Warner Takes The Lead In Dealing With YouTube
from the it's-a-start dept
While rival Universal Music apparently didn't find YouTube's partnership offer compelling (which is why they say they're about to sue the site), Warner Music has announced that it has signed a deal with YouTube, allowing it to upload and distribute all of its songs and videos, in exchange for a revenue share on ad dollars. Of course, it remains to be seen if people really want to go to YouTube to watch the same old music videos -- unless they're super entertaining by themselves, such as the Ok Go videos -- which, of course, didn't require any deal with YouTube at all. The band just put them online. A more likely scenario is that people ignore most of those videos, just as they've ignored Paris Hilton's YouTube experiment.A much more interesting part of the story is that, as part of the deal, Warner has officially "licensed" the songs to YouTube, so that anyone who uploads videos using the songs are allowed to do so. While you could make the argument that many people doing so already fell under fair use, it's still a good thing to see that they won't be suing kids who upload versions of themselves singing or dancing along to popular songs. Still, there's one caveat in this deal, which is hidden all the way at the bottom of the article. YouTube claims it will use some sort of tracking technology to spot people uploading Warner songs, and then pass them on to Warner to see if Warner "approves" of the video. That could be a problem, as it seems to go against the freewheeling nature of the YouTube community to have to run all such videos by Warner Music execs before deciding if they can actually be put on YouTube.
While this is a step in the right direction (and, don't get us wrong, that's a good thing), it's still a step short. Take a look at what the band The Barenaked Ladies is doing. Rather than just putting their content online, they're encouraging people to make their own videos by saying they'll take the best homemade amateur videos of people playing along to their song, and put it into their real video. That shows a recognition that YouTube is about the community of people creating content for each other, rather than just consuming the content some big company has put out for them. It's still a good move on the part of Warner to embrace YouTube, rather than sue it, so hopefully we'll see even more creative uses out of them down the road.
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stating the obvious :P
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stating the obvious :P
at amritanshuNoSPAM@gmail.com :)
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Re: stating the obvious :P
Actually, no. The revenue from advertisements does not need to be greater than the cost of the product. The marginal revenue should be greater than the marginal cost. The marginal cost of allowing people to upload is essentially zero. Fans do the work of making the videos and uploading them. Any revenue gained is basically free money for the record industry if they are smart enough to see that. Unfortunately the evidence is against them on that point.
Based on their history it is more likely that the record industry will manage to turn this into a monitary and PR loss by setting up a full time division to monitor and nit-pick uploaded videos looking for fans that they can sue and alienate.
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Re: A funny story on youtube
I detect arrogance, and arrogance is a sure fire path to downfall. I don't belittle the boys for their achievement nor am I jealous, what is theirs is theirs.
However, receiving something a great as what they have, with that kind of attitude, can only lead in one direction, a direction I personally would not want to take.
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Artist are already doing this
Who is already allowing users to do this to his song
"Get off". He has created a significant buzz using myspace and youtube to post videos and contests for his fans...and its working.
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Why are so many people down on this?
A record company has agreed to let everyone one a site use their stuff (for free!) and is encouraging people to adlib with their stuff, someone should be warming up the angels because the rapture isn't too far away.
As per the bit about artists letting people use their stuff, yawn, yawn, of course there will be some mavericks out their, but I still haven't seen where this is a good model for ALL artists. However, we know the record label model has produced results in the past and if record labels are ready to make moves like this I see THIS as the direction of the future of music (not artists hawking t-shirts and hats at concerts).
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http://www.thestreetspace.com/?p=1608
"In support of his forthcoming album, Sean “Diddy” Combs is running a dance contest giving fans a chance to win a Bad Boy prize kit. Would-be stars can film themselves dancing to his single and upload the clips to MySpace and YouTube. The best clips will be featured on Diddy’s MySpace page at the end of each week for four weeks, and the video that gets the most hits will be deemed the winner."
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