YouTube launches personalised home pages

Musicians, both famous and obscure, began vying on Wednesday for the crown of most-loved artist on YouTube as the world’s top video-sharing website launched new personalised home pages for users.

A “My YouTube” competition at youtube.com/myyoutube will last two months and end with status for the winning musical act and prizes for users active in the contest.

Artists that took part in the launch included Rihanna, Michael Franti, Justin Bieber, Shakira and Maroon 5.

Musicians earn popularity points when fans do things such as subscribe to their YouTube channels or share likes for groups at social networking venues such as Facebook and Twitter.

“And did we mention all the prizes?” YouTube asked rhetorically in a release about the My YouTube competition. “Every artist is giving out five prizes to users who score points for them in the contest.”

Prizes range from T-shirts and music compact disks to concert tickets and iPod shuffles loaded with tunes, according to YouTube. The top five artists will be announced when the competition ends February 5, 2011.

My YouTube lets users tailor pages to their tastes in video at the website. – AFP