YouTube Musicians Form The DFTBA Label

from the awesomeness-abounds dept

As part of its MusicTuesdays, YouTube posted a brief plug for DFTBA Records, describing the year-old record label that supports musicians on YouTube. As you might expect, these musicians understand that sharing their music on YouTube is one of the best promotional channels on the internet. So it's not exactly shocking that DFTBA officially encourages anyone to use its music (ok, not all of its music, but most of it) in the background of other original YouTube videos -- which is similar to Moby's gratis license for independent films.

It's good to see that DFTBA Records is yet another example in the music industry of a business that has picked up on connecting with fans, and it even has a built-in reminder with its name (Don't Forget to Be Awesome) to keep its audience happy. Perhaps Warner Music can learn something from these artists: instead of going after fans to punish them, it's better to be awesome and grow a fanbase. Especially since it's becoming clearer every day that musicians can connect with fans on their own, and some artists are beginning to wonder what traditional labels really have to offer.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: record label
Companies: dftba, youtube


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 30 Sep 2009 @ 8:28pm

    Do they also have a document that says that they're not going to call you at home at your workplace and sue you if they hear their music in the background?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    LoL, 1 Oct 2009 @ 5:05am

    Good to see people still play nice.

    :)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Oct 2009 @ 8:31am

    Is it just me? Or are the acronyms starting to get longer?

    "Yeah, I'm forming my own writer's guild: DEUBHGCXMKJRSHGMBKIYGKBCJGFKHGSTFUGTFO Guild."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    ChimpBush McHitlerBurton, 1 Oct 2009 @ 10:46am

    "it's becoming clearer every day that musicians can connect with fans on their own, and some artists are beginning to wonder what traditional labels really have to offer."


    People. Traditional labels have nothing but woe to offer. Seriously, don't burden yourself with them until you've created enough of a buzz that *when they come to you*, you can negotiate a *fair* deal.


    This is totally possible now with the current state of technology. Grass roots baby, *then* sell out (if you want to), and go global.


    Giving the labels the lion's share of your shit when you are small is worse than death.


    Friend Don't Let Friends Sign With Labels



    CBMHB

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Arielle, 3 Dec 2009 @ 12:22pm

    I couldn't agree more! One of the best things about DFTBA Records is the ability for fans to interact with their favourite musical artists! I posted a video a couple months back using various DFTBA Records songs in the background (while linking to the website so people could buy the songs if they want). One of the songs was DFTBA by Hank Green and Michael Aranda. A few days later I received a comment from Michael Aranda on the video. It made me feel good that he took the time to watch and comment on a video I made using one of his songs.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    serenity, 3 Dec 2009 @ 2:51pm

    agreed!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Eeek!, 8 Dec 2010 @ 1:22am

    :)

    hoo hah NERDFIGHTERS!

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.