2024-05-04
Media Moron of the Week Award to …
This is the lashing out section
The Media Moron of the Week Award could have gone to any media with an entertainment newsdesk that doesn’t write about the most played song in the world. It is not only the most played, it is also outperforming the global No.1 and most famous contemporary artist by a significant margin (yeah, Fortnight again).
Added to that; it has been the most played song on the planet since March 20th. 6 weeks now! Except for two days on April 19-20 (yeah, Fortnight again). It has beaten all sorts of records and been played 6.4 billion times in 2024.
Added to that, it is likely to be, or soon become, the most played content in the history of mankind, if measured within any period of less than one year.
The press release has already been out for 18 days. Dozens of qualified music industry publications have written about it already. The story is far from unknown.
To have an entertainment newsdesk and not write about this is gross misconduct. It is the definition of unprofessionalism, and an embarrassment that will be discussed and held against them. It is not ok. NOT OK!
Did I hear someone whine: “but this is shorts, but the nugget, but the weird title”? Yeah, as if that makes it any LESS significant. Morons!
There is not one artist, music producer, record label or music publisher in the world who would be ok with having the most played song in the world and not be mentioned. Not a single one. This is not a “Rednex guy in a bad mood” situation. It is a gross misconduct situation.
So, take your pick in alphabetical order: ABC News, Aftonbladet, BBC, Billboard, BuzzFeed, CBS News, Cinema Blend, CNN, Daily Mail, Forbes, Fox News, Good Morning America, NBC News, New York Times, People, Pitchfork, Scripps News, Stereogum, The Guardian, Today, Wall Street Journal.
I went with this sad deterioration:
https://youtube.com/shorts/T_58tEphyyA
https://youtube.com/shorts/aUO6c8o_Aow
2024-05-04
The Era of the Mega-Events
Music Industry & Media Future Part 1
Our first press release went out on April 16th. Taylor Swift’s album was released on April 19th. The timing of those two contrasting events is very fortunate and entertaining.
In media attention Taylor Swift beat Gedagedigedagedago 1000-1.
In terms of real contact with a listening human being, aka views/plays, her leading single Fortnight is doing 18M/day on YouTube and Spotify combined. The last time Geda did that poorly was on February 29. The mega-event outperforms Fortnight in view count six-fold on a slow Tuesday.
The narrative in media however, is that Fortnight is worth something, and Geda is not. Thus Taylor-Geda 1000-1. The contrasts are huge.
Mr Blue says: “I have 2000 million views”
Mr Brown says: “I have 200 million views”
Who do you listen to? Who will get the attention, the headlines?
Your answer does not correlate to the current situation at all.
There are all sorts of arguments and explanations to why this is. I am sure you have yours. I will skip that and get to my point.
Which is, this huge discrepancy can’t go on for too long. Whatever the explanation is, things are about to change. Today it is 1000-1, but what will that score be in 10 years time? Probably a lot more even, or the other way around?
There will be a next mega-event soon, then a next, then a next. A group will form. Voices will be louder and call for attention. The more mega-events, and the more shorts culture there will be, the more likely it is for the balance to shift. Shift to what and where exactly?
You can go even further: Get your head into the future, 10 or 20 years. Blue says “2000”, Brown says “200”. Who is there to care to listen to Brown at all? Who is he with only 200? Mediocre number. What kind of future is there even for the full song? Why do creators even care if their creations are being picked apart and consumed in fragments? Should they care, should they not?
Do not underestimate numbers. They will win. People’s opinions and analysis on why and what will die out and/or be replaced. But the numbers will always remain throughout history.
The history of mega-events: I like the metaphor of a big party hall. Rednex arrives first, very eager to party. No one else is there. It is desolate and non-interactive. We wait. Wait for the bigger guests to show up. The prominent ones. In 2-3 hours they arrive. Then more. The party is alive. Then even more important guests arrive. And more. The place gets jammed. The party is kicking like crazy. In the late hours, one of the big guests comes up to the little redneck saying: “It was you guys who started this party, right? Well done. Here is a drink on me!” Cheers!
The party is coming. It is unstoppable. Mega-events have started to tip the scale.
By the way, you can copy/paste this reflection of the future onto money as well. Currently, the compensation a creator get from one second of played content from a short presentation, is much lower than one from a complete presentation. Is it ok?
Geda is a smash hit. As big as they come. It happened without any media exposure. So what is the need for media? In this case, none at all. It could just as well have not existed. Which hits in the future will involve media? Why even bother? Compare that situation to the 90’s, when 100% of all songs were impossible to break without media.
Just to be clear, I have stopped looking at the future as a particularly bright place. It used to be. Maybe could be. But ain’t no more. I am not an advocate for either shorts, long, edited, cut or completed content. The writings here exist primarily to provide information and documentation, and occasionally to heckle power-accumulating shit media. I never asked to be the center of what might be the world’s first mega-event.
The 48h ticker is at 216M. The view count on Wednesday was 119M, 7 times more than Fortnight. On Google’s news tab, Taylor Swift has 2.7M articles. Gedagedigedagedago has 16.
2024-05-04
The One Way That We Suck
My Most Embarrassing Writing, so far
I wish that you wouldn’t read this.
This might be the writing that I am dreading mostly to write. I am embarrassed and feeling that I am letting my team down. There is one way that I suck, and therefore also Rednex suck.
But I have entered transparency mode with these writings, so here we go…
Marketing.
I can’t do it. Rednex can’t do it. We are illiterates and straight through hillbillies all over when it comes to it. Everything that we have tried, since our first release in the streaming era in 2010, has utterly failed. No method is worth trying again. Basically, literally, every effort has come to nothing. 0% success.
I still have no clue how to deal with this. With every release we try new things, trying to read the room, trying to penetrate. It seems hopeless. The only lesson left is to not do it again, with nothing left over than a lesser bank account. What to do instead? I am clueless.
