Seven of the top 10 most popular videos on YouTube Kids are children’s songs. “Baby Shark” has been played more than 4 billion times, and the content of children’s songs is getting more and more attention.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Blue Magic Cube Children” (ID: lmfkid), author Dkphhh. p>
Children’s songs for children are becoming a big business. p>
Last week, YouTube released a one-year review video Rewind 2019 as usual. Traditional categories such as games, dance, Vlog, and beauty still dominate YouTube’s 2019. But in some segments, we find that child-oriented content is becoming more and more popular on YouTube. p>
For example, YouTube ’s most popular game, the fifth place is Roblox, and the first place is Minecraft. Both of these games are mainly children. And the third most popular creator of the year, Pencilmation is a children’s animation channel. p>
In September, YouTube also announced a $ 100 million investment to help content creators create original children’s content. p>
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Pencilmation p>
Under the broad category of child-oriented content, the hottest area this year is without a doubt children’s songs. p>
YouTube Kids also announced the Top 10 most popular videos on the platform last week. Seven of the top 10 videos are children’s songs. p>
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YouTube Kids is a special version of YouTube for kids, which simplifies the operation interface and adds parental controls.Only child-oriented video content is retained. p>
Because the YouTube Kids front desk does not display the playback volume, the video playback volume in the table is from YouTube for reference only. p>
The most popular video on YouTube Kids this year is Cocomelon’s “This is the way + More Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs.” This nursery rhyme video is a 37-minute nursery rhyme collection that contains 13 nursery rhymes. p>
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Wheels on the Bus 2 | CoCoMelon Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs p>
Most of the nursery rhymes videos on the list are such collections of children’s songs. The second most popular “ABC Song Learn English Alphabet for Children with Ryan!” Has 23 minutes, and the ninth “If You ’re Happy And You Know It” is nearly an hour long. p>
But there is an exception. The eighth place “Dinosaur Stomp and More | PRETEND ANIMAL DANCE SONG” has a “SONG” in the title, but in the 19-minute content, there are toys unpacking and children’s programs in addition to children’s songs. Performance. p>
Early YouTube’s children’s songs videos are basically one song and one video. The collection of children’s songs videos is a new trend formed in the past year. For young parents, the video is longer, and the child can be quieter for longer. p>
Children’s songs are a new battlefield outside the giant’s vision. Can the next giant be born here? h2>
Children’s songs are not countedGreat track, but it also means an opportunity. p>
On the list released by YouTube Kids, we can find that most of the channels that these children’s songs belong to are new faces. As we know, Sesame Street can only be ranked sixth, and Disney and Piggy Page can make the list not because of nursery rhymes but animated videos. Just watching YouTube ’s play volume, Ryan’s World ’s nursery rhymes video is more than 3 times that of Sesame Street. p>
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This is no accident, it is the negligence of these giants that gave the small team a chance. And YouTube, an algorithm-driven, decentralized platform, is also very suitable for vertical content. p>
In the past, we analyzed the unpacking videos of toys emerging on YouTube. In the eyes of adults, no one will watch this kind of video, but in the mainstream children’s market, this is exactly an unmet need. The same goes for nursery rhymes videos. p>
Men agency Moonbug CEO René Rechtman said that a few years ago, YouTube had more than 60% of its audience watching music content, but at the time the music area did not have a children’s IP head. This is a huge opportunity. p>
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Little Baby Bum p>
In China, the content of children’s songs also has a significant influence. For example, “” Bear appears “will push mobile games, Disney’s annual box office exceeded 10 billion US dollars | Blue Rubik’s Cube Children’s Weekly Issue 2 ” article counts, last week’s Apple iOS children’s free download list Continue to be ruled by early education apps like literacy, nursery rhymes, and stories. P>
However, with the rise of countless children’s content channels on YouTube, the nursery rhyme market has now entered an era of stock competition. p>
We can see that the channel with the most fans on the list, Cocomelon, has accumulated 67.1 million fans, far ahead of everyone. Cocomelon, registered in 2006, is one of the earliest channels to broadcast nursery rhyme videos on YouTube and has now become a leader in the nursery rhyme track. p>
Behind it, Pinkfong! and Little Baby Bum, who also cultivate the track of children’s songs, have more than 20 million fans. Ryan’s World, which started from toys out of the box video, entered the nursery rhyme track more than a year ago. Now this channel has accumulated more than 20 million fans and has developed into a comprehensive coverage of children’s content accounts. p>
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PinkFong! p>
At the same time, we also noticed that these children’s songs companies now have IP awareness. The characters appearing in their animation are basically fixed. After the formation of IP, it will also help their commercialization. p>
There is traffic when you have fans, and you can make money with traffic. The realization of children’s songs content is the same as all content-based IP. The source of income is nothing more than the following: buying copyrights by streaming media platforms, selling derivatives, platform sharing or advertising. p>
