While I was reading through the book, How to Do Everything with YouTube, I discovered that YouTube has launched (now and in the past) a TestTube beta and Remixer. The TestTube currently has four features that anyone can try. One, Audio Swap offers users the added ability to change out the audio on their uploaded video. Users can swap their original video sound for a song that is licensed for use. The song selected will then have its artist's name and label added to the user's video. The user gets free music and the artist gets his songs out to the public. The application is at http://www.youtube.com/testtube. This is a familiar feature you may remember from animoto.com (The site where you can create your own music videos). I haven't compared the websites to see if they handle different artists and labels. Something I might do later.
TestTube is also a place where YouTube users can tryout some sharing and interactive features.
Right now users can try out video annotations and add interactive commentary to their videos. They can also try out stream video (a feature that lets them chat with others that are watching the same video they are) and try active sharing (so others can see what they're watching). Voyeuristic? No doubt.
The Remixer mentioned in beginning of this blog doesn't seem to exist at the moment. When it did appear in the TestTube it was a feature that let the user edit videos that they had uploaded at previous times. The Remixer was based on the Adobe Premier Express product and let users combine and clip videos together. It also let the user add transitions and apply titles and effects to their videos without leaving YouTube. Hmm. I'll check back later and see if it appears again.
One last thing, if you aren't experienced in compressing, reformatting and uploading video- Chad Fah's book and website can give you how-to instruction. I'll leave you to figure that out. That is- if he has finished the website and added his tutorials.
