The idea was simple: Cull scores of clips of amateur musicians on YouTube and transform them into a musical medley to create an innovative YouTube musical mash-up.

The result, created by a little-known Israeli DJ, has been surprisingly successful.

In a series of video mash-ups, Ophir Kutiel, better known as Kutiman, has created a pioneering musical sensation known as ThruYOU.

The site currently has seven video mash-ups featuring everyone from street corner rappers and solo apartment bongo players to church organists and darbuka drummers.

The videos became an immediate sensation and attracted a million viewers in their first week on-line. 

A low-key Kutiman talks about the project here:

The pieces run from funky to sultry.

"On the one hand, it is moving, because it rescues the lonely from the isolation of their wretched room - which of course is no different from that of their online audience - and makes them part of something larger," Haaretz writer Ben Shalev said of ThruYOU. "On the other hand, it further underscores their anonymity and its irredeemability."

Since Kutiman takes samples from others, ThruYOU has also sparked a new debate over copyright and fair use.

"If you come to the Net armed with the idea that the old system of copyright is going to work just fine here, this more than anything is going to get you to recognize: you need some new ideas," writes Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig.

"I doubt any of the musicians who found their way in any of those videos will have any problem with Kutiman," says Richard Menta at MP3newswire.net "Combined, the whole is greater than the parts. So much so that the Kutiman ThruYou videos have the potential to inspire millions to follow suit."

"This is what your Elvis looks like, gang," writes Merlin Mann at 43 folders. "Even in the face of bullying, obfuscating, and throat-clearing from corporations with a homemade timetable for evolution, more and more folks like Kutiman will just keep making and releasing stuff. Cool stuff, 'illegal' stuff, niche stuff, and stuff that doesn’t require the benediction of a middle-aged executive in order to reach its precise audience with almost zero friction or overhead."