Warner Music Group artist has her own videos taken off YouTube by WMG

Ted sez, "Here's a screenshot of an attempted viewing of a video by musician Emiliana Torrini on her own website. Unfortunately the embedded YouTube video has been flagged by Warner Music Group."

Screengrab (Thanks, Ted!)

[#1 posted by EscapingTheTrunk , February 8, 2009 1:02 PM]

Didn't this just happen to Amanda Palmer?

[#2 posted by Jorn , February 8, 2009 1:24 PM]

What's the point of a music video if people can't watch it. Watch the video, get excited, buy the music, record company makes money...and hopefully the artist.

[#3 posted by Rider , February 8, 2009 1:24 PM]

The same thing happened to Death Cab For Cutie.

[#4 posted by Rider , February 8, 2009 1:26 PM]

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/148777-death-cab-caught-in-warner-youtube-fight

[#5 posted by donnamatrix , February 8, 2009 1:52 PM]

As #1 said... all of the Amanda Palmer & Dresden Dolls vids were pulled in December (but are back up now)

http://blog.amandapalmer.net/post/66586355/the-man-strikes-again-youtube-wars

Which just goes to show EXACTLY how stupid Warner's being -- my first introduction to the Dresden Dolls about 3 years ago was via Youtube. Since then, I've spent a bucket of money on cd's, concerts, merchandise (my "Who Killed Amanda Palmer" shoulder bag is on my lap as we speak) and introduced several other people to them as well. Without Youtube, I likely never would have heard of them and wouldn't have spent a dime.

[#6 posted by mdh , February 8, 2009 2:03 PM]

now THERE is a guestblogger BB could invite.

Amanda FCKNG Palmer.

[#7 posted by EscapingTheTrunk , February 8, 2009 2:16 PM]

@MDH: Seconded!

[#8 posted by Blaatann , February 8, 2009 2:32 PM]

@MDH: Thirded

[#9 posted by G_Mehum , February 8, 2009 2:34 PM]

@MDH Enthusiastically fourthed. The vast disconnect between the music industry and its artists would make for a most... amusing... read.

[#10 posted by ScottTFrazer , February 8, 2009 2:50 PM]

Riki Lindhome (half of Garfunkel and Oates, and director of the movie "Life is Short") posted the trailer for her movie to youtube, and the sound got muted by WMG:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFdonvr1hVM

[#11 posted by ashground , February 8, 2009 4:00 PM]

Emiliana Torrini is one of my favourite artists. It's nice to see her get some attention.

This is a really, really poor way of doing it, though.

[#12 posted by Blue , February 8, 2009 4:19 PM]

Well they didn't pull this AP one -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vVnhBqKXSQ&fmt=18

@MDH; Fifthed!

[#13 posted by boyhowdy , February 8, 2009 4:24 PM]

Every time this happens, I smile.

Because every time this happens, we gain another ally under the "Big Music" umbrella.

Go, Warner Brothers. Go, BMG. Go, EMI. Go, IFPI, and RIAA. Eat your young. Soon, all the artists will be on our side, and the next time a judge asks you to prove that you are defending artists, you'll be trying to do so while looking at defense Exhibit A: a letter signed by the vast majority of your stable disowning your business practices as against their interests.

[#14 posted by TJ S , February 8, 2009 5:07 PM]

@BB Editors:

Motion has been fifthed. Call for vote. Ayes?

(please?)

[#15 posted by ridl , February 8, 2009 5:12 PM]

Hold on, TJ S, there has been no call for acclimation.

Call for acclimation!

[#16 posted by symbionproject , February 8, 2009 5:32 PM]

my band FREEZEPOP got hit by this as well. we're on the wmg sub-label rykodisc, and our videos on youtube got flagged, but we reached out to them and they had them restored in less than 1 day.
easy-peasy! fwiw, ryko has been really good to us and we've enjoyed working with them. we have a very nice deal with them that is advantageous for the band in that it's a 50/50 profit split and we own the rights to our recordings.

http://www.youtube.com/user/freezepop

[#17 posted by shmageggy , February 8, 2009 6:22 PM]

The less obvious point in these scenarios is that the artist actually does NOT own the videos or master recordings etc they create under a typical recording contract. Therefore, they technically don't have the legal right to post them without explicit permission from the label.

