Joshua Wagner Online

After seeing much news about copyright control, the RIAA, and others, I am getting frustrated.

I just read this article from Mashable that YouTube is muting audio to respect copyright.

Okay, hold up a second.

You’re saying that you’re going to force places like YouTube to coform to the old rules about copyright in a completely new medium?  I think these folks need to read the writing on the wall.

First, a disclaimer: I understand the spirit of copyright.  I am a writer and musician.  If a song I write gets out into the mainstream, I want compensation!  I want to receive something for the effort I put in to the song.  People who put effort into construction receive something.  Why shouldn’t artists?

That said, art is (and has always been) a place where imitation, copying, and using are good for the whole.  Let me explain.  When you contribute art to the community, other people get ideas.  Other people use your ideas to inspire their own.  They inspire you, and the cycle continues.  If we place too harsh restrictions on music (i.e. You can’t even use one bit of my recording or I can sue you for everything you have), then creativity is stifled.  The art as a whole is diminished.

If someone wants to make their own crazy video of themselves doing a “music video” to to your tune, why is that so bad?  People know who you are, people want to know what that song is.  It just might get you another fan, you know, the one who buys all of your special edition albums?

This is the crux of the new music culture we are in.  And we are there, it has arrived.  As this post from earlier this month points out, people come to you because of your music.  It is incredibly too easy to aquire music for free.  DRM doesn’t work all that well.  It’s also kind of annoying.  I can’t take my iTunes music to another computer without first authorizing it and maybe deauthorizing another computer.  Wait, I bought it.  They are my copies of the song.  Why can’t I move them to my own property?  Thankfully, iTunes is removing DRM (but you get to pay for the priviledge of being a part of the new medium before they removed it, article here).

All ranting aside, here’s the point: music is no longer about the physical recording of the song.  It’s about the music and the people who create musical art.

Once again, I’m not advocating anarchy in the music biz.  I want artists to be rewarded for their efforts.  But I also want to be creative without being stifled.  This is a balance we must find soon, or the music business as a whole may be in for a seriously rough time.

Posted via web from On Life, Stories, and Music