And now we must deal with this again. I look around, waiting for a professional to show up. Some help please?! But what I get is an echo and a distant rolling tumbleweed. I have nowhere to turn.
Every marketing person that I talk to have their own ideas and like to share. Whatever they say, I am thinking: “we already tried that, didn’t work”, “yep, tried that too, didn’t work” The list of shit ways to market a new song is now endless. The what-works list is blank.
We are shit at this, and now we have 2 releases, in the most important period of this project in the streaming era.
Unless my shame consumes me, I will share our marketing efforts with you, as best I can. Maybe someone can learn something.
The official video of Gedagedigedagedago has been out a week now. The song is doing 100M+/day on other channels. On our own channel, with 500K subscribers, it is doing 6K/day. Our other new release, Another Round, is at 1K/day. Considering that we currently have the most played song in the world, these videos are seriously underachieving.
Leading up to the release of the official Gedagedigedagedago, there were two unauthorized Geda remixes on YouTube, uploaded on insignificant accounts by insignificant producers. They had a combined view count of 15M in two months. This is 100K/day, so we have 6% of that. It is incredibly lousy. Sure, things might pick up, but my gut feeling says that it won’t. If you see a spike in the dates May 2-4 it is due to YouTube advertising, so not “real” views.
We spent 2000 EUR on YouTube ads. This has always felt like a complete waste of money. You get some views, but there is zero staying power or ripple effects. It is as if they are not real. So, enough of that.
Now to what we are about to do next. The “fresh” ideas to waste money on 🙂
Keep in mind that Rednex is an independent artist with a small budget. We need be creative or “do magic with the knees”, as mother would have said.
With the Geda video, we want to channel the viral views into views on the official video. That’s the current objective. Wouldn’t it have been just so rosy if it could have happened all by itself? Release the video and boom! Two million views. Lean back. Enjoy success. Apparently not. Back to marketing. Yuck.
“If you say A, you must say B”, as mother would have said.
So, I am gonna go all-in on… Indonesia! Ta-da! The famous solution to all your troubles; do a marketing campaign in Indonesia!
Has he lost his mind, or was it lost from the beginning?
Indonesia has the highest view count per capita on viral Geda. I have been there many times, it is a share-friendly and positive culture. The content, a somewhat more childish take on Cotton, seems like a good fit. The pay per view is cheap. Jakarta is the top city in the Geda stats. Here we come!
We will do six different outreaches:
Digital marketing in Indonesia – a general and open request has gone out. Create links to the YouTube video in whatever way possible.
Press agency in Indonesia – maybe a press release could whip up some articles and shares with links to the video. “Jakarta is leading the geda movement…” etc . Maybe far fetched, let’s give it a try anyway.
Promote the YouTube link in Indonesia – similar to the first one. I guess this one is about communities and influencers or whatever.
Spotify playlisting – we will use promoters to contact Spotify playlist curators to include the song when being released on May 24. Some before release, some after. This is not related to any particular territory.
WhatsApp – Apparently one can also do WhatsApp marketing and contact databases. We will do this in US and Malaysia. Indonesia was not available. Maybe people are more share-willing on WhatsApp. If you get a video link on WA, you are likely to click it, no?
Facebook & Instagram video ads – Do a video spot and link it to the YouTube video. Paid ads this is. It sounds like a shit idea, but I picked up a recommendation.
I hate all of these campaigns and to deal with them. It will amount to nothing. But I need points for trying.
I will return with some kind of summary writing of these marketing efforts.
Several of the people working on these campaigns will be found at Upwork. We use it a lot. Is it a good idea? I am very doubtful to everything we do within this topic.
A couple of marketeers suggested that we do a dance campaign on TikTok to get viral. Maybe you haven’t noticed, but we are already viral. Hello. Doing it all over again, what would be the purpose? To find lack of intelligence in this community is way too easy.
With our other new release, Another Round, the marketing campaigns will be different. They will be about breaking the song. We will try to involve the video creator community that made Geda a success. The song has potential in this regard.
Geda is already a hit, that we know. It should be a simple matter of “getting it out there”, but with Another Round there is no way of knowing if the track is strong enough.
2024-05-02
World Record – 6 Billion Views in 90 Days
Bold & Brave. Bordering Self Obliteration
We claim a new world record – 6 Billion Views in 90 Days. From the period of February 1 – April 30, 2024.
Here is a video showing the YouTube analytics page –
Rednex is bold and brave, bordering self obliteration. Thus, we will make another statement that will seem insane, but is likely true:
Measured within any duration of less than one year, Gedton is the most played song through out all history of music ever played during the history of mankind.
How about that?
I welcome help in how to say it more catchy.
We dare to say that no other song has been played six billion times in less than one year. Ever. On any platforms combined. Baby Shark included. We will listen to other suggestions with open ears.
The mega-event Gedagedigedagedago is happily tripping on in the same pace, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we will have 6B in 60 days within a few weeks.
Some comparisons:
Only 7 videos have ever reached 6 billion views on YouTube. The No.2 Despacito took 8 times as long. No.5 Shape of You took 25 times as long. No.6 See You Again took 34 times as long.
The most played song on Spotify, Blinding Lights, have a total of 4.2B in 5 years.
Beatles claims to be the best selling artists with 600 million records sold. They don’t have one song on YouTube’s Top 1000 classics list (songs older than 5 years). Cotton Eye Joe is No.405.
Today, the 48h ticker is at 224M. Global No.1 Taylor Swift’s Fortnight have a combined play count of 18M/day on YouTube and Spotify. On Tuesday, April 30, Gedton had 114M in one day. Six times as much as the song that is widely recognized by media as most played. On Google’s news tab there are 2.9M articles about Taylor Swift. Gedagedigedagedago has 5.
How many views do you think we have on TikTok? –
https://www.billboard.com/charts/tiktok-billboard-top-50/
All information regarding this event has cancellation back-up copies on https://rednexmusic.com/geda-writings-part-1/ and YouTube community and https://patreiniz.substack.com/
2024-04-30
Everyone In Rednex Was Told To SHUT UP!
