Today I realized how much more retarded record labels really are and how unnecessary they are in today?s day in age. I really haven?t posted very much
to my own personal You Tube account. As a matter of fact I have only posted one thing: a video by one of my favorite bands Sheer Terror. I had taken
the video off of Thorp Records site if I recall correctly. I posted it for two reasons: The first being me experimenting with you Tube and learning
how to use it. The second was because I wanted more people to know of Sheer Terror. I feel they are one of the best bands of all time and the pioneers
of early hardcore.
You Tube has another purpose than just entertainment. It?s a promotional machine. Where bands videos were left unseen because ?MTV? found that playing
the same Jay-Z video over and over, You Tube opened the door to the little man. The working man of music. You know what I am talking about : The bands
that tour and tour eating potato chip sandwiches just so they could play for 50 kids in Bumfuck USA. They do it because they love it not because there
is a payoff waiting at the end of the tunnel playing punk, hardcore, or being an underground hip hop artist.
And in all seriousness, look how many things have spread quickly with the help of You Tube. For example: The Iron Sheik ranting and raving. Even
Howard Stern has taken notice to this and talked about it on his show. Or recently The Go Skateboarding Day video caught in Hot Springs Arkansas with
the police officer roughing up some teenagers using major excessive force. Everyone who thought it was unjust posted that as a bulletin on Myspace and
other various sites until it made national news on CNN. People still see for the first time the altercation with me and Danzig from the tons of kids
that keep reposting on You Tube. It?s hilarious.
Today I received an email from You Tube stating: ?This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result
of a third-party notification by Blackout! Records claiming that this material is infringing: Sheer Terror ? Broken.? Here is the link in case you
think I am kidding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqgYz-ZdIog When clicking on the link it straight up says, ?This video is no longer available due to a copyright
claim by Blackout! Records.?
Are you fucking kidding me? Was I leaking a video for a new unreleased album that wasn?t supposed to be seen yet? No! It is a video that was made for
their record Love Songs for the Unloved and was released in the late 90?s. By me posting this video, am I hurting the record label in anyway? Or is
the video going to hurt Sheer Terror?s reputation at all. Will it damage records sales? (The CD that is probably out of print at this point anyway!)
By me posting that video on You Tube, which can be found on many numerous websites by the way, is truthfully another avenue for promotion. I would
post the embedded code on someone Myspace page and a random kid lurking could come across it and say, ?Wow ? this rules, I need to get some of Sheer
Terror?s older shit.? Every little bit helps. I received a lot of private messages about that video from other fans and turned them onto the live DVD
that was released a few years ago. By Blackout! requesting You Tube to ban that video due to copyright infringement not only shows that record labels
are run by cocksuckers, but cocksuckers that seriously have no idea what they are doing.
I play in a band. We have music video?s on You Tube. Our video for our song The Bad Guy has been posted by three separate people. According to the
stats in total they have been viewed almost 14,000 times. In the scale of things that is a small total. But in comparison to how many times MTV will
ever play the video (Which is zero! Haha) to me that?s an awesome total. People who enjoy our music got to see a video that they otherwise would not
have been able to view.
The same thing recently happened with the new Rambo trailer. I posted that video on various website from the embedded code from someone?s You Tube
account a million times. I even wrote an article on the site about it. Apparently Millennium Films had it pulled from You Tube. I alone must have
helped promote the upcoming release a million times cheaper from my excitement than what $10,000 in advertising would get you. And that?s just me, not
counting every other fan sending that trailer to friends and family members.
Shame on you Blackout! You should be indulging in the free exposure one of your ex artists received. Record labels like you are quickly becoming
unnecessary. Bands can spend their own $5000 (Which is probably way more than what you normally invest) and have it printed, packaged, and release it
themselves with the help of the internet. People don?t go to record stores anymore ? that?s why chains like Tower are closing. They buy it online, I
Tunes, or just download it illegally. You can pay by credit card through Pay Pal and Joe Schmoe and Friends can sell his own album and make $7 to $8
per CD than the $1 you pay to the artist per sale AFTER COSTS AND EXPENSISES ARE RE COUPED. Fuck, I would rather sell a quarter of the records we
normally sell for that sort of margin to do it ourselves. So what, you may need to pick up distro overseas. Bands can handle it themselves in the USA
without the three channels going through a record label provides. Most small labels were started by fans of music; I just don?t understand when the
line from business and greed begins to become two separate entities. I am actually surprised Blackout! Records is still around, I figured they would
have folded by now?.
My point: movie trailers, music videos, interviews, live fan footage; this is all the beautiful promotional tools that a site like You Tube can
provide. When are record labels going to start contacting Myspace and having band profiles deleted because the label should run that too? I don?t
think that is too far off from happening. To take a movie trailer down from a movie that is 20 years old only hurts the movie from receiving
additional exposure. Same with pulling a bands video; after watching an old Exodus video for their song The Toxic Waltz, I went out and bought two of
their older and their most current CD. Now if having that music video FOR FREE on You Tube wasn?t worth every penny I spent, then something is
seriously wrong here.
The music business is in bad shape for labels right now. Maybe because of some of the things I pointed out here, but it?s the facts. Just look at the
new Ice Cube album that was released last year. He made his own record, paid for his own video, picked up distro, and made his own money back. Smart
guy? |
