James Masterton said at February 15th, 2007 at 10:13am

Not to nit pick but as confirmed by your cited source, the Eric Prydz single famously sold its low point of 24,000 copies to top the charts one week. Still a low figure compared to the past, but slightly more impressive than the 2,400 that you quote. And still less than the audience size for the youtube clip.

On a more relevant note, you can find stuff on youtube that isn’t available in any form anywhere else which is just as valuable. At the weekend my father wanted to know if I could find a copy of the old skiffle track “Freight Train” as sung by Nancy Whiskey and Chas McDevitt. You can’t get the track on any of the legit download services and even the wonderful allofmp3 doesn’t have a copy. Search youtube however and you can find a clip taken from the 1957 movie The Tommy Steele story. To the delight of my father.

Frankie Roberto said at February 16th, 2007 at 10:23am

The thing you really need to be thinking about is just why does the idea of seeking permission and paying royalties seem so alien to so many people who use the internet? The answer, I think, is because people use the internet as an extension of their living rooms. If I’m learning the ukulele and I want to practise a Beatles song, I might just listen to the track carefully, or to save time, just search the internet to see if someone else has already transcribed the guitar tab. Does that feel wrong? No - it’s just fans and musicians sharing information. Then, once I’ve learned the song, I might play it in front of my family. If they like it, they might buy me a pint and tell me to find a wider audience. So then maybe I record myself playing it, and send the video to a few friends, upload it to my website, and perhaps even youtube. I don’t care if Youtube puts a few ads on the page - that seems like a fair deal for providing the service of just a great website and all that hosting. Does it feel wrong now? No - I still feel like I’m playing the song to a few friends and fans in my bedroom, it’s just that the internet facilitates this communication and communal activity.

Some countries have statutory compulsory licences for covering songs, at a nominal cost. Maybe we need something like that, with the exception that if you’re only doing a limited amount of commercialisation (small ads), to cover the distribution costs, then it’s free, and you don’t have to report it (the reporting requirements can be as much of a killer as the fee). Which would still put YouTube in a sticky situation if they were making huge operating profits, but as of yet, I see no evidence that they are (aside from the Google buyout that is).

Clever mog - blog - James Cridland said at May 24th, 2007 at 9:48pm

[...] on Mog TV. Except YouTube throws up a fascinating set of treatment of Beatles songs - from the manic ukelele player I mention earlier to some great, presumably home-made, video clips. In short, not only did I get [...]