In 1998, an a cappella group formed back at Indiana University called Straight No Chaser. Last year, one of the members, on a whim, posted an old video of them singing on You Tube.
It was just supposed to be a lark for the original members to share and remember old times. Instead, it took off like wildfire and scored not only 8 million hits online one of whom was Craig Kallman, CEO of Atlantic Records. He loved them, called the leader up, and signed them all for a five record deal! A literal dream came true for many of these guys.
I had heard about this in the NY Times a month ago but never got around to checking out the video. Tonight I did.
Or tried.
I searched by Straight No Chaser. It came up with a bunch of recent activities. I searched by total views and the most I got was 230,000, well below the 8-9 million I knew this one had.
I went to Wikipedia. I found that the video was the 12 days of Christmas. Searched again on You Tube. Nothing old popped up.
I went to Google. I got a hit from the original! Awesome. I could finally check them out.
“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by a third party.”
What the fuck?
I am a great supporter of artists being able to protect intellectual property. But this royally pissed me off. And I’m not even sure who to be pissed at.
Was this you Straight No Chaser? You became famous because of the internet and the moment you got to the top you cut off the very mode which propelled you?
Was this you Atlantic Records? If it weren’t for YouTube you’d have never seen the video. Were it not for freely sharing content you’d have never seen that 9 MILLION people were fawning over a completely unsigned act. You’d have never been given the opportunity to make a boatload of money. But you saw them and then turned around and said “I got it free…now the rest of you have to pay!”
Or was it someone else? Who is this third party? Who the hell am I angry at here?
You have me curious too. “…claim by a third party”? What does that mean, I wonder. You’d think the first party is the band/label, the second party is Google. Who the hell is the 3rd party?
Labels are all going batshit nowadays. None of it makes sense.
I think in the case of YT videos, the first party is the person who posted the video (which in this case, happens to be the artist, but that’s just why this is a :smack: moment), the second party is Google, and the third party is the copyright holder (the artist) or their representative (which would be Atlantic Records, here).
I’m not sure Atlantic could claim copyright on a video that obviously predated SNC’s contract with them. It wouldn’t surprise me, however, to find out that Atlantic sent a letter from their lawyers to YouTube, and that YouTube caved.
Thanks for the link. Yeah, it’s a pretty awesome rendition of the song.
Though I have no proof, my money’s on Atlantic as well. Which is so sad because this has been a problem with record labels almost since the time of Straight No Chaser’s original recording a decade ago: stop fighting new technology and embrace it. The record companies will use free content to find new talent but then turn around and say “this free content will drive people away from paying for content.” It makes no sense and it’s clearly not the case.
Bingo. “Africa” was written by David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, who were both members of the band, and Toto was under contract to Columbia Records, who released Toto IV.
My first guess was that the arrangement of “The 12 Days of Christmas” might have been under copyright, and that the group didn’t have the right to post the video online. However, it appears that they created their own arrangement but they didn’t have the right to use “Africa” without permission. Even with compulsory license, there would have to be a royalty paid to the songwriters, which probably wasn’t done. Now, years later, SNC has posted a video of a public performance to the Internet, scored a record contract, and now Toto wants its cut of the pie. As the copyright holders, they have the right to demand that cut, and since they apparently didn’t get it, have the right to have the video pulled.
I feel duty-bound to point out on as many occasions as possible that Jeff Porcaro, in an odd case of life imitating Spinal Tap, was a drummer who did in fact die in a bizarre gardening accident.
You’ve got to be either skint or greedy to pull a stunt like that. I defy anyone to prove that SNC’s homage to ‘Africa’ within that performance, would have had a negative impact on the songwriters image or financial situation.
C’mon, FriarTed, try reading with comprehension. I’m not going to buy Amanda’s CD until I’ve heard something from it, because just the word of a bunch of fanboys raving about something online isn’t enough to make me spend bucks – otherwise, I’d have spent a LOT of money on crap I don’t like. I’m gonna have to HEAR something from the album to make me want to buy it … get it? Warners is trying to cut off a venue that let unknown artists get their work out to the public. That’s the way our copyright laws as used by big business work nowadays … they suppress art, they don’t promote it.
My Evil friend-- Friar Ted was alluding to a different problem, a small personal one I’d been having, only marginally related to this thread. Please carry on, without this needless hijacking of this thread. Sorry for causing the interruption.
Allrighty. Not knowing of your personal problem, Friar Ted’s words sounded like he was sarcastically pointing out that buying the CD solves the problem for those who want to hear Amanda’s music.