The end for Disco on youtube?

[Tim Tam]

Hi,

I just tried to upload a couple of songs to my channel on youtube and they were intercepted for copyright violations as they were being uploaded and the audio was muted. Up till now I had thought that the sheer volume of content being uploaded would mean that the record companies wouldn't be able to exercise their copyright. Now that they are able to do it automatically I think it fairly likely that a lot of the music on youtube will be removed.

This makes me wonder how STUPID are the people who run record companies? Are they so idiotic that they don't understand that the music content on youtube is FREE ADVERTISING. Especially so when it comes to the back catalogue. I know every CD, record and music download I have purchased for the last couple of years is the direct result of hearing it on youtube.

Nobody is going to buy a song without hearing it and the opportunities to hear back catalogue material like Disco is pretty much limited for most people to a few internet radio stations and YOUTUBE. Youtube being the most efficient way to find the sort of thing you like because you can actively track it down.

So I guess the record companies main business nowadays is finding ways to stop people finding and buying their product. What a bunch of geniuses the bosses at the entertainment companies must be. They are certainly worth every penny of their multi-million dollar paychecks.

Tim Tam

[C6 Vette]

I run two channels myself on Youtube (I have a total of 180 videos of 70's and 80's vintage 12" singles)..To answer your question, Warner Music Group has been very sticky about their music media being aired on Youtube in the last three months, It's a heated disagreement between both WMG and YT...There are four major record label conglomerates left, and at this time it's only WMG that being problematic...( Most stuff under Atlantic,Elekrta,Sire, Warner Brothers, and T.K. Records fall under the WMG umbrella...There are also cases of specific artists that have been picked up by WMG in recent years that were once part of a non-Warner label....Whenever I load up a song, and it gets blocked, I audioswap the video (to keep it on the YT search engine), then I provide a link in the video description box to another video sharing site where the video has the appropriate audio.

[Videoskooter]

It's all about the money guys! If Google (owner of the Tube) opens up the wallet, the songs will return.

Unfortunately this is the sad proof about the automatic copyright surveillance, a tool which Bruno doubted that it existed. But it does! And MySpace is using a similar device.

However, until now my channel doesn't lose too much vids. Hopefully it stays that way.

My personal opinion: this whole web 2.0 thang is going down the drain. The pioneer days are over. Now the accountants are taking over. Just like they did with the record companies. And we all see and hear the result of that when you take 1 look at the charts.

[Cory Ander]

I've also had videos yanked off YouTube while I was watching them, and of course I thought that only happened to me. I don't quite understand the goal there: if it's intended to force me to go out and buy the recording, that won't work with me. I'd heard or read that people had been transferring the audio sections of You Tube videos onto mp3s and thus stopped buying or paying to download the music from other sources, but I don't know if that's true or not. It's annoying but I have more important things on my mind anyway.

[David_NC]

It kind of reminds me of FM radio in the '70's and '80's. If I liked a song, I could record it on any of three tape formats. Of course, it was somewhat of a pain, lost fidelity in the recording process, and FM was a pretty crappy source to begin with. One thing that FM did for me was to introduce me to lots of music... much of which I purchased on vinyl.

YouTube serves that purpose for me today. Sure, I can save a video and convert it from Flash to MP3. This is also an aggravation and sounds pretty bad... often worse than FM! I'd also bet that most people that use YouTube don't know how to save and convert files anyway. I've seen many videos on YouTube that have introduced me to a new song or artist. Often, I try to find that song to purchase (by download). Many times, I cannot find this song. I can't even find it on CD. In a few of these cases, I've been able to purchase it on vinyl.

I'm not really sure how record companies are losing revenue on something that's not even available new. Perhaps if they offered the songs to purchase that they claim to lose revenue from, I'd understand. As it is, it's almost like these songs on YouTube belong to the record companies, and they're not going to share! If they keep this attitude up, they might as well take their toys and go home.

[Cdnbob]

David, it wouldn't be so bad if these said record companies would re-release this older material, but in a lot of cases they don't. They keep it locked away in their vaults, gathering dust, never to be heard again and primarily because they feel the audience of today won't like it, or it won't sell. I'm just so fed up with them catering to that 14-20 year old market. I love all kinds of music but a lot of times I don't want to listen to rap, or teen pop and rather listen to something else. I think this is why I gave up on radio too.

[David_NC]

David, it wouldn't be so bad if these said record companies would re-release this older material, but in a lot of cases they don't. They keep it locked away in their vaults, gathering dust, never to be heard again and primarily because they feel the audience of today won't like it, or it won't sell. I'm just so fed up with them catering to that 14-20 year old market. I love all kinds of music but a lot of times I don't want to listen to rap, or teen pop and rather listen to something else. I think this is why I gave up on radio too.

Exactly! At least it could be available for download. I'm sure it wouldn't be worth it for them to release most of this music again (or would it?), but certainly there wouldn't be too much involved to make them available though established download sites (Amazon, iTunes, etc). My temporary solution to my dissatisfaction with radio is satellite (which is much better with the return of the Strobe) and internet radio.

[andyy]

I only found out about You tube early last year in 2008 my friend told me about it over here in the UK. if i had not listened to some tracks on You Tube and those people who put the material on for me to listen then my record collection would not have grown as quick .
In the UK we did not get all the disco material going into the charts or into the disco charts some disco records i heard on You Tube i listened to and if i liked them i bought them and usually had to get them from America off a dealer or EBAY US.
I am happy i managed to get some things while the tracks were on YOU Tube how stupid is this so we now cannot listen to old material but may be new to us who never heard it the first time.
This is just another modern stupid idea which upsets more people and deprives people from finding out what a Disco track sounds like.Any high archys from the powers that be looking here at Disco Music .com get your act in gear and stop messing about life is short enough and stop depriving music to the ears whixch could like me in the long term result in sales of vinyl records.