here with the help of overlays users can choose the songs they want to listen via a simple mouse click.

For the Youtube DVD we did not want to release all tracks right a way so only the first five videos are available. Among them there is the brand new Video for the song Vortex.

Interesting about vortex is that it was taken on the In Legend Wacken Camp. I had the idea for such a camp and posted it in the in legend message board. Even though I couldn’t go to the Wacken open air more than 50 fans organized this camp and took this video on the camp ground! I am amazed how the internet is connecting people and really helping musicians to create things they might never been able to create in the past!
Besides being a really cool idea and product the youtube DVD has some other really nice and positive side effects for band promo and marketing.

• the dvd enables us to advertise our products (concerts, merchandise, records, online activities…)
• the lyrics of the songs can be displayed
• the dvd will help us to keep the user with OUR videos and not keep on surfing to some other related content
• Pleased by our good experiences with the free Pandemonium Download In Legend agreed to make the videos available for free download on their website which will contribute to In Legends viral marketing!

I am really excited to see how the idea with the Youtube DVD will develop. How the videos will spread and if the users like and understand the menu! It’ll be also interesting to see if other bands will adopt to the idea. If people are interested I will post some instructions how to create such a Youtube DVD. If you guys have any suggestions comments and thoughts I’ll be happy to hear about them!