Yes folks, your favorite people over at BMOrg are not just bringing you the party any more – they’re now asking you to submit all your videos to them, for approval to go on the official Burning Man YouTube channel.

Like to SUBMIT? Then you’ll love their fancy Submission Page. Follow the guidelines and additional info, and if you’re confused, there’s a handy FAQ. If you submit well enough, your video might be considered for listing on their channel.

Of course, you could just post your videos on YouTube, like you have been since YouTube started in 2005.

This new channel might be handy for everyone with Apple TV’s and other players that can stream YouTube channels seamlessly, and navigate smoothly through all the categories. They begin their selection with 73 videos, organized into 11 convenient categories and ranging in length from 1:03 to 21:57 – so no movies, then:

Currently, a search for videos about “Burning Man” returns 924,000 results on YouTube. BMOrg blamed past ticket woes on the surprise success of the “All The Places You’ll Go Video” – which has been absolutely TROUNCED since last year’s Burning Man by the excellent Hula-Hoop Cam video, with 4.24 million views to the Seuss knock off’s 2.56m over a longer time period . What this means for this year’s ticket sales, who knows? But if 1 million views was bad for Burners, what are 4.3 million going to do to us? Burning Man now has half a dozen  million-plus view count videos on YouTube. These aren’t listed on the BMOrg channel, and neither are the very popular documentaries Dust and Illusions and the one about the Trojan Horse. It’s hard to say what makes the criteria for Burning Man to include a video on their channel, but it certainly doesn’t seem to be popularity within the Burner community. Here’s their usual blandly vague bureau-speak that leaves everything open to the highly subjective interpretation of a few unelected individuals operating without oversight or transparency:

Selected videos demonstrate or explore any of the following:

• Burning Man’s Ten Principles.
• The culture of Burning Man year round and worldwide, exemplified by international Regional events and by the experience of international Burners.
• Burning Man’s affiliate groups, the Burning Man Project, the Black Rock Arts Foundation, Black Rock Solar, or Burner Without Borders.
• Strong examples of media coverage focusing on Burning Man, Regional events, or affiliate groups.
• Informative and educational story lines that advance acculturation of newcomers.
• Showcase communal effort and creative expression by tracing development of art projects on playa or around the world.
• The Black Rock City experience as told through the eyes of volunteers, artists, performers, theme campers, mutant vehicle drivers, staff, organizers, newbies, veterans, or YOU!

Curators select exemplary videos. They are well-made, unique, demonstrate good camera work, excellent editing, a thoughtful soundtrack and an enjoyable storyline.

If you want to see a more interesting collection of Burning Man videos, we recommend here.

Is an official Pandora channel next? We always have Soundcloud for this…

Burner Danielle sees a darker side to this whole thing, posting on the Burning Man – “Community Organization” group on Facebook, at 431,000 Likes, the 800-lb guerilla of online Burner groups…

I’m going to be honest.. I love burning man and going home but this is not ok! I know you will turn ad sense on and/or become a partner by doing so you will make money off these videos. I should know… I make money off my YouTube videos from YouTube/google. Making money off the participants off their hard work is not ok. Be honest with everyone. This is shady. For those of you who do not know what I’m talking about people with major views get paid money by google for filming and each time their video is viewed, an ad is viewed or a ad is clicked. One YouTube user makes over 6 figured a year just by posting his videos on YouTube. It is one thing for those who know about YouTube but those who are new or neive like most to take advantage is not cool. 

I don’t think she’s imagining some hypothetical far-off situation, where the BMOrg exploits our images for profit when the opportunity comes up. The ads are there right now, with less than 1000 people subscribed to the channel…suggesting that the profit motive was built into this initiative from Day One. And, fuelling our suspicions…those highly rated, super popular Burning Man videos in the Top 10? They all have ads already, so no point putting them on the Burning Man channel then.

I don’t begrudge the BMOrg the right to earn profit from our endeavors, beyond the $24 million+ a year in ticket sales and the other monies coming in. But I do begrudge them the right to say they own our images exclusively, and to position themselves as the only ones allowed to make a profit from the investments we all make in Burning Man – and to suggest that we should Submit our videos to their curation for free, and hand over to them any and all future earnings just to be “a good Burner”.

Time to give the Iguana a cigar, kick back and watch YouTube like a proper Burner.