New Record for Lady Gaga: 1 Billion Views on YouTube

Not that anyone needed confirmation anymore, but Lady Gaga is officially the most in-demand pop artist of the day, having just set a new music record by reaching 1 billion views on YouTube.

After topping 1 billion views online earlier this year, Gaga is now setting a new record for her YouTube videos as well – and she made the announcement herself.

“We reached 1 Billion views on youtube little monsters! If we stick together we can do anything. I dub u kings and queens of youtube! Unite!” the singer tweeted over the weekend.

While this is certainly a very impressive feat, it doesn’t necessarily mean that much in terms of sales, music insiders say for E! Online; what it does mean is that Gaga’s popularity is soaring.

“Views, just like fans and followers, do not mean much, except that an artist, or a brand, is very popular, J.P. Clement, head of The Marketing Distillery, says for E!.

“That’s mostly because these metrics are not a good gauge of engagement, and without engagement, there’s no behavioral change, and therefore, little impact on things like sales,” Clement explains.

What this means is that while Gaga is popular, she’s not the most powerful entertainer in the industry, as some have rushed to call her shortly after she tweeted of the new 1 billion views records.

An artist’s power is not measured by popularity, regardless of what the fan may believe. The exact measure of power is, as in every other aspect of life, money.

“Many studies have shown that Twitter followers and Facebook fans follow a personality first and foremost because they are expecting deals and news, and only secondarily because they want to show their support,” Clement adds.

“We can extrapolate that, similarly, the behavior of watching videos doesn’t directly (or even indirectly) translate into buying the music,” he continues to explain.

In other words, people go online to see Gaga’s videos – and they probably love them – but that’s not to say they’re equally eager to go out and buy her music. As long as it’s free, it works for them.

However, Gaga is not bleeding money either, Lisa Jenkins, independent music marketing consultant, says for the same media outlet, since some of her music videos (“Alejandro”) come with incorporated ads.

“Those Virgin ads [in ‘Alejandro’] are part of a huge sponsorship deal Gaga has. It may be that for future sponsorships the label or artist can negotiate more money based on how strong her video views are historically,” Jenkins explains.