WMG YouTube

[Eris]

And why are you attacking me in pretty much every topic this morning? It's getting extremely annoying.

I am not attacking you, I am disagreeing with you since you post a lot of things that are either illogical or plain wrong.

[Miya]

I might be a little radical in my thinking, but I believe that music should all be free anyway. Any art form, for that matter, should be free.
I mean, I know artists gotta earn a living, but there's always merchandise for that. And besides, a lot of big name musicians get more money then they need anyways.
Again, i don't know if i'm just blindly leftist on this, but common! We live in the information age! We have the internet! Bring on the free exchange of creative ideas. Let's make this world a better place by virtue of our collaborative creativity. Fill this world with beauty. DAMN the money! DAMN the fame!
If i had it my way, all the musicians and music fans would get together every afternoon and have drum circles all night long...except...you know...with more instruments. Impossible? probably, but at least we have YouTube.

/rant

[Eris]

The very notion of a record company is obsolete, and the internet has killed them. They refused to adapt to the new circumstances of the market, and thus according to the rules of the game (that is, the market economy) they are now dying, drawing they last tired breaths.

What they sold -- the ability to produce records -- is no longer an asset. They are crying that the pirates are stripping them bare, which is the equivalent of steam car companies crying that the petrol cars are stripping them bare: Adapt or die. They need to find new ways of making money in the information age. Attempting to intimidate people out of piracy by suing children and comatose people is a PR nightmare (especially when you are also playing the sympathy card), and in the end drives more people into piracy out of sheer. PR-wise, it is never a good thing to come off looking like some second rate Gargamel clone.

[wolfgirl90]

delete post. computer acting up.

[wolfgirl90]

delete post. computer acting up.

[wolfgirl90]

The very notion of a record company is obsolete, and the internet has killed them. They refused to adapt to the new circumstances of the market, and thus according to the rules of the game (that is, the market economy) they are now dying, drawing they last tired breaths.

What they sold -- the ability to produce records -- is no longer an asset. They are crying that the pirates are stripping them bare, which is the equivalent of steam car companies crying that the petrol cars are stripping them bare: Adapt or die. They need to find new ways of making money in the information age. Attempting to intimidate people out of piracy by suing children and comatose people is a PR nightmare (especially when you are also playing the sympathy card), and in the end drives more people into piracy out of sheer. PR-wise, it is never a good thing to come off looking like some second rate Gargamel clone.

Unlike the anime companies, which have been torn apart from illegal fanubs, record companies are doing just fine. They are doing just fine by selling vinyl records and CDs (they do not just sell vinyl records if that is what you ment). They do not need to "adapt" because the way they are doing business in just fine. They are getting at YouTube because people are illegally distributing their property on the Internet. They are not losing too much money (not enough to put them out of business anyway), but they are losing money (whatever amount that is) and the people who upload those types videos are breaking the law.

The record companies just decide that rather than sue some kid who has no money, they could just have YouTube take down the video so that their copyrights won't be infringed anymore (or they could sue Google). While they do want to sue the users (for PR issues), that does not mean that they are not able to. It is perfectly within their right to sue the user. They just won't (and that person should feel lucky).

WMG (plus EMI and Universal) have made their music available online in some form. For example, all three companies have made their music available on AmazonMp3 and Rhapsody. That way a person can listen to a sample of a song and not have to buy the whole album. If a person decides that they would rather illegally get the song from another website (ie YouTube), that is their problem, of course, don't be surprised when WMG goes totally anal and gets rid of every video with their property including "Happy Birthday To You" (yes, WMG DOES own this song).