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Trent Reznor Not Happy With YouTube’s Business Model

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Melody Bot, Jun 15, 2016.

  1. Melody Bot Jun 15, 2016
    Melody Bot

    Your friendly little forum bot. Staff Member

    This article has been imported from chorus.fm for discussion. All of the forum rules still apply.

    Trent Reznor, speaking with Billboard, blasted YouTube for their stance on copyrighted material:


    “Personally, I find YouTube’s business to be very disingenuous,” said Reznor. “It is built on the backs of free, stolen content and that’s how they got that big. I think any free-tiered service is not fair. It’s making their numbers and getting them a big IPO and it is built on the back of my work and that of my peers. That’s how I feel about it. Strongly. We’re trying to build a platform that provides an alternative — where you can get paid and an artist can control where their [content] goes.”
    ​

    YouTube has responded:


    The overwhelming majority of labels and publishers have licensing agreements in place with YouTube to leave fan videos up on the platform and earn revenue from them. Today the revenue from fan uploaded content accounts for roughly 50 percent of the music industry’s YouTube revenue. Any assertion that this content is largely unlicensed is false. To date, we have paid out over $3 billion to the music industry–and that number is growing year on year.
    ​

    I get what YouTube is saying, but I can go there right now and type in virtually any song and find dozens of “copyright not intended” videos uploaded.

    Expand - View Original
     
  2. skurt Jun 15, 2016
    skurt

    Sleekest of beaks. So Good.

    Still waiting for that new Nine Inch Nails album.
     
  3. Anticitizen7 Jun 15, 2016
    Anticitizen7

    Please be kind. Like actually kind though.

    Copyright on YouTube is something that YouTube really, really needs to work on. You can find virtually any song, but legit content creators are getting their revenue taken and channels taken down over things that should be considered fair use, or just outright false copyright claims.
     
    lightning13 and Jason Tate like this.
  4. Jason Tate Jun 15, 2016
    Jason Tate

    liner notes Staff Member

    Exactly.
     
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  6. aranea Jun 15, 2016
    aranea

    Trusted Prestigious

    YouTube is so inconsistent and weird about this.
     
  7. Spenny Jun 16, 2016
    Spenny

    Regular

    As someone who used to work for a leading YouTube multi-channel network, I agree that copyright and how it's approached on YouTube could definitely use an overhaul, but Trent's thoughts overlook some aspects of YouTube's business model. Content claiming exists exactly for the reason mentioned: monetizing on fan-uploaded content. Not only do you earn some money back from improper uses of your copyrighted material, you don't have to burn bridges with your fans who are uploading that content out of reverence or good intentions. I mean, there are more nuances for content claiming than just that obviously, and that doesn't make up for brazen disregard of copyright laws, but there are at least some current workarounds to earn money from copyright infringement until YouTube can be more active in cracking down on such uploads.
     
  8. ncarrab Jun 16, 2016
    ncarrab

    Prestigious Supporter

    Eh, here we go again with the big name rich artists complaining about stuff like this (although he is also exec at Apple Music). YouTube helps thousands of musical artists (and people in general) day after day. I know for a fact that if YouTube didn't exist, I wouldn't be into half the bands I am into today. Especially when I search band's live shows all the time, if I like what I see, I'll go check said band out live for myself therefore benefiting that band in the long run.
     
    Turkeylegz likes this.
  9. Phil507 Jun 16, 2016
    Phil507

    Resident NYC snob Supporter

    Ha, can you share which one? I work in the digital media business. Chances are I've spoken with your former company.
     
  10. CyberInferno Jun 17, 2016
    CyberInferno

    Line below my username Supporter

    Couldn't have said it better myself. Post a negative review of a game with some gameplay footage? Developer can have a copyright strike take that down immediately. Post entire DIsney movies and lyric videos of songs? Perfectly fine.