And it’s a doosy. And it involves one of the most important sites on the internet, one of the two most important source sites for The Muse in Music.

Credit Suisse estimates that YouTube will lose close to half a billion dollars this year. If it were a bank, it would be eligible for TARP funds.

I was thinking about this the other day. Might even have been yesterday. The line of thought went something like this: if it were early 2005, and I were a millionaire, and you brought me the business plan for YouTube, I wouldn’t invest. “We’re going to provide the world enough web space and bandwidth so that anyone with an internet connection can upload any film about any subject they want — for free, mind you — and then everyone else can surf on in or find a video embedded free-of-charge on another site, and viewers watch these films carte blanche — for free, mind you — and all we get in return is the chance for ad revenue? You’re kidding, right?”

Turns out that yes, they’re kidding. Please watch the video below and then go click on one of their ads.