When Media Morons are Roaming About
This relates to the foregoing article about media morons.
And, especially how we had a media strategy with priority to get the story out correctly. Not necessarily give priority to where to get articles most easily. Thus, avoiding “home country” Sweden.
In hindsight, this proved out to be a clever move, at least until now. As the correct story has been published and is spread, safely away from the Swedish media morons, who did an attempt to ruin it. But they were too late. Good plan, Rednex! Pats on the back.
For this to succeed, there must be no leaks. Which, again, is most easy to happen in Sweden. So, the team was told to shut up. Strictly. Later I realized that no one would have probably believed that leak anyway.
To quote myself on the Rednex WhatsApp group on March 26th: “Do NOT share information from this group with any non-close people. This should NOT go to media until we are ready. And NOT on social media. The press release will be either April 16 or 23. This is very important! Do NOT share.”
Everyone in the team that had knowledge, including Lucille Group, were asked to not talk to media even if being asked. Luckily, not a single media picked it up before.
With a blast, Rednex, Razi & Gedton went to become the most played music in the world. It is a secret that is not easy to hold on to for 3-4 weeks. I was terrified that the story would leak and be written of in a crap way that would make it impossible to correct and help to elevate the project.
The first wire went out on April 16th. No media wrote a word for 48 hours. I was again pointing my finger strictly to the team in a letter on April 18th which looked like this:
______________________
Here is an explanation to why I am very strict with you not contacting media. At this moment, the story didn’t yet break. This means that this story can go in many directions. Once it takes off in one direction, we will not have any chance to change the direction and what the story will be about.
The story that we want is
a) we have a world record and is currently the most played artist in the world
b) check out our new party banger Another Round & the release of full version Gedagedigedagedago.
With that story, Rednex (& Razi) can elevate on many levels for a long time to come.
The list of stories that we do NOT want can be made very long:
– the chicken nugget is stupid and none of this is real art
– The song is 30 years old, boring, not news
– Gedagedigedagedago is not real music and silly and stupid
– the new short video trend is contentless
– rednex is a joke-group and not to be taken serious
– Annika had the original idea to the song
– rednex is a one-hit wonder
– a lawsuit is already on the way
– a 5 second song should not count
etc etc etc etc, or any other discredit they can think of
That said, we seem to have a problem. The numbers are so high that media might not believe them. This is one feedback from one of the press agents. It makes sense. I didn’t want this to break through social media, but with US/UK media being passive, we will try it now. Therefore, I have added a video to our strategy.
Video download here – https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WZniq7drXinYRG7IXUmd4pdpuMvDK556/view?usp=sharing
PLEASE SHARE THIS VIDEO! Yes, share this video! As much as possible. Don’t contact media in any other way and check with me for all interview requests. The video can be downloaded and shared on whatever account you want, including your own accounts as well.
__________________
We had a couple of breaches to this strict rule, especially since some team members think that, when the wire is out, the story is also out. It is not. It just means that our own text is posted on some irrelevant web site. The breaches had no effect.
It is still not too late for this story to go in an awkward and unwanted direction (read: untrue).
Why are we doing this? We could also not do it. Rednex & Razi would still get a fair royalty from YouTube plays and a good experience, without the media going-abouts and number reports. The main reasons are listed in the longer letter above (a & b), perhaps I will write more in-depth about this later.
Tomorrow, we will send out another wire in the US and try to push for bigger media to give attention to what is currently the most played song in the world.
The 48h ticker is 202M. The Sunday count was 120M. The global No.1 Taylor Swift’s Fortnight has a combined play score of 17M/day on YouTube (8M) and Spotify (9M). Gedagedigedagedago is being played 7 times more often. On Google’s news tab, Taylor Swift has 6M articles, Gedagedigedagedago has 5.
2024-04-29
Media Moron of the Week Award to –
… ouch… my own country (again)
I hated media already in 1994.
First, they pick up some new information.
After that, they go one of two ways:
a) They mangle the story through their own political and moral-lecturing agenda to fit whatever influence they want upon the world. In music journalistic terms it can for instance be: “Rednex sucks. Beatles is great. If I have to write an article about Rednex, then I will at least tell everyone how much they suck and claim that they are less successful than they are.” Truth twisting. This strategy is the: Political filter.
b) They add fiction to spice up a story, or literally just make one up. If you give a quote, they will re-write it to suit their own headline. This is more common that it is not. Let’s call this: Scandal inciting.
It will take less than 5 articles about your project for you to discover this reality. Media can’t be trusted in any sense. And the bigger they are, they uglier they get. Most common people are never involved with media, so they will never get to learn this, so they keep thinking that big media is feeding them the truth. But we know better.
There is a third option, of course, the truth. It is rarely sought after, especially in big media. The good articles that we have had so far are from smaller industry media who care to check the information properly.
But this writing is about those who don’t and those who do it worst of all, up to a point that their involvement are a professional hazard not only to the projects they write about, but also to themselves.
TV4 is the second most popular TV channel in Sweden. They were the first established media in Sweden to feature the story. The article includes a grave fault, which indicates that the journalist has not bothered to read up on what the story is about.
He writes: “Four percent of the world population have seen the Cotton Eye Joe video.”, and “With three billion views on YouTube in less than one month, the viral video with the song have beaten the world record.”
https://www.tv4.se/artikel/16dl8XEb7ikRtrRt5yfIvv/svensk-hitlat-slar-vaerldsrekord-pa-youtube
So, it should be “videos”. The Cotton Eye Joe video itself is not relevant here. It is the 1M+ other videos including our songs (Geda & Cotton = Gedton) that are relevant. That is the story that is interesting, but most of all true. With this fault, he changes the story in a poor way. He comes across as a guy who doesn’t understand what he is talking about and/or even the concepts of YouTube and video shorts.
