In direct contrast to the approach adopted by the CEO of Universal (which I posted about last week), Warner Music have signed a deal with YouTube which allows its material to be legally used.
The BBC writes:
The agreement also covers the use of material in homemade videos, which form a large part of YouTube’s content.
Both companies hailed it as a landmark agreement, coming days after Universal Music said it was considering legal action over sites such as YouTube.
A royalty-tracking system has been developed by YouTube to detect when videos on the site are using copyrighted material and work out how much Warner is owed in advertising revenue.
Note the bit about “use of material in homemade videos”. This means that Warner have sought to effectively protect not only material which they created or licensed, but also new content which exploits their copyrights. Hurrah to an innovative corporate approach to new ways of accessing the art.
Technorati Tags: Music, News, Warner Music, Youtube
Carlton Breweries have done it again with another fantastic ad.
Sending up the movie Flashdance.. Really entertaining!
In a brilliantly observant entry in his column at the New York Times, David Pogue laments the passing of “sonic guideposts” – those sounds which are meaningful to one generation but not to the next. His article is predicated on the telephone “busy tone”.
On a long drive to a wedding over the weekend, my wife and I were playing the CD of “Company,” one of my favorite Stephen Sondheim musicals.
The show opens, rather brilliantly, with the sound of a busy signal; the first musical number builds off of its urgent rhythm. Yet I had to explain to my kids in the back seat what a busy signal was… think about it: When do you ever hear a busy signal today?
But the opening to “Company” isn’t the only iconic cultural audio I’ve had to explain recently. What about the needle-scratching-across-the-vinyl-record sound? It’s still used everywhere, in cartoons, movies and so on, to represent a rude awakening, an abrupt interruption of a scene’s mood or the main character’s reverie. But today’s children have never even seen a record player. Isn’t the record-scratch sound totally lost on them?
And what about “ka-CHING!”? Cash registers don’t go ka-CHING anymore–they go beep!
Technological progress is great and all. But sometimes we move so fast that we lose valuable cultural icons in the process. We’ve lost some useful sonic guideposts, and nothing has come along to replace them. – Pogue’s Posts
I think Pogue makes a great point. We often lament the passing of buildings, sayings, langauges, works of art and other cultural landmarks, but who laments the passing (or decrease in understanding of or relevance to the next generation) of a sound if not we, the listeners?
Technorati Tags: Company, cultural signposts, Pogue, Sound
