YouTube Offers Music Downloads Through In-Video Icons

YouTube is joining the army of sites offering music downloads. "If you like the song, you don't need to leave Google or leave the site to buy it," a rep from YouTube says of the new plan that will link music videos and songs played on YouTube with purchasing options via iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store. Icons will appear during the uploaded video prompting users to where to purchase the song they're listening to. Thus far, only videos for music from Universal and EMI will feature the purchase icons. YouTube also plans to add a similar feature linking users to concert ticket purchase options.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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