YouTube is on FIRE!!!

YouTube™, the leading online video community that allows people to discover, watch and share originally created videos, today announced YouTube Live, a celebration of the vibrant communities that exist on the site including bedroom vloggers, budding creatives, underground athletes, world-famous musicians, gut-busting comedians and more. And my good friend Salli is exec producing the show! MOOOOWAH, SAL!!

YouTube users have been gathering informally for years, but this is the first time that YouTube is officially leaping off screens with a live community celebration unlike any other. Part concert, part variety show and part party, YouTube Live will be held on November 22 in San Francisco at the Herbst Pavilion in Fort Mason Center. The two-hour event will begin at 5:00 pm (PT) and will be streamed for a worldwide audience of millions through YouTube at http://youtube.com/live.

"For nearly three years the YouTube community has been defining pop-culture and in the process has made the site both a place to find and be found," said YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley. "YouTube at its core is a platform where everyone from the famous to the seemingly unknown shares a single stage and YouTube Live is a physical manifestation of this idea."

With live performances, celebrity guests, original videos, surprise collaborations and much more, this event will be a celebration of all things YouTube. Expect to see Internet-born stars like Soulja Boy Tell‘em, Esmee Denters (viewed more than 100 million times on YouTube), and "Canon Rock" virtuoso Funtwo dazzling the crowd, along with mainstream acts like Akon who has the #12 Most Viewed YouTube Video of all time. There will also be a global b-boy showcase featuring dancers from the movie Planet B-boy; Discovery Channel’s MythBusters will add their signature style of explosive experimentation; that humble little instrument, the ukulele (itself a giant YouTube trend), taking center stage; and perhaps a free hug or two. The Black Eyed Peas' Will.i.am, three-time Grammy Award winner and Emmy winner for his groundbreaking video "Yes We Can," will unveil a brand new awareness raising video consisting entirely of user generated videos.

In addition, the "Vlog Squad," a group of long-time YouTube community members, will offer exclusive, behind-the-scenes access from different areas of the venue; WilliamSledd, Michael Buckley (What the Buck), LisaNova, and TayZonday have already been named as part of this ace reporting team. Tay Zonday will also put his unique pipes to work as the announcer for the show and Mike Relm will serve as house video jockey.

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YouTube, the world's most popular video-sharing site, will start to sell music and video games and experiment with new advertising formats to grow revenue, executives said on Tuesday.

The Google-owned (GOOG.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) business is taking the first steps toward building an e-commerce service through which it will sell music, films, TV shows, video games, books, concert tickets and other media-related products featured on the millions of videos on YouTube.

Visitors to YouTube.com can buy songs from music videos they watch on the site by clicking on buttons that take them either to Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) MP3 store or Apple Inc's (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) iTunes store.

YouTube users will also be able to buy video games, such as Electronic Arts Inc's (ERTS.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) sci-fi game "Spore" through the Amazon link.

Amazon and iTunes will share revenue with YouTube when users buy content through the partnership.

Investors have been asking Google when it would start to generate meaningful revenue and earnings from YouTube, for which the Web search leader paid $1.65 billion in 2006.

Google does not break out YouTube's financials, but analysts at Piper Jaffray Research estimated that the video site would earn about $200 million in revenue in 2009, compared with estimates of around $27 billion for Google.

Until now, YouTube has mainly pointed to advertising sales as its main source of income. It is still experimenting with a range of formats to take full advantage of the massive popularity of the site, which has nearly 13 hours of video uploaded every minute. Continued...