This is risky.
Because it takes 8 seconds to find out that the Cotton Eye Joe video “only” has 250M views, and therefore the story can be called a bluff. Any reader that will info check can’t be won back. He has lost credibility in TV4, but also in Rednex, as we might be accused of fake news.
I contacted the sloppy reporter, Felix Wilow, by email and even made the corrections for him. VideoS in plural. Easy corrections. But, no corrections were made and I never heard from the lazy bastard again.
But who will win the Media Moron of the Week Award? Well, actually not him, he is in second place. But his poor description of the story led to a copy/follow-up article in, what probably is the crappiest publication in Sweden – Expressen.
The name of the “journalist” is Maja Slobodnik. It is as if a 7-year old would write for the school paper, where every small complicated situation that requires an adult brain get completely misunderstood. Check this out:
“The song is used in the viral video ”Gedagedigedagedago”, a video that has been shown three billion…” (two times incorrect and completely missing the point)
“In the 8 days after the video was uploaded to YouTube, it had been shown one billion times.” (clearly she didn’t even bother to read the press release)
“Four percent of the world population have seen the Cotton Eye Joe video.” (completely incorrect, risky for all and of course a direct copy of the incorrect TV4 article, without source check)
If media doesn’t care about checking their sources and is left unopposed and unchecked, this can turn into a devastating game of Chinese Whispers, where the end result is of course that no one will trust any information in general.
And this one is the best of all:
“The recent success of Eurodance music has shocked the band.” LOL
The mind that is writing this is so uneducated and underdeveloped that it’s surprising just to see that she can write at all. Oh my. It is like as if she has no clue about music genres in general. Why write about them.
Eurodance broke through in 1992. When Cotton Eye Joe was No.1 in Germany, us producers made a t-shirt with the Top 20 chart. 16 of those 20 songs were eurodance. This genre has been massively popular for 32 years. 32. This sentence is so stupid that any comment to it becomes like air.
https://www.expressen.se/noje/cotton-eye-joe-slar-nytt-rekord-tack-vare-virala-trenden/
That’s quality reporting for ya! Mic drop.
In the 80’s & 90s, there was this mythical saying – “All publicity is good publicity”. It is an absolute shit saying which bears no weight at all. Incorrect publicity can be truly devastating. It can ruin careers and people.
If the shit Swedish media would have been first in reporting about this story, then the rest of the world might have deemed it as fake news and turned their backs on the whole thing. Luckily, I was clever enough to understand that Swedish media was a risk due to many reasons.
So, our first press release (April 16th) went to the US where nothing happened. The next ones went to UK & Germany (April 18th) where the story broke. When we sent out the press release in Sweden (April 19th), the story had already started to break, in a truthful and healthy way, in some parts in Europe and Australia. So, big thanks to real journalists! Kudos to me for letting previous experiences at least lead to something.
Congratulation Maja, moron of the week. Do future artists a favor and get another job.
The 48h ticker is 208M. Saturday’s count was 108M. Gedagedigedagedago is currently being played six times more often than the global No.1 Taylor Swift’s Fortnight, which has 18M/day on YouTube (8M/day) and Spotify (10M/day) combined.
Yes, you political filtering journalist, we know you hate these numbers. Don’t think that we don’t see you.
2024-04-29
“Music Today is Weird.”
… and Media Doesn’t Understand Half of It
“… this story is about a single song that has suddenly racked up three billion streams in a single month. That’s some kind of record.”
Thanks for the article, Alan Cross!
However, it’s not “some kind of record”. It is, by far, the largest play count of any song in the history of the world, within a similar duration (one year-ish).
This is hugely significant and perhaps the largest entertainment news of the year.
That’s how big this is. “Weird” is a proper start, but doesn’t cover it.
This story is not about Gedagedigedagedago, Rednex or YouTube. It is about the numbers. They are insane. Geda is not 8% faster than Despacito to 4 billion plays. It is 8 TIMES faster. It is as if someone just released a high-speed train which goes 2500 kmh and around the world in 16 hours. It changes industries and perspectives. Geda did 4 billion in 32 days, Despacito 271 days.
If you think this is nonsense, you need to open your eyes, read the numbers, rub your eyes, open your eyes, then do it all over again. Give it time, you’ll get there.
Hello, welcome you, person in the future, who is insightful enough to understand that this event deserves your case study. These writings are made almost entirely with you in mind. Finally, you found this place. I hope I will have time to set a nice table for you to summarize the event.
All of this happened without any particular major effort by any person. It happened without any marketing efforts, or corporate structure or strategy. It happened unattached. It happened without any notice or mention in media. Media didn’t even choose not to write, they didn’t know about it. They didn’t know that 5% of the world population had done this consumation in a record amount of time.
From whatever angle you look at it, it is mind-blowing. The relevant questions are 100’s.
It is already known that sub-cultures, who appear in smaller dugouts online and offline, can stay of the media radar. But Geda is a pop-culture. It is not only massive, but it is currently the largest of them all. It is now two weeks since the first wire was sent, and almost no major media has reported about it. This resistant behavior is significant.
Today the 48h ticker is at 210M. The Friday count was 98M. Fortnight by Taylor Swift, the No.1 song right now, is currently clocking at 8M/day at YouTube and 10M/day at Spotify. Geda is doing 5 times better than that. A search on the news tab on Google, Taylor Swift has 6.3M articles. Gedagedigedagedago has 6.
Cotton Eye Joe re-entered the YouTube charts at No.40 in Sweden. The official Gedagedigedagedago video on YouTube had a weak start with only about 6K/day.
2024-04-27
Total Playing Time is Now 4,500 years
Here We Measure Music Success in Hours, not Views
“Sure, people were actually listening to a few seconds of a cover version in various viral videos, but maybe this is what success is in 2024” – Andy Malt at https://completemusicupdate.com/and-finally-cotton-eye-joe-is-the-worlds-most-popular-song-this-is-not-the-future-i-asked-for/
Thanks for the article, Andy.
