PSY’s music video “Gangnam Style” was a huge rage all over the world, and a lot of credit for that was given to sites such as YouTube. If you check online, there are several spoof videos based on this hugely successful song, which is an indication of its popularity.
There are several other instances where Musicians have their own channels on YouTube, promoting their songs or providing music lessons, and are doing quite well with a large number of subscribers to their channels.
Recently, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ manager Peter Mensch lambasted YouTube (becoming the latest to slam the internet company). In a recent interview, he said . “We don’t get paid at all.”
Most from the music industry feel that they don’t get paid in proportion to the number of hits that some of the popular music videos get on YouTube.
So YouTube does pay, but it doesn’t seem to be enough for artists, managers, labels and publishers.
On its part, YouTube claims that the majority of people who listen to music online would never pay £10 a month for a subscription service and so they cannot do much but “monetise” the music using ads.
So while the business departments of major labels may not be happy with what YouTube pays them, the marketing departments know that a hit on YouTube means most of their work is taken care of by YouTube.
Psy’s Gangnam Style is an extreme example here. Another example is of Icelandic singer Soley, whose song Pretty Face was uploaded to YouTube by a German fan in 2011 without her knowledge. The song soon became a hit on YouTube and from that exposure Soley was successfully able to tour Germany, a country she had considered far beyond her reach.
So what YouTube takes away with one hand (for most musicians), it also gives with the other (to some).
Obviously, not all the musicians are happy with this hugely popular video website.
Polish concert pianist “Krystian Zimerman” feels that Youtube is ‘destroying music’.
One of the world’s leading concert pianists, he recently caught someone from the audience filming his performance on a mobile phone.
This happened recently at the Ruhr piano festival in Essen, Germany where the pianist was distracted while in the middle of playing Karol Szymanowksi’s Variations on a Polish Theme in B Minor.
He was obviously agitated, and later on told the audience that he had lost many recording projects and contracts in the past because music managers told him that those songs were already on YouTube.
Zimerman is considered to be one of the greatest living pianists, and has won several critical acclaim, in particular for his recordings of Rachmaninov, Brahms and Liszt.
Most experts empathize with his reaction and feel that he has indeed highlighted a problem that is growing by the day. There are many who anyways see smartphones as absolutely annoying, especially in a concert.
But the bigger problem is that some concertgoers think that buying a concert ticket gives them the right to shoot the film as well, which obviously is not the case. If anybody does that, its pure theft.
Now there are many who would think how does a grainy video on YouTube stops people from going to concerts. After all, its nowhere close to the live experience.
But what if mobile phone technology improves drastically, and the capture audio video is as good as that on a CD (can you say for sure that will never happen)?
Even if we buy the grainy video argument, what about those who just want to watch, listen, and enjoy themselves, without getting annoyed by someone who’s blocking their view or causing plain distraction?
After all, there are many who go to concerts, use their phones to capture photos/videos so that they can tell others that they went. Does it not kill the mood when someone next to you, or in front of you, is filming the performance?
So what do you people think?
Is YouTube killing live performance & destroying music, or it still has several good things to offer to both musicians as well as the audience? Please let us know here.
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
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