In terms of copyright, Cocomelon’s nursery rhymes have been bought by Spotify and Apple Music. After Little Baby Bum became famous on YouTube, their nursery rhymes videos were bought by Amazon Prime, Netflix and some British TV stations. p>
In terms of derivatives, Little Baby Bum and Pinkfong! have already cooperated with companies in the fields of toys, clothing, daily necessities, etc. to launch derivatives. p>
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YouTube’s platform is divided into essentially sharing advertising revenue with creators, and the amount of revenue depends entirely on the video playback volume. According to data provided by Socialblade, Cocomelon, Little Baby Bum and other popular nursery rhymes channels can get a share of about $ 10 million a year, which is not a small number, but for a company that has been operating on a large scale, This money is not too much. p>
The founding family of Baby Shark is worth 125 million US dollars, but there is anxiety behind the accelerated realization h2>
How high is the ceiling of the nursery rhyme business? p>
We derived a song from “ mentioned the child Entertainment company Smart Study and its brand Pinkfong. p>
Pinkfong uploaded the nursery rhyme “Baby Shark” on YouTube three years ago. This song has been tepid for a while after uploading, until it airborne to the Billboard early this year, and then became a hit. p>
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When we reported this nursery rhyme in May of this year, it had already played 2.6 billion times on YouTube, and by the end of the year it had reached 4.1 billion times. It has increased by 1.5 billion in 7 months. “Baby Shark” now ranks fifth on YouTube, and before and after him are popular music videos. “Baby Shark” itself has already exceeded the scope of children’s songs. p>
On the field of this year’s Major League Baseball Championship, the audience sang “Baby Shark”. In Lebanon, the song became the rallying point for civilian demonstrations. p>
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“Baby Shark” seems to be the ceiling of the influence of children’s songs, so how much money does Smart Study make from this song? p>
The New York Times said that the music copyright income of “Baby Shark” so far is $ 8 million, not much. Smart Study’s revenue last year was 35 million US dollars, equivalent to RMB 246 million, an increase of 47% year-on-year, continuing the high growth trend since the company was founded. p>
Bloomberg said the Korean Kim family behind Smart Study is now worth $ 125 million. However, the Kim family not only owns Smart Study, but also runs Samsung Publishing, which also holds Smart Study shares. But family assets can grow so much thanks to the influence of Baby Shark. p>
In the end, children’s songs are a music business. This means that copyright income will not be too high, and other things are needed to realize their influence. p>
This year, after “Baby Shark” became popular, Smart Study obviously accelerated the pace of realization. In August, they teamed up with children’s cereal brand Berry-Fin-Tastic to print Baby Shark characters on cereal packaging, thereby landing on supermarket shelves. Then, they rolled out the derivatives authorization, clothes, toys, sheets, picture books, all included. p>
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In addition to selling copyrights, selling derivatives, and Smart Study, it also toured “Baby Shark Live” like a music company. The tour will run from June this year to June next year, covering most cities in North America. The main program of the tour is children’s songs, usually parents and children come with them. p>
Baby Shark Live tickets cost $ 50 and we don’t know how much money we can make since the tour is not complete. It can be used as a reference. The pajamas who are also children’s IP have also toured and performed about 300 shows with ticket income of 22 million US dollars. p>
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Baby Shark Live p>
“Ordinary children’s IP generally starts with TV shows and then buys toys, but they always live on TV. Cross-border music is the latter thing. But we are completely different. We start with music and digital content and then surround It created a show. From this perspective, Baby Shark is more like a star than an animated character, “said Marina Lee, head of consumer products at Pinkfong. p>
Although Baby Shark is like a star, in the final analysis it is not a star. In order to speed up the progress of Baby Shark Live, the organizer Round Room has prepared two sets of performances, and two groups of horses will be performed simultaneously. For the audience, they are no different, because the main characters of the show, Baby Shark and Pinkfong, are just a set, and it doesn’t matter who the actors are. p>
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What’s even more weird is that this 75-minute show has only one song, which is “Baby Shark”. This is also a challenge for the music adaptors, who have to stretch this two-minute nursery rhyme to 75 minutes, which can not make the audience tired. p>
The source of acceleration is still anxiety. p>
“Baby Shark”, like all cultural goods in the Internet era, is almost instantaneous. It also means that after the birth of the next hotspot on the entire network, it will quickly become silent and its business value will shrink greatly. p>
Another point of anxiety is the copyright of the song “Baby Shark.” The song “Baby Shark” was actually born in the early part of the last century, and now its copyright has already flowed into the field of announcements. Smart Study is a re-creation based on the original song, but they can re-write others. Now if you search for Baby Shark on YouTube, you will find many adaptations. p>
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“Shott” Baby Shark picture book p>
Not only songs, but also derivatives. Even if someone has issued an unauthorized Baby Shark picture book, as long as the shark image in it is different from Baby Shark, it will not be considered infringement. Publisher Scholastic is not authorized, but five of its Baby Shark picture books have sold more than one million copies, and the money has nothing to do with Smart Study. p>