Hey Friend,

A leopard CANNOT change his spots.

And so it goes in the music industry. The big corporate music publishers and labels continue to bully the little guys, and even some artists get in on the game.

Bullies can’t stand on their own… they have to have their minions…

This week, I listened to a couple rants about copyright blocks on Youtube, both by well-known music educators whose channels have huge numbers of followers.

Maybe you know Rick Beato and Paul Davids, maybe not. Whether you know them or not isn’t really relevant.

Both guys teach cool music and guitar related content and are worth checking out. 

One of the things they do is use existing songs, popular songs, to teach about how the music was made and why it works so well (like sooo many other Youtubers).

So they might play a riff or chord progression from a song… 

Or a clip from a video… 

Or they might just mention the artist’s name in a video.

Any or all of these examples might cause them to have their teaching video removed from Youtube for copyright infringement.

And it’s not Youtube doing this… 

It’s the music publishers and record labels (and some artists).

In fact, one record label claims to OWN the Dsus2 chord and because this chord was a part of a song in a video, the video got blocked.

Now I’m not sure if it’s only the videos that are monetized (have an ad played before or during the video) that get blocked, but come on! 

I’m not a lawyer, but no one should be able to claim copyright on a freakin’ chord! 

That’s almost like me claiming to have a copyright on the word “the,” so pay up, bitches!

And how stupid is it for an artist to say, “I’m not going to allow anyone to use one of my songs in their video where they could make a couple cents from each view even though using my song keeps it relevant and active in the music scene…” (looking at you, Don Henley)?

Or your video gets blocked because you played a riff too well. It’s okay if you play it sloppy - no problem there - but show people the right way and make it sound good? We can’t have that!

Don’t these idiots realize if people hear their songs, they’re going to continue to request them. Which means they’ll get played more often. Which means the artist/label/publisher gets payed the licensing fee.

It’s almost a form of censorship imposed on us by greedy music industry trolls.

They’re offended that anyone would consider using anything that might even sound a little like a song they once wrote or hold a license for. So they thump you.

It’s like the bully on the playground claiming he owns all the balls and if you want to play, you’ve got to get permission and pay him a rental fee… or else.

Or those seagulls from Finding Nemo: “Mine.” 

I’m all for artists being compensated for their originality and work. I’d even pay a licensing fee to use it.

But these guys seem intent on clenching and squeezing with an iron fist instead of allowing music education to train the next generation of artists.

You’re allowed to hear it - but don’t you dare attempt to play it or reproduce it for even a cup of coffee. As our skittish cat Francis might say, “Don’t touch me, pet me with your eyes.”

Create enough barriers and people are going to quit dealing with you. Life presents enough challenges as it is - people will move on and you’ll fade into obscurity.

Hopefully these music industry types will wake up, but I’m not going to hold my breath. Greed is a strong drug.

Peace~

Dave

P.S. What do you think?

Does using an artists music to teach others how to play an instrument hurt or help the original artist?

Just hit reply to this email with your thoughts.