Bass Ackwards? Very much so.

[#18 posted by Daemon , February 8, 2009 8:00 PM]

#17 - bass ackwards describes most aspects of the music industry, really. it's basicly a giant conglomeration of middlemen who's job is to simultaneously gouge both the artists and the fans for as much as they possibly can.

[#19 posted by rasz , February 8, 2009 8:26 PM]

those are not her Videos, she waived all her rights over to WMG when they signed her up.

[#20 posted by Mark Levitt , February 8, 2009 10:22 PM]

#19 is right. They aren't "her own video's" and she probably has no more right to post them on YouTube than a Microsoft employee would have to post Windows.

Talking about music as if it's owned by the musicians just feeds into the big lie that the record companies are acting for the benefit of artists.

[#21 posted by u62 , February 8, 2009 11:50 PM]

A muted Ghost Ride The Whip just isn't the same:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjnUGZFSYTQ

[#22 posted by drivenbyboredom , February 9, 2009 2:25 AM]

I was just looking at the Human Giant website and their videos were taken down by Viacom...

[#23 posted by grazza , February 9, 2009 3:22 AM]

same thing with Jason Mraz's site. All the links appear to have been removed for "copyright" infringement. Priceless just how stupid and narrowminded these dumb-ass record executives are.

[#24 posted by rasz , February 9, 2009 3:34 AM]

They are not stupid, they OWN this shit. Artists are the stupid ones, they signed contracts without reading/understanding them.

[#25 posted by padster123 , February 9, 2009 6:37 AM]

Sign up with a record company, sign a pact with the devil.

A very stupid devil, with a short time to live.

[#26 posted by ernesto , February 9, 2009 7:01 AM]

4fs, this still works:

http://www.fabchannel.com/emiliana_torrini_concert/2005-03-21

saw her in munich two days ago. wonderfull...

[#27 posted by jfrancis , February 9, 2009 7:52 AM]

Josie Cotton blogged recently about how she has been unable to upload her music to MySpace

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=71056347&blogID=465883491

[#28 posted by mdh , February 9, 2009 8:25 AM]

@7,8,9,and 12 - I love it when a plan comes together.

[#29 posted by Baldhead , February 9, 2009 9:52 AM]

Does MTV pay the record companies to play video, one wonders.

I thought they were purely promotional material, anyway.

idiots.

[#30 posted by Anonymous , February 9, 2009 10:57 AM]

same thing happend to susie hug and her band the KATYDIDS who were on warners 20 years ago, they have done nothing for the band since exept remove vids from you tube/myspace, what a joke the majors are.

[#31 posted by Wingo , February 9, 2009 12:59 PM]

The stupidest part is that there really is no way to profit (unless I'm missing something) from posting a video on YouTube, other than the roundabout way of getting sales from the promotion. Which would obviously benefit the label (more-so than the artist, usually).

What on earth are the record labels protecting themselves from, other than free promotion? How has copyright law gotten so silly? I always thought you had to be taking something away from the copyright holder or profiting for there to even make a claim?

The ridiculousness continues. I can't wait until this all finally implodes on itself someday (fingers crossed).

[#32 posted by Anonymous , February 9, 2009 8:25 PM]

amazing. this also happened to us!

[#33 posted by Kingsqueak , February 22, 2009 6:30 PM]

I think that the people at Warner Music Group are kinda retarded. They are too picky about people using there music on youtube. I think that they are just mad because people are more creative than they are. But really Warner Music Group can suck my fucking dick. So to the CEO of WMG, Fuck You.

[#34 posted by Anonymous , March 22, 2009 7:35 PM]

This is happening to Metallica to, there videos were taken off when it's there's!!! WTF!!!