For the past 20 years, YouTube has been the pulse of the culture. As the leading video platform celebrates a huge milestone, it’s reiterating its ethos of encouraging users to broadcast themselves.
Initially intended as a dating site by former PayPal employees on Feb. 14, 2005, YouTube has become the leading video platform that makes the culture go round. Whether users are using it to upload their videos, watch podcasts or check out the latest music videos, it’s undeniable that two decades later, the Google-owned company is only getting bigger and better.
“We’re excited to be celebrating 20 Years of YouTube,” Vivien Lewit, senior director of artist partnerships at YouTube, told Blavity. “We often say YouTube is the epicenter of culture, and music truly defines culture. Our partnership with Coachella is the perfect manifestation of this — we’re bringing artists and fans together at the most iconic music festival in the world, and with YouTube, we’re bringing those performances right into your living room. Artists aren’t just performing for the crowd at Coachella, they’re performing for the world. It’s a perfect culmination of amazing artistry, fandom, live music and culture all in one place. And that’s what YouTube is all about.”
This year marks 14 years that YouTube has had a presence at the music festival, where it will serve as a streaming partner and allow fans who can’t experience the festival in person to view the hottest performances by acts like T-Pain, Shaboozey, Missy Elliott, Tink, Megan Thee Stallion and more.
The global impact of streaming the festival on YouTube
Almost everyone remembers where they were in 2018 when Beyoncé made history as the first Black woman to headline Coachella, and it’s cultural moments like her performance, dubbed as Beychella, that serve as a reminder of how YouTube has managed to be one step ahead of other social media platforms, as it uses music to connect people across the globe.
“The week that Beyoncé did Coachella, I was in the Johannesburg airport with my mother, and I had an American passport in South Africa, and the woman at the gate said, ‘How come you’re not at Coachella,’ because I was going to Weekend 2,” Tuma Basa, YouTube’s director of music and culture, said. “This was Weekend 1, and I’m like, I’m in Africa, how does she know about Coachella? Does she know me? Like, why did she ask me about Coachella? And I said, ‘How do you know about Coachella?’ She said, ‘Beyoncé.’ I was confused. My mom was like, ‘What is Coachella?’ I said, ‘Mom, that’s where I’m going when we get back to America. I’m going straight to Coachella.”
He added, “That was the moment when I realized that a big part of it is because people at home, even in South Africa, could watch. I was brand new to YouTube, so if you knew the shock that I went through, it was like, ‘Oh, this has reached the very soil that I grew up with. I could’ve said Coachella two years before, but because of the livestream — you see what I’m saying? It made us realize how big the world is. We see the big crowd for the festival, that’s incredible, but that’s a tiny drop of the people who are watching now. Through my group chats, you know, I mean someone’s sending me lives as if I’m not watching already like, ‘Yo, Mustard is killing it right now, he brought out YG. It’s a tribute to nip.’ This is the realization of the world we are in today.”
Bringing fans beyond just performances on the Coachella stages
It’s a world where creators like Terrell Grice, the Ha Sisters, BenoftheWeek and JaNa Craig can use YouTube not only to connect and build their respective fan bases, but also to show them Coachella content that they wish they could’ve viewed in year’s past before they became YouTube Creators on the ground of this year’s festival.
Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for YouTube Music
“The beauty about YouTube is that you can form your community, and you don’t need anybody to tell you yes, you can create your own yeses,” Grice said. “The industry is so much more prone to say no to everything and all of your ideas, all of your creativity. It’s a cool blessing that we can create something for ourselves and our communities that we can control. It allows us to take control of our creativity.”
“Coming here as a creator has allowed me to share my side of the story,” Craig added. “This is my first Coachella. I’m sure hundreds of thousands of people have never been to Coachella, but I’ve always wondered what it looks like. So for me to be able to give them, like, beyond behind the scenes, my experience, and show them all the things that they probably won’t get to see, I’m honored and I’m grateful, but I also just love sharing little bits and pieces of my life with the people that support me.”
Creator BenoftheWeek said sharing his experience from Weekend 1 of Coachella would probably take three hours, something that showcases YouTube’s commitment to both short- and long-form content.
“I would have to explain it in a very visual way. It would be a three-hour video, like in VR. Everyone hears about Coachella, but to experience it firsthand, I like making content here and sharing the cultural moments that happen here,” he said. “We get such good access to all the sets, so I feel like I’ve been put on to artists that I wouldn’t have been put on to before, and seeing iconic moments that happen at Coachella. I’m the person in the front row with the iPhone screaming my head off.”
Beyond just the big moments happening on the Coachella stages, YouTube royalty like the Ha Sisters said that their presence at the event speaks to how the platform can help bring their culture to a global audience.
“I feel like in general, the Asian community on YouTube is very niche, very small, especially like bigger creators,” they said. “So being here, especially now that a lot of K Pop artists are coming on and performing, becoming more global, I feel like it’s showing a lot more diversity. It’s nice seeing Asian YouTubers walking around, and we’re like, ‘We know y’all.’”
The impact on independent artists like Tink
From an artist’s perspective, R&B singer Tink spoke to the special place YouTube holds in her heart as someone who started from the bottom up. This year, she graced one of the Coachella stages for the first time, something monumental for her as an independent artist who has been releasing music since 2011.
“YouTube is very special and very big to me,” she said just before doing a livestream with YouTube Creators. “I’m an artist who started from the ground, and I remember uploading videos from my bedroom to YouTube, and it was just like a way to reach out and connect with the fans.”
The “Treat Me Like Somebody” crooner added, “That’s how people play music, and for that reason, I’ve always loved YouTube. Also, you need to think about videos. YouTube is a platform for all your video drops, so it’s a full-circle moment to sit down with them. That’s very big, and I hope to keep a good relationship with them.”
Using content to educate the masses
As an advocate for Black music and creators, Basa said Coachella is just one of many ways that the platform continues its mission to celebrate both rising and established artists on the global stage and beyond.
“The most important way is education and best practices, and knowing — because YouTube is also a pretty sophisticated platform — you want to monetize, or if you want to break through the noise of so many people, because it’s a lot of music, a lot of people … what we try to do is reach everybody, and YouTube’s getting close to becoming the No. 1 revenue source for the music industry.”
“We’re almost there,” he said. “We’re already the No. 1 best place for every music fan, right? So what happens is, this is the fundamental part — getting the knowledge out there. Like, ‘Hey, this is how you win on here. We’re gonna give you some game, and we’re speaking our language. You’re doing this wrong. Tweak this. Have you ever thought about …? There’s multiple ways, but scaled education is the bottom line. Getting the word out there and making sure that we don’t get left behind in terms of benefit, in terms of content, [and] monetizing.”
This year’s Coachella festival included headliners Lady Gaga, Travis Scott and Post Malone, with additional performances by Muni Long, Tink, YG, Ty Dolla $ign and a host of others.
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