Warner Music Group (WMG) probably contains nearly a quarter of most mainstream music artists, and it is part of a growing trend of censorship on Youtube that began with Viacom two years ago and Prince removing videos a year ago; and since Prince is signed with WMG, I think he told a representative to follow his idea to mute audio on all WMG videos and live performances, plus to remove compilations that contain WMG content.

Does anyone see this trend spreading to Sony, Universal, and EMI to prohibit audio and only allow purchases of actual music? If so, it's back to the library and I'll be using vinyl converters a lot more to make CDs and MP3 files. I think it may help rescue the music industry in away so that people no longer can get "Free, instant music".

I think Youtube is done or at the least past its "golden age" (2006-2008 were its good years). You can still find some good old stuff from time to time, but not as much as we once could. :(

I find it annoying to log on and find that some of my favorites are gone, but with a dead link and pic of the vid that are still there, requiring me to edit my favorites section. If Youtube is going to remove something, they shouldn't leave a dead link in my favorites.

Doing so also cuts down on word of mouth advertising, you'd figured WMG wouldn't mind so free advertising... Because of Youtube, I've found things that I like and want to get.

what annoys me is when i see a video I'm looking for on there and i go to play it but it has been removed due to copyright violations but the video still plays with no sound its annoying i also hate it when the remove videos of shows or songs that  you cant find anywere

I can still find plenty of amusement on Youtube.  The videos that are no longer on Youtube are probably on Hulu anyway.

This is the second round of the big copyright war for you tube.  In you tube's defense Warners Brother's wanted the whole videos taken down even if people made them from things such as Windows Movie Maker.  You tubes response was take you damn songs and shove em, however don't touch the videos. 

Rice is right though there's still plenty of good stuff out there.

I call for a boycott on Prince!  He's such an a-hole and he always was.  He's a great songwriter and a gifted musician, but the guy's a total sonofabitch.  Michael Jackson is just crazy, Prince is spiteful!

Yeah, I noticed the other night almost all the Morrissey videos were muted.

Let's set up a Youtube analogues in Nigeria and Gambia where the law means nothing.  Long live the KLF!

I believe it has!

NBC/Universal is removing sheesh from that site too.

No more SNL or Woody Woodpecker cartoons on YouTube. :\'(

I believe it has!

NBC/Universal is removing sheesh from that site too.

No more SNL or Woody Woodpecker cartoons on YouTube. :\'(


Awww all the good 80's cartoons. :(

Purdy soon all that's gonna be left is Wayne and Garth singing "Iron Man" in the basement. 

Maybe if the economy goes down the crapper far enough, the media megacorps won't have time to pick on frivolous sh*t like video sharing on Youtube! 

"Sharing"?  Can't have that!  What are we commies?
::)

Purdy soon all that's gonna be left is Wayne and Garth singing "Iron Man" in the basement. 

Maybe if the economy goes down the crapper far enough, the media megacorps won't have time to pick on frivolous sh*t like video sharing on Youtube! 


Of course not.  The companies would have to pay for it themselves, and they can't afford it.  In the Bailout Age, the solution is to have the taxpayers pick up the tab.  To that end, change is coming.  Change, it seems, takes the form of appointing one of RIAA's top landsharks to the DoJ.  The War on Drugs is old and busted.  The War on Terror is over (at least as a marketing slogan).  Whaddya wanna bet that the War on Piracy is next?

"Meet the new boss.  Same as the old boss."
  - The Who, Won't Get Fooled Again
( This unlicensed quotation of a lyric has been removed due to a complaint by the Harry Fox Agency. )

http://i40.tinypic.com/11tqy52.jpg

"...voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."
  - George Orwell, Animal Farm

( Aaw, go ahead and quote a book.  Nobody reads those things anyways.  And it's in the public domain in Australia.  But just remember, only Australians should be clicking that link on the Wikipedia page. )

^ U get Karma +1 for George Orwell, the photographic illustration of the unacceptable truth, and the trenchant remarks on the current fascist ploy.  I'd pay one for all three points but I can only give one and I'd forget to give one for the other two for the next two days!
:-\\

My opinion...Boycott YouTube...NOW!

My opinion...Boycott YouTube...NOW!


So does this mean I have to buy more DVDs? 

  You can't boycott YT yet!  Not when you can download whole eps of Pac Man..! :D

I call for a boycott on Prince!  He's such an a-hole and he always was.  He's a great songwriter and a gifted musician, but the guy's a total sonofabitch.  Michael Jackson is just crazy, Prince is spiteful!

Yeah, I noticed the other night almost all the Morrissey videos were muted.

Let's set up a Youtube analogues in Nigeria and Gambia where the law means nothing.  Long live the KLF!




Have you noticed that some singers/bands are either receptive towards it (because it's promotion and gets people back into their music, and helps them get new fans), while there's a few who are anal about it? Prince of course has gone the most over the deep end, I've never heard of someone that uptight, he's going to probably lose more and more of his fanbase by being that way. I've heard that he has lawyers who search Youtube for anything with not only his music videos, but the songs and mutes or deletes them altogether. Don Henley is another one, I noticed the "Boys of Summer" is gone too.

I personally like periodically looking up music videos (and other stuff of course), not just to watch it but I like reading the comments and hearing what people have to say.

Like I've said before in debates like this (and I'm sure you'll agree with me, Max :) ), I think people need to chill out when it comes to videos that PROMOTE something because if anything not only will it regenerate interest, but might GET people to buy things of theirs as they become bigger fans. The only time I would oppose it is if it's complete episodes of a tv show that still airs or is available on DVD because it loses potential sales. But if it's something impossible to see anywhere else, it can only be a positive thing.

Or to use another example, last year some guy uploaded a ton of old-school Unsolved Mysteries episodes (the tail end of reruns of the original show from the late '80s and most of the 90s...not the crappy, watered down new version) and it was getting people talking about the cases, but then it was taken down. What if the right person chanced across it and could identify a fugitive or a missing person? Perfect example, right here in San Jose one case from 1989 was just SOLVED (I was shocked in a good way) about grandparents who suddenly went crazy and ran off with their grandkids. They're both alive and seem to be doing okay, but again any exposure something can get is good. Apparently it was a combination of an anonymous tip and the old guy slipping about saying something to someone.

I guess you could chalk it up to some people in the industry not "getting with the times". That's how it seemed to be in the early '80s when some artists resisted music videos on MTV for the same reason (i.e. thinking it was pointless or destroyed the image of the song), while others embraced it.

The question is, is it more important to be owned or to be heard?

For corporations it is more important to be owned.  For musicians it is more important to be heard.  Thus, Youtube is still bountiful with non-commercial music, especially in the jazz, classical, and world veins. 

If Don Henley's videos disappear and Morrissey's videos are muted, it really reflects on the corporate domination of these artists. 
::)

^Good points. I think the people who are resistant to it are out of touch industry executives like the RIAA who want to limit or completely stop any "free and instant" access to songs (like I said, without realizing that it potentially can get new fans, and therefore more interest/sales down the road). Some artists just get greedy, although the majority seem to be for it, some even have their own pages.

From what I know about it, it seems really similar to how MTV was circa 1983 - huge but controversial and still not quite accepted.

Hmm....that's funny I looked again for the muted Morrissey videos, but they all seem to have their soundtracks intact...

???