Message #12188

[JimL]

One aspect that seems to have been forgotten here is advertising.  YT is the greatest tool available to advertise commercially available CDs of unsung composers by posting one or two of the works on it, or to enlighten potential customers about the existence of CDs from difficult-to-access sources.  This actually constitutes free advertising, which is nothing to shake a stick at.

After having read the article, there seems to be two issues at work here.  I consider YT to be no more dangerous to commercial CD sales than radio was to LP, or even 45 single sales in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.  Same thing - broadcasting stuff to the general public for free that was available for them to own if they purchased the single or entire album.  If somebody wanted to own it for next to nothing, they could record the performance off the radio with a cassette recorder, or perhaps rig their radio to record stuff.  It was doable even back then.

Recording live concerts and posting them on YT, on the other hand can scuttle potential recording projects, and that IS damaging.