In 2024, the geda mega-event has been played on YouTube 40 million hours. This is equivalent to 4,500 years of playing time. This statistics is given by the YouTube analytics page as “Watch time (hours)” (check our stat-videos for that).
In our press release, we say that 3 billion views in watch time equals 700M traditional views. I will straighten this out a bit.
The average view duration of a geda video is 0:25 seconds. 40 million hours is 25 seconds times 5.6 billion views. But of course the song is not played for that whole duration. It comes in and out in various versions. I intend to measure more exactly how much real playing time there is. Wait for that.
I don’t have view duration statistics from other artists, but here are some of our songs:
Cotton Eye Joe – 1:31 (46.7%)
Hold Me For a While – 2:25 (76.0%)
Old Pop in an Oak – 1:59 (55.1%)
Wish You Were Here – 2:41 (67.8%)
My conclusion is that, the slower and older the song is, the higher the duration. Rest assured, Fortnight is below 50%.
If a new song is 3.20 minutes, then the duration is expected to be 100 seconds. So, in order to top Geda, a traditional music video needs 1,44B views. The No.1 YouTube music video currently makes 28M in one week.
Therefore, if measured in time, Gedton is the most played song on YouTube in 2024, by far.
Any content provider can now ask himself – do I want my content to be played to 10M people for 10 seconds, or 1M people for 100 seconds? Hopefully, my documents here will bring you some clarity for you.
This is what humans were up to 4,500 years ago:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/feb/17/discovery-of-4500-year-old-palace-in-iraq-may-hold-key-to-ancient-civilisation#img-2
The 48h ticker is 160M. The Wednesday count was 93M. A slow day for Geda.
Taylor Swift’s “Fortnight”, the global No.1 on Spotify, has had a daily average on Spotify of 15M last week. Geda is 6 times more played than that. On Google’s news tab, a search on Taylor Swift will give 7,9M articles. Gedagedigedagedago will get 6. No, not 6M, just 6 🙂
2024-04-26
Rednex Has the 9th Most Played Song on YouTube All-time
We Passed Gangnam Style – 5.5B vs 5.1B
In 2024, the viral mega-event Gedagedigedagedago have amounted to 5.5 billion views on YouTube. This places Rednex at No.9 of YouTube views all-time.
None of the other Top 10 videos were released within the last 5 years. Geda achieved this number in only 4 months. We are currently on a pace of 90M per day. No.2 Despacito is on 1M per day. If Geda keeps up this pace, then we beat Despacito in total views by the last of May. Look out, Baby Shark!
Top 10 (views in billions)
1. Baby Shark Dance – 14.32
2. Despacito – 8.41
3. Johny Johny Yes Papa – 6.89
4. Bath Song – 6.66
5. Shape of You – 6.23
6. See You Again – 6.22
7. Wheels on the Bus – 6.01
8. Phonics Song with Two Words – 5.75
9. Uptown Funk – 5.18
10. Gangnam Style – 5.10
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-viewed_YouTube_videos
These comparisons do not take into account any other songs views on other channels. Naturally, they are probably somewhat substantial. However, unlikely to be near Gedagedigedagedago’s numbers. On such a chart, we won’t be Top 10 for at least some more weeks. There are no such statistics to be found. So far, only Rednex shares these statistics.
The most prestigeous chart for individual songs throughout the 20th century was the Billboard Hot 100. It was mainly based on radio plays, so whatever a radio producer thought was best for his audience. It was not based on sales. Why am I mentioning this? Because that is what the Gedagedigedagedago event is, a song being massively played at other channels.
2024-04-25
5 Billion Views – How Much is it Worth?
It Will Be Revealed Here
In 2024, Rednex have had 5 billion views on YouTube. The view count on TikTok is probably somewhat similar, but it is impossible for us to say since TikTok isn’t providing statistics, and definitely no money.
Since Gedagedigedagedago is a game-changing event, probably bonking the entertainment industry into a new era, it is my intention to be as forthcoming and transparent as I can with financial data, for the sake of all its participants.
How much is it really worth? Don’t we all want to know?! 🙂
In about 2 months the first indications should show. Maybe midsummer will be a nice time for royalty takers to celebrate, or maybe it will be a time of confusion and numb-drinking (as usual).
The financial statements are lagging with about 3-4 months from when a view took place, so there should be some numbers by then.
Anyway, here are some interesting numbers about the Geda spill to other ways to make money:
The main video of Cotton Eye Joe on YouTube has gone up by 200%, from 2M/month to 6M/month. It has also entered the Top 100 (but not Top 50) YouTube charts of UK, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway. Nice comeback in a sense.
This means that every 400th (0.25%) view spills over from a Geda video to the Cotton Original.
Every 75th unique viewer of a Geda video spills over to the Cotton original.
At Spotify the numbers are much less noticable. There Cotton has gone up by 25-30%, but as Spotify normally goes up after New Year, my guess is that only half of that is contributable to Geda. So roughly from 5 billion YouTube views to 3 million extra Spotify views in 3 months. This is one Spotify view per 1700 YouTube views, or one Spotify view per 150 unique viewer.
On YouTube music streaming service, Cotton has also gone up by 200%. From 160K to 500K per month.
One noticable thing is that one Cotton remix – Industrial Boogie remix by Öban – has gone up by 2000% on Spotify, in a diagram that exactly matches Geda. It is now Rednex’s 8th most popular track there, and the most popular that was never a single. But still at only 50K/month. It will pass Wild’n Free in a week. Other remixes have moved slightly, but nowhere near that one.
View here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMTPEmjXhbI
There is of course a legal side to sharing financial data that makes me somewhat nervous, so I can’t make too many promises on details, but ballpark figures should be possible. Usable for all players to make their own evaluations. Transparency and sharing is the intention. But don’t count on any stat-videos, you will have to trust me on this one.
