YouShutup

Well, there have been busy times... many imperatives not allowing me to post the couple of articles I have in stock... still, today is a good day, for we welcome another proverbial smackdown, straight from They Who Make Shitloads of Money.

Well, maybe it was yesterday, I didn't check for sure. Or maybe it happened a while ago, but I doubt that. There's a clip I've watched a few days ago which got totally silenced.
The band in question is, without a doubt, extremely successful. They're global, they tour a lot, they're well known, etc.

If you didn't guess it, the news is that YouTube is muting copyrighted content, which as far as I observed, is all about the music video clips of artists and other bands.

Let's notice, however, that what they used to do before that was completely remove said clip. Which was probably even fairer and simpler in a way, because it makes a very bad publicity for artists to indulge with such behaviours. I don't know about you, but instead of being teased and convinced that I should go buy the whole damn thing just to try it, I'm merely pissed off and slap a "fucking cash fiends" etiquette on said band and move on.

YouTube has been repeatedly targeted by critics of its system and its illegal practices, allowing copyrighted material to spread without any retribution, and certainly no or very little financial compensation.

So we'll see, with time passing, if YouTube applies this measure to all clips, or if it happens to be the choice of some majors only.

If it's the later, you'll probably learn a lot about the artist(s) then. I for one can't help think that someone who really wants a group's music will either download it or buy it, eventually go watch them as they tour, but likely not settle on the low quality of such YouTube clips, which aren't even that easy to carry around and cram on your MP3 player you know.
If anything, YouTube remains a good way for spreading the music, and someone really has to tell me how YouTube hurts in any way the content, reputation or even sales of an artist's or band's production.

So be it. I've always enjoyed being able to listen to music to know if it was worth buying it. I'd spend hours in music shops and listen to complete CDs, and discovered so many groups this way (along many other ways which were all legal) that I find it a pity that art is returning to the few.

At least, there are the AltTubes.

EDIT: If you're looking for a definition of "success", look around for the four magic letters, F R E E. Trent Reznor's (Nine Inch Nails) album Ghosts I-IV has been Amazon.com's 2008 highest online sale.