Collaborating with fans to produce videos has been happening since the dawn of youtube with fans making and posting their own music videos in response to new songs by artists.

Recently though, a few artists have been engaging fans in video collaborations with some strikingly creative results. Some of these projects are still active so you may wish to join in…

enjoy!!

1. One Frame of Fame

C-Mon & Kypski have turned to their fans to help make the music video for the new song “More is Less.” At the time of this post, 19,851 people have already collaborated on the project, with the video updated every hour at their One Frame Of Fame site. The final result will be an amazing frame by frame, made-by-fans animation ~ fabulous!

2. Sour’s “Heibi No Neiro”

This one is a personal favorite!! Japanese artist Sour’s amazing video for “Hibi no Neiro” is made up entirely of his fanbase from around the world. The resulting video starts slowly, before blossoming into a webcam kaleidoscope of wonder. It has won awards for its creativity.

3. The Johnny Cash Project

The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project. Through the website, fans work with a single image as a template, and by using a custom drawing tool, they can create a unique and personal portrait of Johnny. Each drawing  is combined with art from participants around the world, and integrated into a collective whole: a music video for “Ain’t No Grave”, rising from a sea of one-of-a-kind portraits.

Strung together and played in sequence over the song, the portraits create a moving, ever evolving homage to this beloved musical icon.  Over time, as new people discover and contribute to the project, this living portrait will continue to transform and grow, so it’s virtually never the same video twice.

4. Shawn Madden’s “Lighten Up”

Shawn Madden invited his friends and fans via Youtube to send in footage of themselves having fun. In return, he’s made them stars of his new video. Here is the split-screen result that has a sweet ‘home-movie’ feel to it.

5. The Eternal Moonwalk

The Eternal Moonwalk site is no longer be accepting new submissions, but you can still watch the never-ending moonwalks as each clip backsteps into the next as an “eternal” moonwalk in tribute to MJ.

6. Dell’s Amplichoir

MTV and Dell amassed the “Amplichoir” from entrants who responded to a social campaign with webcam footage of themselves singing the chorus of The Chordettes’ classic “Lollipop,” (as heard in Dell’s TV commercials). This example shows how companies can successfully get in on the crowdsourced music video act…

7. Bjork’s “Dull Flame of Desire”

Bjork has already crowdsourced videos for her song “Innocence.” She takes the collaboration a little further with this video, made by three directors from her “Innocence” submissions.

Bjork and Antony Hegarty (of “and the Johnsons” fame) shot themselves on a green screen and then sent sections of the shoot to the three directors (in Spain, Germany and Japan, incidentally), resulting in a video that boasts three very different, distinct chapters, but somehow comes together very well.

8. ChartJackers

“I’ve Got Nothing” is an attempt by the BBC and YouTube to try and create a crowdsourced single to raise money for charity. Although not hugely successful from a financial perspective (it sold less than was hoped for), it does show how much can be achieved via online collaboration. Here’s a description from one of the guys behind the project:

“The lyrics of the song are made up of YouTube comments, compiled into a song by another YouTuber. The lyrics were released and then YouTubers wrote a melody for the lyrics, and we picked our favorite. We held YouTube auditions via video response to pick the band, found the producer of the song through YouTube, and the music video is made up of literal interpretations of the lyrics, clapping and singing along, by YouTubers! It’s a bit YouTubey.”

9. Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir

Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir made headlines with “Lux Arumque”.  Whitacre (and partner Scott Haines) recruited singers using his blog, Facebook and YouTube to create his online choir.

10. Genero

Genero is like a match-making service for musicians and creative types. For bands, it’s a new way to connect with fans and get cool music videos made. For video creators, it’s a way of getting exposure for their work with the chance to win prizes.

Big names who have recently submitted their music include Moby Moby, whose song “Wait for Me” saw over 400 fan-made video creations. You can browse the site to see the submissions. The many different interpretations of one song make for fascinating viewing.