A rough guess is that in total over the year, the royalty takers could look forward to between $500,000-1,000,000 extra, because of Geda. It sounds quite little, considering the billions of views, but keep in mind that YouTube shorts is a rather new thing and being cautious is sometimes preferable. Don’t buy any Lamborghini’s just yet, guys!
On TikTok there are currently at least 3 million videos made using the Gedagedigedagedago sound track. On YouTube there is probably less.
In the 80’s & 90’s, if a song got played at the Swedish national radio, it would get $10 per minute to be shared among the publisher and songwriters. This money would be paid to STIM, the Swedish songwriter agency, and then distributed. Today, they are also collecting fees from streaming services to give to the songwriters.
If we, the songwriters of Armagedton (Geda & Cotton), would get $10 per minute today, for every view on YouTube in 2024, we would share 22,5 billion dollars (37,5M hours). Time’s change 🙂
But perhaps more interestingly, tomorrow we will probably release the official video for Gedagedigedagedago on YouTube. Can it muster becoming a hit in itself? Because that might be where the bigger money is at the moment.
2024-04-25
Guinness World Records Wants £10,500
For Inviting an Adjudicator to a Record Attempt
This is probably a hard pass.
We kind of hope that whoever has 2B views in 25 days would also pass.
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Getting started with your official attempt
Date: 2024-04-19 09:13
From: “Guinness World Records” <no-reply@guinnessworldrecords.com>
To: <@rednexmusic.com>
Reply-To: solut @guinnessworldrecords.com
Tell us more about your objectives
Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser [1].
[2]
Thank you for your interest in attempting an official GUINNESS WORLD
RECORDS™ title!
We’ve received your inquiry regarding our fee-based services, and you
are one step closer to becoming OFFICIALLY AMAZING™.
Our Consultancy team is ready to help you with our custom
record-breaking services, including inviting an adjudicator to your
record attempt and a dedicated account manager to support you at every
step of your record-breaking journey.
Our prices start at GBP £10,500.
But first, we have a few questions! Click below to provide more
information.
2024-04-25
Sweden – Brazil 34-0
A result that leaves the world of football in incomprehension!
Now, I will leave the facts and numbers section and tell you what it feels like to beat a world record that almost no one will believe.
Imagine that you are, like me, from the small country of Sweden. You are watching the underdogs Sweden beat No.1 Brazil in football (in US “soccer”) by 34-0.
You cheer wildly during the first 3 goals. At 4-0 in the 12th minute you cheer, but also look at your mate in disbelief. Is this actually happening? How can it be?
When they score 11-0 in the 29th minute you won’t cheer any more, or make comments. An unusual and creepy feeling sets in. You will glare at the screen thinking that something is wrong. Something is made up. It is not real. Everything becomes abstract, as if doesn’t really exist. The TV is starting to appear in a haze.
You can look outside the window and see birds, clouds, the neighbours house… the smell is the same, the clothes you are wearing. All is very familiar. It all looks the same as before. Yet. Twilight zone. On the screen, there is… what exactly? You can’t touch it, it just continues on and on on the screen. Impossible to look away, impossible to turn it off.
For the rest of the game, this is how you sit watching the very odd screen with the very odd thing happening. With disbelief, scepticism and a serious look. Don’t dare to cheer. Waiting for someone to pour a bucket of cold water over your head and say it is all a hoax, a mindfuck, special effects, whatever. But you watch in complete lack of words, with nothing to say.
If you don’t understand how big Gedagedigedagedago is. If you don’t understand the numbers: Think as big as you can. Then think again. Whatever you thought at first is not big enough.
3 billion views (= real connections between a song and a listener) in 25 days, is 8 times faster than Despacito, the fastest growing YouTube hit ever. Number wise it is equivalent to setting a new world record on 100 meters by running 1.2 second. Which is running at 300 kmh or 186 mph. It is defining a new era, by a huge margin.
When you get the same feeling, as you would if Sweden just beat Brazil 34-0, then your feeling is close to being real. You are not suppose to feel amazed, or comment on how “cool it is”, or be happy or congratulate, you are suppose to lose grip of your mind for a while, you are suppose to be at loss for words, or reason. When you are, then you have begun to enter this new reality.
Gedagedigedagedago has hijacked my life. There is no going back. There is no other alternative reality that I can flee to to get rest or perspective.
Experiencing Cotton Eye Joe becoming a hit in 1994 was quite similar. There is nothing normal about this hit. There is an unstoppable force of it. The sheer explosion. The record breaking merciless attack. The numbers, the numbers…
2024-04-25
The 48h Ticker
& The Intestines of the YouTube Analytics Page
The YouTube analytics page is where the channel owner gets viewer statistics of the videos.
It is a sophisticated page. More developed than any streaming platform that I know.
The 48h ticker is a live count. It changes every ten seconds. Some days I watch it 50 times.
It indicates the coming daily count, which is usually given after 3-4 days.
If the 48h ticker is 200M (yours isn’t, but ours is), that means that the daily count is around 115-125M, since it usually ads 15-25% on top.
The updated number reports that I will give in these writings are the 48h ticker and the daily count.
Today, April 25, from 7.10-7.11 Berlin time, the 48h ticker showed: 167,403,139 – 167,411,928 – 167,421,675 – 167,430,705 – 167,439,412 – 167,449,193
This indicates a daily count from today at 90M. It is a bit on the low side. Is the viral event about to fade out? We have had 90M before and then gone back to 150M. The count on Monday 22nd was 117M. In the 33 days from Mar21-Apr22, only 6 days were below 100M. 27 days were above.
The Guiness World Record for most views in 24 hours are by BTS, 101M. We beat that in 27 of the latest 33 days.
In mid-January something happened. Usually, I checked the analytics once per week. Our own channel with music videos were stable at around 4-5M/month. Our music on other channels played at around 20M/month. That was at a time when I had better things to do.
