YouTube dilemma
There is a dilemma faced by Kenyan musicians and others around the world when they put their music on YouTube: YouTube video can be downloaded by people who have sufficient knowledge of the Internet.
The situation is compounded by the fact that YouTube’s terms of service hold users responsible for following copyright law. This means that you cannot act on YouTube itself, but on the users who post the videos, which is very difficult to do. So what is the solution for musicians who also want to earn some money from their music sales, but still want to publish their content online?
There is a solution being developed by a company called VEVO. VEVO is an online music promotion company, formed by a group of the largest music distributors in the US, backed by Arab investors. His specialty is YouTube videos. They work in conjunction with YouTube’s own company to remove copies of music videos that have been posted without the artist’s consent. For example Soulja Boy Tell ’em is signed with VEVO, do a search for a song like’ Gucci Bandana ‘. There is only one copy of the ‘Gucci Bandana’ video on YouTube, and it is the one sponsored by VEVO. In this way, the traffic of the ‘Gucci Bandana video is focused on the VEVO channel and not dispersed as it would have been with many copies of the video out there. VEVO then monetizes the videos by placing strategic ads around them.
Personally, I think that every continent needs a company like VEVO to defend the rights of musicians on YouTube. In this way, the YouTube dilemma would be solved once and for all.
However, for now there is little that can be done against the Kenyan music copy of YouTube. There is a saying among internet developers that you only put content on the internet if you are ready to share it. Perhaps Kenyan musicians can only put videos that they feel comfortable sharing on YouTube and then save the rest of the music for exclusive publication on the album.
