There are significant differences between YouTube and illegal downloading.

One of the main ones is tracking. YouTube is streaming and is able to be tracked. You can look at a YouTube page and see how many hits it gets. Many of those hits are tracked and organized. It's also impossible to do a direct download from YouTube. As a result, it becomes a resource for the artist similar to radio but with tracking. Being able to track one's hits is very valuable to an artist. It proves popularity to possible investors. It's like a radio chart, but it's open to anyone. It is a great promotional tool. And, it all stays on YouTube. There's no telling how many or how few of your songs are stolen illegally. You might have a huge fan base that you can never tap into. You might have enough clout to get good gigs, good cuts, but you'll never know it.

Another difference is that the owner of a song's rights can have a song pulled from the site. A copyright owner can do a search of their songs on YouTube and demand that they be taken down. You see that less nowdays as many copyright owners look at YouTube as a buffer against untrackable illegal downloads...illegal downloads which can be reformatted and used in almost any commercial or quasi commercial application.

A third difference is that just as you get fries with your hamburger, you get video with your song. Video that can embed web addresses, store information, links, heck, even phone numbers. A YouTube video is often a commercial.


You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music