During the weekend of January 19-20th the count shot up to a pace of 50-60/M per month. Double in one weekend. The weekends are usually higher and Sunday & Monday are expected to go down, for all videos. That was the first time I heard about Gedagedigedagedago. Welcome to my life! Or?
It started to get exciting. From February 1-15th, it was at a pace of 3-4M/day, so already 400% higher than one month previously. The communication with Lucille Group, our YouTube aggregator, got more frequent.
Another climb on the weekend February 16-18th to a pace of 9-10M/day, and then the first explosion on the weekend March 1-3 to a pace of around 30M/day. We were now at a pace of 1B/month. It is a lot. We started looking for comparisons. Adele was the artist to reach 1B fastest, in 87 days. Ideas of notifying the press started to occur.
We started to realize that big things are coming. This is when I called Razi, the singer and originator of Gedagedigedagedago. We signed the deal on March 4th.
I started to develop 3 different media scenarios of 1B, 1.5B and 2B per month. With different headlines for different numbers. None of the scenarios included “world record” or a realistic expectation of higher view count.
I got used to the 48h ticker slowly gaining from 35M to 80M, with a daily count reaching 40-50M.
That’s when the roof exploded!
Whatever happened was in a severe rush. Normally view counts go down after the weekend, but here we go:
Monday March 18th – 59M
Tuesday 19th – 73M
Wednesday 20th – 93M
Thursday 21st – 103M
Friday 22nd – 156M
Saturday 23rd – 166M
Sunday 24th – 162M
166M in one day. Just like that.
On March 20th I was on a flight from Hanoi to Phu Quoc in Vietnam. The whole day was surreal. Unbelievable. Out-of-Earthish. I constantly watched the 48h ticker in shock as it peaked on 200M later in the evening. On Saturday the peak was 290M, that is the highest I have seen. Is anyone else seeing this or am I going crazy? It is not often you are privileged to start an email to your team with “prepare to be blown away!”.
At the time of finishing this writing, the 48 ticker is at 168,960,530
We have made two videos showing the stats. You will see the 48h ticker in the top right.
With 90 days count up: https://youtu.be/bP1nRt26twQ
28 days key days & total count: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8oEdFYlVQ
2024-04-24
On April 16th, we sent out the first press wire. No one listened.
We realized that the story was too unbelievable.
Today, we released a new statistics video – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bP1nRt26twQ
It shows a phone video taken of the YouTube analytics page. This story is real indeed.
48 hours after the first press wire was sent on April 16th, no media had bothered to write. It was mostly sent to US media, and ignored. Our press agent also called around for personal calls. We had both expected this to be a stroll in the park. Look here, a world record… what more do you need? CNN on Wednesday. Not quite.
I was a bit naive and out of practice.
By April 18th, we developed the theory that the story was too much. The numbers are too difficult to believe. It sounds insane. “13 times more plays than the global No.1 on Spotify”… what?! Well, welcome to my reality in the last 3 months. An endless streak of pinching-your-arm moments. Who is gonna believe us? At first, no one. It sounded like fake news. It would have been easier to sell 1 billion rather than 3.
That is why we felt we had to do a video showing statistics. I preferred one that looked organic and can not be suspected of being a trick.
This was the first one – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8oEdFYlVQ
Later that evening the story broke, carefully, but at least brought out in the light of the public.
Less than 10 people have access to our analytics numbers, and less than another 30-40 people have been passed the information in all secrecy for the past 3 months. It can’t be accessed in any external way.
2024-04-24
Press mentions until April 24th, 2024. Some of them are wire copies, but mostly not.
On top is MusikExpress, since we believe they broke the story. Thanks 🙂
„Cotton Eye Joe“ von Rednex wird in Nugget-Version zum YouTube-Weltrekord
First useful English article that we noted was from themusic.com au
https://themusic.com.au/news/cotton-eye-joe-smashes-youtube-record-for-rednex/B961GxodHB8/19-04-24
Thanks for the quote “—an absolutely massive achievement.”
I also highly appreciated euronews and NME:
https://www.nme.com/news/music/rednexs-cotton-eye-joe-smashes-youtube-record-3749139
Thanks to all press who bothered to read up on the validity of the story, and not disregard it as fake news.
https://qthemusic.com/p/rednex-world-record-2024-video-1994-single-cotton-eye-joe/
https://earthpressnews.com/rednex-breaks-world-record-after-gedagedigedagedago-on-youtube/
https://top40-charts.com/news.php?nid=187007
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-classic-party-anthem-cotton-eye-joe-helps-set-new-youtube-record-of-three-billion-views-in-26-days-302116998.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/classic-party-anthem-cotton-eye-131500741.html
“Cotton Eye Joe” Set New YouTube Record of Three Billion Views in 26 Days
https://pressat.co.uk/releases/world-record-on-youtube-three-billion-views-in-26-days-26b51661a3ce5a2be151b9c90b773997/
https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/1990s-novelty-song-breaks-youtube-record/
https://retropopmagazine.com/rednex-set-new-youtube-record-as-cotton-eye-joe-hits-three-billion-views-in-26-days/
https://www.music-news.com/news/UK/172879/Cotton-Eye-Joe-helps-Rednex-smash-YouTube-record
“Unprecedented Achievement: YouTube Hits Three Billion Views in Just 26 Days!”
