Stupid Things

The Van Morrison thing has more implications than I originally thought. It turns out that Van Morrison and "his people" are only having videos deleted if they were taken at paying gigs. Which, as per my original argument - that the bars pay the licensing companies so the songwriters get paid - makes this argument even weaker. More suspicious? Mr. Morrison has a "retrospective" album collection coming out later this year or early next year through Polydor records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group. For more than a year now, Universal Music Group has had an agreement with Google/YouTube to allow YouTube users to use music owned by Universal Music Group in user-created content on YouTube. And then they start ripping down videos that were taken at shows where the songwriter got paid?!?!?! that is ridiculous, and it will not - as they have asserted - increase sales of Mr. Morrison's forthcoming "retrospective" collection; it will cause people to boycott Mr. Morrison (I know I will. I had a Van Morrison record on my Amazon wish list for a while now, but I will delete that, and my "Brown Eyed Girl" ringtone is gone, too). When cover bands stop playing your music and people stop putting up videos of themselves playing your music, people will not be reminded of you or your music and will not buy your stuff.