They Just Don’t Get It

Posted on 12/22/2008 at 3:16 pm by Bob Cesca

Chez weighs in on the ridiculous decision by Warner to pull its videos off YouTube:

…YouTube — not to mention anyone who pulls a video from there and places it on his or her own website — isn’t receiving a service so much as providing one: Each time I post a music video here, I’m publicizing that band and hopefully encouraging people to go out and buy its music. For this, I receive no compensation from the record company; I do it out of a true passion for the music and the artist. What Warner Brothers and its artists have with YouTube is a genuinely symbiotic relationship; each side is benefiting equally.

Exactly. But even with the free promotion YouTube provides, the record labels are also receiving cash money from YouTube. Just, as WBR said, not enough. So phenomenally nearsighted.

(By the way, I once had my own run-in with WBR over internet rights. Check it. So this topic hits home.)

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  • PackyJ

    Completely off-topic, but another example of individuals being kept down by The Man:http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/anchorage/story/630926.html

  • http://www.ieatgravel.com/ Alaska

    So what are they thinking? We’re putting our tape recorders up to our speakers to get the singles for free?I know people have have great music collections that haven’t paid a dime for them, and none of it was acquired from youtube.The methods for stealing music are out there, and youtube is not one of them.

  • http://www.ieatgravel.com/ Alaska

    And Bob, I had no idea that you were behind those “Napster Bad, Metallica Good” cartoons. I remember those from my teenager-with-the-internet days. Back then, that was a coveted title.Good work.

  • Clancy

    I can’t even tell you how many bands I first heard of through random YouTube posting on blogs. Inevitably, a good percentage of them end up getting money from me when I decide I like them and want to hear more. I’ve even seen a few live.I don’t really listen to the radio anymore, where the hell else am I going to hear this shit?

  • Teaflax

    And the already severely depressed WMG stock dropped about 10% in the last two days. If I were a stockholder, I would be demanding the board be kicked out post-haste.