Metal fan’s air-drumming vid yanked from YouTube for copyright infringement.
A friend of mine passed along a post from a guy named Philip Kaplan who’s lamenting the fact that an air-drumming video he made and posted to YouTube was recently removed thanks to a copyright infringement claim by Warner Music Group.
Now to be frank, the music he rocks out to is pretty horrible. But, it makes for an interesting debate about how a band must feel when a fan makes a fairly popular video homage (it had over 3.5 million views) and then has to watch as their record label dictates how their fans can be fans. Kind of disturbing right?
I’ve never heard of the band Suffocation nor have many of you I’m willing to bet, so it makes the actions of WMG all the more puzzling. I mean do they think that fans of the band will simply watch Kaplan’s video instead of buying and listening to the real deal?
Kaplan, observing the video’s popularity, has suggested several ideas to remedy the situation:
(1) give me a license to use the song, or…
(2) I am happy to sign away the rights to this video to the band/label/whoever, at no cost. Consider it your music video.
"I’m just a fan," he writes. "I also consider myself the director and performer in what is arguably the most popular death metal music video in history! Lets keep it online. If you know anyone involved with WMG, Roadrunner Records, Suffocation, or the music industry in general, please forward this page to them."
The band’s biggest official music video has been viewed only 315,000 times compared to the 3.5 million for Kaplan’s video. Exposure is what Suffocation apparently needs most, but it ironically may just suffocate at the hands of its very own record label WMG. You know, the one who supposedly cares so much about music artists?
WATCH THE VIDEO
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And the industry wonders why its sales are dropping. These kinds of videos are something called fandom it creates a dedicated fanbase to the artists who will often purchase merchandise concert tickets and possibly the music itself. The industry has been bitting the hand that feeds for the last decade and for some bizarre reason it seems hell bent to continue to sabotage their own sales.
It’s not a terrible soundclip but it certainly is no FLAC or OGG rip however yeah this is pretty much just shooting themselves in the foot and makes me wonder how long it’s gonna be before these guys fly their own flag rather than a label’s for this kind of rubbish.
The record industry has stopped caring about artists years ago. They probably viewed the clip as competition and axed it. The industry depends on 80% of the bands they sign to fail in order to strangely enough keep their profits at maximum. Killing this video helps to ensure the bands failure and keep to the status quo.
Some people think I’m insane for saying that signing into a record contract is stupid. I’d say I would be stupid into signing. I’ll happily reject any record contract the RIAA throws at me. It would be a big problem for the industry if all other artists wised up and got the clue I got.
Warner Music belongs to Youtube that’s why they go after music videos. It doesn’t matter what is shown on the video if the music is clear enough to listen to be ripped and saved as an MP3 they’re taking it down.
And the absurdity goes on as usual
this is a new height for “law is an ass”! How stupid is that?
wow this is 2 far. i cant belive theyd do that