Googlified

I poked around YouTube for a little bit today and I found this image in YouTube’s (way too huge) CSS file. The image contains YouTube’s Valentine’s Day logo and a set of buttons & icons used on the site. Among the set of icons are the newly added icons for iTunes and Amazon MP3 (comparing to the previous version of the image).

But what are they for? I attempted to look for answers in the CSS file, but can’t find anything useful. My best guess is that YouTube’s partnering up with musicians/music studios to put those buttons on the YouTube pages that are featuring the musicians/music studios’ music video, and link those buttons to iTunes Store and/or Amazon MP3 so the viewers can buy the songs.

IFPI’s “Digital Music Report 2007” says that “digital sales … account for around 10% of the music market” in 2006, “an estimated [of] US$2 billion.” Hmm, maybe YouTube’s trying to step into the music market (one step at a time) and get a share of that multi-billion market. :)