Wednesday 20 January 2010

WMG

Went on youtube this morning and saw this large and intimidating pink box...


So five of my videos, including two of my three most viewed, have been blocked. Bad times.

Twitter is over capacity and facebook won't update... I can only assume the reason for this is the mass outcry from thousands of adoring Blue Skies fans chastising WMG for this move. The twitter servers didn't stand a chance!

Due to all of youtube's 'improvements' over the years, my channel has been growing more and more slowly (or maybe I've just got worse!) and I'm sure this will hold it back even more. Every day, those videos were a window into my channel for about 1500 people, that's where the majority of my subscribers came from.

It seems these days you either have to do something stupid that goes viral, or you have to be in one of those groups who whore each other out with those little boxes on their channels. Of course the whole world is about who you know, not what you know - so why should youtube be any different? But for a little while I felt like it was... I thought if you were really good, that would be enough.

Ah well. At least I got in early enough to build the audience that I have. If I was starting out now I wouldn't get anywhere.

Oh and if in a few years WMG are trying to sign me, please remind me of this. I think we see the music industry in very different ways and it would not be wise for me to work with them.

14 comments:

Ken said...

I've grown tired of Youtube lately. When WMG first blocked their content, I didn't really have a problem with it. It effected me in a few ways, cause I had uploaded videos with songs owned by them. But I knew I was using copyrighted songs, so it was my own fault - During that time, when people were crying for mass exodus to Dailymotion/Vimeo/etc, I laughed at them. Why would you do that? Youtube are just doing what they have to, to remain legal, etc.

However, I take care of most things internet for my friend's band. I'd set them up a youtube, designed their myspace, got twitter up and running. All that stuff. They took a break just before the summer, before coming back just before christmas. In that time, it turns out, Youtube had decided to delete their youtube account.

Why? I have no idea. I didn't know about it until the bands singer asked me why it was gone. No emails, nothing. All the content on their youtube was their own. Any covers they did, I'd uploaded to my own channel. They weren't massive on youtube by any stretch of the imagination, so it's not a great loss, but still. The fuck?

They now have a dailymotion account, with motionmaker abilities (essentially youtubes partner scheme without the money). I'm sort of just counting down the days until youtube fucks over my channel too, without warning. It probably wouldn't be so bad if you could actually talk to someone at youtube/google about it, instead of sending help emails that don't get answered, or posting on the community forums that are next to useless.

Also, WMG are cunts.

The end.

TicTacKitCat said...

:( That really sucks, I listened to your cover of iris at least twice a day..

Nicholas said...

Youtube was different when I started 2-3 years ago. There were features etc and you could start and if you were good/funny/smart/talented enough, there was a possibility you'd get somewhere.

Now, the absolute only chance is that a big youtuber mentions you in a video. That's it.

I read today that Ray W Johnson has 600.000+ subscribers and he started when? 1.5 years ago. It's crazy. I'm actually kinda glad I never invested the majority of my time into youtube and just did it for me, because basically, that's what it still is - for me... and my 90 subscribers.

I don't know... I just hope that you continue to do such good work.

Youtube has become a site to share videos, but was loved for being a community with common projects, interests, groups, etc... and now we have ChartJackers and people promoting Durham County for no good reason whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

Copyright infringement my arse! =o
It must be 'cause your covers are so good, the free downloads are stopping people from buying the originals and that.

Linda Pochinda said...

oh no! that sucks mate. I absolutly love your cover of Iris, adorable! and thie thing about face and twitter.. sucks too. Too many people on the internet.. facebook is really fucked at the moment.. besides that i got a virus from face a little while ago.. :( luckly i got it removed..

Naushin said...

What the hell?! They were covers, not the original! Why on earth does it even matter?
This really gets on my nerves - surely record companies should like the fact that people like their artists enough to go look them up on youtube? It's kinda free promotion too - a lot of the music I listen to, I found out through other people's videos. And seriously, who goes into a shop and just decides to pick up a random CD and buy it? You hear some songs from it first, and you like it and then you go check it out! Grr.
I'm glad your Love will tear us apart cover isn't gone yet. I love that one.

Liam Dryden said...

Aaahhhh pricks!

Apart from your originals, those were like.. five of my favourite Dave-vids :(

...can I have them?

Anonymous said...

glad i downloaded them.

yeah, fan base will only get so big, so subscriptions are bond to slow off for everyone. i actually prefer to have more of an artists original material posted anyway. i know it hurts in directing traffic to your page, but it's probably for the best in the bigger picture.

Darren Elliott said...

that sucks buddy..

omfglawlzroflcoptorTimesTwo said...

i guess they just don't want any promotion for their songs.

Paul Carpenter said...

A lot of copyright holders do the thing where they forced thier own ads on videos with thier content - I always quite liked that idea, it seemed like a good comprimise. But I guess WMG aren't down with that. You could always try to appeal to that side of them - argue that they might make more money out of advertising than legal threats but I doubt you'd get very far, even if it's financially speaking thier loss.

You could always take this as a time to do more originals but I'm guessing that covers bring in more views.

ghoul said...

FUCK. I was just going to watch your Cure cover. Not to mention that One Week and Iris were high on my favourites.

Leuke said...

That sucks. >_>

I agree about the changes thing. I feel like such a youtube has been. It's always a struggle to get views these days.

Anonymous said...

What? I thought that the artists who wrote those songs maintained the intellectual property, and that the label only held the rights to the recording. That totally sucks man, I loved that Cure cover. I wonder how long it'll be until they take down some of mine :/

Also, that pink box is way too scary.