I read this article on ReelSEO and it confirms what I have been thinking for while... Adobe are the new market leaders in video editing! That would have sounded crazy 3 years ago but since the improvments from CS3 to CS5.5 and the fact that Apple have downgraded Final Cut to 'home user software' instead of for a professional user makes it true!

Here is what Jeremy Scott wrote about the situation:

We’re coming up on the two-month mark for Apple’s Final Cut Pro X. Released in late June, Final Cut Pro X represented a huge departure from previous versions of the software. But in an attempt to appeal to a more mainstream and casual video editor, the company may have alienated a very passionate core group of customers: professional video editors.

Final Cut Pro X Backlash

There are always naysayers & so-called “haters” every time a product or service evolves and changes. Just look at the feedback YouTube and Facebook receive when… well, whenever they roll out even the smallest of redesigns. But while Final Cut Pro X has its fans, there appear to be far more disgruntled users than happy ones.

Here’s Ryan Connolly, the host of Film Riot, and his take on the software change:

In case you didn’t have time to watch the entire episode, here’s one of the more important points Connolly makes about Final Cut Pro X:

“For instance, you can’t import Final Cut projects into Final Cut Pro X. Yeah, let me repeat that. You cannot open your old FCP projects into Final Cut Pro X… Now, although it can’t import old Final Cut Pro projects, it can import iMovie projects. What? Um… what?! That’s like a big middle finger to all professional editors signed ‘Apple.’ They might as well come to my house and kick me in the wiener.”

Connolly’s far from alone in this gripe. In fact, incompatibility with previous versions

We follow ReelSEO on Twitter to get their insight into how to create better videos which have a higher SEO rating (so your videos can be found easier and have a higher hit count).
These two articles are amazing and well worth the read:

• YouTube Insight Analytics: Overview & Best Practices Guide
• Dear Brands & Amateur Video Creators: Use The Freaking Captions

I have now realised that YouTube Insight is a great way to measure the success of a video campign!
Another thing I did not know, is that we can add captions to YouTube video - and the best thing is it is searchable from Google... check out the Google Offical Blog post!

This source comes from comScore UK and is a great informative presentation on how to get your brand on YouTube

 

In the last few years, YouTube has been good at complying with common copyright laws. They’ve worked hard to remove videos containing unauthorized video and audio, and they created ContentID to go an extra step in scoping out violations on behalf of certain partners. They even ban user accounts that have three uncontested copyright violations. But apparently… it’s not enough. On the 15th April, YouTube has announced a number of changes to how they handle copyright violations.

YouTube is pretty smart. They know that there are some users who will never stop uploading copyrighted content–those users just don’t care about the law. However, there are also plenty of users who violation copyright by accident, perhaps due to poor education on the matter. And let’s face it, it’s not like copyright law is universally easy to comprehend… there can be a lot of rules and exceptions. This new update is all about education–both so that they can teach the less-informed users and so the ill-intentioned users will have no excuse.

Revamped Copyright Help Center

So the first thing YouTube tweaked was the Copyright Help Center:

As you can see, the new help center is broken up by the various type of user. Content owners have their own help section:

And so do the video creators who might be tempted to use copyrighted materials:

There’s even a section just for learning more about copyright rules and issues:

They’re really going the extra mile here to get the word out on copyright rules. If you really pressed me, I’d probably speculate that it has something to do with staving off future lawsuits (like the Viacom mess) by going above and beyond with copyright due diligence. And of course… obviously… the fewer users they have violating the law, the less work they have to do chasing them down and removing videos.

They even created a fun little educational video about copyright law:

YouTube Copyright School

It used to be that users had a few chances to screw up with regard to copyright violations, and then they’d be sent packing. Now, however they’re changing it up a bit. Here’s a look at the new Copyright School:

Any user for whom YouTube receives a copyright notification will be subject to the new Copyright School. It mostly consists of watching the animated educational clip embedded above and then taking an online quiz designed to prove you paid attention. Once you successfully pass Copyright School, you’ll be allowed to return to video-making.

They’re also planning to use Copyright School as a way for penalized channels to earn their way back into YouTube’s good graces. If a user has a few copyright violations in his early videos, but has since then cleaned up his act… and he goes and passes Copyright School… YouTube will remove one or more of the “strikes” against his account.

However, it should be noted that YouTube is taking these on a case-by-case basis. Not all three-strike account holders will be allowed to do this; only those who have demonstrated (in YouTube’s eyes) an improved understanding of the behaviors they’re expected to avoid.

Conclusions

As I mentioned above, I’m sure this has as much to do with future lawsuit protection as anything else. They can say to the next judge they face, “Hey, look how hard we tried to get the word out and educate people… you can’t blame us.”

And yet, there are plenty of other reasons for YouTube to want more educated users–it will save them time and money fighting infractions down the road if they can do a better job of holding the users’ hands through the complicated world of copyright law.

Final Cut Pro X is a rebuild of the 12-year-old software, according to Apple‘s Peter Steinauer and Randy Ubillos. It’s the first 64-bit version for the software, capable of utilizing all eight cores and more than 4 GB of RAM of the Mac for professional video editing. Apple revealed the new version of Final Cut Pro at an event at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) trade show in Las Vegas.

Final Cut Pro X will be available for download via the Mac App Store in June for $299 (We don't yet know if that's just the editor itself, or also includes the capabilities of Motion and Color... but we're inclined to believe the former), far less than the Final Cut Studio’s $999 price tag.

Final Cut Pro X comes with a slew of new features, including:

• Final Cut X is a full rebuild from scratch
• 64 bit – Crowd: “finally!” “thank you!”
• Cocoa, Core Animation, Open CL, Grand Central Dispatch support
• Fully color managed
• Resolution independent playback/timeline all the way up to 4K
• Features people detection, single or in groups
• Non-destructive auto color balance
• Automatic audio cleanup (option to auto noise reduce audio, more)
• Features “smart collections”: a lot like the smart folders found in OS X
• Editing can start immediately during importing of AVCHD and other media, switches silently to local media as it ingests
• Uses every available cpu cycle to keep things rendered. Also highly scalable. Will even work on a Macbook
• No interruption for rendering. No transcoding, EVERYTHING native. (incl DSLR footage–assume this means AVC)