https://www.femalefirst.co.uk/bizarre/cotton-eye-joe-helps-rednex-smash-youtube-record-1398052.html
https://bangpremier.com/permalink/3058238
https://www.rollingstone.de/cotton-eye-joe-von-rednex-bricht-youtube-weltrekord-und-schlaegt-adele-2716529/
„Cotton Eye Joe“ – Weltrekord auf YouTube: Drei Milliarden Aufrufe in 26 Tagen
https://www.fair-news.de/3745300/cotton-eye-joe-weltrekord-auf-youtube-drei-milliarden-aufrufe-in-26-tagen-2
https://www.perthnow.com.au/entertainment/music/cotton-eye-joe-helps-rednex-smash-youtube-record-c-14364483
https://via.ritzau.dk/pressemeddelelse/13807192/den-danske-sanger-razi-irawani-er-den-mest-afspillede-kunstner-i-verden-han-har-slaet-rekord-med-3-milliarder-afspilninger-pa-26-dage-pa-youtube
https://www.tv2kosmopol.dk/koebenhavn/koebenhavnsk-sanger-er-den-mest-afspillede-i-verden
https://www.daenemark.guide/news/daenischer-musiker-razi-irawani-setzt-mit-youtube-rekord-die-globale-musikszene-in-aufruhr/
https://via.tt.se/pressmeddelande/3439976/svensk-artist-slar-varldsrekord-pa-youtube-tre-miljarder-spelningar-pa-26-dagar
https://www.musikindustrin.se/2024/04/19/cotton-eye-joe-slar-youtube-rekord-i-viral-version/
https://www.tv4.se/artikel/16dl8XEb7ikRtrRt5yfIvv/svensk-hitlat-slar-vaerldsrekord-pa-youtube
https://omni.se/rednex-ovantat-virala-30-ar-gammal-lat-slar-rekord/a/bmMvq5
https://www.expressen.se/noje/cotton-eye-joe-slar-nytt-rekord-tack-vare-virala-trenden/
https://ziknation.com/cotton-eye-joe-de-rednex-bat-le-record-de-youtube-30212/
Ten hit lat 90. stał się memem. Pobił rekord! „Nie mogę przestać”
https://www.radiodcnews.ro/melodia-cotton-eye-joe-ajuta-trupa-rednex-sa-doboare-recordul-de-pe-youtube_10444.html
https://www.upcoming100.com/news-detail/26188/Rednexs-Cotton-Eye-Joe-smashes-Youtube-record/
https://news.dayfr.com/musique/3718176.html
https://www.breakit.se/artikel/39942/rednex-gor-ovantad-succe-viralt-klipp-har-gett-over-3-miljarder-spelningar-av-90-talshiten
https://article.auone.jp/detail/1/1/1/334_1_r_20240422_1713789702442563
https://news.infoseek.co.jp/article/yorozoonews_15241041/
https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/26278014/
https://news.goo.ne.jp/article/yorozoonews/entertainment/yorozoonews-15241041.html
https://www.journaldequebec.com/2024/04/22/comment-le-tube-de-1994-cotton-eye-joe-a-pulverise-un-record-mondial-sur-youtube
https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2024/04/22/comment-le-tube-de-1994-cotton-eye-joe-a-pulverise-un-record-mondial-sur-youtube
https://www.musictimes.com/articles/102731/20240423/cotton-eye-joe-next-rickroll-90s.htm
https://www.swr3.de/musik/news/cotton-eye-joe-video-chicken-nugget-gegagedigedagedago-100.html
https://gaffa.se/nyheter/2024/april/rednex-slar-varldsrekord-med-30-ar-gammal-lat/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0ofSPZO9o9jklKIwqWe3TIHzn6x_nAB3ST_Wvc9WuXVa3nWlvm_WD_bdc_aem_ATpE4URDENp7TxUnUIImTrj2ifFvFwDy5SvwPBYFUCa4mZkEZy8ozL0UNi_ppy751n6Yo8kKkAZNo0EnSwIBsELX#Echobox=1713775118
https://www.bt.dk/viralt/dansker-slaar-rekord-mest-spillede-i-verden
https://thailandtribunal.com/news/crazy-90s-cowboy-band-rednex-set-new-youtube-record-with-3bn-plays-in-25-days-/472850
„Cotton Eye Joe“ von Rednex ist jetzt Weltrekordhalter und generiert Milliarden Aufrufe
Crazy 90’s Cowboy Band Rednex Set New Youtube Record with 3BN Plays in 25 Days.
2024-04-24
It has broken a world record on YouTube with 3 billion views in 25 days.
This blog is intended to truthfully document and share all the happenings of the event, with a special focus on the consequences for the entertainment industry, and the mistreatments from big media.
Me and Rednex have, without intention or recent effort, ended up in the center of this, and I have come to believe that it could be a game-changing event, and one of the most important entertainment news of the year.
The virality has generated shocking records:
3 billion views in 25 days is 8 times faster than the world No.1 Despacito
– it is 28 times more than the No.1 music video on YouTube
– it is 13 times greater than the global No.1 on Spotify
1 billion views in 7 days is 12 times faster than the world No.1 Adele’s (“Hello”) record
In 2024, (until April 24) the total is 5 billion views and 420M unique viewers, which equals to 15% of all YouTube users and 5% of the world population.
In the weekend of April 19-21, 2024, Taylor Swift released a new album. According to Spotify and big media she broke all sorts of records. 300M streams in one day. The following media wrote about this within 24 hours: CNN, BBC, Billboard, NPR, Variety, Newsweek, NBC, ABC, CBS, People etc. Nine days after Rednex’s wire, none of those mentioned has told about Rednex’s record.
4 days after Swift’s release, her leading single at Spotify, “Fortnight”, stands at a total of 66M. If counting on a daily average of 30M, this is what Rednex have done every 6 hours in the past 32 days, on an average.
Rub your eyes and read again. It is what I have been doing in the past 3 months. Yes, we are all shocked. If you are not, read again.
Gedagedigedagedago SLAMMED into the hull of the ship of the entertainment industry and changed its direction for all future. Naturally, everyone on board will be confused, where are we going now? On April 24, 2024, 99% of all passengers are still unaware…
How the hell did this happen? Where the hell is it all going? I will try not to refrain any information.
Sometimes I get cranky and lash out. I will do it here as well. All opinions expressed here are strictly my own.
I will also post all posts on Substack – patreiniz.substack.com – and YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@RednexVideos/community