Ian Morris
Ian Morris loves televisions so much he's been banned from wedding chapels in Las Vegas for trying to marry them. When he's not romancing technology, he can be found watching American TV. Ian likes roast potatoes, but he doesn't like digital rights management.
Monday 16 March 2009, 12:41pm
The music industry should be paying YouTube
It's almost as if there's some sort of law in music publishing that requires everyone to act like a total idiot. The recent YouTube spat with the Performing Rights Society (PRS) has proved once and for all that those involved in music don't have the first clue what they're doing.
The PRS is the organisation that manages the licensing of venues, bars and clubs to play music in the UK. If you go somewhere and there's music playing, you can bet they're licensed to do so. And if they aren't, they're breaking the law. The PRS is a result of the music industry's deeply held belief that anyone playing music out loud, in public, is a scum-sucking pirate who wishes to sink the good ship music and all who float about in her.
The recent tantrum came about because the PRS wanted increased licence fees from YouTube for playing music videos. YouTube, on the other hand, thought that because the music industry was using its bandwidth to promote its tired, clichéd pop, it shouldn't pay any more money to the PRS.
I'm sure there are good arguments on both sides. But I support YouTube, because I can see the site is one of the best things to happen to music in a long time. YouTube makes the music industry a fistful of cash, because it offers people the chance to audition music for free before they buy it. I did this recently with The Prodigy's new album -- something I wouldn't have rushed to buy if I hadn't heard the first two tracks on YouTube.
If anything, the music industry should be paying YouTube to promote and host its music videos. If they're so strapped for cash, I suggest they tie up Duffy and charge people to pelt her with rotten fruit. They'd make a killing.
Comments on this post
I completely agree Ian! The music industry has behaved like a dinosaur for far to long. They underestimated the power of the net in the early days and paid the price but they seem hellbent on continuing to bury their heads in the sand. Youtube should not back down and see how long the PRS keep up this stupid charade - my bet not long. Esp when they find the next Britney/Christina/Other mediocre poptstar's album sales aren't quite as positive as they had hoped for.
Posted by Victoria PopJunkie on Mon 16 March, 2009 1:45 PM
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If i could spread Ian over some nice Hovis bread, I'd gobble him up like there's no tomorrow.
Posted by iwubian on Mon 16 March, 2009 4:20 PM
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Sorry Ian but Im inclined to disagree... Its fine for people to side with YouTube for finally 'getting some money out of those multimillionaire making pop artists' but, as a DJ, promoter and supporter of more underground music, I can tell you that hundreds of world-leading producers and artists in the Drum & Bass, Dupstep and Breakbeat scenes are hanging by a thread due to the value of music falling so rapidly. As current trends continue, the value of recorded music will fall to zero - anyone can get it for free already if they take the time. Therefore no matter how many millions of 'Youtube views' an artists may get, no one will actually go and purchase it and thus support its creation. However - these millions of views will have massively boosted Youtube's revenue, as all those eyes on screen will be looking at ads, boosting stats, and so forth. While the PRS is incredibly outdated in its methods of tracking web-use, its sometimes the only form of income to some incredibly successful yet, due to the more underground nature of their music, cash-strapped artists and thus allowing them to keep producing music/pay rent/eat food. Don't get me wrong, I'd be the first in the cue to tie up Duffy for some quality fruit pelting, but, without the PRS, some of the most cutting edge musicians in the world (an export the UK should be proud of and support, by the way) would be unable to keep doing what they're doing.
Posted by Phil B on Wed 18 March, 2009 1:47 PM
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The question is Phil, do Drum and Bass, Dubstep and Breakbeat (and I'll add Happy Hardcore) producers actually see revenue from the PRS anyway? Also, YouTube doesn't make money because something is shown, in fact the reverse is true - every play costs them money. Artists on YouTube should join the Google Adsense program too, that should help popular video to generate more revenue.
Posted by Ian Morris on Thu 19 March, 2009 5:08 PM
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Music composers/creators of Drum and Bass, Dubstep, Breakbeat, etc will see some money from PRS, not much directly from YouTube because of a 'long tail' of data which is almost impossible to gather which would be almost worthless per youtube view anyway (a nominal amount may still be paid out to niche music) - but if something on youtube led to airplay on a dance radio station like kiss or galaxy or a music video channel then money would reach its creator. The fact is, if no music content at all was on youtube, virtually no one would look at it, and youtube would not get advertising revenue. If youtube themselves actually created the content then fine, but they don't - creative people and their fans do, so youtube should cough up something, even if it's only a small % of what they make from advertising. Personally, i think Microsoft should be coughing up the most money to compensate music artists, as they brought about the digital music age which makes it so easy to copy music and pay nothing for it - its not like Bill Gates needs the money now, is it?
Posted by Bob B on Wed 17 June, 2009 11:43 AM
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