The biggest culprit of music piracy today? YouTube

In his second column on pop music, music producer Brian Sheil argues that when it comes to identifying the biggest culprits of music piracy, mega-popular YouTube is as guilty as them all.

Excuse me, but isn’t there a huge white elephant placed smack dead centre within the worldwide debates we’ve heard about music piracy? I don’t think anybody has fully recognised it, but I’ll waste no time in pointing it out. Introducing Mr. Public disguise, YouTube.

Surely us music fans, and music labels alike, should have a clear and coherent debate about the negative effects YouTube is having on our industry today. We hear discussion after discussion about how illegal downloading has crippled CD sales within the music business, and indeed those who used to make a decent living from the industry.

I believe YouTube is another form of this piracy.

With a considerable amount of us connected almost 24/7 to the internet today, whether it’s through our smartphones or laptops, if you want to hear the latest song from Enrique Iglesias, more than likely you’ll enter YouTube.com into your web browser. You’ll then click on the search box and enter the name of the Spanish pop star. Then you’ll hit play and enjoy the track. And all of this is..wait for it... for FREE. Eh, hello?

In my previous article I mentioned Eminem’s track ‘Love the way you Lie’ as being one of the most successful collaborations that dominated the pop charts. One of my feedback contributors since pointed out that Eminem’s hit with Dido, ‘Stan’, was probably more successful.

I based my original findings on the awards it received, its influence on pop music and its YouTube views – or as this article is pointing out, the number of people who got a listen for free (just without the MP3).

This also raises another point while I’m talking about it. How do you deem the success of a song? Is it now based on its YouTube view count, or indeed how much money the record labels and producers pocketed from the track? But I’ll deal with that at a later stage. I digress.

Anyway, back to the present. Have you ever actually thought about this? Even if you’re not connected to the worldwide web 24/7, it really isn’t that hard to get the MP3 of the song you’re listening to on YouTube (if, for example, you’re that die-hard Enrique fan).

It’s simple. Pump the YouTube URL into the YouTube to MP3 convertor. Then hit convert. Voila, there is your mp3!

‘So Brian, what is your solution to this?’ I hear you ask.

Well the short, un-informed answer would be to shut down YouTube. That idea is as crazy as it sounds and really, a scenario that is unlikely to happen.

In relation to my second paragraph, there are some signs that this issue has at least skimmed the tables of music executives. Today, you will probably see the name ‘Vevo’ after every artist’s official YouTube channel, which is an effort by three of the biggest record labels to licence their artists’ music videos.

Vevo, in return, pocket a portion of the advertising revenue from the ads that you occasionally see before your selected video plays. Yes of course, this is an attempt to gain revenue from these music videos.

But really, do you actually watch these ads?

What you can do is mute the audio from the ad, flick over to check your Facebook, and ten seconds later, turn the volume up and watch the video.

Henry Ford once said ’50 per cent of advertising works’, except he didn’t know which 50 per cent. I think that in this scenario, it’s pretty obvious, or is it? Do any of the embedded streaming advertisments work?

To conclude, I think what will happen is an introduction of a music subscription service. You pay €99 per year, and can download and watch as much as you want, be it via iTunes, YouTube or whatever. It is a credible option, and will at least stop the downslide of music sales.

I also think the presidents of the major five record labels should sit down with the CEO’s of Apple and Google/YouTube and talk straight, dare I say, before we see the emergence of an Apple music label. Macintosh Records.

Yes, you heard it here first. How does this sound? - ‘Superstar Lady Gaga signs to Apple, the slickest music label in town’.

Food for thought.

- Brian Sheil