Tech-Me – Blogging my thoughts on gadgets, techology and web based media – chapmanmania

News comes that music videos are to be blocked in the UK. Something that I find confirms once again that the record companies simply do not understand that people will pay for content, but need to have the ability to view/listen to it for free to find out whether they’ll like it. In other words, it actually benefits them in the long term. Even if people don’t buy the track, they’re more likely to see them play at a gig.

I find it hard to believe that services like Spotify is able to offer people the ability to play music for free, with limited advertising, yet the record companies are scared to allow people to share music videos on video sharing sites. It doesn’t stop at music videos though, as a vast amount of user generated content is often accompanied with copyrighted music. It’s something which has frustrated me for some time as I’ve received numerous copyright claims for the music used in my videos. I understand however, that it’s not YouTube’s fault, and to an extent help to keep user videos online by offering the ability to switch audio on videos.

However, I’ve noticed that they’re not all completely brain dead, as Universal have allowed their music to remain on the site on the condition that an advertisement is placed alongside the video; often with the option to buy the song via iTunes (as can be seen in the bottom right of the image above). Again, the latter provides an easy way for people who already like the music to go out and pay for it; an effect that the record companies seem to struggle to comprehend. How long before people move over to alternative services like Vimeo?

Thanks @Sambrears