Jitterbug TV - The World's First Kid's Music Video Site

With it's launch last month Jitterbug.tv became the world's first dedicated online kid's music video website. Off the bat, Jitterbug should be considered an asset for any music loving parent and child in large part because it serves as a handy depository for children's classics and modern kiddie rock videos. What was once scattered all over the web (Youtube, individual band websites, etc.) is now on demand in one convenient place - Jitterbug.tv

The site navigation is fairly straightforward with your options being to search by category or alphabetically by artist/band name. There is also a Featured Artist (monthly, I presume), the inaugural one (a potential trivia question answer years from now) being The Jimmies.

Late last week, I shot a few questions over to Dan Gellert, one of the two founders of Jitterbug.tv to find out more about this new kid's music resource.

OWTK: What was the impetus for creating and launching Jitterbug.tv?
Dan Gellert: Randy and I met at a dinner party just before summer. At that point Randy had started to work on an early version of the site. We started to talk about our daughters, technology and music. We were both surfing the mass social net sites (Youtube, MySpace...) in search of new music for us and our daughters. We both agreed that this process was getting “old.” As we started to talk about Jitterbug, it was clear that we both had a lot of common interest in this area and a natural partnership was born. We figured that other parents would also appreciate and be drawn to a community that hand picks the artists. I’ve been working with artists now for 20+ years and Randy has created a number of online video projects surrounding independent film. Timing is everything…

OWTK: What is the current method for getting one's video shown on Jitterbug?

DG: The artist and/or fans of the artists should send us a note to info@jitterbug.tv or click on the “Suggest Music / Artist” button. We then review each submission and add the artist if the work fits in. We truly see this as a community and hopefully other parents will “scout” for us.

OWTK: (If they're not currently able to...) Will artists be able to upload their own videos directly to Jitterbug.tv? If so, will there be a review process?

DG: Once we approve an artist they can upload videos and/or mp3’s directly through the site. Every upload then gets reviewed one more time before it goes live. We prefer to get videos directly uploaded to jitterbug as the quality is higher than streaming from other sites.

OWTK: Why should my readers register for Jitterbug (the what's in it for them question)?

DG: People that register can comment and give a star rating to music and videos, email friends about music they like (with one click), save their “favorite” list and choose to share their favorite list with other jitterbug users, receive our newsletter.... as we evolve, we hope to do contests and polls and promotional giveaways of music. If you're registered, you'll see a bit more functionality on the website - and more to come!

OWTK: What does the future hold for Jitterbug...where do you see the site in 1 year? (Partnerships, video premiers, etc

DG: We want to keep expanding to provide a good service for the fans as well as the artists - i.e. jitterbug radio, widgets for your desktop, playlists you can download for car rides etc., original recording of "jitterbug albums" with artist submitted songs for Christmas, summer, bedtime, dancetime....etc. etc. etc. For the fans, the bigger the variety of music and videos, the more fun the kids will have pointing and clicking. And we are determined to expose the artists to a broader audience than they might have right now. The kid's music niche is great for parents, kids and artists - we want to help the cause. Our focus will also be to present artists from many other parts of the world - the kids take to other languages easily so we'd love to make it available at jitterbug.

Sounds cool, no? Head on over to Jitterbug.tv, become a registered user, then begin watching and rating some of the best kiddie rock videos of the day.